..续本文上一页ing nature completely dominates. Finally, images created in the mind cease to appear altogether—only emptiness remains. In this void the citta”s essential knowing nature prevails, exclusively and incomparably. With the cessation of all body-images created by the mind comes the total annihilation of kamaraga. Contemplation of the body has reached closure.

　　 Finally realizing that all form is intrinsically empty—empty of personality, empty of distinctive qualities such as beauty and ugliness—the meditator sees the immense harm caused by kamaraga. This ruinous defilement spreads its noxious poison everywhere. It corrodes human relationships and agitates the whole world, distorting people”s thoughts and emotions, causing anxiety, restlessness and constant discontent. Nothing else has such a disquieting effect on people”s lives. It is the most destructive force on earth. When kamaraga is totally eliminated, the entire world appears empty. The force that ignites fires which consume people”s hearts, and fans flames that ravage human society is vanquished and buried. The fire of sexual attraction is extinguished for good—nothing remains to torment the heart. With kamaraga quenched, Nibbana appears imminent and close at hand.

　　 Kamaraga conceals everything, blinding us to all aspects of the truth. Thus, when kamaraga is finally destroyed, we have an unobstructed view of magga, phala, and Nibbana—they are now well within reach.

　　TO SUMMARIZE, THE STAGE of Anagami is attained when kamaraga”s stranglehold on the mind is broken. The Anagami must then practice the same investigative techniques that led to that result, deepening, broadening and perfecting them until bodily forms no longer appear within the citta. The mind creates images and then falls for its own creations. The fully accomplished Anagami knows this beyond a shadow of doubt. The human body, and everything that it”s believed to represent, are matters of the mind deceiving itself. The body is a lump of matter, a conglomeration of basic natural elements. It is not a person; it is neither pleasing nor repugnant. It simply is as it is, existing in its own natural state. The mind perpetrates the fraud that we perceive, and is then taken in by its own false perceptions.

　　 All human organs are merely devices that the citta”s knowing nature uses for its own purposes. The knowing presence of the citta is diffused throughout the whole body. This diffusion and permeation of conscious awareness throughout the body is entirely a manifestation of the citta”s own essence. The physical elements composing the body have no consciousness: they have no intrinsic knowing qualities, no conscious presence. The knowing and the sense consciousness associated with the body are strictly matters of the citta and its manifestations. The eyes, ears, and nose are able to perceive through the awareness of the citta. These organs are merely the means by which sense consciousness occurs. They themselves have no conscious awareness.

　　 Normally we believe that our eyes are capable of seeing. But once we fully understand the body”s true nature we know that the eyeball is simply a lump of tissue. The consciousness that flows through the eyes is what actually sees and knows visual objects. Consciousness uses the eyes as a means to access the visual sphere. Our organs of sight are no different from the eyeballs of a dead animal lying at the side of the road. The fleshy eye has no intrinsic value: on its own, it is basically inert. This is known and understood with unequivocal clarity. How then can the body be oneself

　　 How can it belong to oneself

　　 It”s completely unnatural.

　　 This principle is seen clearly when the flow of consciousness that diffuses and permeates the human body is drawn back into i…

《The Path to Arahantship》全文未完，请进入下页继续阅读…