..续本文上一页oubt, uncertainty, fear, confusion – mainly doubt is the real sign – if you”re unsure of where you are, what to do or how to do anything; if you”re unsure of how to get out of the prison cell then the wisest thing to do, rather than throwing away keys, or just collecting them, is to take one key and figure out how to use it. That”s what we mean by meditation practice. The practice of the Dhamma is learning to take a particular key and use it to open the door and walk out. Once you”re out, then you know. There”s no more doubt.

　　Now, we can start from the high kind of attitude that mindfulness is enough - but then what do we mean by that

　　 What is mindfulness, really

　　 Is it actually what we believe it to be

　　 We see people who say, ”I”m being very mindful,” and they”re doing something in a very methodical, meticulous way. They”re taking in each bite of food and they”re lifting, lifting, lifting; chewing, chewing, chewing; swallowing, swallowing, swallowing....

　　So you think, ”He eats very mindfully, doesn”t he

　　”, but he may not be mindful at all, actually. He”s just doing it in a very concentrated way: he”s concentrating on lifting, on touching, on chewing and on swallowing. We confuse mindfulness with concentration.

　　Like robbing a bank: we think, ”Well, if you rob a bank mindfully, it”s all right. I”m very mindful when I rob banks, so there”s no kamma [See Note 2]. You have to have good powers of concentration to be a good bank robber. You have to have mindfulness in the sense of fear conditions, of being aware of dangers and possibilities – a mind that”s on the alert for any kind of movement or sign of danger or threat ... and then concentrating your mind on breaking the safe open and so forth.

　　But in the Buddhist sense, mindfulness – sati – is always combined with wisdom – pañña. Sati-sampajañña and sati-pañña: they use those two words together in Thailand. They mean, ”mindfulness and clear comprehension” and ”mindfulness-wisdom”. So I might have an impulse to rob a bank - ”I need some money so I”ll go rob the National Westminster Bank” – but the sati-pañña says, ”No, don”t act on that impulse!” Pañña recognises the bad result if I acted on such an impulse, the kammic result; it confers the understanding that such a thing is wrong, not right to do.

　　So there”s full comprehension of that impulse, knowing it as just an impulse and not-self, so that even though I might have the desire to rob a bank, I”m not going to make neurotic problems for myself out of worrying about those criminal tendencies. One recognises that there is just an impulse in the mind that one refrains from acting upon. Then one has a standard of virtue – sila – always as a conventional foundation for living in the human form in this society, with other beings, within this material world – a standard or guideline for both action and non-action.

　　The Five Precepts consist of not killing; not stealing; refraining from wrong kinds of sexual activities; not lying or indulging in false speech; and not taking drink or drugs that change consciousness. These are the guidelines for sila.

　　Now, sila in Buddhism isn”t a rigid, inflexible kind of standard in which you”re condemned to hell if you in any way modify anything whatsoever – as you have in that rigid, hard morality we all associate with Victorian times. We all fear the prudish, puritanical morality that used to exist, so that sometimes when you say the word ”morality” now everybody shudders and thinks, ”Ugh, Victorian prude! He”s probably some terrible moralistic person who”s afraid of life. We have to go out and experience life. We don”t want morality – we want experience!”

　　So you see people going out and doing all kinds of things, thinking that…

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