..续本文上一页 immemorial. This sort of dhamma didn”t arise from anything he said or taught. It”s the goodness that exists naturally in the world. If this sort of goodness didn”t exist as a normal part of the world, the human race would have died out long ago. The fact that we have any peace and well-being at all comes from our having imbued our hearts with this goodness as we have been able to discover it. Otherwise we wouldn”t be able to withstand all the fires of worldliness.

　　2. Unskillfulness (akusala-dhamma): The same holds true with evil. It doesn”t come from anything the Buddha said or taught. It exists on its own in the world, by its nature. But people who haven”t thought about it or observed it misunderstand things. They think that evil comes from what the Buddha taught, and so they don”t pay it any attention because they think good and evil were made up by the Buddha. In this way, good and evil get all mixed up together, without anyone knowing their truth.

　　But the Buddha was endowed with supreme intelligence, and so was able to tell what was unhusked rice, what was husked rice, what was bran, and what was chaff. He then sorted them into separate lots so that people could choose whichever they prefer, with the realization that each of us is responsible for his or her own kamma: Whoever does good will have to meet with good; whoever does evil will have to meet with evil.

　　All dhammas — the good and evil that exist naturally — ultimately come down to the mind right here in this very body. It”s not the case that we have to go searching for them anywhere outside. If we were to ask where it all came from, the Buddha would probably be able to answer us, but it”d be like hitting the earth with your fist. If we were to ask where the mind comes from, we”d have to answer that it comes from us. And where do we come from

　　 From our parents. That”s as far as we”d get.

　　If we were to answer on a different level — one that”s more difficult to see, and that only people of awareness can manage — we”d say that the mind comes from unawareness. And what does unawareness come from

　　 From mental fashionings. And what do mental fashionings come from

　　 From unawareness. It”s like the old question, where does the chicken come from

　　 The egg. And the egg

　　 From the chicken. If we keep asking and answering, we simply go around in circles without ever coming to the end of it. This is how things are on the level of the world.

　　The issues of the mind all boil down to two minds: one that likes to do good, and one that likes to do evil. One mind, but there”s two of it. Sometimes an inclination to do good takes hold of us, and so we want to do good. This is called being possessed by skillfulness. Sometimes an inclination to do evil takes hold of us, and so we want to do evil. This is called being possessed by unskillfulness. In this way, our mind is kept always unsettled and unsure.

　　So the Buddha taught us to develop our awareness in order to know what”s good and worthwhile, and what”s evil and worthless. If unawareness obscures our mind, we can”t see anything clearly, just as when haze obscures our eyesight. If our knowledge gets really far up away from the world, we”ll have even less chance of seeing anything, just as a person who goes up high in an airplane and then looks down below won”t be able to see houses or other objects as clearly as when he”s standing on the ground. The higher he goes, the more everything becomes a haze. He won”t be able to see any sign of human life at all. This is why the Buddha taught us to fill ourselves with as much awareness as possible, so that our ears and eyes will be bright and clear, unobscured by fog or haze. Awareness, of the sort taught by the Buddha, can arise in three ways:

　　1. Sutamaya-pañña: This is the awarene…

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