..续本文上一页o these flavors, engrossed in these flavors, without ever coming to our senses. This is the ingenuity, the cleverness of the defilements. How ingenious and clever are they
If you want to know, then set your heart on the practice. And don”t forget what I”m saying here. Someday it”s sure to become clear to your heart as a result of your earnest practice. There”s no escaping it. Listen carefully to the Buddha”s words: ”The flavor of the Dhamma surpasses all other flavors.” What sort of flavor is the flavor of the Dhamma that it has to surpass all other flavors
Those other flavors are the flavors of the food of prisoners, imprisoned in the wheel of death and rebirth through the power of defilement. They aren”t food or flavors that can keep the heart satisfied. They aren”t true flavors. They aren”t the flavors of the truth. They”re the flavors of the counterfeits that the defilements whip up into being for us to touch or to eat. They aren”t the flavors of the true Dhamma.
The flavor of the Dhamma will begin to appear when the mind is centered in concentration. As soon as the mind begins to be still, pleasure will begin to appear as its flavor, depending on the amount of stillness in line with the levels of its tranquillity. When we say ”levels of tranquillity”, don”t go thinking that they”re separate steps, like those of a ladder. It”s simply a way of speaking. Actually, they”re all connected, from the pleasure of basic concentration progressively up to the levels of refined concentration. The pleasure that arises will become correspondingly more and more refined. This counts as one of the flavors of the Dhamma -- the Dhamma of concentration, the Dhamma of peace -- in the levels of the stillness of the mind.
As soon as the mind has stillness for its food, it lets go of its concerns for the various flavors of sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and tactile sensations step by step, because the flavor of this stillness begins to excel them. Even this is enough to begin excelling all other flavors. Even more so when the mind begins to investigate things with its discernment, analyzing them in terms of the three characteristics or the meditation theme of unattractiveness -- because in the beginning we tend to develop the theme of unattractiveness, contemplating every part of our own body and the bodies of others, inside and out, as seems most appropriate and natural for us to investigate, because they all share the same conditions for us to see clearly step by step: The flavor of the Dhamma will then intensify, becoming an ingenious flavor. And in addition to being an ingenious flavor, it”s a flavor that comes from being able to let go.
The nature of the mind is such that once it investigates anything to the point of seeing it clearly, it lets go. When it hasn”t let go, when it grasps with attachment, these are the chains and fetters with which defilement keeps it bound. The defilements confer titles, telling us, ”This is good. That”s pretty. This is beautiful.” They never tell us that the body is filthy, ugly, inconstant, stressful, and not-self -- not belonging to us or to anyone else. These are things the defilements never tell us, never mention, never suggest in line with the principles of the truth. Instead, they bring their own principles in to interfere with the Dhamma, telling us just the opposite -- that this or that is beautiful, lasting, valuable -- denying the truth every step of the way because they are very powerful. For this reason, we need to keep track of their deceits, counteracting and removing them, by using such qualities as mindfulness and discernment.
Our world is entirely stuck in the deceits of defilement. When discernment has investigated inward, in line with the principles of unattractiveness as we have al…
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