..续本文上一页ures of unattractiveness it paints as being one form of illusion. It will then let go of both sides: both the side of unattractiveness and the side of attractiveness.
Both attractiveness and unattractiveness are labels coupled with the affairs of lust. Once we have investigated and fully understood both sides, the word ”attractive” will dissolve and no longer have meaning. The word ”unattractive” will dissolve and no longer have meaning. That which gives the meaning of ”attractive” and ”unattractive” is the mind or, in other words, sañña. We are now wise to sañña as being what labels things. We see the harm of this labeling, and so it will no longer be able to go out interpreting in such a way as to make the mind grasp and be attached again. When this is the case, the mind lets go of both attractiveness and unattractiveness -- or of beauty and ugliness -- by seeing that they are simply dolls for training the mind and discernment as long as the mind is still attached to them, and the discernment for investigating to uproot them is not yet proficient enough.
When the mind is proficient and realizes the causes and effects of both sides -- both attractiveness and unattractiveness -- it can at the same time turn around to know its own labeling that goes out to dress this thing up as attractive and that as unattractive. When it knows this labeling clearly, the labeling disbands. The mind can see its harm, in that this labeling is the culprit. The unattractive object isn”t the culprit. The attractive object isn”t the culprit. Instead, the labeling that says ”attractive” and ”unattractive” is the culprit deceiving us and making us become attached. This is where things start coming inward. Our investigation comes inward like this and lets go, step by step.
When the mind has reached this stage, then whether we focus on attractiveness or unattractiveness, it will appear in the mind, without our having to create an external image to exercise with, just as when we travel and have passed progressively along a road. The image appears in the mind. The moment it appears there, we immediately know that sañña can label only as far as this and can”t go labeling outside. Even though the image appears in mind, we know clearly that the phenomenon that appears there as attractive or unattractive comes from sañña in the same way. We know the image that appears in the mind as well as the sañña labeling it, also as an image in the mind. Finally, the images in the mind vanish. The sañña -- the labels, the interpretations -- disband. We know that the labels that used to fool us into seeing things as attractive and unattractive and all sorts of other ways without limit -- that used to fool us into falling for both of these sides -- have disbanded. There is nothing further to deceive the heart. This is how unattractiveness is investigated in line with the principles of the practice -- but you won”t find this anywhere in the texts. You”ll find it only if you search for the truth in the principles of nature that exist with the body and mind -- the location of the four Noble Truths and the four frames of reference -- coming down finally to the text of the heart. That”s where you”ll find the things I”ve explained here.
This is the body. We can know clearly that every part of the body is simply a physical phenomenon. And what is there in these physical phenomena
All the parts -- hair of the head, hair of the body, nails, teeth, skin, flesh, tendons, bones, marrow, spleen, heart, liver, membranes, kidneys, lungs, intestines, stomach, gorge, feces -- are just physical phenomena, things separate from the mind. If we consider them as unattractive, they”ve been unattractive all a…
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