There are four kinds of truth in the body of every human being:
  stress, its cause, its disbanding, and the path to its disbanding.
  These truths are like gold: No matter whether you try to make gold
  into a bracelet, a ring, an earring, or whatever, it stays gold in
  line with its nature. Go ahead and try to change it, but it'll stay as
  it is. The same holds true with the nature of the body. No matter how
  wonderful you try to make it, it'll have to return to its normal
  nature. It'll have to have stress and pain, their cause, their
  disbanding and the path to their disbanding.

    People who don't admit the normal nature of the body are said to be
  deluded; those who realize its normal nature are said to know. Wise
  people realize the principles of nature, which is why they don't get
  caught up in a lot of fuss and confusion. In other words, the body is
  like an object that originally weighs four kilograms. Even though we
  may find things to plaster onto it to make it heavier, the plaster
  will eventually have to fall off and leave us with the original four
  kilograms. You simply can't escape its original nature.

    The stress and pain that occur in line with the principles of nature
  aren't actually all that troublesome. For example, pain and disease:
  If we try to fight nature and not let there be disease, or if we want
  it to disappear right away, sometimes we make the disease even worse.
  But if we treat the disease without worrying about whether or not
  it'll go away, it will follow its natural course and go away at its
  own pace without too much trouble or suffering on our part. This is
  because the mind isn't struggling to fight nature, and so the body is
  strong enough to contend with the disease. Sometimes, if we have this
  attitude, we can survive diseases that otherwise would kill us. But if
  the mind gets all upset and thrashes around, wanting the disease to go
  away, then sometimes a small disease can get so bad it'll kill us --
  like a person with a scorpion sting he thinks is a cobra bite, who
  gets so frightened and upset that the whole thing gets out of hand.
  Sometimes we may come down with a disease that ought to finish us off,
  but the power of the mind is so great that it fights off the pain and
  the disease goes away.

    This is one of the principles of nature -- but we shouldn't be
  complacent about it. If we get complacent, then when the disease comes
  back it'll be worse than before, because the truth, when you get right
  down to it, is that no matter what you do, these things can't escape
  their true nature. When the body's normal nature is to have pain and
  stress, then try as you may to make the pain go away, it'll have to
  return to its true nature. Whether or not you can cure it, the truth
  is still the truth. In other words, even when you cure the disease, it
  comes back.

    Suppose, for instance, that we feel ill, take some medicine, and
  feel better. We think the disease has gone away. People of
  discernment, though, realize that it hasn't gone anywhere. It's simply
  been suppressed for a while and then it'll have to come back out
  again. We may think that we've made the disease go away, but the
  disease is smarter than we are. When it comes back again, it wears a
  new costume, like actors in a theater troupe: If the public gets tired
  of one play, they put on another. Otherwise, no one will spend money
  to watch them perform. In other words, the disease is smart enough to
  come from a new direction. If it put on the old play, it wouldn't get
  any reward. At first it came in your stomach, so this time it comes in
  your leg. You treat it until it goes away, but then it comes back in a
  new play -- in your eye. You treat it in your eye until it goes away,
  and then it comes back in your ear. So you treat your ear. Wherever it
  comes, you keep treating it and your money keeps getting spent. As for
  the disease, it's glad you're fooled. There's only one of it, but it
  comes in all sorts of disguises. Ageing, illness, and death are very
  smart. They can keep us tied on a short leash so that we can never get
  away from them. People who don't train their minds to enter the Dhamma
  are sure to miss this point, but those who train themselves to know
  the truth of the Dhamma will understand this principle of nature for
  what it is.

    If we don't realize the truth, we lose in two ways. On the one side
  we lose in terms of the world: We waste our money because we don't
  realize what's necessary and what isn't, so we get worked up and upset
  all out of proportion to reality. On the other side, we lose in terms
  of the Dhamma because our virtue, concentration, and meditation all
  suffer. Illness makes us lose in these ways because we lack
  discernment. This is why the Buddha taught us to use our eyes. We live
  in the world, so we have to look out for our well-being in the world;
  we live in the Dhamma, so we have to look out for our well-being in
  the Dhamma. The results will then develop of their own accord. If we
  use discernment to evaluate things until we know what's necessary and
  what's not, the time won't be long before we prosper in terms both of
  the world and of the Dhamma. We won't have to waste money and time,
  and there won't be any obstacles to our practice.

