Misconception #1

Meditation is just a relaxation technique

The bugaboo here is the word 'just'. Relaxation is a key component of meditation, but Vipassana-style meditation aims at a much loftier goal. Nevertheless, the statement is essentially true for many other systems of meditation. All meditation procedures stress concentration of the mind, bringing the mind to rest on one item or one area of thought. Do it strongly and thoroughly enough, and you achieve a deep and blissful relaxation which is called Jhana. It is a state of such supreme tranquility that it amounts to rapture. It is a form of pleasure which lies above and beyond anything that can be experienced in the normal state of consciousness. Most systems stop right there. That is the goal, and when you attain that, you simply repeat the experience for the rest of your life. Not so with Vipassana meditation. Vipassana seeks another goal--awareness. Concentration and relaxation are considered necessary concomitants to awareness. They are required precursors, handy tools, and beneficial byproducts. But they are not the goal. The goal is insight. Vipassana meditation is a profound religious practice aimed at nothing less that the purification and transformation of your everyday life. We will deal more thoroughly with the differences between concentration and insight in Chapter 14.

错误观念(１)：禅修只是一种放松技巧

这里令人恐惧的，是「只是」两个字。放松固然是禅修的关键部分，但「内观禅」有较高目标，非止于此。不过，对于很多禅修系统来说，这陈述仍大体可靠。所有禅修程序都着重心意集中，要引导自心安然地停留在某事物或思想领域上，做得有力和彻底，可达至深度的喜乐放松状态── 定境(Jhana)，只有殊胜的宁静才可导致那种喜乐，那是一种超越平常意识状态经验的快乐形式。大多数禅修系统只能在那里停止，这就是它们的目标，当你到达后，亦只可在余生中重复那种经验。内观禅并不相同，它要求另一目标：觉知。宁静与喜乐只是觉知的前驱、有用而方便的工具和有益的副产品，却不是内观禅的目标。内观禅的目标是静观力。内观禅是深奥的宗教性修持，最终是要净化和转化你的日常生活。有关集中力(定力)与静观力的详细分别，我们会在第十四章中处理。

Misconception #2

Meditation means going into a trance

Here again the statement could be applied accurately to certain systems of meditation, but not to Vipassana. Insight meditation is not a form of hypnosis. You are not trying to black out your mind so as to become unconscious. You are not trying to turn yourself into an emotionless vegetable. If anything, the reverse is true. You will become more and more attuned to your own emotional changes. You will learn to know yourself with ever- greater clarity and precision. In learning this technique, certain states do occur which may appear trance-like to the observer. But they are really quite the opposite. In hypnotic trance, the subject is susceptible to control by another party, whereas in deep concentration the meditator remains very much under his own control. The similarity is superficial, and in any case the occurrence of these phenomena is not the point of Vipassana. As we have said, the deep concentration of Jhana is a tool or stepping stone on the route of heightened awareness. Vipassana by definition is the cultivation of mindfulness or awareness. If you find that you are becoming unconscious in meditation, then you aren't meditating, according to the definition of the word as used in the Vipassana system. It is that simple.

错误观念(２)：禅修是要进入恍惚、如梦幻之境的状态(Trance)

此陈述亦只可用于某些禅修系统之中，不能用于「内观禅」。「内观禅」不是催眠，不想你自致昏沉，变得不知不觉，也不想你变得像草木般无情。要做的恰恰相反，你将越来越能够调适自己的情绪变化，以及越来越清楚和精确地了解自己。学习此内观禅技巧时，对修行者来说，某些类似恍惚的状态是会出现的，但它们与前述的情况并不相同，在催眠的恍惚状态中，当事者易受别人操控，然而，在深定之中，修行者仍可充分自主。两者的相似点只是表面而已。不管怎样，这些现象的出现并非内观禅的关键之处。前面说过，具有深度定力的定境(Jhana)，只不过是达到高度觉知的踏脚石而已。内观禅的定义是觉知的培育，如果你发觉自己在禅修中变得不知不觉，你就不是做着上述的「内观禅」了。

