Inner Strength - Access to Insight

27from the King of Death tying our hands up tight. Then when he gives a singlelash with his whip—i.e., we suffer loss, disgrace, pain, and censure—we cometumbling right down.Another kind of fetter is self-identification—attachment to the body, seeing itas ‘us’ or as an entity, which gives rise to misconceptions. Another fetter isuncertainty—doubts and hesitation, running back and forth, not knowing whichway to go and ending up spinning around along with the world.Once we know the ways of the body and mind, we’ll be released from thesefetters. The mind will gain release from the body and shed the fermentations ofdefilement. This is called knowledge of the end of mental fermentation. Themind will gain liberating insight and flow into the current of Dhamma leadingultimately to nibb›na.When we stop spinning along with the world, we’ll be able to see the world—our body—clearly. Once the mind stops, we can then see the body. For thisreason, we should slow down the spinning of the body by distilling and filteringits properties, making them more and more refined; slow down the spinning ofour words by keeping silent; and slow down the spinning of the mind, making itfirm and still by centering it in concentration, thinking about and evaluating thebreath. When the mind stops spinning after its various concepts andpreoccupations, our words and body will stop along with it. When each one hasstopped, we can see them all clearly. The mind will know the affairs of the bodythrough and through, giving rise to liberating insight that will slow down thespinning of the wheel of rebirth. Our births will become less and less untilultimately we won’t have to come back to live in a world ever again.* * *To practice meditation is one sort of food for the heart. Food for the body isn’tanything lasting. We eat in the morning and are hungry by noon. We eat at noonand are hungry again in the evening. If we’re full today, tomorrow morningwe’ll be hungry again. We keep eating and defecating like this, and the day willnever come when we’ve had enough. We’ll have to keep looking for more andmore things to eat. As for food for the heart, if we prepare it really well, even fora little space of time, we’ll be full for the rest of our life.Mental Power, Step by StepJuly 26, 1956Try to be mindful as you keep track of the breath going in and out. Don’t letyourself forget or be distracted. Try to let go of all concepts of past or future.Silently repeat ‘buddho’ in your mind—‘bud-’ in with every in-breath, and ‘dho’out with every out—until the mind settles down and is still. Then you can stopyour mental repetition and begin observing the in-and-out breath to see howfast or slow, long or short, heavy or light, broad or narrow, crude or subtle it is.