..续本文上一页ne, and because of the power of its mindfulness and discernment that are fully alert to these things, this is called the emptiness of the mind on its own level.
When this stage is reached, the mind is truly empty. Even though the body appears, there”s simply a sense that the body is there. No image of the body appears in the mind at all. Emptiness of this sort is said to be empty on the level of the mind -- and it”s constantly empty like this at all times. If this emptiness is nibbana, it”s the nibbana of that particular meditator or of that stage of the mind, but it”s not yet the nibbana of the Buddha. If someone were to take the emptiness of concentration for nibbana when the mind settles down in concentration, it would simply be the nibbana of that particular meditator”s concentration. Why is it that these two sorts of emptiness aren”t the emptiness of the Buddha”s nibbana
Because the mind empty in concentration is unavoidably satisfied with and attached to its concentration. The mind empty in line with its own level as a mind is unavoidably absorbed in and attached to that sort of emptiness. It has to take that emptiness as its object or preoccupation until it can pass beyond it. Anyone who calls this emptiness nibbana can be said to be attached to the nibbana in this emptiness without realizing it. When this is the case, how can this sort of emptiness be nibbana
If we don”t want this level of nibbana, we have to spread out feelings (vedana), labels (sañña), thought-formations (sankhara), and cognizance (viññana) for a thorough look until we see them clearly and in full detail -- because the emptiness we”re referring to is the emptiness of feeling, in that a feeling of pleasure fills this emptiness. The mind”s labels brand it as empty. Thought-formations take this emptiness as their preoccupation. Cognizance helps be aware of it within and isn”t simply aware of things outside -- and so this emptiness is the emptiness of the mind”s preoccupation.
If we investigate these things and this emptiness clearly as sankhara-dhammas, or fabrications, this will open the way by which we are sure some day of passing beyond them. When we investigate in this way, these four khandhas and this emptiness -- which obscure the truth -- will gradually unravel and reveal themselves bit by bit until they are fully apparent. The mind is then sure to find a way to shake itself free. Even the underlying basis for sankhara-dhammas that”s full of these fabricated things will not be able to withstand mindfulness and discernment, because it is interrelated with these things. Mindfulness and discernment of a radical sort will slash their way in -- just like a fire that burns without stopping when it meets with fuel -- until they have dug up the root of these fabricated things. Only then will they stop their advance.
On this level, what are the adversaries to the nibbana of the Buddha
The things to which the mind is attached: the sense that, ”My heart is empty,” ”My heart is at ease,” ”My heart is clean and clear.” Even though we may see the heart as empty, it”s paired with an un-emptiness. The heart may seem to be at ease, but it depends on stress. The heart may seem clean and clear, but it dwells with defilement -- without our being aware of it. Thus emptiness, ease, and clarity are the qualities that obscure the heart because they are the signs of becoming and birth. Whoever wants to cut off becoming and birth should thus investigate so as to be wise to these things and to let them go. Don”t be possessive of them, or they will turn into a fire to burn you. If your discernment digs down into these three lords of becoming as they appear, you will come to the central hub of becoming and birth, and it will be scattered fr…
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