..续本文上一页At first, Ven. Vangisa had thought himself talented and smart, and had planned to challenge the Buddha before asking for further training. But when he reached the Buddha, the Buddha gave him the skull of an arahant to knock on — and right there he was stymied. So now he genuinely wanted further training. Once he had further training, he”d really be something special. This being the way things stood, he asked to study with the Buddha. So the Buddha taught him the science, taught him the method — in other words, the science of the Dhamma. Ven. Vangisa practiced and practiced until finally he attained arahantship. From then on he was no longer interested in knocking on anyone”s skull except for his own. Once he had known clearly, that was the end of the matter. This is called ”knocking on the right skull.”

　　Once the Buddha had brought up the topic of the mind that doesn”t experience rebirth — the skull of one whose mind was purified — no matter how many times Ven. Vangisa knocked on it, he couldn”t know where the mind was reborn, even though he had been very talented before, for the place of a pure mind”s rebirth cannot be found.

　　The same was true in the case of Ven. Godhika: This story should serve as quite some food for thought. Ven. Godhika went to practice meditation, made progress step by step, but then regressed. They say this happened six times. After the seventh time, he took a razor to slash his throat — he was so depressed — but then came to his senses, contemplated the Dhamma, and became an arahant at the last minute. That”s the story in brief. When he died, Mara”s hordes searched for his spirit. To put it simply, they stirred up a storm, but couldn”t tell where he had been reborn.

　　So the Lord Buddha said, ”No matter how much you dig or search or investigate to find the spirit of our son, Godhika, who has completely finished his task, you won”t be able to find it — even if you turn the world upside down — because such a task lies beyond the scope of conventional reality.” How could they possibly find it

　　 It”s beyond the capacity of people with defilements to know the power of an arahant”s mind.

　　In the realm of convention, there is no one who can trace the path of an arahant”s mind, because an arahant lies beyond convention, even though his is a mind just the same. Think about it: Even our stumbling and crawling mind, when it is continually cleansed without stop, without ceasing, without letting perseverance lag, will gradually become more and more refined until it reaches the limit of refinement. Then the refinement will disappear — because refinement is a matter of conventional reality — leaving a nature of solid gold, or solid Dhamma, called a pure mind. We too will then have no more problems, just like the arahants, because our mind will have become a superlative mind, just like the minds of those who have already gained release.

　　All minds of this sort are the same, with no distinction between women and men, which is simply a matter of sex or convention. With the mind, there is no distinction between women and men, and thus both women and men have the same capacity in the area of the Dhamma. Both are capable of attaining the various levels of Dhamma all the way to release. There are no restrictions that can be imposed in this area. All that is needed is that we develop enough ability and potential, and then we can all go beyond.

　　For this reason, we should all make an effort to train our hearts and minds. At the very least, we should get the mind to attain stillness and peace with any of the meditation themes that can lull it into a state of calm, giving rise to peace and well-being within it. For example, mindfulness of breathing, which is one of the primary themes in meditation circles, seems to suit the temperame…

《Straight from the Heart - The Language of the Heart》全文未完，请进入下页继续阅读…