Misconception #3

Meditation is a mysterious practice which cannot be understood

Here again, this is almost true, but not quite. Meditation deals with levels of consciousness which lie deeper than symbolic thought. Therefore, some of the data about meditation just won't fit into words. That does not mean, however, that it cannot be understood. There are deeper ways to understand things than words. You understand how to walk. You probably can't describe the exact order in which your nerve fibers and your muscles contract during that process. But you can do it. Meditation needs to be understood that same way, by doing it. It is not something that you can learn in abstract terms. It is to be experienced. Meditation is not some mindless formula which gives automatic and predictable results. You can never really predict exactly what will come up in any particular session. It is an investigation and experiment and an adventure every time. In fact, this is so true that when you do reach a feeling of predictability and sameness in your practice, you use that as an indicator. It means that you have gotten off the track somewhere and you are headed for stagnation. Learning to look at each second as if it were the first and only second in the universe is most essential in Vipassana meditation.

错误观念(３)：禅修是深奥难懂的神秘修炼

这陈述似对，但非全对。禅修要处理的，是较一般概念或符号思维更深层次的意识，因此，禅修中某些资讯实无法宣之语言文字，但此言并非说禅修是无法理解的，除了语言文字外，还有较深邃的方法可去了解事物的。例如：你知道如何走路，但你无法描述在过程中自己的神经纤维和肌肉的收缩次序，虽然如此，你仍能走路。禅修亦可作如是观，只管做就是了，它不是你用抽象术语可学得到的，它是要体验的。禅修不是靠些肤浅公式，便可自动达到结果，在禅修活动中，你是无法预知什么事情会发生的，每次都是一种调查、实验和探险。事实上，此话的真确性，可见于下面例子：假若在禅修中，你真的达到预知的和相似的感觉时，你便用之作指标，那表示你已偏离正轨，转向沉滞了。内观禅最重视的，是要学习注意每一秒钟(正在发生的事情)，好像它是宇宙里的第一和唯一的一秒钟一样。

Misconception #4

The purpose of meditation is to become a psychic superman

No, the purpose of meditation is to develop awareness. Learning to read minds is not the point. Levitation is not the goal. The goal is liberation. There is a link between psychic phenomena and meditation, but the relationship is somewhat complex. During early stages of the meditator's career, such phenomena may or may not arise. Some people may experience some intuitive understanding or memories from past lives; others do not. In any case, these are not regarded as well-developed and reliable psychic abilities. Nor should they be given undue importance. Such phenomena are in fact fairly dangerous to new meditators in that they are too seductive. They can be an ego trap which can lure you right off the track. Your best advice is not to place any emphasis on these phenomena. If they come up, that's fine. If they don't, that's fine, too. It's unlikely that they will. There is a point in the meditator's career where he may practice special exercises to develop psychic powers. But this occurs way down the line. After he has gained a very deep stage of Jhana, the meditator will be far enough advanced to work with such powers without the danger of their running out of control or taking over his life. He will then develop them strictly for the purpose of service to others. This state of affairs only occurs after decades of practice. Don't worry about it. Just concentrate on developing more and more awareness. If voices and visions pop up, just notice them and let them go. Don't get involved.

