..续本文上一页we have a proper sense of how to nourish and care for the body, our conduct will have to develop in the direction of purity, and the mind will have to develop along with it, step by step.

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　　The world has its highs and lows, its good and evil, and we”re just like the world. Our body — no matter how much we care for it to make it strong and healthy, beautiful and comfortable — will have to be good in some ways, and to malfunction in others. What”s important is that we don”t let the mind malfunction. Don”t let it go branching out after its various preoccupations. If we let the mind go around thinking good and evil in line with its preoccupations, it won”t be able to advance to a higher level. So we have to make our tree have a single tip: We have to center the mind firmly in a single preoccupation. Don”t let your moods hold sway over the mind. We have to cut off the mind from its preoccupations with sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and tactile sensations, leaving only a single mental preoccupation. Let a preoccupation with what”s good and worthwhile arise in the mind. Don”t let any of the forms of mental corruption arise.

　　Mental corruption refers to (1) greed for sights, sounds, smells, tastes, etc.; (2) ill will — focusing on this matter or that person as bad, and going from there to a desire for retribution, leading to a confrontation or to violence; (3) wrong views — seeing that doing good doesn”t lead to good results; for example, seeing that being generous, observing the precepts, or practicing meditation doesn”t make a person rich or happy, so that we stop doing good. We have to rid the heart of these three forms of mental corruption. When the heart is freed from corruption, it will have to enter mental rectitude, becoming a worthwhile mind, pursuing Right Undertaking: in other words, meditation.

　　In practicing meditation, we really have to be true in our work if we want results. We have to be true in our body, true in our speech, true in our heart. Our body has to sit straight and unmoving in a half-lotus position. Our speech has to be silent, not saying a thing. Our heart has to be set straight and still, not flitting out after allusions to past or future. If we can be true in our work in this way, we”ll have to succeed and see results. If we”re slipshod and desultory, our work won”t succeed. This is why we”re taught,

　　anakula ca kammanta edam-mangalam uttamam:

　　”Undertakings that are not left unfinished are a supreme good omen.”

　　In practicing meditation, the mind is what gives the orders. In other words, we should have a base or a frame of reference, contemplating the breath so that it becomes refined — because the more refined something is, the higher its value. Our breath sensations are of five sorts:

　　(1) The first are the breath sensations that flow from the head down to the tips of our feet. (2) The second are those that flow from the tips of the feet to the head. These two sorts take turns running back and forth like a rope over a pulley that we pull up and down.

　　(3) The third sort are the breath sensations that flow throughout the body. These are the sensations that help ventilate the body, receiving our guests — the breath permeating in through the skin — and expelling the inner breath, keeping the pure, beneficial breath in the body and expelling the harmful breath out through the pores.

　　(4) The fourth sort is the breath in the upper abdomen, guarding between the heart, lungs, and liver on the one hand, and the stomach and intestines on the other. It supports the upper organs so that they don”t press down on the lower ones and keeps the lower organs down so that they don”t push up and crowd the upper ones. This sort of breath we have to observe in order to see in what way it”s heavy on the left or right s…

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