Page 60 - Dhamma Practice
P. 60
54
ceases, does it re-emerge and cease again? This is what we must contemplate.
When experiencing the mind within the mind, the first thing is to know how the state of the mind is. Does the mind feel soft and gentle, unburdened, light, peaceful, depressed or agonizing? And, to know what the mind is thinking—and how the thoughts emerge and cease. Also, the mind that acts as the experiencer, how does it emerge and cease? Does it emerge and cease? These are things that practitioners must observe, must contemplate. These are refined natural conditions hence may take sometimes to experience. But, if today you do not experience them, perhaps you would in future days.
What are natural conditions (sapawa dhamma)? Natural conditions are physical and mental phenomena that emerge while we have the awareness. Corporeality, sound, odour, taste, tactile sensations, and mind-object (dhammarom) are natural conditions that emerge. Mind- object emerges in the mind. What things emerge in our mind? As mentioned before, it is not just thoughts that emerge in our mind. Good and bad feelings, sadness and happiness, heaviness, lightness, coldness, heat, softness, hardness, tautness—these are all physical and mental phenomena. When we experience dhamma within dhamma, how do the natural conditions change and how do they emerge and cease? When we contemplate this way, it will help us to be released from attachments. Why?