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is caused by the sense of “us”, allowing phenomena to enter our mind.
By using an unburdened mind to experience phenomena, we create a defense against unwholesomeness that resides in these phenomena. As mentioned before, if we use this unburdened mind and make it wider than ourselves, completely encompassing ourselves, conscious phenomena that emerge through our eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body would occur in an empty space, and would not impact our mind. Therefore, the mind acts only as an experiencer and does not attach itself to those phenomena. But, if we are already attached, when we make our mind empty and unburdened, the attachment will cease and disappear.
Practitioner: The practice of creating emptiness, or to remove the sense of self, is a natural condition of non-self (anatta). If a practitioner has never experienced the ultimate truth (paramattha sacca) of non-self, would he/she find it difficult to contemplate natural conditions?
Phra Arjan: If he/she has never done it, and could not do it, it is difficult. But, if he/she has never done it, but is beginning to practice vipassana, he/she could do it. If we use an empty and unburdened mind to experience conscious phenomena, with a sense of non-self, we would reach the ultimate truth easily. But, if we experience all