Page 97 - Because I know, I can let go

of being the practitioner, just the walking without the ‘walker,’ just the standing without

there being anyone doing it, just the sitting without there being a ‘sitter.’ Let there just
be practice without there being anyone doing it, and there’ll be a good result.
Come, sit and observe the body. Don’t have a ‘self,’ that’s a māyā, a deception, not anything

real. The feeling of being ‘self’ is the mind thinking, the ‘self’ is concocted in the mind, in
reality there is no ‘self’ in the true sense.

At this point we come to practise the first level of ānāpānasati, to observe how the long
and short forms of breathing are concocted: let the mind follow the breath, breathe in

long, breathe out long, breathe in short, breathe out short, sati, here, is the mind, the
mind mixed with sati is able to observe the arising of the defilements which bring the
‘me’ feeling - ‘I’ am like this, like that – so try to forget this first, we probably won’t be able

to get rid of this feeling because it’s very deeply ingrained, so try to forget it, to avoid
feeling that this is ‘me,’ if we can do this it will be very beneficial.

I’ve advised the people at past retreats to go and watch a machine operating: a machine
has a flywheel which spins so that the machine can do its work: go and observe any

engine, it isn’t anybody, it doesn’t have a ‘self,’ it’s ‘not-self.’ That’s something like applying
satisampajañña, mindfulness and clear comprehension, in order to understand the body:
what is the body? then, what is feeling? what is the mind; what are dhammas? That’s to

examine by way of the four satipathāna.

Ānāpānasati sixteen steps is composed of four groups, or tetrads: the body tetrad, the
feeling tetrad, the mind tetrad, and the dhammas tetrad. We just come, sit, and observe,
there’s no need for any desire that things be like this or like that, when we do that the

defilements arise.

Nature creates life with the possibility of real knowledge hardwired into it, it’s there in seed

form, but at first it’s just instinctual knowledge, animals have this, as do human beings,
and this needs to be developed, that is, trained, so that it advances. But at the same time
we have defilements which naturally accrue, and which we have to combat, if we don’t
there won’t be any way we can overcome them and the defilements will dominate our
minds.

...I can let go 97