..续本文上一页 Our minds are a mess of defilements, which is why we”re said to be children.

　　So we should consider things carefully. Whatever will benefit us, we should take an interest in. If a poor person wanders shiftlessly about, nobody pays any mind; but if a rich person behaves that way, people really despise it. In other words, we shouldn”t let our hearts go lurking about in shoddy or unwise preoccupations. We have to practice tranquillity meditation to make the mind still. That”s when we”ll begin to enter adulthood.

　　When the mind is still, it gradually gives rise to discernment, just as a kerosene lantern we keep looking after — adding kerosene, making sure that nothing disturbs the flame — is bound to grow bright. The wick is the breath, the theme of our meditation. The effort we make is like the kerosene. We keep looking after the mind, making sure that the various preoccupations coming in by way of the eyes, ears, nose, and so forth, don”t collide with the heart. The mind will become bright and dazzling, like the wick of a kerosene lantern that we keep fed with fuel and whose burnt parts we keep scraping away.

　　If liberating insight arises, we”ll see the absolute truth — that all our preoccupations are inconstant, stressful, and not-self — appearing in our heart. When we can see things clearly in this way, we”ll be able to let go of our various preoccupations. The mind will give rise to a brilliant radiance — termed dhammo pajjoto, the light of the Dhamma — and we”ll attain to the transcendency of the mind. When we reach this point, that”s when we”re said to have grown up. We can go wherever we like, for no one will be able to pull the wool over our eyes.

　　Fashionings

　　February 6, 1956

　　(Delivered at a funeral service for Somdet Phra Mahaviravamsa (Tissa Uan), Wat Boromnivas.)

　　anicca vata sankhara uppada-vaya-dhammino

　　uppajjitva nirujjhanti...

　　The Dhamma, in one sense, is a means of nourishing the heart to make it pure. In another sense, the Dhamma is ourself. Every part of our body is a piece of the world, and the world is an affair of the Dhamma. But it”s not the essence of the Dhamma. The essence of the Dhamma lies with the heart.

　　* * *

　　The development of all that is good and worthwhile comes from our own thoughts, words, and deeds. The good that comes from our words and deeds, such as the development of charity and virtue, is goodness on the crude and intermediate levels. The refined level, goodness developed by means of the heart, is meditation. For this reason, the issues of the heart are the most important things we must learn to understand.

　　There are two issues to the heart: the aspect of the heart that takes birth and dies, and the aspect of the heart that doesn”t take birth and doesn”t die. If the heart falls for fashionings (sankhara), it”s bound to take birth and die repeatedly. But the heart that truly sees and clearly knows all fashionings can then let go of them, and thus won”t take birth and won”t die. If we want to go beyond suffering and stress — not to take birth and not to die — then we first have to learn the true nature of fashionings so that we can understand them.

　　Fashionings, as they appear in actuality, are of two sorts: fashionings on the level of the world and fashionings on the level of the Dhamma. Both sorts have their reality, but they”re things that arise and then decay. This is why the Buddha said, ”anicca vata sankhara...” — which means, ”All fashionings are inconstant...” — because both sorts of these fashionings begin by arising, then change, and finally disband. Whoever can focus in to know clearly and truly see this condition, curb the mind, and become wise to all fashionings, is sure to gain release from all suffering and stress.

　　Fashionings on the level of the world are things that p…

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