错误观念(４)：禅修目的是要变成具神通[1]的超人

不是，禅修目的是要培育和发展觉知。学习他心通(读心术)不是它的重点，令身体飘浮于空中也不是它的目标，内观禅的目标是解脱。心灵现象与禅修是有密切关系的，但那关系颇为复杂，禅修者于禅修初期，那些心灵现象可能发生，也可能不会发生。有些人会体验到一些直觉知识或是过去世的一些记忆，有些人却没有这些经验。无论如何，这些都不能视作高度发展和可靠的神通力(特殊的精神力量)，也无须重视。事实上，对于初学者来说，那些现象是相当危险的，因为它们太诱惑了，可造成自我陷阱，引诱你立即偏离正轨。你最好完全漠视这些现象，如果它们出现，很好，如果它们没有出现，亦佳；它们是不太可能会出现的。在禅修生涯中，到了某一阶段，修行者可能会做些特殊修炼去发展神通力，不过，那是很久以后的事了。事实上，只有证得甚深定境(Jhana)[2]之后，才有足够能力去修习神通，否则将会失控或丧失生命。到时，禅修者只会为了利益他人才去发展神通，而这种情况，又往往要好几十年的修持功夫始得。对此不必担心，只须专心继续发展觉知，当中若有突发的声音或影像出现时，只须在觉知后，让它过去，不可与它纠缠。

Misconception #5

Meditation is dangerous and a prudent person should avoid it

Everything is dangerous. Walk across the street and you may get hit by a bus. Take a shower and you could break your neck. Meditate and you will probably dredge up various nasty-matters from your past. The suppressed material that has been buried there for quite some time can be scary. It is also highly profitable. No activity is entirely without risk, but that does not mean that we should wrap ourselves in some protective cocoon. That is not living. That is premature death. The way to deal with danger is to know approximately how much of it there is, where it is likely to be found and how to deal with it when it arises. That is the purpose of this manual. Vipassana is development of awareness. That in itself is not dangerous, but just the opposite. Increased awareness is the safeguard against danger. Properly done, meditation is a very gently and gradual process. Take it slow and easy, and development of your practice will occur very naturally. Nothing should be forced. Later, when you are under the close scrutiny and protective wisdom of a competent teacher, you can accelerate your rate of growth by taking a period of intensive meditation. In the beginning, though, easy does it. Work gently and everything will be fine.

错误观念(５)：禅修是危险的，审慎者是不会做的

任何事皆有危险，走路时会给车子撞倒，洗澡时会不慎滑倒折伤颈骨，禅修时会挖起过去的伤心事。久远埋藏心内而又被压抑着的事情，会令人惊恐，不过，它们的出现也是很有益的。没有活动是完全没有危险的，但这并非表示要把自己包进保护囊中，此非生活，而是提前死亡。处理危险方法，首先，要知危险大约有多少？在哪里会碰到？它出现时该怎样应付？这都是本书要处理的问题。内观禅是觉知的培育和发展，觉知本身是有益无害的，亦无危险。增强了的觉知力是危险的警卫，做得正当妥善，禅修是个温和渐进的过程；和缓而轻松地做，禅修将会自然发展，无须勉强。之后，你可进行一个时期的密集锻鍊，在明师的严谨照顾和悉心指导下，可加速你的修持进度。不过，开始时，还是轻松点吧！温和地做功夫，自会一切顺利。

Misconception #6

Meditation is for saints and holy men, not for regular people

You find this attitude very prevalent in Asia, where monks and holy men are accorded an enormous amount of ritualized reverence. This is somewhat akin to the American attitude of idealizing movie stars and baseball heroes. Such people are stereotyped, made larger than life, and saddled with all sort of characteristics that few human beings can ever live up to. Even in the West, we share some of this attitude about meditation. We expect the meditator to be some extraordinarily pious figure in whose mouth butter would never dare to melt. A little personal contact with such people will quickly dispel this illusion. They usually prove to be people of enormous energy and gusto, people who live their lives with amazing vigor. It is true, of course, that most holy men meditate, but they don't meditate because they are holy men. That is backward. They are holy men because they meditate. Meditation is how they got there. And they started meditating before they became holy. This is an important point. A sizable number of students seems to feel that a person should be completely moral before he begins meditation. It is an unworkable strategy. Morality requires a certain degree of mental control. It's a prerequisite. You can't follow any set of moral precepts without at least a little self-control, and if your mind is perpetually spinning like a fruit cylinder in a one- armed bandit, self-control is highly unlikely. So mental culture has to come first.

