42a | CR Book XII, Chapter 3

Chapter 3 - Objects

The deceptive self maintains itself as separate by be-
ing linked to, and supported by, equally deceptive sepa-
rate objects, or things. One gets away from one's self
to the degree only that one detaches that self from
sense-linked things. Mindfulness (XI,2), and restraint of
the senses (XII,1) taught us to some degree to turn
away from them.

The three marks, which misguided self-
interest tends to conceal, are by a 'methodical insight'
drilled into the disciple's mind, not only as applied
to the constituents of his personality (as in XI,3-6),
but as infesting all separate things, without exception
in all their possible divisions, arrangements etc. As
one accustoms oneself to see each object as anicca, -
i.e. as on the way, unstable, passing or crumbling away,
rising and falling, untrustworthy, offering no firm
ground or foothold, doomed to decay and to cease, etc, -
one ends up be seeing it as for all practical purposes
extinct. 'The thought of impermanence, when one promotes
it in oneself, and gives it a wide space, seizes all de-
sire that turns towards greed, all desire that turns
towards form, all desire that turns toward becoming
ignorance, all pride of "I am", and annihilates all that.'
Similarly with suffering and not-self (XII,3-6), and
their manifold implications which define the limitat-
ions of al compounded things. Prolonged meditation on
the formula of the four Noble Truth matures the con-
viction that there is nothing in the samsaric world
that is not tainted by the suffering and craving of
isolated selves. A number of similes for the world of
becoming and its pleasures help to bring home this con-
viction, which grows as compassion widens the field of
sorrow one feels as one's own.

In the form of eight 'Cognitions' the helpful attit-
udes to our environment are arranged in a methodical
series. First, the rise and fall of all objects
and states is by many repititions impressed upon a re-
luctant mind. Then the disciple pays attention to their
breaking-up and extinction, repeatedly and from many
points of view. He the becomes aware that in his con-
tact with things around him he is in the presence of
something that ought to be feared. He trembles, at see-
ing perils on all sides, no shelter, protection, refuge,
comfort anywhere in the world.

Those who refuse to rely for safety on the un-
trustworthy quicksand of this world, force their self