..续本文上一页hat are past is like eating things that other people have spit out. Things that other people have spit out, we shouldn”t gather up and eat. Whoever does so, the Buddha said, is like a hungry ghost. In other words, the mind is a slave to craving, which is like saliva. We don”t get to eat any food and so we sit swallowing nothing but saliva. The mind isn”t in the middle way. To think of the future is like licking the rim of tomorrow”s soup pot, which doesn”t yet have even a drop of soup. To think about the past is like licking the bottom of yesterday”s soup pot when there isn”t any left.

　　This is why the Buddha became disenchanted with past and future, because they”re so undependable. Sometimes they put us in a good mood, which is indulgence in pleasure. Sometimes they get us in a bad mood, which is indulgence in self-affliction. When you know that this sort of thing isn”t the path of the practice, don”t go near it. The Buddha thus taught us to shield the mind so that it”s quiet and still by developing concentration.

　　When a person likes to lick his or her preoccupations, if they”re bad, it”s really heavy. If they”re good preoccupations, it”s not so bad, but it”s still on the mundane level. For this reason, we”re taught to take our stance in the present. When the mind isn”t involved in the past or the future, it enters the Noble Path — and then we realize how meaningless the things of the past are: This is the essence of the knowledge of past lives. Old things come back and turn into new; new things come back and turn into old. Or as people say, the future becomes the past and the past becomes the future. When you can dispose with past and future, the mind becomes even more steadfast.

　　This is called Right Mindfulness. The mind develops strength of conviction (saddha-balam), i.e., your convictions become more settled in the truth of the present. Viriya-balam: Your persistence becomes fearless. Sati-balam: Mindfulness develops into great mindfulness. Samadhi-balam: The mind becomes firm and unshaking. Pañña-balam: Discernment becomes acute to the point where it can see the true nature of the khandhas, becoming dispassionate and letting go of the body and self so that the mind is released from the power of attachment. This, according to the wise, is knowledge of the end of mental fermentation.

　　To know where beings go and take birth is termed knowledge of death and rebirth. We become disenchanted with states of being. Once we know enough to feel disenchantment, our states of being and birth lessen. Our burdens and concerns lighten. The mind”s cycling through states of being slows down. Just like a wheel when we put thorns in the tire and place logs in the way: It slows down. When the mind turns more slowly, you can count the stages in its cycle. This is called knowing the moments of the mind. To know in this way is liberating insight. It”s awareness. To know past, future, and present is awareness.

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　　The Noble Ones aren”t attached to activities — to acting, speaking, or thinking — in any way. When the processes of action fall silent, their minds are empty and clear like space. But we ordinary people hold on to speaking, standing, walking, sitting, lying down, everything — and how can it help but be heavy

　　 The Noble Ones let go of it all and so are at ease. If they walk a long time, they don”t get weary. If they sit a long time, they don”t ache. They can do anything without being weighed down. The people who are weighed down are those who hold on.

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　　Stress for ordinary people is pain and suffering. The stress of sages is the wavering of pleasure.

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　　The breath of birth or of life is the in-breath. The out-breath, when there”s no in-breath, is the breath of death. Whether a person is to have the potentia…

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