..续本文上一页ly be centered. Whenever you want it, just think of it and you”ve got it. When your concentration is this strong, insight meditation is no problem. Pañña-balam: Your insight will be like a double-edged sword. Your insight into what”s outside will be sharp; your insight into what”s inside will be sharp.
When these five strengths appear in the heart, the heart will be fully mature. ”Saddhindriyam viriyindriyam satindriyam samadhindriyam paññindriyam”: Your conviction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, and discernment will be mature and pre-eminent in their own spheres. It”s the nature of mature adults that they cooperate. When they work together on a job, they finish it. So it is when you have these five adults working together for you: You”ll be able to complete any task. Your mind will have the power to demolish every defilement in the heart, just as a nuclear bomb can demolish anything anywhere in the world.
When your mind has this sort of power, liberating insight will arise like a lance with sharp edges on all four sides or a power saw whose blade has teeth all the way around. The body is like the stand on which the saw rests; the mind is the circular blade: Wherever it spins, it can cut through whatever is fed into it. This is the nature of liberating insight.
These are some of the results that come from knowing how to refine the breath and how to expand the still breath so that it benefits both body and mind. We should take these matters to heart and put them into practice as we are able, so as to share in these benefits.
Knowledge & Vision
July, 1958
The parts of the body that ache, that are tense, painful, or sore — think of them as hoodlums or fools. As for the parts that are relaxed and comfortable, think of them as sages. Ask yourself: Do you want to live with sages or fools
It”s not the case that the body will be painful in every part all at the same time. Sometimes our hand hurts, but our arm doesn”t hurt; our stomach aches, but our back doesn”t ache; our legs hurt, but our feet are fine; or our eyes hurt, but our head doesn”t hurt. When this is the case, we should choose to stay with the good parts. If we take up company with more and more good people, they”ll reach the point where they can drive out all the hoodlums. In the same way, when the mind is very still, the sense of comfort will become so great that we”ll forget about aches and pains.
The breath energy in the body is like a messenger. When we expand the breath — this is what”s meant by vicara — mindfulness will spread throughout the body, as if it were going along an electric wire. Being mindful is like sending electricity along a wire; alertness is like the heat of the electricity that energizes us and wakes us up. When the body is energized, no pains will overcome it. In other words, we wake up the properties of earth, water, wind, and fire so that they get to work. The properties of the body will become strong and healthy, making the body feel comfortable and well. This is termed mahabhuta-rupa. When this sense of mahabhuta-rupa is nourished with breath and mindfulness in this way, it will grow and mature. The properties will grow quiet and mature, and become maha-satipatthana, the great frame of reference.
This is threshold concentration; or vicara — spreading the breath.
In centering the mind, we have to put it on the middle path, cutting away all thoughts of past and future. As for worldly phenomena — gain and loss, status and disgrace, praise and censure, pleasure and pain — no matter how bad they may be or how fantastically good, we aren”t interested — because even when they really have been good, they”ve left us long ago; and as for the good lying ahead, it hasn”t reached us yet.
To feed on moods t…
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