Inner Strength - Access to Insight

41you go in to coordinate and connect them, and observe the results that comefrom spreading and adjusting the breath. As soon as things feel smooth and easy,focus in on the breath in the stomach and intestines, and the breath energy thatacts as a sentinel between them, keeping them from rubbing against each other,like the cotton wool used to pack a stack of glassware to keep the glasses fromstriking against one another.* * *When the breath is quiet and the mind at ease, this is goodness in its greaterform. When the mind is at ease but the body in turmoil, this is goodness in alesser form. Let the mind settle wherever there’s a sense of comfort in the body,in the same way that we go to look for food in places where in the past we’vefound enough to eat our fill. Once the mind is full, rapture (pıti) arises. Pleasure(sukha) saturates the heart, just as salt saturates pickled fish. The mind will takeon value. The sense of the body will become bright, clear, and cool. Knowledgewill begin to see bit by bit, so that we can come to see the nature of our ownbody and mind. When this state of mind becomes stronger, it turns into ñ›˚adassana—knowledgeand vision.Knowledge on this level comes from mindfulness, and vision from alertness.When the wavering of the mind stops, then craving for sensuality, for becoming,and for no becoming all stop. Pain and pleasure, let go of them. Don’t give thema second thought. Think of them as words that people speak only in jest. As forthe truth, it’s there in the heart. If the mind still wavers and strays, there willhave to be more states of being and birth. If sensual craving moves, it leads to agross state of being. If craving for becoming moves, it leads to an intermediatestate of being. If craving for no becoming moves, the mind will latch onto asubtle state of being. Only when we see this happening can we be said to knowpast, future, and present.When this awareness is clear and full, the mind becomes dispassionate andloosens its attachments, coming to a full stop: the stopping of unawareness, thestopping of birth. This is why the Buddha felt no attachment for home or family,for wealth, servants, or material pleasures of any kind.Coming HomeSeptember 22, 1956When you close your eyes while sitting in meditation, simply close youreyelids. Don’t try to close off your eyes like a person sleeping. You have to keepyour optic nerves awake and working. Otherwise you’ll put yourself to sleep.Think of your internal meditation object—the in-and-out breath—and thenthink of bringing your external meditation object—’buddho,’ awake, which is oneof the virtues of the Lord Buddha—in with the breath.