..续本文上一页erful. But you see everything has its place. Even the wrong, even the evil has its place. It doesn”t mean that you are saying now "evil is good". That is ridiculous. But you see its place within the whole fabric of reality. And when you can actually acknowledge that there is wrong, then you can start to make it right. People say it should not be this way, people should not kill each other. Well, sorry. If we just leave it at "should nots", where do we even start to change that situation

　　 If you can acknowledge, well, people do kill each other, then we can consider what to do about it. Where does it come from

　　 They don”t kill each other just like in a fairy tale. There is some deep root to it. And we can acknowledge it, which means being open to that reality rather than saying it should not be that way, they should not do this – but they do.

　　Similarly with the pain in the body, "I should not have this pain". The reality is, or awareness says: "But you have." So we say, "What, but I shouldn”t have." But it is how it is right now at this moment. (again, it is not saying that this is how it is going to be forever.) Just the openness to that changes it. Because it was there in our unawareness. Our unconsciousness knew it, but we didn”t want to know it. It is there – our unconscious mind knows it is there – knows that there is all this stuff, all of the negativity, all of the dark side of ourselves. Our unconsciousness tries the best to keep it hidden away from us. So that is the situation. But if we can bring it into consciousness it is quite different -- it does not stay hidden and frozen away. When you can bring it into consciousness you see it in a different way. When some of this stuff which we are holding on to begins to come into consciousness, it unfreezes and enters the flow of reality. And a lot of these things have no substance in themselves, other than our own mind holding on to it.

　　With the development of more collectedness and clear awareness we can sometimes just observe all the confused thoughts, the angry thoughts, the frustrated thoughts. They just arise and pass away. That”s the nature of mind. Most people, if they see an angry thought think, "Oh, get rid of it! Quick, hide it!" And when you do that, you reinforce it, give it a new life, hold on to it. And then it does stay there. By allowing it into consciousness, it has its own lifespan: it arises and passes away, just like the breathing. It comes and it goes.

　　The point is though, we usually need a more open, receptive, peaceful attitude to these things, rather than the usual reaction which is to judge it somehow, manipulate it, do something with it. That”s why if we have some degree of collectedness, when the mind is a bit more collected and stable and calm, it does not have to erupt, all this stuff. Friendliness allows us to come a bit closer to it, to see what it is really like. Most of the time it is so-called "unpleasant" because we keep it over there, keep it fixed in a certain fixed idea, a fixed memory.

　　No Thing

　　When you come closer to it – what is really there anyway

　　 There is no real substance other than a memory

　　 How much does your memory weigh

　　 What shape is your memory

　　 Can you bring up your memories and put them on the floor

　　 But if you hold on to them in your mind, they are pretty heavy aren”t they

　　 When you allow them up – where are they

　　 You can put all your memories into this room and it still would not get full up. But if you hold on to them with your attitude, they are pretty heavy stuff.

　　The Buddha”s insight was that all the problems come not from themselves but because of our grasping them. Holding on, grasping, clinging, clutching at, that is the whole source of our suffering. But the point is this is also a fundamental reaction, funda…

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