..续本文上一页eceiver with mindfulness and discernment so that we can be wise to its tricks and deceits.

　　In fixing our attention on the mind, we have to act as if it were a culprit. Wherever it goes, we have to keep watch on it with mindfulness and discernment. Whatever thoughts it forms, mindfulness and discernment have to keep watch so as to be up on events. Each event — serious or not — keeps vanishing, vanishing. The heart knows clearly, ”This mind, and nothing else, is the real culprit.”

　　Visual objects aren”t at fault. They don”t give benefits or harm. Sounds, smells, tastes, and tactile sensations don”t give benefits or harm, because they themselves aren”t benefits or harm. Only the mind is what fashions them and dresses them up so as to deceive itself into being gladdened or saddened, pleased or pained through the power of the preoccupations that arise only from the heart. Mindfulness and discernment see more and more clearly into these things, step by step, and then turn to see that all the fault lies with the mind. They no longer praise or blame other things as they used to. Once they have focused solely on the mind, which at the moment is the culprit, the time won”t be long before they can catch the culprit and put an end to all our concerns.

　　So then. Whatever thoughts that may be formed are all an affair of the mind. The ”tigers and elephants” it forms are simply sankharas it produces to deceive itself. Mindfulness and discernment are up on events every time. Now the current of the cycle (vatta) keeps spiraling in, day by day, until we can catch the culprit — but we can”t yet sentence him. We are now in the stage of deliberation to determine his guilt. Only when we can establish the evidence and the motive can we execute him in accordance with the procedures of ”Dhamma Penetration.” This is where we reach the crucial stage in mindfulness and discernment.

　　In the beginning, we used the elements and khandhas as our objects of investigation, cleansing the mind with elements, using them as a whetstone to sharpen mindfulness and discernment. We cleansed the mind with sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and tactile sensations, using them as a whetstone to sharpen mindfulness and discernment; and we cleansed the mind itself with automatic mindfulness and discernment. Now at this stage we circle exclusively in on the mind. We don”t pay attention to matters of sights, sounds, smells, or tastes, because we have already understood and let go of them, knowing that they aren”t the causal factors. They aren”t as important as this mind, which is the primary instigator — the culprit renowned throughout the circles of the cycle, the agitator, the disturber of the peace, creating havoc for itself only right here inside.

　　Mindfulness and discernment probe inward and focus right here. Wherever this mind goes, it”s the only thing causing harm. So we watch patiently over this culprit to see what he will do next — and aside from being alert to what he will do, we also have to use discernment to penetrate in and see who is inciting him. Who stands behind him, so that he must be constantly committing crimes

　　 He keeps creating deceptive issues without pause — why

　　Mindfulness and discernment dig in there, not simply to pounce on or lay siege to his behavior, but also to go right into his lair to see what motivating force lies within it. What is the real instigator

　　 There has to be a cause. If there”s no cause, no supporting condition to spin the mind into action, the mind can”t simply act on its own.

　　If it simply acts on its own, then it has to be a matter of khandhas pure and simple — but here it”s not pure and simple. Whatever behavior the mind displays, whatever issues it forms, all give rise to gladness or sadness. This shows that these conditions aren”t…

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