    In other words, when you see that something is true, don't try to
  get in its way. Let it follow its own course. //Even though the mind
  doesn't age, grow ill or die, still the body has to age, grow ill and
  die.// This is a part of its nature that you can't fight. When it gets
  ill, you take care of it enough to keep it going. You won't be put to
  difficulties in terms of the world, and your Dhamma practice won't
  suffer.

    The suffering we feel because of these things comes from the cause
  of stress: delusion, ignorance of the truth. When the mind is deluded,
  it doesn't know the cause of stress or the path to the disbanding of
  stress. When it knows, it doesn't get caught up in the natural pain
  and stress of the body. //Mental suffering comes from the accumulation
  of defilement, not from ageing, illness and death.// Once the
  stillness of the path arises within us, then ageing, illness, and
  death won't unsettle the mind. Sorrow, despair, distress, and
  lamentation won't exist. The mind will be separate. We can compare
  this to the water in the sea when it's full of waves: If we take a
  dipperful of sea water and set it down on the beach, there won't be
  any waves in the dipper at all. The waves come from wavering. If we
  don't stir it up, there won't be any waves. For this reason, we have
  to fix the mind so that it's steady in its meditation, without letting
  anything else seep in. It will then gain clarity: the discernment that
  sees the truth.

                                *  *  *

    The mental state of the cause of stress leads us to pain; the mental
  state of the path leads us to happiness. If you don't want stress or
  pain, don't stay with the flow of their cause. //Mental suffering is
  something unnatural to the mind.// It comes from letting defilement
  seep in. Diseases arise in the body, but we let their effects spread
  into the mind. We have to learn which phenomena die and which don't.
  If our defilements are thick and tenacious, there'll be a lot of
  ageing, illness and death. If our defilements are thin, there won't be
  much ageing, illness and death.

    For this reason, we should build inner quality -- awareness of the
  truth -- within ourselves. However far the body is going to develop,
  that's how far it's going to have to deteriorate, so don't be
  complacent. The important point is that you develop the mind. If the
  mind gets developed to a point of true maturity, it won t regress. In
  other words, if your concentration is strong and your discernment
  developed, the defilements that enwrap your mind will fall away in the
  same way that when the flowers of a fruit tree reach full bloom the
  petals fall away, leaving the fruit. When the fruit develops till it's
  fully ripe, the skin and flesh fall away, leaving just the seeds that
  contain all the makings for a new tree. When the mind is fully
  developed, then ageing, illness, and death fall away. Mental stress
  and suffering fall away, leaving the mind in Right Concentration.

    When Right Concentration is ripe, you'll know the location of what
  dies and what doesn't. If you want to die, then stay with what dies.
  If you don't want birth, don't stay with what takes birth. If you
  don't want ageing, don't stay with what ages. If you don't want
  illness, don't stay with what grows ill. //If you don't leave these
  things, you have to live with them.// If you leave them, your mind
  won't age -- it won't be able to age; it won't grow ill -- it won't be
  able to grow ill; it won't die; it won't be able to die. If you can
  reach this point, you're said to have respect for the truth -- for the
  teachings of the Buddha.

    Respect for the truth isn't a matter of bowing down or paying
  homage. It means having a sense of time and place: If something is
  possible, you do it. If it's not, you don't -- and you don't try to
  straighten it out, either. The defilements of unawareness, craving,
  and attachment are things that connect us with suffering, so don't let
  them entangle the mind.

    Unawareness is the mental state that is deluded about the past,
  present, and future. True awareness knows what's past and lets it go;
  knows what's future and lets it go; knows what's present and doesn't
  fall for it. It can remove all attachments. Unawareness knows, but it
  falls for these things, which is why it forms the fuel for suffering.
  True awareness knows what things are past, present, and future, //but
  it doesn't run out after them//. It knows but it stays put -- quiet
  and calm. It doesn't waver up or down. It doesn't seep out, and
  nothing seeps in. The past, the present, and the future it knows in
  terms of the principles of its nature, without having to reason or
  think. People who have to reason and think are the ones who don't
  know. With knowledge, there's no thinking or reasoning, and yet the
  mind knows thoroughly. This is true awareness. Ageing, illness, and
  death all become an affair of release. In other words, nothing is
  fashioned in the mind, and when nothing is fashioned, there's no
  ageing, illness, or death.

