這樣的結果是，試圖從自由的生活中證悟空性，這意味著我們必須面對追隨欲望而產生的消沉，並從中證到空性。人有選擇這種挑戰的自由，可我們無法只享受快樂而不觸及事情的另一面：兩者是關聯在一起的。好像當一個輪子向上旋時，我們抓住了它；可向上旋時我們還不放手。我並不是說我已放下，其實我也做過很多這種事。我意識到，在頂端時我們根本就沒有放下的心！我們想這樣做，可做起來卻不是這樣。
在這次共修開始時，人人都受了三皈五戒，這一象徵性的行動可以讓我們重振對佛，對成為佛教徒的信願。人並不是像受洗一樣，因為參加了儀式而成為佛教徒，其中有很大的程度取決於重振我們內在的信願。我們外在地可能依附於某一形式、傳統、模式，但如果不能將其內在化，以使自己成為佛，瞭知者為目的，那任何外在形式的信仰都不會有長期效果的。
我們常常弄不清的一點的是，「如果無我，從終極智慧的立場上看，我們為什麼要去管廣布慈悲心之類的事呢？既然無人在這兒，在那兒，我們為何要向全宇宙迴向慈悲？既然在這兒，在那兒都沒有人，我們為何要分享功德？為何不省下力氣做些別的事呢？」弄清這點——「我們生命的不同層面如何相互作用」——是很重要的，即使我們可以在某些時候從純淨智慧，不分時空的無我覺照中看待生活，可世間其他的人未必會從這個角度來看。佛教的修行提供了一種將所有一切層次結合起來的方法。佛使用假名、人稱代詞，有人問佛，「既然無我，你為何以稱呼一個人的方式稱呼自己？為何同別人講話，叫別人的名字？」佛說，「雖然從根本上是無我的，但我用通常的言詞與人在他能懂的層次上交流。」所以我們想要遍佈慈悲心，做善功德，分享福報時，要努力去做，全心全意去遍佈慈悲心，實在地去做。
我們建立寺院，努力為眾人提供學習的機會和環境，我們教授、提供指導和支持，可在將這些事做成後，我們要將任何執著化解掉。我們將這些善的道理和力量投注到人的生活當中，可卻不視它們為究竟實有的。我們看到它們只是形、色、意識模式而已。我講話的聲音你們都能聽到，這裡有耳識。有句話說佛陀是為了喚醒睡夢者的超級夢境編導師，他的開示、言語、行動，都是個夢幻的系統。但佛善於創造夢境以使睡夢者覺醒，使我們從夢中回到現實生活，眞實世界中來。
比如，我許多年來都對信仰法門麻木不仁；「無我，這就是佛教的全部？」每天早晚我們進行傳統的念誦時，我就隨眾，想跟上那個調子，可我卻又認為毫無意義，後來我開始認識到我遺漏了整個過程的精神。如果我們有正確的理解，就可以將這些能量釋放成言語、仁慈，及對世界有益、有助的東西，而不是佔有它使它保持原樣。這是種偉大的藝術，也是最偉大的祝福，你可以理解為什麼佛要像那樣來進行教化。如果不是因為佛陀……。這都使我們這些追逐形象、模式、傳統生活方式的人，受到刺激鼓舞而向覺醒、衝破束縛我們的幻境，以體嘗到解脫的眞正快樂。
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The result of this—trying to realize emptiness within a free-wheeling life—means that we then have the challenge of realizing the emptiness of the despair and depression that comes from following those desires. People are free to take on the challenge!!! But it's a related thing; we can't just absorb into pleasure without getting the other side of it as well. It's as if we're holding onto the wheel as it goes up the pleasure side, but we're still holding onto it as it goes down the other side. I'm not saying these things as a put-down but, having done this quite a bit myself, I realize that we just don't have the presence of mind to let go at the top! It's the way we'd like it to be but it doesn't operate like that.
At the beginning of the retreat everyone took the Refuges and Precepts. This symbolic act is to refresh our aspiration toward being a Buddhist, toward being Buddha. It's not a ceremony that one goes through to ... become a Buddhist, like baptism. It's much more that it's up to us to refresh our aspiration within ourselves. Externally, we can adhere to a form, to a tradition, to a pattern but if we don't eventually internalize that, if we don't bring that within ourselves and make being Buddha, being The-One-Who-Knows the aim, then any amount of external dedication to a particular form or tradition will not avail us very much in the long run.
One final point that we tend to not understand is that: if there is no self, if one is aiming to come from this position of ultimate wisdom, then why do we bother with things like spreading metta [loving-kindness]? If there is nobody here and nobody there, then why go through all the trouble of sending metta ... across the universe? Or the sharing of merit: you know there's no one here ... and there's no one there ... , so what's the point? Wouldn't we be better off saving our energy and doing something else? This is important to understand—how the different levels of our life interplay with each other—because even though at some moment we might be seeing life from the level of pure wisdom, from that place of timeless-spaceless-selfless awareness, the rest of the world is not necessarily seeing things from that point of view. What you have within Buddhist practice is a way of tying together all the different levels of our being.
The Buddha used conventional forms, he used personal pronouns. When people asked him questions such as, "If there's no self, why do you refer to yourself as an individual? Why do you talk to other people, why do you name people?" And the Buddha said, "Even though fundamentally there is no self, I use common speech in order to communicate things to people on a level that they can understand." So, when we are thinking about things like spreading metta ... , creating good karma, sharing the blessings of our life, one puts forth the effort to do that. You put your heart into spreading loving-kindness. You do ... it.
We set up monasteries, we put effort into creating opportunities and environments for people to learn from. We teach, offer guidance and support and instruction. But, having brought those forms into existence, then one dissolves any attachment to them.
We bring forth wholesome principles and energies into people's lives, but we do not give them a sense of ultimate substantiality. We see that they are merely shapes, forms, patterns of consciousness. The sounds that I say, these are ear-consciousness, sounds that you all are aware of. There is the expression that the Buddha was the supreme weaver of dreams in order to wake up the dreamers. His teachings, his words and actions, are a system of dreams: dream stuff. But the mastery of the Buddha was that he created dreams which enabled the dreamers to awaken; to lead us out of the dream world into real life, into the true world.
As an example, for many years I had no feeling at all for devotional practice. " Anatta [no self]... , that's what it's all about!" Every morning and evening, as we did our traditional chanting I would go along with it, try to stay in tune and so on, but basically I felt it was all pointless. Then I began to realize that I was missing the spirit of the whole thing. If we have right understanding, then we can bring forth those energies into words, bring forth kindness and benevolence, bring forth things which are useful and helpful into the world, but then not own them, leave them as they are—that is the great art and it is also the greatest blessing. You can see why the Buddha taught in the way that he did. It wasn't for him ... It was to provide things for those of us who would come after: forms, patterns, traditions, ways of living that help to spur us on; ways to encourage us, to inspire us to wake up, to break through the illusions that bind us so that all can experience the true joy of liberation.
(The End)
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