Inner Strength - Access to Insight

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eath means to use whichever feeling is most predominant, as when you feelvery relaxed, very empty, or very comfortable. If there’s a feeling of motion,don’t use it. Use just the feelings of emptiness, relaxation, or lightness. To usethem means to expand their range so that you feel empty in every part of thebody. This is called having a sense of how to make use of the feelings youalready have. But in using these feelings, you have to be completely mindful andalert. Otherwise, when you start feeling empty or light, you might go thinkingthat your body has disappeared.In letting these sensations expand, you can let them spread either one at atime or all together at once. The important point is that you keep them balancedand that you focus on the whole body all at once as the single object of yourawareness. This is called ek›yana-magga, the direct path. If you can master this, it’slike having a white cloth that you can either keep hidden in your fist or spreadout for two meters. Your body, although it may weigh 50 kilograms, may feel aslight as a single kilogram. This is called mah›-satipa˛˛h›na—the great frame ofreference.When mindfulness saturates the body the way flame saturates every thread inthe mantle of a Coleman lantern, the elements throughout the body worktogether like a group of people working together on a job: Each person helps alittle here and there, and in no time at all, almost effortlessly, the job is done. Justas the mantle of a Coleman lantern whose every thread is soaked in flamebecomes light, brilliant, and white, in the same way if you soak your mind inmindfulness and alertness so that it’s conscious of the entire body, both body andmind will become buoyant. When you think using the power of mindfulness,your sense of the body will immediately become thoroughly bright, helping todevelop both body and mind. You’ll be able to sit or stand for long periods oftime without feeling tired, to walk for great distances without getting fatigued,to go for unusually long periods of time on just a little food without gettinghungry, or to go without food and sleep altogether for several days runningwithout losing energy.As for the heart, it will become pure, open, and free from blemish. The mindwill become bright, fearless, and strong. Saddh›-balaª: Your sense of convictionwill run like a car running without stop along the road. Viriya-balaª: Yourpersistence will accelerate and advance. Sati-balaª: Your mindfulness andalertness will be robust, capable of knowing both past and future. For instance,knowledge of past lives and knowledge of other beings’ death and rebirth: Thesetwo kinds of intuition are essentially forms of mindfulness. Once yourmindfulness is fully developed, it can give you knowledge of people’s pastactions and lives. Sam›dhi-balaª: Your concentration will become unwavering andstrong. No activity will be able to kill it. In other words, no matter what you’redoing—sitting, standing, talking, walking, whatever—as soon as you think ofpracticing concentration, your mind will immediately be centered. Wheneveryou want it, just think of it and you’ve got it. When your concentration is thisstrong, insight meditation is no problem. Paññ›-balaª: Your insight will be like adouble-edged sword. Your insight into what’s outside will be sharp; your insightinto what’s inside will be sharp.37
38When these five strengths appear in the heart, the heart will be fully mature.‘Saddh’indrıyaª viriy’indrıyaª sat’indrıyaª sam›dh’indrıyaª paññ’indrıyaª’: Yourconviction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, and discernment will bemature and pre-eminent in their own spheres. It’s the nature of mature adultsthat they cooperate. When they work together on a job, they finish it. So it iswhen you have these five adults working together for you: You’ll be able tocomplete any task. Your mind will have the power to demolish every defilementin the heart, just as a nuclear bomb can demolish anything anywhere in theworld.When your mind has this sort of power, liberating insight will arise like a lancewith sharp edges on all four sides or a power saw whose blade has teeth all theway around. The body is like the stand on which the saw rests; the mind is thecircular blade: Wherever it spins, it can cut through whatever is fed into it. This isthe nature of liberating insight.These are some of the results that come from knowing how to refine thebreath and how to expand the still breath so that it benefits