    As for attachment, it catches us and ties us to a stake, like a
  person being led to his execution with no chance to wiggle free. We're
  tied with a wire stretching out to the past and future. Craving inches
  along the wire towards us, rolling his eyes and making horrible faces,
  so that we worry about the past and future. Behind us he splits into
  three: craving for sensuality, craving for possibilities, and craving
  for impossibilities. In front of us, he splits into three -- the same
  three sorts of craving -- and in the present he splits into the same
  three. With nine of them and only one of us, how can we expect to be a
  match for them? In the end, we're no match at all.

    If we practice concentration and develop discernment, though, we'll
  be able to cut the wire of Death. When the mental state that forms the
  path arises, our thoughts of past and future will all disband. This is
  the disbanding of stress. Attachment and craving won't exist -- so
  where will stress and suffering have a chance to arise? People who
  have defilements -- even if they earn $3,000 a day -- can't keep
  themselves from falling into hell. But people with no defilements,
  even if they don't have anything at all, are happy nonetheless --
  because the mind has enough to eat, enough to drink, enough of
  everything. It's not poor. When we can think correctly in this way,
  it's called respect for the Dhamma -- and it can make us happy.

                                *  *  *

  Respect for the Dhamma means taking seriously all the things that come
  in and out the house of your mind. //(1) The door of the body:// You
  have to be careful to make sure that none of your actions stray into
  ways that are harmful. //(2) The door of speech// -- the door of the
  mouth -- is very large. The tongue may be only a tiny piece of flesh,
  but it's very important, because what we say today can keep echoing
  for an aeon after we die. When the body dies, the time isn't long
  before there's nothing left of it, and so it's not as important as our
  speech, for the stone engravings we make with our tongue last a long,
  long time. For this reason, we should show a great deal of respect for
  our mouths by saying only things that are worthwhile. //(3) The door
  of the intellect:// We have to be careful with our thoughts. If
  something is harmful to us when we think about it, then we shouldn't
  think about it. We should think only about things that are beneficial
  and good.

    These three doors are always receiving guests into the mind, so we
  have to pay attention to see who is coming with good intentions and
  who is coming with bad. Don't let down your guard. Whoever comes with
  good intentions will bring you happiness and prosperity. As for
  troublemakers and thieves, they'll rob you and kill you and cause you
  all sorts of trouble.

    As for your eyes, ears and nose, these are like three windows that
  you have to be careful about as well. You have to know when to open
  and when to close them. If you aren't discerning, you may invite
  thieves into your house to rob and kill you, plundering all the wealth
  your parents and teachers gave you. This is called being an ingrate --
  not knowing enough to care for the legacies that others have passed
  down to you. The legacies of your parents are your life, health, and
  strength. The legacies of your teachers are all the things they taught
  to make you a good person. If you leave your thoughts, words, and
  deeds wide open so that evil can flow into you, evil will keep pouring
  in, wearing down the health and strength of your body and mind. This
  is called having no appreciation for the kindness of your parents and
  teachers.

    Sometimes we don't leave just the doors open -- we leave the windows
  open as well. Lizards, snakes, scorpions, birds, and bats will come in
  through the windows and take up residence in our house. After a while
  they'll lay claim to it as theirs -- and we give in to them. So they
  leave their droppings all over and make a mess of the place. If we
  don't exercise self-restraint, our body and mind are going to be
  ruined, and this will destroy the wealth our parents and teachers went
  to such great trouble to give us.

    So if anyone tries to come into your house, you have to grill them
  thoroughly to see what they're up to and what they're coming for --
  for good or for bad. Look them straight in the eye. In other words,
  you have to be mindful and reflecting in all your actions. Anything
  that isn't good you have to drive out of your activities. Even if it
  would help you financially or make you popular and well-known, don't
  have anything to do with it. The same holds true with your speech. If
  something you're about to say will serve a good purpose, then open
  your mouth and say it. Say what should be said, and don't say what
  shouldn't. If something serves no real purpose, then no matter how
  fantastic it may be, don't say it. You have to know how to respond to
  all the activities that present themselves for you to do. Let in the
  good ones and drive out the bad.

