..续本文上一页m ”arahant”.

　　This is where we can relax. They can say inconstant, but it”s just what they say. They can say stress, but it”s just what they say. They can say not-self, but it”s just what they say. Whatever they say, that”s the way it is. It”s true for them, and they”re completely right — but completely wrong. As for us, only if we can get ourselves beyond right and wrong will we be doing fine. Roads are built for people to walk on, but dogs and cats can walk on them as well. Sane people and crazy people will use the roads: They didn”t build the roads for crazy people, but crazy people have every right to use them. As for the precepts, even fools and idiots can observe them. The same with concentration: Crazy or sane, they can come and sit. And discernment: We all have the right to come and talk our heads off, but it”s simply a question of being right or wrong.

　　None of the valuables of the mundane world give any real pleasure. They”re nothing but stress. They”re good as far as the world is concerned, but nibbana doesn”t have any need for them. Right views and wrong views are an affair of the world. Nibbana doesn”t have any right views or wrong views. For this reason, whatever is a wrong view, we should abandon. Whatever is a right view, we should develop — until the day it can fall from our grasp. That”s when we can be at our ease.

　　Point Zero

　　April 22, 1957

　　””Asokaram, the night of April 22, 1957: After we had gathered at the meditation hall and said our chants, Ajaan Lee delivered a sermon. At first, all I heard was the opening phrase, ”namo tassa, etc.,” without hearing what Pali stanza he was going to take as his theme, as his voice was very weak and the wind outside so strong that my ears were ringing. So I tried to still my mind and keep listening, even though I couldn”t make out a word he said until the sermon was almost over, when I was able to catch the following:"

　　To purify the heart, we have to disentangle our attachments to self, to the body, to mental phenomena, and to all the objects that come passing in through the senses. Keep the mind intent on concentration. Keep it one at all times. Don”t let it become two, three, four, five, etc., because once you”ve made the mind one, it”s easy to make it zero. Simply cut off the little ”head” and pull the two ends together. But if you let the mind become many, it”s a long, difficult job to make it zero.

　　And another thing: If you put the zero after other numbers, they become ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, hundreds, thousands, on to infinity. But if you put the zero”s first, even if you have ten thousand of them, they don”t count. So it is with the heart: Once we”ve turned it from one to zero and put the zero first, then other people can praise or criticize us as they like but it won”t count. Good doesn”t count, bad doesn”t count. This is something that can”t be written, can”t be read, that we can understand only for ourselves.

　　When there”s no more counting like this, the heart attains purity and the highest happiness, as in the Pali stanza

　　nibbanam paramam suññam

　　nibbanam paramam sukham.

　　which means, ”Nibbana is the ultimate void, emptiness, zero. Nibbana is the ultimate ease.”

　　This is why we”re taught to make the mind one at all times — so that we can easily erase it into zero. Once we can make it zero, we”re bound to loosen our attachments to all things. Our heart will reach purity —

　　which is nibbana.

《Inner Strength - Part Three: Inner Release》全文阅读结束。