..续本文上一页n vanishes when its time is up, when it no longer has any supporting conditions. Since the mind by its nature is something that knows, then even though a feeling of distress arises, it still knows. Whether there is a little distress or a lot, it knows — so why won”t it be able to investigate the distress
It has to endure the distress, because the mind is already a fighter and an endurer.
So. However great or little the distress, fix your attention on that spot. Don”t set up any desires for it to disappear. Simply know the truth of the feeling as it arises and changes. Know right there and know its every phase, heavy or light, great or little, until it finally disappears.
And when the feeling of distress dissolves away from the heart through your focused investigation, know what feeling arises in its place. Keep knowing step by step. Only then can you be called an investigator. Don”t hold fast to any feelings — whether of pleasure or of equanimity. Know that they too are feelings and are inpidual conditions, separate from the mind — and so they can change. This one comes in, that one dissolves away, this one takes its place: They keep at it like this, in line with the common nature of feelings, because the seeds are constantly in the heart, enabling these three kinds of feelings to appear. Once the mind has absolutely no more seeds of any sort, no feelings or moods of any sort will appear in the mind at all, aside from ”paramam sukham” — the ultimate ease that”s part of the nature of a pure heart. This doesn”t count as a feeling. When the Buddha says, ”nibbanam paramam sukham” — nibbana is the ultimate ease — that”s not a feeling of ease, stress, or equanimity, and so it”s not subject to arising and disappearing.
When focusing your investigation on all three of these feelings, take the feelings themselves as your battleground. Focus on watching them carefully and in full detail. Keep watching each one as long as it hasn”t yet disappeared. Watch it again. Keep watching until you know its truth. Whether or not it disappears isn”t important. What”s important is that you know the truth of this feeling — the one appearing in the present. This is called contemplating feeling as a foundation of mindfulness.
Usually this refers to feelings of distress or pain, because these are the ones that are most striking and unsettling to the heart. As for feelings of pleasure, they”re a way-station for the mind. You could say that they help us, or that they are the results that come from investigating feelings of distress until the distress disappears and pleasure appears. This is one of the results that comes from investigating feelings of distress or pain.
As for whether or not we should do away with feelings of pleasure, as far as I”ve noticed I”ve never seen them being eliminated. Feelings of pain or distress are the important ones within the mind. They arise from the seeds of defilement. Once these seeds are lessened step by step, the feelings of mental pain become more and more refined, more and more refined. They gradually fade away until they disappear without leaving a trace in the mind, because the seeds are gone.
When these seeds are gone, that type of pleasurable feeling also disappears. It disappears because it relies on those seeds to arise. Thus we can say that the feelings of pleasure that arise in the heart from practice, or from the basis of the mind — the stillness of the mind, the radiance of the mind — qualify as ”vihara-dhamma,” dwelling places for the mind, way-stations for the mind on its journey. Or we could say that they”re the results that come from investigating feelings of pain. Whether or not we investigate this pleasure is not as important as investigating feelings of pain and their causes — which are very import…
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