By 佛光大學佛教研修院碩士班
   3.Contemplating the mind as impermanent {7}：the mind experiences dependent cognition, delusion, slackness, distraction, arising and extinguishing, discrimination, distortion, prejudice, and other kinds of dualistic thoughts. It is like illusion and phantom images which arise and extinguish within an instant. It is like an ape or a horse, which is ever-changing and impermanent. The Diamond Sutra says, “The past mind is unobtainable, the present mind is unobtainable, and the future mind is unobtainable.”
4. Contemplating all dharmas as being without a self ?豻： The “I” clings to the four conditions such as dominance, eternity, universality and perfect ease. However, “I” is established by various conditions. Thus, I cannot be carefree. Won’t everything that I possess eventually decay? Might everything that I know of somehow be wrong? Won’t everything that I dominate change? In fact, all dharmas are an illusive clinging by the “I”; the “I” that transmigrate between birth and death, and the
“I ”that is the accumulation of the five aggregates, when the causes and conditions vanish, where will “I” be?
Base on these Four Stages of Mindfulness, we understand that the nature of all dharmas in this world is impure, suffering, empty, impermanent, and selfless. Buddhist practitioners should always remember the Four Stages of Mindfulness with reverence; assess their own body and mind; and practice diligently to realize nirvana - the true state of permanence, joy, personality, and purity?貤 in life.

{7} Contemplating the mind as impermanent：
     觀心無常
?豻Contemplating all dharmas as being without
      a self  : 觀法無我
?貤 Permanence, joy, personality, and purity：常
     樂我淨