..续本文上一页behavior and activities. Whatever makes contact by way of the eye, ear, nose, tongue, or body, if it doesn”t go into the heart, where does it go
The heart is an enormous place, always ready to be informed of various things, both good and evil. Discernment is what contemplates and deliberates. Mindfulness is what keeps vigilant, inspecting whatever comes in to engage the heart. Whatever the preoccupation, good or evil, mindfulness and discernment contemplate and are selective of what engages the heart. Whatever they see as improper, the mind will reject immediately. Immediately. Discernment is what makes the rejection.
Right Concentration: Our work for the sake of making the defilements quiet through concentration is steady and constant, to the point where the results appear as peace and calm in the heart, as a true place of rest without any distractions coming in to disturb the heart at that moment.
When entering concentration so as to relax the mind, in order to give strength to discernment in its continuing explorations, you should go ahead and really rest — rest in concentration. Enter the calm. Completely stop all thoughts and explorations in the area of discernment. Let the mind settle in and relax. It doesn”t have to think or contrive anything at all related to its work. Let the mind rest comfortably by giving it a single preoccupation. If the mind happens to be extremely engrossed in its investigations so that you can”t rein it in, use ”buddho” as a means to drag it in. Make the mind stay with ”buddho, buddho, buddho.” Even though the meditation word ”buddho” may be a mental contrivance, it”s a contrivance in a single focal idea. Contriving a single focal idea can cause the mind to settle down.
For example, if while we are repeating, ”buddho, buddho, buddho,” the mind flashes back to its work because it is engrossed in its unfinished business, we should repeat the meditation word even faster so as not to let the mind go back to its work. In other words, when the mind is at the stage where it is engrossed in its work, we could say — to put it in worldly terms — that we can”t let down our guard, although on this level it”s hard to say that the mind lets down its guard. To get nearer the truth, we should say that we can”t loosen our grip. To put it simply, we can”t loosen our grip. Otherwise the mind will jump back out to work. So at this point we have to be firm with our meditation word. Force the mind to stay with its single preoccupation — ”buddho” — as a means of reining the mind in. Repeat ”buddho, buddho, buddho” in really close frequency; then ”buddho” and the mind will become one. The heart will be firm and calm down, calm down, relaxing, relaxing, setting aside all its work. The mind will become cool and peaceful. This is Right Concentration.
When the time comes to rest, you have to rest like this for it to qualify as Right Concentration. When you”ve had enough, when you see that the mind has regained strength, then simply let go — that”s all — and the mind will spring immediately back to work. It springs out of oneness, of having a single preoccupation, and returns to being two with its work. At this point, the heart gets back to work without worrying about concentration while it is working. In the same way, when centering the mind for the sake of stillness, you don”t have to worry about your work at all.
When resting, you have to rest, in the same way that when eating you don”t have to do any work at all except for the work of eating. When sleeping, sleep peacefully. You shouldn”t be concerned with any work at all. But once you have begun work, you shouldn”t concern yourself with eating and sleeping. Really set your mind on your work. This is called doing a solid piece of work: work in its proper phases, work …
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