..续本文上一页. In contrast, the Buddha then depicts appropriate attention as the ability to identify that “This is suffering (the Pali word dukkha here covers stress and pain as well),” “This is the origination of suffering,” “This is the cessation of suffering,” and “This is the path of practice leading to the cessation of suffering.” These are the four categories that the Buddha, in his first discourse, called the four noble truths. The ability to frame the issue of suffering in line with these categories is what enables you ultimately to put an end to the problem of suffering once and for all. This is why they”re appropriate.

　　The most obvious lesson to be drawn from this way of distinguishing inappropriate from appropriate attention is that inappropriate attention frames the issues of the mind in terms of abstract categories, whereas appropriate attention frames them in terms of things that can be directly pointed to in immediate experience as “This … This … This … This.” Ideas of identity and existence are basic to abstract thinking, and many philosophers have maintained that they lie at the basis of any spiritual quest. The Buddha, however, noted that the thought, “I am the thinker” lies at the root of all the categories and labels of conceptual proliferation, the type of thinking that can turn and attack the person employing it. These categories are notoriously hard to pin down, often dissolving into arbitrary semantics. “Do I exist

　　”—It depends on what you mean by “exist.” “Do I have a self

　　”—It depends on what you mean by “self.” Thinking driven by definitions like these often falls prey to the hidden motives or agendas behind the definitions, which means that it”s unreliable.

　　However, suffering is something directly knowable: preverbal, private, but universal. In framing the issues of the mind around suffering, the Buddha bases his teachings on an intention totally trustworthy—the desire for his listeners to put an end to all their suffering—and focuses on something not dependent on definitions. In fact, he never offers a formal definition of the term “suffering” at all. Instead, he illustrates it with examples—such as the suffering of birth, aging, illness, and death—and then points out the functional element that all forms of mental suffering share: clinging to the five aggregates of form, feeling, perception, mental fabrication, and consciousness. The clinging is not the same as the pain of the suffering, but it”s the aspect of suffering most useful to focus on for the purpose of bringing the suffering to an end.

　　Although there is a passage where the Buddha defines clinging as desirepassion, he never describes precisely what desire‐passion is. When devoting what is apparently the oldest part of the Canon, the Atthaka Vagga, to the topic of clinging, he fills the discussion with puns and word play, a style that discourages systematic attempts at set definitions and the conceptual proliferation they can foster. What this means is that if you want to refine your understanding of clinging, desire‐passion, and suffering, you can”t cling to words or texts. You have to look deeper into your present experience. In pointing repeatedly to direct experience, however, the Buddha doesn”t discourage all thought and concepts. The ability to distinguish the four categories of appropriate attention requires thought and analysis—the type of thought that questions past understandings and misunderstandings, and ponders what”s happening in the present; the type of analysis that can ferret out connections between actions and their results and can evaluate them as to whether they”re helpful or not. There are desires, for instance, that act as a cause of suffering, and other desires that can form part of the path leading to its end. Although the Buddha…

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