..续本文上一页lity, the flood of becoming, the flood of views, the flood of ignorance. These four oceans are deep: deeper than the water in the sea. We depend on our minds that are swimming in these oceans, sinking in salt water. That”s why, when some people are in really salty water, the waves are strong. If they lie down to sleep, they toss and turn just like waves in the sea. They lie down on their left side and can”t sleep. They turn over and lie on their right side and still can”t sleep. It comes from the waves. And where do these waves come from

　　 The ocean. In other words, they come from

　　-- the flood of sensuality: sensual desires, attachment to sensual objects;

　　-- the flood of becoming: wanting to be this, wanting to be that, struggling to escape from the state we”re in;

　　-- the flood of views: holding fast to our own views to the point of getting into arguments -- a sign that we”re adrift in salt water;

　　-- and the flood of ignorance: darkness behind us -- not knowing the past; darkness in front of us -- not knowing the future; darkness in the present -- not knowing what”s good and evil within ourselves, letting the mind fall for the ways of the world of rebirth. That”s what”s called ignorance.

　　The normal nature of the human mind is to be floating adrift in this way, which is why the Buddha had the great kindness to want us to develop our merit and skillfulness. That”s why he advised us to build a boat for ourselves: the boat, here, is the activity of our physical body. As for the provisions that we”ll need for crossing the ocean, those are the requisites that we as Buddhists sacrifice in order to benefit monastics in our development of generosity. If you can give a lot, it means that you”ll have enough to help you cross over the ocean, for you”ll have enough to eat. If you give only a little, you might run out of provisions and start drifting aimlessly with the currents and waves in the middle of the ocean. If you”re lucky, the waves may wash you ashore, so that you manage to survive. But if the waves are large, and your boat is small, you won”t be able to reach land, and you”ll end up sinking in the middle of the sea.

　　The Buddha contemplated this fact, which is why he advised us to develop our goodness. On one level, developing goodness is involved with the way we use our material possessions. On another, it”s involved with the way we look after our actions, improving the way we use our physical body so that it becomes fully trained. The results we”ll receive are of two sorts. The first is that our boat won”t sink. The second is that we”ll have plenty of provisions, so that we”ll be able to cross over the vast expanse of the sea. But even when people have a seaworthy boat and plenty of provisions, they can still run out of water to drink. When that happens, then even though they have plenty of provisions, they”re put to difficulties. To prevent this, the Buddha taught us another skill: how to distill salt water so that we can drink it. If we”re intelligent, we can distill salt water so that we can drink it. We”ll be able to reach America without having to stop off anywhere along the way. If we have discernment, we”ll be able to drink salt water. In what way

　　 Salt water comes from fresh water, so wherever there”s salt water, there has to be fresh water. They can”t escape from each other. Once you realize this, you can travel around the world. If you”re skilled at distilling, your salt water can turn into fresh water. Once we can turn salt water into fresh water in this way, we can be at our ease. Even though we”re in the middle of the ocean, we”ll have fresh water to drink and to bathe our bodies. That way we”ll be at our ease.

　　In the same way, those of us who are adrift in the ocean of life have to:

　　1) caulk our boat so …

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