..续本文上一页ply... and that”s all.” None of them appears to be any such thing as ”you” or ”yours.” They are simply different realities that appear, and that”s all. When you understand clearly like this, the heart becomes its own free and independent self at that moment and it knows that the mind and the khandhas are separate realities, neither affecting the other.

　　Even at the moment when you are about to die, the heart will be up on events in the immediate present. It won”t be shaken by pain and death because it is sure that the mind is the mind: a stronghold of awareness. Each khandha is simply a condition. The mind thus doesn”t fear death because it is sure of itself that it won”t get destroyed anywhere.

　　Even though it may not have yet reached the level where it”s absolutely devoid of defilement, the mind has still prepared itself using discernment with the khandhas so that it”s supreme. In other words, it lives with the Noble Truths. It lives with its whetstone for discernment. Discernment will spread its power far and wide. The heart will grow more and more radiant, more and more courageous, because discernment is what cleanses it. Even if death comes at that moment, there”s no problem.

　　For one thing, if you use mindfulness and discernment to investigate pain without retreating, to the point where you understand it, then even when you really are about to die, you”ll know that the pain will disappear first. The mind won”t disappear. It will revert into itself, knowing exclusively within itself, and then pass on at that moment. The phrase, ”Mindfulness lapses,” doesn”t exist for a person who has practiced the Dhamma to this level. We can thus be sure that a person with mindfulness, even though he or she may not be devoid of defilement, will still be clearly aware at the moment when pain arises in full force to the point where the khandhas can no longer endure and will break apart — will die. The mind will withdraw itself from all that and revert to its ”mindness” — to being its own independent self — and then pass on. This is a very high, very refined level of Dhamma!

　　For this reason, meditators who are resolute and unflinching for the sake of knowing every level of the Dhamma tend to be earnest in investigating pain. When the time comes for them to know, the knowledge goes straight to the heart. They regard their pain as a Noble Truth in line with the Buddha”s teaching that all living beings are fellows in pain, birth, aging, illness, and death.

　　So when investigating the khandhas so as to know them in line with their truth, you shouldn”t try to thwart or resist the truth. For example, if the body can”t endure, let it go. You shouldn”t cherish it. As for the pain, it will go on its own. This is called sugato — faring well.

　　This is the way of investigating the mind and training the heart that gives clear results to those who meditate. They have meditated in the way I”ve described so that when the time of death is really upon them, they don”t hope to depend on anyone at all — parents, brothers, sisters, relatives, friends, anyone. They have to withdraw the mind from all things that entangle and involve it so as to enter that crucial spot where they are engaged in hand-to-hand combat.

　　At a time such as this, at the moment when you are about to die, take pain as the focal point for investigation. Don”t be willing to retreat — come what may! All that”s asked is that you know and understand this point. Don”t go thinking that if you die while being embroiled in investigating pain like this — while the mind is in the midst of this commotion — you”ll go to a bad bourn. Why should you go to a bad bourn

　　 You”re embroiled, but with a noble task. You”re embroiled with knowledge, or for the sake of knowledge, and not because of delusion. The mind …

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