错误观念(６)：禅修是圣贤的事，常人是做不到的

你会发觉，亚洲人很多持有这种态度，在那里，僧人或是圣者皆非常受人尊敬，有点像美国人崇拜电影明星和棒球英雄的态度一样。这些人都被定型了，都被夸大了，都被背上各式各样只有极少数人才能做得到的特质。就算西方人，对于禅修，现也沾上这些态度。我们大多期望，禅修者皆是非比寻常的虔诚之辈，在他们的口中，连牛油也不敢溶化。其实，只要与他们稍为接触，很快就可消除这种错觉。他们大多精力充沛和品味高尚，以惊人的活力过其生活。

事实上，大多数圣者皆有禅修，但他们并非因自己是圣者才禅修，那是颠倒的说法，他们是因为禅修才变为圣者的，禅修是他们成为圣者的因由，他们在成为圣者之前，早就开始禅修了，否则不会成为圣者。这是一个重要之点，大多数初学者都觉得，在开始禅修前，个人在道德上必须完满无缺。这种想法是行不通的，道德首先要有适度的自制力，这是先决条件，没有少许自制力，你是无法遵守任何道德戒条的；况且，若内心不停运转，那是万难自控的。因此，禅修应是第一步。

There are three integral factors in Buddhist meditation --- morality, concentration and wisdom. Those three factors grow together as your practice deepens. Each one influences the other, so you cultivate the three of them together, not one at a time. When you have the wisdom to truly understand a situation, compassion towards all the parties involved is automatic, and compassion means that you automatically restrain yourself from any thought, word or deed that might harm yourself or others. Thus your behavior is automatically moral. It is only when you don't understand things deeply that you create problems. If you fail to see the consequences of your own action, you will blunder. The fellow who waits to become totally moral before he begins to meditate is waiting for a 'but' that will never come. The ancient sages say that he is like a man waiting for the ocean to become calm so that he can go take a bath. To understand this relationship more fully, let us propose that there are levels of morality. The lowest level is adherence to a set of rules and regulations laid down by somebody else. It could be your favorite prophet. It could be the state, the head man of your tribe or your father. No matter who generates the rules, all you've got to do at this level is know the rules and follow them. A robot can do that. Even a trained chimpanzee could do it if the rules were simple enough and he was smacked with a stick every time he broke one. This level requires no meditation at all. All you need are the rules and somebody to swing the stick.

佛教禅修有三个相互支撑的要素── 戒(道德)、定、慧。随着禅修的进展，这三个要素亦会一起增长。任何一个要素都会影响其他要素，因此，你是三者齐修的，不是一时修习一个的。当你有真智慧洞悉情况时，对有关人等所起的慈悲心，是会自动自发的，慈悲心可使你自动控制害己害人的思想言行，如是，你的行为自会合乎道德。只因你未曾深入了解事物，才会产生问题，你无法看清楚自己的行为后果，才会犯错。那些要等到行为完全合乎道德，才开始禅修的人，只是等着一件永远不会发生的事情。古时的智者曾说：「他是个要等到海洋波浪完全平静下来才会洗澡的人。」

为了更全面地了解这种关系，让我们作如下建议：道德是有数个层次的。最低下的层次，是要遵守他人所订的规则，制订规则的人，可以是你喜欢的预言家、国家、族长、或是你的父亲。不管是谁制订的，在这层次，你该做的，只是去明白它们、遵守它们。如果规则简单，机械人能守，训练过的猩猩也能守，只要在每次牠犯错时，你就打牠一下。此层次全不需要禅修也可以做，你所需要的，是一些规则和一个打手。

The next level of morality consists of obeying the same rules even in the absence of somebody who will smack you. You obey because you have internalized the rules. You smack yourself every time you break one. This level requires a bit of mind control. If your thought pattern is chaotic, your behavior will be chaotic, too. Mental culture reduces mental chaos.