    As for the mind, you have to show restraint with that, too. If a
  thought will lead to good and happy results, you should let yourself
  think it. But as for thoughts that will cause harm, don't pull them
  in. If you go gobbling down everything you like, you're going to die.
  I.e., (1) your inner quality will deteriorate. (2) The wealth your
  parents and teachers gave you will disappear.

    As for your senses -- sight, hearing, smell, taste, feeling -- you
  should show an interest in everything that will benefit you. Drive out
  what's bad and bring in what's good. When you can do this, it's called
  showing respect for your parents, your teachers, and yourself as well.
  Your house will be clean, and you can lounge around in comfort without
  having to worry about sitting on bird- or bat-droppings.

    But if you don't exercise self-restraint, your actions will be
  defiled, your words will be defiled, so how can your mind live in
  comfort? Like a filthy house: No guests will want to go into it, and
  even the owner isn't comfortable there. If you keep your home clean
  and well-swept, though, it'll be nice to live in, and good people will
  be happy to come and visit. When good people come and visit, they
  won't cause you any harm. In other words, the things that come in
  through the senses are like guests and they won't cause any harm to
  the mind. The mind will be good and obedient and will stay put where
  you tell it to. But even if your couches and chairs are made of
  marble: If they're dusty and dirty, no guests will want to sit there,
  and you yourself won't want to, either.

                                *  *  *

  So if you keep your virtue bright and clear with regard to our senses
  of sight, hearing, smell, taste, feeling, and ideation, your mind will
  find it easy to attain concentration. Then even when defilements come
  to visit you from time to time, they won't be able to do you any harm
  -- because you have more than enough wealth to share with them. If
  thieves come, you can throw them a hunk of diamond ore and they'll
  disappear. If ageing, illness, and death come begging, you can throw
  them another hunk, and they'll stop pestering us.

    If your old kamma debts come at you when you're poor, they won't get
  enough to satisfy them, so they'll end up taking your life. But if
  they come at you when you're rich, you simply share your merit -- all
  the inner wealth you've accumulated -- and they'll leave you alone. If
  your goodness isn't yet full, then evil will have an opening to flow
  in; but if your hands, feet, eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind
  are filled with goodness, evil can't get into you, so you can come out
  unscathed.

    Ultimately, you'll get so rich in inner quality that you can go
  beyond both good and evil. That's when you can be truly happy and free
  from danger. So I ask that you all remember this and treat your
  thoughts, words, and deeds in a way that shows respect for the Dhamma
  as I've explained it. You'll then meet with the happiness you hope
  for.

                            * * * * * * * *
 
 
 
 

                           SERVING A PURPOSE
                            November 4, 1958

  My own motto is, 'Make yourself as good as possible, and everything
  else will have to follow along in being good.' If you don't neglect
  yourself for the sake of external things, you'll have to be good. So
  you shouldn't neglect yourself. Develop your inner worth to your own
  satisfaction.

    The world says, 'Don't worry about whether you're good or bad, as
  long as you have money.' This is just the opposite of the Dhamma,
  which says, 'Don't worry about whether you're rich or poor, as long as
  you're a good person.'

                                *  *  *

  Your good qualities, if you don't know how to use them, can hurt you
  -- like money, which is something good but, if you don't know how to
  spend it wisely, can lead to your ruin; or like a good sharp knife
  that, if you don't know how to use it properly, can do you harm. Say,
  for instance, that you use the knife to kill someone. When you're
  caught, you'll have to be thrown in jail or executed, that means that
  you used the knife to kill yourself.

                                *  *  *

  Each of us has four kinds of valuables: the goodness of our deeds, the
  goodness of our words, the goodness of our manners, and the goodness
  of our thoughts. For this reason, we have to care for these valuables
  as best we can.

