..续本文上一页ss — also stops. The path, the tool that wipes out the cause of stress, also stops. The four Noble Truths all stop together. Stress stops, the cause of stress stops, the path stops, the cessation of stress stops.

　　But listen! What knows that ”that stops” is not a Noble Truth. It lies above the Noble Truths. The investigation of the Noble Truths is an investigation for the sake of this. Once we reach the real thing, the four Noble Truths have no more role to play, no need to be cleansed, remedied, or removed. For example, discernment: Now that we”ve worked to the full extent, we can let go of discernment, with no need to set rules for it. Both mindfulness and discernment are tools in the battle. Once the war is over, the enemy is wiped out, so these qualities are no longer at issue.

　　What”s left

　　 Purity. The Buddha, in proclaiming the Dhamma to the world, took it from this pure nature. The doctrines of the religion came from this nature, and in the approach he used in teaching, he had to teach about stress because these conditions are directly related to this mind. He taught us to know how to remedy, how to stop, how to strive — everything of every sort — all the way to the goal at the end of the path, after which nothing more need be said. This is purity. The mind has come out to the outside world. It has left the prison and come to the outside world — freedom — never to be imprisoned again.

　　But no one wants to go to this world, because they have never seen it. This is an important world — lokuttara, the transcendent, a realm higher than other worlds — but we simply call it the outside world, outside of all conventions. We call it a ”world” just as a figure of speech, because our world has its conventions, and so we simply talk about it that way.

　　Think about escaping from this prison. You”ve been born in prison, live in prison and die in prison. You”ve never once died outside of prison. So, for once, get your heart out of prison. You”ll be really comfortable — really comfortable! — like the Buddha and his Noble Disciples: They were born in prison like you, but they died outside of the prison. They died outside of the world. They didn”t die in this world that”s so narrow and confining.

　　I”ll ask to stop here.

《Straight from the Heart - The Prison World vs· the World Outside》全文阅读结束。