..续本文上一页, etc. It goes on like this, an endless kind of excrement of repressed fears and aversions. So, now, we are recognising that. We”re not using ”Buddho” as a club to annihilate or repress things, but as a skilful means. We can use the finest tools for killing and for harming others, can”t we

　　 You can take the most beautiful Buddha rupa and bash somebody over the head with it if you want! That”s not what we call ”Buddhanussati”, Reflection on the Buddha, is it

　　 But we might do that with the word ”Buddho” as a way of suppressing those thoughts or feelings. That”s an unskilful use of it. Remember we”re not here to annihilate but to allow things to fade out. This is a gentle practice of patiently imposing ”Buddho” over the thinking, not out of exasperation, but in a firm and deliberate way.

　　The world needs to learn how to do this, doesn”t it

　　 -- the U.S. and the Soviet Union -- rather than taking machine guns and nuclear weapons and annihilating things that get in the way; or saying awful nasty things to each other. Even in our lives we do that, don”t we

　　 How many of you have said nasty things to someone else recently, wounding things, unkind barbed criticism, just because they annoy you, get in your way, or frighten you

　　 So we practise just this with the little nasty annoying things in our own mind, the things which are foolish and stupid. We use ”Buddho”, not as a club but as a skilful means of allowing it to go, to let go of it. Now for the next fifteen minutes, go back to your noses, with the mantra ”Buddho”. See how to use it and work with it.

　　Effort and Relaxation

　　Effort is simply doing what you have to do. It varies according to people”s characters and habits. Some people have a lot of energy -- so much so that they are always on the go, looking for things to do. You see them trying to find things to do all the time, putting everything into the external. In meditation, we”re not seeking anything to do, as an escape, but we are developing the internal kind of effort. We observe the mind, and concentrate on the subject.

　　If you make too much effort, you just become restless and if you don”t put enough effort in, you become dull and the body begins to slump. Your body is a good measure of effort: you make the body straight, you can fill the body with effort; align the body, pull up your chest, keep your spine straight. It takes a lot of will-power so your body is a good thing to watch for effort. If you”re slack you just find the easiest posture -- the force of gravity pulls you down. When the weather is cold, you have to put energy up through the spine so that you”re filling your body out, rather than huddling under blankets.

　　With anapanasati, ”mindfulness of breathing”, you are concentrating on the rhythm. I found it most helpful for learning to slow down rather than doing everything quickly -- like thinking -- you”re concentrating on a rhythm that is much slower than your thoughts. But anapanasati requires you to slow down, it has a gentle rhythm to it. So we stop thinking: we are content with one inhalation, one exhalation -- taking all the time in the world, just to be with one inhalation, from the beginning to the middle and end.

　　If you”re trying to get samadhi (concentration) from anapanasati, then you have already set a goal for yourself -- you”re doing this in order to get something for yourself, so anapanasati becomes a very frustrating experience, you become angry with it. Can you stay with just one inhalation

　　 To be content with just one exhalation

　　 To be content with just the simple little span you have to slow down, don”t you

　　When you”re aiming to get jhana (absorption) from this meditation and you”re really putting a lot of effort into it, you are not slowing down, you”re trying to get something out …

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