第二个层次的道德是：即使没有打手，你照样能遵守，因为你已经适应和习惯成自然了。若有犯规，你会自己责备自己，这层次是需要一点心念控制的，但是如果你思想混乱，你的行为也将会混乱不堪的，禅修就可以减少心理上的混乱。

There is a third level or morality, but it might be better termed ethics. This level is a whole quantum layer up the scale, a real paradigm shift in orientation. At the level of ethics, one does not follow hard and fast rules dictated by authority. One chooses his own behavior according to the needs of the situation. This level requires real intelligence and an ability to juggle all the factors in every situation and arrive at a unique, creative and appropriate response each time. Furthermore, the individual making these decisions needs to have dug himself out of his own limited personal viewpoint. He has to see the entire situation from an objective point of view, giving equal weight to his own needs and those of others. In other words, he has to be free from greed, hatred, envy and all the other selfish junk that ordinarily keeps us from seeing the other guy's side of the issue. Only then can he choose that precise set of actions which will be truly optimal for that situation. This level of morality absolutely demands meditation, unless you were born a saint. There is no other way to acquire the skill. Furthermore, the sorting process required at this level is exhausting. If you tried to juggle all those factors in every situation with your conscious mind, you'd wear yourself out. The intellect just can't keep that many balls in the air at once. It is an overload. Luckily, a deeper level of consciousness can do this sort of processing with ease. Meditation can accomplish the sorting process for you. It is an eerie feeling.

第三个层次的道德，称之为「伦理(Ethics)」或许较佳，这是一个重大的跃进层次，它与前述的层次截然不同。在此「伦理」层次中，一个人不会盲从严格的、不容改变的、由权威制订的规则，他选择跟随一条由静观、智慧与悲心作主导的道路。这层次要求真智慧与同时巧妙地处理情况中所有要素的能力，依之可每次作出合适的、独特的和有创意的反应。此外，作决定的人，要能抽离自己有限的个人观点，能客观地认知全局情势，平衡照顾自己和别人的需要。换言之，他要有不受贪欲、瞋恨、嫉妒等自私情绪干扰的能力，它们经常障碍我们了解别人对问题的观点。只有如此，他才能作出适切的判断，准确地选出处理情况最有利的一组行为。除非你是天生圣者，此道德层次绝对需要禅修，别无他途。况且，此层次要求的筛选过程繁复竭力，假若你想用表层意识去处理每一情况的所有要素，你将精疲力尽，智能是无法同一时间在空中掷耍那么多球子的，这是一种超载。幸好，较深沉的意识能轻而易举地处理此类筛选，禅修能助你完成这种筛选过程，那是一种奇异的感受。

One day you've got a problem--say to handle Uncle Herman's latest divorce. It looks absolutely unsolvable, and enormous muddle of 'maybes' that would give Solomon himself the willies. The next day you are washing the dishes, thinking about something else entirely, and suddenly the solution is there. It just pops out of the deep mind and you say, 'Ah ha!' and the whole thing is solved. This sort of intuition can only occur when you disengage the logic circuits from the problem and give the deep mind the opportunity to cook up the solution. The conscious mind just gets in the way. Meditation teaches you how to disentangle yourself from the thought process. It is the mental art of stepping out of your own way, and that's a pretty useful skill in everyday life. Meditation is certainly not some irrelevant practice strictly for ascetics and hermits. It is a practical skill that focuses on everyday events and has immediate application in everybody's life. Meditation is not other- worldly.

譬如说：有一天，你遇到一个问题── 要处理何文叔叔最近的离婚问题。表面看来，那是绝对解决不了的事，非常多的「可能」混在一起，令到如所罗门王等智者也会不知所措。第二天，当你洗着碗碟、想着全然无关的事情时，问题的答案会突然出现，它从你内心深处弹出，你灵机一触的道：「啊哈！」整件事就获得解决了。只有当与问题有关的逻辑线路被切断，让心灵深处有机会酝酿出解决方案，这类直觉才会生起。主因是表层意识活动在不断构成障碍，而禅修教我们离开思想之流，这是一种走出习性窠臼的心理技艺，在日常生活中是非常管用的。禅修实非与我们无关的、专为苦行僧或隐士而设的修行方式，它与每一个人皆息息相关，它是一种以日常生活事件为专注修持对象的实用技巧，可直接应用于生活，禅修决非另一世界的事。

Unfortunately, this very fact constitutes the drawback for certain students. They enter the practice expecting instantaneous cosmic revelation, complete with angelic choirs. What they usually get is a more efficient way to take out the trash and better ways to deal with Uncle Herman. They are needlessly disappointed. The trash solution comes first. The voices of archangels take a bit longer.

