..续本文上一页 Avijja has all the bad features of tar oil. It gives rise to nothing but trouble — darkness — for other people, at the same time being destructive to our own heart and mind, just as a fire fed with tar oil will give off nothing but black smoke. The more tar oil we feed it, the blacker the smoke — and then we go around thinking that our black smoke is something special, but actually it”s unawareness, i.e., unaware of the fact that it”s unawareness. So we get more and more wrapped up in our unawareness until we”re covered thick with soot.

　　Soot is a form of filth that gives rise to harm. When a fire gives off black smoke, its light is bad, the fire is bad, the smoke is bad. Bad smoke is the nature of unawareness; and since it”s bad, the knowledge it gives rise to is bad, the results it gives rise to are bad. These are all things that give rise to suffering and stress. This is the sort of harm that comes from unawareness.

　　The harm caused by unawareness is like a wood-fire. A wood-fire makes us sweat and — as if that weren”t enough — its light is red and fierce like the light of the sun. Whatever it”s focused on will go up in flames. Any place a wood-fire burns for a long time will become black with soot, in the same way that a person who builds a wood-fire gets himself all dirty. His face and arms get black, his clothes get black, but since he sees this blackness as his own, he doesn”t take offence at it. Just like an infected sore on his body: No matter how dirty or smelly it may be, he can still touch it without feeling any revulsion. But if he saw the same sore on someone else, he”d be so repulsed that he couldn”t stand to look at it and wouldn”t even want to go anywhere near.

　　Anyone whose mind is wrapped up in unawareness is like a person covered with open sores who feels no embarrassment or disgust at himself. Or like soot on our own kitchen walls: Even though we see it, we simply see it, without any sense that it”s ugly, disgusting, or embarrassing. But if we saw it in someone else”s kitchen, we”d want to run away.

　　Unawareness is what kills people. Unawareness is a trap. But ordinarily a trap can catch only dull-witted animals. Sharp-witted animals usually don”t let themselves get caught. If we”re stupid, unawareness will catch us and eat us all up. If we live under the sway of ignorance — if we aren”t acquainted with the three levels of breath in the body — we”ll have to reap harm. To know them, though, is to have Right Mindfulness. We”ll know the causes of our actions and their results. To know this is to be mindful and alert. Our body and actions will be clear to us, like a fire that”s bright in and of itself. Where does its brightness come from

　　 From the energy in the kerosene. So it is with the profound breath. It”s quiet in the body, like a Coleman lantern glowing dazzlingly bright: It”s quiet, as if no air had been pumped into it at all.

　　This is kaya-passaddhi, physical serenity. As for the mind, it”s crystal clear all around. And like the glow coming off the mantle of the lantern, it”s of use to people and other living beings. This is what”s meant by ”pabhassaram idam cittam” — the mind is radiant. When we can keep the mind pure in this way, it gains the power to see what lies deeper still — but as of yet we can”t know clearly. We”ll have to make our strength of mind even more powerful than this: That”s vipassana, clear-seeing insight.

　　When vipassana arises, it”s as if we put kerosene directly on the mantle of a lantern: The fire will flame up instantly; the light will dazzle in a single flash. The concepts that label sensations will disappear; the concepts that label mental acts will disappear. All labeling and naming of things will disappear in a single mental instant. Sensations are still there, as always; ment…

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