  Most of us have good things to our name but we hardly ever bring them
  out to put them to use. Instead, we like to bring out only our worst
  things to use. In other words, we keep our goodness to ourselves and
  show only our worst side -- like the plates, cups and saucers in our
  homes: The good ones we keep in the cupboard, and only the chipped,
  cracked and broken ones get put on the table, because we're afraid the
  good ones will break. As for our best clothes, we don't dare use them
  because we're afraid they'll get old, stained, or torn. So we end up
  keeping them packed away until they get so moldy or moth-eaten that
  they can't be worn and have to become rags. As a result, we don't get
  any good out of our valuables in line with their worth. In the same
  way, //if we have any goodness within ourselves but don't put it to
  use, it serves no purpose at all, either for ourselves or for others//
  -- like a knife you keep packed away until it gets rusty: If you
  finally bring it out to slice some food, the rust will poison you. If
  you happen to cut your hand or foot with it, you may come down with
  tetanus and die.

                                *  *  *

  An intelligent person knows how to use both good and evil without
  causing harm. Arahants even know how to use their defilements so as to
  be of benefit. When sages use common language, it can serve a good
  purpose. But when fools use fine language, it can be bad. If they use
  bad language; it's even worse. An example of a person who used common
  language to serve a good purpose is Chao Khun Upali (Siricando Jan).
  One time he was invited to give a sermon in the palace during the
  weekly funeral observances for a young prince whose death had caused a
  great deal of sorrow to the royal relatives. On the previous weeks,
  some very high-ranking monks from Wat Debsirin had been invited to
  give sermons and they had all gone on about what a good man the prince
  had been, and how sad it was that he had come to such an untimely end
  that prevented him from living on to do more good for the world. This
  had caused the relatives to cry all the more.

    When it came Chao Khun Upali's turn to give a sermon, though, he
  didn't carry on in the same vein at all. Instead, he started out with
  the theme of mindfulness of the body, describing the ugliness and
  foulness of the body, which is full of repulsive and disgusting
  things: snot, spit, dandruff, sweat, etc., etc. 'When the body dies,
  there's not one good thing about it,' he said, 'but people sit around
  weeping and wailing with tears streaming in tracks down their cheeks
  and mucus running out their noses and dribbling down to their chins.
  With their faces all in a mess like this, they don't look the least
  bit attractive.'

    This made the relatives who had been crying so embarrassed that they
  stopped crying immediately, after which they expressed a great deal of
  admiration for Chao Khun Upali and his sermon. This is why it's said
  that a person who uses a sharp tongue with skill is a great sage. //If
  people are wise, then no matter what they say, it serves a good
  purpose// because they have a sense of time, place, and the people
  they're talking to. If something will serve a purpose, even if it
  sounds unpleasant, it should be said. If it won't serve a purpose,
  even if it sounds pleasant, don't say it.

                                *  *  *

  The affairs of the religion are an affair of the heart: Don't go
  looking for them in the dirt or the grass, in temples or in monastery
  buildings. Although people may do good with their words and deeds,
  it's still an affair of the world. The affairs of the religion are
  quiet and still, without any fuss or bother. They're aimed at a mind
  that's pure, undefiled, and bright. With goodness, there's no need to
  do anything much at all. Simply sit still, and there's purity.

    Take the example of the little novice with quiet and composed
  manners who, as he was going out for alms one morning, happened to
  enter the compound of a stingy moneylender and his wife. Whether or
  not they would put any food in his bowl, he didn't show the least
  concern, and he didn't open his mouth to say a word. When he left --
  his bowl still empty -- he went calmly and unhurriedly along his way.
  The moneylender's wife, seeing him, became curious and trailed him
  from a distance, until he reached a point where he suddenly had to go
  to the bathroom. Carefully he put down his bowl and, using his foot,
  cleared away the leaves to make a little depression in the dirt so
  that the urine wouldn't flow off anywhere. Then, after looking right,
  left and all around him to make sure that there wouldn't be anyone
  walking past, he squatted down to urinate unobtrusively in the proper
  way. When he had finished, he used his foot to cover the spot with
  dirt and leaves as it had been before, picked up his bowl and went
  calmly on his way.

