..续本文上一页cause it does not get you closer to enlightenment. You should give your surplus money to charity to get you closer to enlightenment. It will make you become kinder, nicer and less greedy and less selfish.

　　When you are greedy you tend to neglect other people. You only think of yourself and don”t care if you hurt other people. But if you are charitable, you will think of other people. You will be kind and helpful. Your mind will be calmer and happier. You”ll want to do more meditation because it will make you calmer and happier. You”ll see that this is more rewarding than having lots of money or being a king, a president or a prime minister.

　　I hope you”ll take what you have learned today and apply it in your daily life. I”m sure that your life will be better. I myself went to college and graduated with a civil engineering degree. But it didn”t improve my mind. My mind was still as greedy, angry and deluded as ever. It didn”t eliminate my greed, hatred and delusion. To get rid of them you have to practice charity, morality and meditation. After you have eliminated them, you will have peace of mind, happiness and contentment. You will know this is the real thing. This is what really matters to the mind. Money or fame doesn”t satisfy the mind, doesn”t make the mind happy, content, peaceful or enlightened.

　　Q: It does for a very short time.

　　A: Briefly. Then you”ll want more.

　　Q: How do you overcome fear

　　A: By teaching yourself the truth of the three characteristics. When you know that you will die one day you will not be afraid. We are afraid because we want to live forever. We don”t want to die. We cannot accept the truth. Once you see that life is like the rising and setting of the sun, you will not be afraid of dying as it is like the setting of the sun. You have to teach yourself all the time that one day you will die, using this as your meditation object. It will make your mind calm and peaceful.

　　That”s why monks have to live in the forest in order to be close to life threatening situations that will spur us to let go of our attachment to our body. When we have truly let go, we will not be affected by whatever happens to the body. It”s better to live without fear for one day than to live with fear for a hundred years. Because fear is very damaging to the mind. You can get rid of fear by accepting the truth, through the practice of meditation. You will need a calm mind to reflect on this truth. If your mind is not calm, you will be prevented by your aversion to contemplate on this truth because this is the delusion”s protective mechanism. The delusion will always try to protect its dominance. The truth will liberate you from this delusion.

　　You must first calm your mind by concentrating on your breathing. Once you have achieved some calm, you can then contemplate on the three characteristics of existence, on the fact that you will die one day. You might be able to do this for a while. After a while the calmness will disappear then the delusion will come back causing you to have a feeling of aversion to the truth. You must then meditate to calm your mind again. When the mind becomes calm you can then return to contemplating on impermanence again. Go back and forth like this until the truth sink deeply into your mind where you will find that accepting it is more beneficial than denying it. Denial of the truth will always cause you to be afraid. But once you have accepted it, you will never be afraid. That”s all there is to it. The problem is in your mind. You can”t change the external things. Whether you think about it or not, you will die anyway. But by thinking about it and accepting it, you will get rid of your fear. But if you don”t think about it, denying it, you will always be afraid.

　　Q: All kinds of fear or just the fe…

《The Path to Enlightenment》全文未完，请进入下页继续阅读…