很不幸，这事实常对一些初学者构成障碍，他们加入修行的目的，是想瞬间获得期望中的宇宙启示，还要有众多天神前来随喜。他们通常得到的，往往是较有效的清除内心垃圾的方法，以及找出解决像上述何文叔叔问题的较佳途径。他们不必失望，先学懂清除内心垃圾的方法吧，再花多一点时间努力修持，便有机会见到天神了。

Misconception #7

Meditation is running away from reality

Incorrect. Meditation is running into reality. It does not insulate you from the pain of life. It allows you to delve so deeply into life and all its aspects that you pierce the pain barrier and you go beyond suffering. Vipassana is a practice done with the specific intention of facing reality, to fully experience life just as it is and to cope with exactly what you find. It allows you to blow aside the illusions and to free yourself from all those polite little lies you tell yourself all the time. What is there is there. You are who you are, and lying to yourself about your own weaknesses and motivations only binds you tighter to the wheel of illusion. Vipassana meditation is not an attempt to forget yourself or to cover up your troubles. It is learning to look at yourself exactly as you are. See what is there, accept it fully. Only then can you change it.

错误观念(７)：禅修是逃避现实

不对！禅修是走入现实，不是把你与生命的苦难隔开，它让你钻进生命及其有关方面之中，直至你可穿透痛苦的障碍，完全超越痛苦为止。修习内观禅要刻意面对现实、要全面体验生命实相，然后依你发现的方式去处理。它让你吹走错觉，超越心内常常出现的、有礼貌的小谎话，那里的东西是什么就是什么，自己是什么就是什么。继续用谎话来掩饰自己的弱点和动机，只会令自己被束缚得更紧一些，在错觉中团团转，不会得到解脱的。内观禅之目的不是要你尝试去忘记自己，或是隐瞒自己的烦恼或问题，它要你学习观察自己内心的实况，了解那里有什么，然后，全面地接受它。只有如此，你才能改变它。

Misconception #8

Meditation is a great way to get high

Well, yes and no. Meditation does produce lovely blissful feelings sometimes. But they are not the purpose, and they don't always occur. Furthermore, if you do meditation with that purpose in mind, they are less likely to occur than if you just meditate for the actual purpose of meditation, which is increased awareness. Bliss results from relaxation, and relaxation results from release of tension. Seeking bliss from meditation introduces tension into the process, which blows the whole chain of events. It is a Catch-22. You can only have bliss if you don't chase it. Besides, if euphoria and good feelings are what you are after, there are easier ways to get them. They are available in taverns and from shady characters on the street corners all across the nation. Euphoria is not the purpose of meditation. It will often arise, but it to be regarded as a by- product. Still, it is a very pleasant side-effect, and it becomes more and more frequent the longer you meditate. You won't hear any disagreement about this from advanced practitioners.

错误观念(８)：禅修是一种令人像酒醉般兴奋、情绪高涨、飘飘欲仙的蛮好方法

可说是，也可说不是。禅修有时的确能给你可爱的美好感受，但它们不是禅修之目的── 增强觉知，况且，它们也不会经常出现；事实上，你感到觉知增强的机会，比感到美好的感受还要多。快乐缘于放松，而放松缘于紧张的消除。在禅修中追求快乐反会造成压力，毁了整个禅修过程的自然发展，令自己陷于两难的困局。要快乐出现，惟有在禅修中停止追求快乐。幸福感不是禅修之目的，它会间中出现，但只可视为副产品，不过，它仍是非常愉快的副产品，而且，你禅修越久，它出现的频率就会越高，此话老修行们都不会否定的。错误观念

