Page 117 - Dhamma Practice

to experience, they are all natural conditions. They demonstrate the nature of the physical and mental phenomena, the body and mind of ours, at present. Every phenomenon that we experience, be it coldness, hotness, softness, hardness, tautness, heaviness, lightness, pain, ache, numbness or itchiness—these are all natural conditions. Why are they called “natural conditions”? This is because they are the nature of the physical and mental phenomena—they are conditions that emerge naturally.
But, as the natural conditions emerge, we start to fabricate. What is “fabrication”? It is to imagine, to create. If we want to know whether we are fabricating, we should examine. Move inside to experience clearly whether we are just thinking or whether we are really experiencing. For example, the mind that feels unburdened and light, are we just thinking that it is unburdened? Move inside to observe—are we really unburdened? Are we really light? Do not fool ourselves because we are the practitioners. The benefits happen to us, not to anyone else. We need to be honest with ourselves whether the things that we are experiencing are really happening to us at that time.
We can ask: “Is it real or unreal?” When we feel cold—is it really cold? It is really cold. Is this real or unreal? Real, correct? But, when we observe again, now it is gone. So, is this real? It is real, but it does not exist for a long time because of the impermanence of the mind.
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