It
will be easier for you the reader to understand this book if we can agree on a
number of things.
This
book, like my other books, is the direct result of my teaching in class. It
often happens that my students have to do certain things so that they can
produce the experience that I would like them to learn from. It will be easier
for readers to understand this book if they can do the same thing. I would like
the reader to join in with the practice as I proceed along through each
chapter, so I will refer to the reader as 'you' as if I am literally talking in
front of you. This hopefully will create a warmer and closer atmosphere of
communication. I will begin as of now.
I
will also assume that you have read A Handful of Leaves before you use
this book. In that book, I did my best to confirm the ultimate purpose and
destination of life so that you can know what you should aim for. I also talked
about our duty towards the path, the four foundations of awareness, which are
the means that will lead us to the ultimate destination. It is important that
you agree with this fundamental concept about life first and that now you are
willing to pursue further with the means.
This
is another book that I recommend you to read. This book was the result of my
teaching in 1997. It was the year that I had my unique experience and I felt at
the time that my thoughts were very clear. Every chapter contained the concepts
I brought up as I tried to explain things in class. I introduced many new terms
such as the host mind and the mental guests, innocent perception, the innocent
world, mental holodecks, Tom and Jerry etc. A lot of new ideas were created in
this book and they are the stepping stones for my new ideas and approach. I
still use them nowadays. So it will be easier for you to follow the 'User
Guide' if you have first read Can a Caterpillar be Perfect?
If
you want to go to a place of destination where you have never been before you
will have to rely on a guide to lead you. It is possible as well that your
guide might not have been to that place either. However, he can be a guide
because he has a map in his hand whilst you do not.
This
guide will have to rigidly follow the map. There might be a shortcut that is
not shown on the map. The guide will not know because he has never been there
before. Should the map be misleading, the guide and his followers will be lost
and waste time.
There
is however the other guide who has been to the place of destination before. If
he has been there several times and had many chances to explore several other
routes too, he will know the alternative ways apart from what is shown on the
map. It is very likely that he will know the shortcuts too. The benefit in
having this type of guide is that you will save time and it is a guarantee that
you won't get lost.
Every
spiritual teacher can teach according to what they know. They can teach less
than what they know if they want to but they certainly cannot teach more than
what they know. The Buddha set a high punishment for Bhikkhus who boasted about
dhamma they had not achieved. These Bhikkhus had to disrobe.
Right
now, I cannot say what else there is ahead of me. This is simply because I do
not know. However I can tell you what I know up to this point. I know that my
first book, 'Dear Colin...what is the meaning of life?' which was
written between 1991 - 1994, showed the phase of me being a guide and not
knowing the place of destination. Although I had seen the place of destination
I did not have the knowledge (nana) that could confirm me. My confirmation of
the state of Nirvana as the ultimate purpose of life was very much based on the
strong faith I had towards the Buddha. As a result, I had to rely on the map or
the holy book quite rigidly and my way of teaching was fragmented; somehow, I
could not connect all the different issues together as clearly as I do now.
Then
1997 was the year that I had the unique experience in my Tai Chi class where I
gained my knowledge (nana) which confirmed for me the place of destination.
This was the year when I wrote 'Can a Caterpillar be perfect?'. Although
I thought that my experience was very clear and definite, it was only the
stepping-stone towards my present experience and knowledge. I was more or less
in the twilight zone when I was writing my second book. Comparatively speaking,
for the first time this guide had just arrived and realised with a high degree
of certainty the place of destination and that the exploration of the different
routes was about to begin.
Two
years from then, I had more time to explore the routes to the ultimate
destination. I finally realised that the Buddha had thought about it all so
thoroughly. The four foundations of awareness are indeed the shortcut to the
ultimate destination of life. I could do nothing whatsoever but humbly
surrender to his most ingenious and matchless wisdom. What else could I do but
to propagate and confirm his knowledge to humankind; the only thing I could add
was trying to make the language and approach a bit more accessible to people of
this time and age. 'A Handful of Leaves' was the result of this stage of my
practice in which I could depict a much clearer picture of the structure of
life than I could before. The content of this book, apart from confirming the
ultimate purpose of life, also confirms the shortest means leading to the goal
- the four foundations of awareness. In this book, I found that I had more freedom
in expressing myself in the way that I did not have to cling too much to the
holy book like I did before. Having seen the place of destination with my own
eyes has created a totally new ball game for me when I talk to people. It means
that I can explore the route myself with my own language and my own approach so
that I can never get lost again. No matter what angle I talk from, I can always
come back home. This is the ability I did not have when I wrote the first two
books.
This
book - The User Guide to Life - is yet another attempt to help you to
get to the place of destination. Once again, I have also walked further on from
the stage when I wrote 'A Handful of Leaves', therefore, I hope that
this book might be able to throw a bit more light onto this whole journey. I
can only tell you of what I know now and no more.