..续本文上一页he same time you”re creating a better atmosphere for your mind. After all, if you”re constantly chattering all day long, how are you going to stop the mental chatter when you sit down to meditate

　　 But if you develop this habit of watching over your mouth, the same habit then comes to apply to the meditation. All those mouths in your mind start going still.

　　The fourth principle for creating a good environment for meditation in your life is, for the monks, to frequent wilderness spots, to get out of society, to find a quiet place to be by yourself, so you can get a sense of perspective on your life, a sense of perspective on your mind, so that what”s going on in your mind can stand out in bolder relief. This principle applies to lay people, too. Try to find as much solitude as you can. It”s good for you. When people have trouble living in solitude it shows that there”s lots of unfinished business inside.

　　So make a little wilderness place in your home. Turn off the TV, turn out the lights, allow yourself to be alone without a lot of distractions. Tell everyone you need to have a little time alone on a regular basis. When you do this, you find that things that use to be kept in the depths of your mind come up to the surface, and it”s only when they come up to the surface that you can deal with them. When you”re alone in this way without a lot of outside input, it”s natural that the mind will tend to stay with the breath more easily. There may be a lot of mental chatter at first, but after a while you get fed up with it. You prefer just to be quiet. At the same time, you get away from the influence of everybody else”s thoughts and everybody else”s opinions. You have to ask yourself, “What do you really believe

　　 What are your opinions

　　 What”s important to you when you”re not swayed by the opinions of others

　　”

　　Which leads to the fifth principle, which is to develop right view. Right view has two levels. First, there”s belief in the principle of karma, that what you do really does have results—and it really is you acting. It”s not some outside force acting through you, not the stars or some god or whatever. You”re making the decisions and you have the ability to make them skillful or not, depending on your intention. It”s important to believe in this principle because this is what gives more power to your life. It”s an empowering belief—but it also involves responsibilities. This is why you have to be so careful in what you do, why you can”t be heedless. When you”re careful about your actions, it”s easier to be careful about your mind when the time comes to meditate.

　　As for the second level of right view, the transcendent level, that means seeing things in terms of the four noble truths: stress and suffering, the cause of stress and suffering, the cessation of stress and suffering, and the path of practice to that cessation. Just look at your experience, the whole range of your experience, and instead of piding it up into its usual patterns of me and not me, simply look to see: Where is there suffering

　　 Where is there stress

　　 What goes along with it, what are you doing that gives rise to that stress

　　 Can you let go of that activity

　　 And what qualities do you need to develop, what things do you need to let go of in order to let go of the craving, the ignorance underlying the stress

　　 When you drop craving can you be aware of what”s happening

　　 All too often when we drop one craving we simply pick up another craving. Can you make yourself more and more aware of that space in between the cravings and expand that space

　　 What”s it like to have a mind without craving

　　 According to the Buddha it”s important to see things in this way because if you identify everything in terms of yourself, how can you possibly understand anything for what it actually is

　　 If you hold on to suffering as yourself, how can you understand suffering

　　 If you look at it simply as suffering without putting this label of “self” on it, then you can start seeing it for what it is and then learn how to let it go. If it”s yourself, if you hold to that belief that it”s yourself, you can”t let go of it. But looking at things in terms of the four noble truths allows you to solve the whole problem of suffering.

　　So start looking at your whole life in this light. Instead of blaming your sufferings on people outside, look at what you”re doing to create that suffering, to contribute to that suffering, and focus on dealing with that first. When you develop this attitude in everyday life, it”s a lot easier to apply it to the meditation. You create the environment where it makes more and more sense to stick to the noble path.

　　So these are the factors that create the environment for the meditation whether you”re a new monk living here in the monastery or a lay person living outside the monastery: You want to stick to the precepts, keep restraint over the senses, practice restraint over your conversation, create quiet, secluded places for yourself, and develop right view. When you follow these principles, they create a more conducive environment for allowing concentration to happen, as well as a more receptive environment for allowing the results of concentration to permeate out in every direction. This way your practice, instead of being forced into the cracks of a hostile, alien environment, has room to grow and to transform everything around it.

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