..续本文上一页ho practice to remove defilement practice in this way. In particular, those who are ordained practice by going into the forest to look for a place conducive to their striving in order to wipe out this very enemy. Even when they stay in inhabited areas, or wherever they go, wherever they stay, they keep their attention focused continually, step by step, on the persistent effort to remove and demolish the origin of stress, which is a splinter, a thorn in the heart. Such people are bound to develop more and more ease and well-being, step by step, in proportion to the persistence of their striving.
We can see clearly when the mind is still and settles down: Thought-formations are still, or don”t exist. Turmoil and disturbances don”t occur. The stress that would otherwise result doesn”t appear. When the mind is quiet, stress is also quiet. When thought-formations are quiet, the origin of stress is also quiet. Stress is also quiet. All that remains at that moment is a feeling of peace and ease.
The war between the mind and the defilements causing stress is like this. We have to keep fighting with persistence. We have to use mindfulness and discernment, conviction and persistence to contend with the war that disturbs and ravages the mind, making it stagger and reel within. The disturbances will then gradually be suppressed. Even when there is only a moment of quiet, we will come to see the harm of the thought-formations that are constantly disturbing us. At the same time, we will see the benefits of mental stillness — that it”s a genuine pleasure. Whether there is a lot of stillness or a little, pleasure arises in proportion to the foundation of stillness or the strength of the stillness, which in the texts is called samadhi, or concentration.
A mind centered and still is called a mind in concentration, or a mind gathered in concentration. This is what genuine concentration is like inside the heart. The names of the various stages of concentration are everywhere, but actual concentration is inside the heart. The heart is what gives rise to concentration. It produces it, makes it on its own. When concentration is still, the mind experiences cool respite and pleasure. It has its own foundation set firmly and solidly within.
It”s as if we were under an eave or under the cooling shade of a tree. We”re comfortable when it rains, we”re comfortable when the sun is out, because we don”t have to be exposed to the sun and rain. The same holds true with a mind that has an inner foundation of stillness: It”s not affected by this preoccupation or that, which would otherwise disturb and entangle it repeatedly, without respite. This is because stillness is the heart”s dwelling — ”concentration,” which is one level of home for the heart.
Discernment (pañña) is ingenuity, sound judgment, evaluating causes and effects within and without; above, below, and in between — inside the body — all the way to the currents of the mind that send out thoughts from various angles. Mindfulness and discernment keep track of these things, investigating and evaluating them so as to know causes and effects in terms of the heart”s thought-formations, or in terms of the nature of sankhara within us, until we see the truth of each of these things.
Don”t go investigating these things off target, by being clever with labels and interpretations that go against the truth — because in the investigation of phenomena, we investigate in line with the truth. We don”t resist the truth, for that would simply enhance the defilements causing stress at the very moment we think we”re investigating phenomena so as to remove them.
Birth we have already experienced. As for old age, we”ve been growing old from the day of our birth, older and older, step by step. Whatever ou…
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