    As for the moneylender's wife, who had been watching from a
  distance, when she saw the manner in which the little novice was
  acting, the thought occurred to her that he had probably buried
  something of value. So she stealthily crept to the spot and, using her
  hand, dug the earth out of the hole buried by the novice and sniffed
  it to see what it was -- and that was when she realized that it was
  urine. The little novice had taken care of his urine as if it were
  gold. 'If it were something more valuable than this,' she thought,
  'there's no doubt how well he'd care for it. With manners like this,
  we should adopt him as our foster son. He'd be sure to look after our
  fortune to make sure that it wouldn't get wasted away.'

    She went home to tell her husband who, impressed with her story, had
  a servant go and invite the novice into their home so that they could
  inform him of their intentions. The novice, however, declined their
  offer to make him their heir, and taught them the Dhamma, making them
  see the rewards of practicing generosity, virtue, and meditation. The
  moneylender and his wife were deeply moved, overcame their stinginess,
  and asked to take refuge in the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha from that
  day onward. Eventually, they progressed in virtue, meditation, and
  right practice to the point where they both gained a glimpse of
  Liberation. Afterwards, they made a large donation to build a memorial
  over the spot where the novice had urinated, as a reminder of the
  goodness that had grown within them from the puddle of urine the
  little novice had bestowed on them that day.

    The affairs of the religion come down to //'sacitta-pariyodapanam'//
  -- making the heart entirely clean, clear and pure. //'Etam
  buddhana-sasanam'// -- this is the heart of the Buddhas' teachings.

                            * * * * * * * *
 
 
 
 

                              FREE AT LAST
              July 13, 1958; May 11, 1957 October 12, 1957

  When the heart is a slave to its moods and defilements -- greed,
  aversion, and delusion -- it 's like being a slave to poor people,
  troublemakers, and crooks, all of whom are people we shouldn't be
  enslaved to. The 'poor people' here are greed: hunger, desire, never
  having enough. This feeling of 'not enough' is what it means to be
  poor.

    As for aversion, this doesn't necessarily mean out-and-out anger. It
  also means being grumpy or in a bad mood. If anyone annoys us or does
  something displeasing, we get irritated and resentful. This is called
  being a slave to troublemakers.

    Delusion means seeing good as evil or evil as good, right as wrong
  or wrong as right, thinking you're good when you're evil, or evil when
  you're good. This is called being a slave to crooks.

    But if the mind becomes a slave to goodness, this is called being a
  slave to the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha, in which case we're well-off
  because the Buddha is a kind person. He won't make us work all hours
  of the day and instead will allow us time to rest and find peace of
  mind.

    But still, as long as we're slaves, we can't say that it's really
  good, because slaves have no freedom. They still have a price on their
  heads. Only when we gain release from slavery can we be fully free and
  happy. So for this reason, be diligent in your work: Meditate a lot
  every day. You'll profit from it, get to buy yourself out of slavery
  to the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha, and gain Liberation. Don't let
  there be anyone at all over you giving you orders. That's when it's
  really ideal.

                                *  *  *

  Actually, the Buddha never meant for us to take as our mainstay
  anything or anyone else aside from ourselves. Even when we take refuge
  in the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha, he never praised it as being really
  ideal. //He wanted us to take ourselves as our refuge.// 'The self is
  its own mainstay:' We don't have to take our authority from anyone
  else. We can depend on ourselves and govern ourselves. We're free and
  don't have to fall back on anyone else. When we can reach this state,
  that 's when we'll be released from slavery -- and truly happy.

    When we're slaves to the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha, we're told to
  be generous, to observe the precepts and to practice meditation -- all
  of which are things that will give rise to inner worth within us. In
  being generous, we have to suffer and work because of the effort
  involved in finding wealth and material goods that we then give away
  as donations. In observing the precepts, we have to forgo the words
  and deeds we would ordinarily feel like saying or doing. Both of these
  activities are ways in which we benefit others more than ourselves.
  But when we practice meditation, we sacrifice inner objects --
  unskillful thoughts and mental states -- and make our minds solid,
  sovereign, and pure.

