Inner Strength - Access to Insight

52Dhamma of study and practice within themselves will meet with the Dhamma ofattainment without a doubt. This is why it’s said to be sandi˛˛hiko, visible in thepresent; ak›liko, bearing fruit no matter what the time or season. Keep workingat it always.Beyond Right & WrongJanuary 17, 1959For the heart to go and do harm to other people, we first have to open theway for it. In other words, we start out by doing harm to ourselves, and thisclears the way from inside the house for us to go out and do harm to peopleoutside.The resolve to do harm is a heavy form of self-harm. At the very least, it usesup our time and destroys our opportunity to do good. We have to wipe it outwith the resolve not to do harm—or in other words, with concentration. This islike seeing that there’s plenty of unused space in our property and that we aren’tmaking enough for our living. We’ll have to leap out into the open field so as togive ourself the momentum for doing our full measure of goodness as theopportunity arises.* * *Nekkhamma-saºkappo (the resolve for renunciation), i.e., being at ease in quiet,solitary places. Aby›p›da-saºkappo (the resolve for non-ill-will): We don’t have tothink about our own bad points or the bad points of others. Avihiºs›-saºkappo(the resolve for harmlessness), not creating trouble or doing harm to ourselves,i.e., (1) not thinking about our own shortcomings, which would depress us; (2) ifwe think about our own shortcomings, it’ll spread like wildfire to theshortcomings of others. For this reason, wise people lift their thoughts to thelevel of goodness so that they can feel love and good will for themselves, and sothat they can then feel love and good will for others as well.When our mind has these three forms of energy, it’s like a table with threelegs that can spin in all directions. To put it another way, once our mind has spunup to this high a level, we can take pictures of everything above and below us.We’ll develop discernment like a bright light or like binoculars that can magnifyevery detail. This is called ñ›˚a—intuitive awareness that can know everything inthe world: LokavidÒ.The discernment here isn’t ordinary knowledge or insight. It’s a specialcognitive skill, the skill of the noble path. We’ll give rise to three eyes in theheart, so as to see the reds and greens, the highs and lows of the mundaneworld: a sport for those with wisdom. Our internal eyes will look at the Dhammain front and behind, above and below and all around us, so as to know all the insand outs of goodness and evil. This is discernment. We’ll be at our ease, feeling