both body and mind.We should take these matters to heart and put them into practice as we are able,so as to share in these benefits.Knowledge & VisionJuly, 1958The parts of the body that ache, that are tense, painful, or sore—think of themas hoodlums or fools. As for the parts that are relaxed and comfortable, think ofthem as sages. Ask yourself: Do you want to live with sages or fools?It’s not the case that the body will be painful in every part all at the same time.Sometimes our hand hurts, but our arm doesn’t hurt; our stomach aches, but ourback doesn’t ache; our legs hurt, but our feet are fine; or our eyes hurt, but ourhead doesn’t hurt. When this is the case, we should choose to stay with the goodparts. If we take up company with more and more good people, they’ll reach thepoint where they can drive out all the hoodlums. In the same way, when themind is very still, the sense of comfort will become so great that we’ll forgetabout aches and pains.The breath energy in the body is like a messenger. When we expand thebreath—this is what’s meant by vic›ra, or evaluation—mindfulness will spreadthroughout the body, as if it were going along an electric wire. Being mindful islike sending electricity along a wire; alertness is like the heat of the electricity thatenergizes us and wakes us up. When the body is energized, no pains willovercome it. In other words, we wake up the properties of earth, water, wind,and fire so that they get to work. The properties of the body will become strongand healthy, making the body feel comfortable and well. This is termedmah›bhÒta-rÒpa. When this sense of mah›bhÒta-rÒpa is nourished with breath and
Page 2 and 3: Inner Strength&Parting GiftsTalks b
Page 4 and 5: 3InnerStrength
Page 6 and 7: 5they reveal their true meanings on
Page 8 and 9: have a sense of our own good and ba
Page 10 and 11: 9A Mind of Pure GoldJuly, 1958The m
Page 12 and 13: 11sunk in worldly matters, are stil
Page 14 and 15: 13not their owner will have you thr
Page 16: for instance, can’t jump up to cl
Page 20 and 21: say, or what our teachers tell us.
Page 22 and 23: 21II. Inner SkillThe ABC’s of the
Page 24 and 25: persons running: They’ll have a h
Page 27 and 28: 26warm the fires of digestion, just
Page 29 and 30: Stick with whichever way of breathi
Page 31 and 32: 30Observe & EvaluateJuly 24, 1956In
Page 33 and 34: 32the point where it flows evenly w
Page 35 and 36: air inside seems still, and yet the
Page 37: 36self-sufficient, the body is self
Page 41 and 42: 40This is called knowing the moment
Page 43 and 44: Once you can focus comfortably on t
Page 45 and 46: pervades every thread in the mantle
Page 47 and 48: whose minds are certain and sure, b
Page 49 and 50: people with only partial knowledge
Page 51 and 52: emedy it—keeping at it with our e
Page 53 and 54: 52Dhamma of study and practice with
Page 55 and 56: 54say. They can say ‘stress,’ b
Page 57 and 58: 56PartingGiftsIntroductionOnly in t
Page 59 and 60: as word of this gathering passed by
Page 61 and 62: We depend on our minds that are swi
Page 63 and 64: As for caulking the mind, that stan
Page 65 and 66: coarse breathing, you know. When it
Page 67 and 68: So, all of you who have gathered to
Page 69 and 70: comes out of ignorance. Goodness co
Page 71 and 72: merit. Now suppose that those thoug
Page 73 and 74: we can use to develop goodness with
Page 75 and 76: All four of these types of defileme
Page 77 and 78: 76KnowledgeOctober 4, 1960Vijj›-c
Page 79 and 80: through not thinking. The first lev
Page 81 and 82: there’s too much evaluation, thou
Page 83 and 84: eally causing stress. These are nob
Page 85 and 86: 84Wherever we go, people will be gl
Page 87 and 88: are the ones made of skin. The inne
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88ConsciousnessesIn all our activit
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Buddha tells us not to go joining i
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probably our enemies in past lives.
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consciousness is so slack and limp
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why we keep losing out to them. We
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98as, “That’s the consciousness
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100GlossaryI. TermsThe definitions
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102m›ra: The personification of d
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104sabbe satt› sad› hontuaver
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