..续本文上一页r the next, or whether you”re coming to this world or going to the next, you should prepare yourself, beginning now, in the immediate present. Otherwise, when life is up, you won”t be able to prepare anything in time. I”ve never seen any Teacher”s Dhamma that says to prepare yourself tomorrow or next month or next year or in the next life, which would simply encourage people to be complacent. I”ve seen the Dhamma say only that you should make yourself a refuge both within and without right now while you”re alive. Even though days, nights, months, and years, this world and the next, are always present in the cosmos, they”re not for worthless people who are born and die in vain without doing anything of any benefit to the world or the Dhamma at all.

　　In particular, now that we are monks and meditators -- which is a peaceful way of life, a way of life that the world trusts and respects, a way of life that more than any other in the world gives us the opportunity to do good for ourselves and others -- we should be fully prepared in our affairs as monks and shouldn”t let ourselves be lacking. For our behavior as monks to be gracious in a way pleasing and inspiring to others, we must use mindfulness and discernment as our guardians, looking after our every movement. A person with mindfulness and discernment looking after his behavior is gracious within and without, and maintains that graciousness in a way that never loses its appeal at any time. When we use mindfulness and discernment to straighten out things within us -- namely, the mind and its mess of preoccupations -- the mind immediately becomes clean, clear, and a thing of value.

　　Remember the Dhamma you have studied and heard, and bring it inward to blend with your practice and to support it. Keep your mindfulness and discernment right with the heart and with your every movement. Wherever the eye looks or the ear listens, mindfulness and discernment should follow them there. Whatever the tongue, nose, and body come into contact with -- no matter how good or bad, coarse or refined -- mindfulness and discernment should keep track of those things and pry intelligently into their causes every time there”s a contact. Even when ideas occur in the mind itself, mindfulness and discernment must keep track and investigate them without break -- because those who have gained release from the world of entanglements in the heart have all acted in this way. They have never acted like logs thrown away on the ground where children can climb up to urinate and defecate on them day and night. If anyone acts like a log, defilements and cravings from the various directions -- namely, from sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and tactile sensations -- will come in through the openings of the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body to urinate and defecate on the heart that is making itself into a log because it doesn”t have any intelligence or circumspection with regard to its inner and outer preoccupations. It simply lets cravings and defilements urinate and defecate on it day and night. This isn”t at all fitting for those who aim at freedom from the cycle -- i.e., who aim at nibbana -- because the nibbana of the Buddha and his disciples is not a lazy nibbana or a log”s nibbana. Those who want the Buddha”s nibbana in their hearts must try to conform to the tracks left by the practice of the Buddha and his disciples. In other words, they must make an effort to develop mindfulness, discernment, conviction, and persistence to keep abreast of the events occurring within and without at all times. Don”t act like a log, simply going through the motions of walking, sitting, meditating, sitting like a stump in the middle of a field without any sense of circumspection in the heart. This sort of going through the motions…

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