CUTTING OFF THE STREAM
WISDOM IN CONCENTRATION PRACTICE
When you practice concentration, do not believe what you know and see in samadhi right away. You need wisdom to correct Wrong View. Without wisdom it is very easy to have a wrong view. In samadhi, as the mind concentrates and attains a calm state, it is easy for the Evil One to step in and influence the mind with Wrong View. The major trick of defilement and craving is the appearance of a mental image in samadhi, that seems so real. Defilement resides in the mind can easily deceive the mind. For example, when the mind is calm, light appears in various forms informing the mind that it is the brightness of wisdom, or vipassananana (the ultimate knowledge), or nirodhasamapatti (the meditative attainment at the level of cessation of suffering). Sometimes there are both brightness and mental images (nimitta), such as a newborn baby, an old person, a sick person or a dead body, appearing right in front of you. Or, there may appear bright sky, clouds, stars, rivers, etc. Some may see Buddha's image or a glass ball. These visions must not be taken as vipassananana. You cannot interpret them as the enlightenment of the mind, as if you knew all about mental formation, because they are merely mental images which occur in samadhi. Those who have wisdom can make use of these mental images by contemplating them to develop more wisdom. For those who have wisdom in the mind this kind of mental image will not occur to them. Mental images themselves are compounded things and follow the rule of impermanence. The mind that is already wise with Right View will not be deceived by them, because it knows the true nature of compounded things. Mental images can fool only mentally weak people, not wise ones. Before they can fool anyone, they must match the person's desire. If a person craves for money, the image will use money as a tool. If a woman wants beauty, images will use cosmetics to fool her. So, defilements and compounded thoughts can deceive the mind because of the mind's own weakness. Since they reside in the mind ,it is very easy for them to work. If a person is rough, the mind is fooled with rough images. If a mind is calm and refined, fine things are used to fool the mind. We have been fooled by defilements and compounded thoughts all along. All of us, regardless of sex and status, rich or poor, beggars, orphans, the blind, the deaf, the handicapped, or others, are all subject to the tricks of defilements and compounded thoughts. The mind has to travel recycling in rebirths because of their deception. We have been deceived for uncountable lives in immeasurable time, and we will fall into this pitfall again in the future. How much longer are we going to be deceived? The mind is not even aware that it is deceived, because of the cunning strategy of defilements and compounded thoughts. They are the wisest, because they can direct all beings to circle blindly in the cycle of rebirth without knowing it. We have allowed ourselves to be enslaved by defilements in the past and present lives, and will go on being so forever.
Phra Acariya Thoon Khippapanno
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