..续本文上一页 in to force the mind in line with their power, so that it fastens on to the idea that it has a self, assuming things that keep deviating from the truth."
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59. Knowledge from study vs. knowledge from practice
Someone said: "The teachings about virtue, concentration, discernment, and release that I”ve memorized from books and from the teachings of various ajaans: Are they in line with Luang Pu”s understanding of their essence
"
Luang Pu answered,
"Virtue means the normalcy of a mind that”s free of faults, the mind that has armored itself against doing evil of any kind. Concentration is the result that comes from maintaining that virtue, i.e. a mind with solidity, with stillness as the strength sending it on to the next step. Discernment — "what knows" — is a mind empty, light, and at ease, seeing things clearly, all the way through, for what they really are. Release is a mind that enters emptiness from that emptiness. In other words, it lets go of the ease, leaving a state where it is nothing and has nothing, with no thought remaining at all."
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60. A strategy for loosening attachment
Someone said: "When I bring the mind to stillness, I try to keep it firmly in that stillness. But when it meets up with an object or preoccupation, it keeps tending to lose the foundation I”ve been trying to maintain."
Luang Pu responded,
"If that”s the way it is, then it shows that your concentration isn”t resilient enough. If these preoccupations are especially strong — and in particular, if they concern your weak points — you have to deal with them using the methods of insight. Start out by contemplating the coarsest natural phenomenon — the body — analyzing it down to its details. When you”ve contemplated it so that it”s perfectly clear, move on to contemplating mental phenomena — anything at all, in pairs, that you”ve ever analyzed, such as black and white, or dark and bright."
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61. On eating
A group of monks came to pay their respects to Luang Pu before the Rains Retreat and one of them said, "I”ve been meditating for a long time and have attained some peace, but I have this problem about eating meat. Even just looking at meat, I feel sorry for the animal to whom the meat belonged, that it had to sacrifice its life simply for me to consume it. It”s as if I really lack compassion. When I start worrying about this, I find it hard to bring my mind to peace."
Luang Pu said,
"When a monk partakes of the four requisites, he should contemplate them first. If, on contemplating, he sees that eating meat is a form of oppression and shows a lack of compassion for animals, he should abstain from eating meat and eat vegetarian food instead."
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62. More on eating
About three or four months later, the same group of monks came to pay their respects to Luang Pu after the Rains Retreat and told him, "We ate vegetarian food throughout the rains, but it was very difficult. The lay people where we were staying in Khoke Klaang village, Praasaat district, knew nothing about vegetarian food. We had trouble finding any, and it was troublesome for the people who were supporting us. Some of the monks ended up in poor health, and some of us almost didn”t make it all the way through the Rains Retreat. We weren”t able to put as much effort into our meditation as we should have."
Luang Pu said,
"When a monk partakes of the four requisites, he should contemplate them first. If, on contemplating, he sees that the food in front of him — whethe…
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