    This is called paying homage to the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha
  through the practice -- which the Buddha praised as better than paying
  homage with material objects. Even though the Buddha would have
  benefited personally from the homage shown with material objects, he
  never praised it as being better than homage shown through the
  practice, which gives all its benefits to the person who pays the
  homage. This was the sort of homage that pleased the Buddha, because
  the practice of training the heart to reach purity is the way by which
  a person can gain release from all suffering and stress. The Buddha
  had the kindness and compassion to want to help living beings gain
  freedom from all forms of suffering, which is why he taught us to
  meditate, so that we can free our hearts from their slavery to the
  defilements of the world.

    When we become slaves to the religion -- to the Buddha, Dhamma, and
  Sangha -- we're still not released from suffering as long as our minds
  still have worries and concerns. Being a slave to our concerns is like
  being in debt to them. When we're in debt, we have no real freedom in
  our hearts. Only when we can find the money to pay off our debts can
  we be happy, free, and at ease. The more we pay off our debts, the
  more light-hearted we'll feel. In the same way, if we can let go of
  our various worries and cares, peace will arise in our hearts. We'll
  be released from our slavery to craving and defilement, and will find
  happiness because peace is what brings release from suffering. This is
  why the Buddha taught us to center our hearts in concentration so as
  to give rise to stillness, peace, and the inner wealth with which
  we'll be able to pay off all of our debts. That's when we'll attain
  happiness and ease. All our burdens and sufferings will fall away from
  our hearts and we'll enter full freedom.

                                *  *  *

  The mind has two kinds of thoughts, skillful and unskillful. 
  Unskillful thoughts are when the mind thinks in ways that are bad --
  with greed, anger or delusion -- about things either past or future.
  When this happens, the mind is said to be a slave to defilement. As
  for skillful thoughts, they deal in good and worthwhile ways with
  things future or past. We have to try to let go of both these kinds of
  thoughts so that they don't exist in the mind if we want to gain
  release from our slavery.

                                *  *  *

  If we want to buy ourselves completely out of slavery, we have to farm
  our four acres so that they bear abundant fruit. In other words, we
  have to develop the body's four properties -- earth, water, fire, and
  wind -- to a point of fullness by practicing meditation and using pure
  breath sensations to soothe and nourish every part of the body. When
  the mind is pure and the body soothed, it's like our farm's having
  plenty of rain and ground water to nourish our crops. I.e., our
  concentration is solid and enters the first stage of absorption, with
  its five factors: directed thought, evaluation, rapture, pleasure, and
  singleness-of-preoccupation. Directed thought is like harrowing our
  soil. Evaluation is like plowing and scattering the seed. Rapture is
  when our crops begin to bud, pleasure is when their flowers bloom, and
  singleness-of-preoccupation is when the fruits develop until they're
  ripened and sweet -- and at the same time, their seeds contain all
  their ancestry. What this means is that in each seed is another plant
  complete with branches, flowers and leaves. If anyone plants the seed,
  it will break out into another plant just like the one it came from.

    In the same way, when we center the mind to the point of absorption,
  we can gain insight into our past -- maybe even back through many
  lifetimes -- good and bad, happy and sad. This insight will cause us
  to feel dismay and dispassion, and to lose taste for all states of
  being and birth. The mind will let go of its attachments to self, to
  mental and physical phenomena, and to all thoughts and concepts --
  past and future, good and bad. It will enter a state of neutral
  equanimity. If we then work at developing it further, we'll be able to
  cut away more and more of our states of being and birth. When the mind
  gains change-of-lineage knowledge, which passes from the mundane over
  into the transcendent, it will see what dies and what doesn't. It will
  blossom as //buddho// -- the awareness that knows no cessation --
  bright in its seclusion from thoughts and burdens, from mental
  effluents and preoccupations. When we practice in this way, we'll come
  to the reality of birthlessness and deathlessness -- the highest
  happiness -- and on into Liberation.

    This is how we repay all our debts without the least bit remaining.
  As the texts say, 'In release, there is the knowledge, "Released.
  Birth is no more, the holy life is fulfilled, the task done."'

    For this reason, we should be intent on cleansing and polishing our
  hearts so that they can gain release from their worries and
  preoccupations, which are the source of pain and discontent. Peace,
  coolness, and a bright happiness will arise within us, in the same way
  as when we unshackle ourselves from our encumbering burdens and debts.
  We'll be free -- beyond the reach of all suffering and stress.

                            * * * * * * * *