..续本文上一页er or not the physical location—say a knee joint—exhibits the distinctive characteristics associated with pain. What kind of shape and posture do they have

　　 Feelings have no shape or posture. They occur simply as an amorphous sensation. The body does have a definite shape, color and complexion, and these are not changed by the occurrence of physical feelings. It remains just the same as it was before pain arose. The physical substance is in no way altered by pain because pain, being a separate reality, has no direct effect on it.

　　 For instance, when a knee hurts or a muscle hurts: knee and muscle are merely bone, ligament and flesh. They themselves are not pain. Although the two dwell together, they retain their own separate characteristics. The citta knows both of these things but, because its awareness is clouded by delusion, it automatically assumes that the pain is mixed in with the bones, ligaments and muscles that compose a knee joint. By reason of that same fundamental ignorance, the citta assumes that the body in all of its aspects is an integral part of one”s very being. So the pain too becomes bound up with one”s sense of being. “My knee hurts. I am in pain. But I don”t want to suffer pain. I want the pain to go away.” This desire to get rid of pain is a kilesa that increases the level of discomfort by turning physical feeling into emotional suffering. The stronger the pain is, the stronger the desire to rid oneself of it becomes, which leads to greater emotional distress. These factors keep feeding each other. Thus, due to our own ignorance, we load ourselves down with dukkha.

　　 In order to see pain, body and citta as separate realities we must view each from the proper perspective, a perspective that allows them to float freely instead of coalescing into one. While they are bound together as part of our self-image there is no independent viewpoint, and therefore no effective means to separate them apart. As long as we insist on regarding pain in personal terms, it will be impossible to breach this impasse. When the khandhas and the citta are merged into one, we have no room to maneuver. But when we investigate them with mindfulness and wisdom, moving back and forth between them, analyzing each and comparing their specific features, we notice definite distinctions among them and so see their true natures clearly. Each exists on its own as a separate reality. This is a universal principle.

　　 As the profound nature of this realization sinks deep into the heart, the pain begins to abate and gradually fades away. At the same time we realize the fundamental connection between the experience of pain and the “self” that grasps it. That connection is established from inside the citta and extends outwardly to include the pain and the body. The actual experience of pain emanates from the citta and its deep-seated attachment to self, which causes emotional pain to arise in response to physical pain. Fully aware the whole time, we follow the feeling of pain inward to its source. As we focus on it, the pain we are investigating begins to retract, gradually drawing back into the heart. Once we realize unequivocally that it is actually the attachment created by the heart that causes us to experience pain as a personal problem, the pain disappears. It may disappear completely, leaving only the essential knowing nature of the citta alone on its own. Or, the external phenomenon of pain may remain present but, because the emotional attachment has been neutralized, it is no longer experienced as painful. It is a different order of reality from the citta, and the two do not interact. Since at that moment the citta has ceased to grasp at pain, all connection has been severed. What”s left is the essence of the citta—its knowin…

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