..续本文上一页s!” and you think ”How dare he talk to me like that. I”ve been meditating many more years than he has. I”ve written books on Buddhism. I have a degree from the University of Wisconsin, a Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies ... and that nincompoop tells me to do the dishes!”
Don”t make problems out of life”s conditions, but keep recollecting. This way of recollecting, realisation, is more important than trying to make everything just right ... trying to straighten out all the monks and all the anagarikas, or trying to make Chithurst into a perfect place where you feel that everybody is exactly what they should be. It”s like trying to make everything in the world perfect – just an endless, hopeless job; you cannot do it.
Recognise: as long as things are adequate, use your life here for this kind of practice. Don”t waste it on unnecessary complaining or fantasising, projecting all kinds of things onto other beings or feeling guilty because some of your reactions and feelings aren”t what you think they should be. Do you see what I mean
The important thing is not trying to think perfect thoughts or to act like saints, but to realise the way things are. What can be realised now is whatever is going on in your mind, in your consciousness. So it”s an immediate practice, here and now.
Our form is always moral, which means not to use our physical conditions or verbal abilities for harmful, cruel, selfish, exploitive activities ... but to relate to each other in an active way with kindness, compassion, love – relating to each other in gentle ways. If you can”t love someone, just be kind to them. If you feel a lot of anger or hatred towards me, at least refrain from hitting and killing me. That”s all I ask! Practise metta for those you can”t stand and want to kill. It”s all right to have those feelings, but just keep realising them as feelings without acting on them. You are not expected to never have any unkind thoughts.
We do keep within that physical limitation, always within the impeccable form of sila. Also, we actively help each other: with dana – being charitable, kindly, considerate, generous with each other, that helps us get along in a pleasant way. When we share and are kind to each other, life is much more enjoyable than when we don”t. It”s really much nicer when people are kind and generous – at least I find it so – than when they”re not. However, if you can”t be kind and generous and charitable, at least refrain from being evil, doing nasty things.
Realise that everything that arises passes away and is not-self. A constant refrain, isn”t it
A realising. Whatever your hang-ups are, let them become fully conscious, so that you begin to realise them as conditions, rather than personal problems. Let go of the identity of yourself as having problems with this or that, and realise the problems we do have are conditions that come and go and change. They are not ”me”, not ”mine”; they are not ”what I am”. You are continually recollecting until you begin to break through ... until, as you develop in this way, the mind begins to clear, because you are allowing things to cease. You”re not reinforcing habits all the time; you are allowing habits that have arisen to cease, to end, and you begin to find a calm, a peace – an unshakeable peace within yourself.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Notes
1. Refers to a comparison made by the Buddha of blind men trying to describe an elephant accurately. Each man is touching a different part of the elephant – ear, trunk, leg, etc. – and therefore erroneously describes the elephant in terms of that one part.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ATTACHMENT TO TEACHERS
It may be, Ananda, that in some of you th…
《Cittaviveka》全文未完，请进入下页继续阅读…