Inner Strength - Access to Insight

eally causing stress. These are noble truths: absolutely, undeniably, indisputablytrue. You see that stress has a cause. Once the cause arises, there has to be stress.As for the way to the disbanding of stress, you see that the path you’re followingwill, without a doubt, lead to nibb›na. Whether or not you go all the way, whatyou see is correct. This is right view. And as for the disbanding of stress, you seethat there really is such a thing. You see that as long as you’re on the path, stressdoes in fact fall away. When you come to realize the truth of these things in yourheart, that’s vipassan›-ñ›˚a.To put it even more simply: You see that all things, inside as well as out, areundependable. The body is undependable, aging is undependable, death isundependable. They’re slippery characters, constantly changing on you. To seethis is to see inconstancy. Don’t let yourself be pleased by inconstancy. Don’t letyourself be upset. Keep the mind neutral, on an even keel. That’s what’s meantby vipassan›.Sometimes inconstancy makes us happy, sometimes it makes us sad. Say wehear that a person we don’t like is going to be demoted, or is sick or dying. Itmakes us gleeful, and we can’t wait for him or her to die. His body isimpermanent, his life is uncertain—it can change—but we’re glad. That’s adefilement. Say we hear that a son or daughter has become wealthy, influential,and famous, and we become happy. Again, our mind has strayed from the noblepath. It’s not firmly in right concentration. We have to make the mind neutral:not thrilled over things, not upset over things, not thrilled when our planssucceed, not upset when they don’t. When we can make the mind neutral likethis, that’s the neutrality of right view. We see what’s wrong, what’s right, andtry to steer the mind away from the wrong and toward the right. This is calledright resolve, part of vipassan›-ñ›˚a.The same holds true with stress, whether it’s our stress and pain, orsomebody else’s. Say we hear that an enemy is suffering. ‘Glad to hear it,’ wethink. ‘Hope they hurry up and die.’ The heart has tilted. Say we hear that afriend has become wealthy, and we become happy; or a son or daughter is ill,and we become sad. Our mind has fallen in with suffering and stress. Why?Because we don’t have any knowledge. We’re unskilled. The mind isn’t centered.In other words, it’s not in right concentration. We have to look after the mind.Don’t let it fall in with stress. Whatever suffers, let it suffer, but don’t let the mindsuffer with it. The people in the world may be pained, but the mind isn’t painedalong with them. Pain may arise in the body, but the mind isn’t pained alongwith it. Let the body go ahead and suffer, but the mind doesn’t suffer. Keep themind neutral. Don’t be pleased by pleasure, either—pleasure is a form of stress,you know. How so? It can change. It can rise and fall. It can be high and low. Itcan’t last. That’s stress. Pain is also stress: double stress. When you gain this sortof insight into stress—when you really see stress—vipassan› has arisen in themind.As for anatt›, not-self: Once we’ve examined things and seen them for whatthey really are, we don’t make claims, we don’t display influence, we don’t try toshow that we have the right or the power to bring things that are not-self underour control. No matter how hard we try, we can’t prevent birth, aging, illness,82