Misconception #9

Meditation is selfish

It certainly looks that way. There sits the meditator parked on his little cushion. Is he out giving blood? No. Is he busy working with disaster victims? No. But let us examine his motivation. Why is he doing this? His intention is to purge his own mind of anger, prejudice and ill-will. He is actively engaged in the process of getting rid of greed, tension and insensitivity. Those are the very items which obstruct his compassion for others. Until they are gone, any good works that he does are likely to be just an extension of his own ego and of no real help in the long run. Harm in the name of help is one of the oldest games. The grand inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition spouts the loftiest of motives. The Salem witchcraft trials were conducted for the public good. Examine the personal lives of advanced meditators and you will often find them engaged in humanitarian service. You will seldom find them as crusading missionaries who are willing to sacrifice certain individuals for the sake of some pious idea. The fact is we are more selfish than we know. The ego has a way of turning the loftiest activities into trash if it is allowed free range. Through meditation we become aware of ourselves exactly as we are, by waking up to the numerous subtle ways that we manifest our own selfishness. Then we truly begin to be genuinely selfless. Cleansing yourself of selfishness is not a selfish activity.

(９)：禅修是自私的行径

表面看来确实如此，看！在那里，一个禅修者正坐在垫子上面，他是去捐血吗？他忙着赈灾或当义工吗？全都不是！让我们来检查一下他的动机，为什么他要这样做？噢！原来他要驱除心内的瞋恨、偏见和其他恶念，他正积极从事清除贪欲、紧张、感觉迟钝等心念，那些都是妨碍他悲悯待人的东西，若不去掉它们，他作的任何好事，亦只是自我意识的延伸，长远来说，实无助益。

「帮助为名，伤害为实」是个很古老的把戏：西班牙的宗教裁判所[3]所长满口崇高动机，萨兰姆的巫术(妖术)审判(Salem Witchcraft Trials)[4]也说是为了公众利益。稍观老修行的个人生活，你常会发觉，他们都从事着慈善的人道主义服务，你很少发现他们是十字军式的教士── 为了某些虔诚的信念而乐于牺牲某些人士。

事实上，我们比自己所了解的更为自私，若无限制，「自我(Ego)」会任性而为，它有方法把最崇高的活动变为废物。通过禅修，我们念念觉察着自己无数隐微难见的自私行径，渐渐变得更加了解真的自己，那才可以真的开展名副其实的无私。因此，净除自私的利己之心，不算是自私的行径。

Misconception #10

When you meditate, you sit around thinking lofty thoughts

Wrong again. There are certain systems of contemplation in which this sort of thing is done. But that is not Vipassana. Vipassana is the practice of awareness. Awareness of whatever is there, be it supreme truth or crummy trash. What is there is there. Of course, lofty aesthetic thoughts may arise during your practice. They are certainly not to be avoided. Neither are they to be sought. They are just pleasant side-effects. Vipassana is a simple practice. It consists of experiencing your own life events directly, without preference and without mental images pasted to them. Vipassana is seeing your life unfold from moment to moment without biases. What comes up comes up. It is very simple.

错误观念(１０)：禅修时，你要一边坐着，一边思维崇高的想法

又错了。有些禅修系统确实如此，内观禅却不是这个样子。内观禅是觉知的修习，要如实觉知那里的东西，不管是崇高的真理，或是无用的废物、垃圾，那里的东西是什么就要知道是什么。当然，在修行中，崇高美好的思想有可能发生，不必回避，也不必追求，它们只不过是愉快的副产品而已。内观禅是一种简单的修持，它包括直接体验自己生命中的事件，没有偏袒或任何想像。内观禅是无私地持续观察自己生命在每分每秒的开展，不管什么东西出现，全让它们出现，是非常简单的。

Misconception #11

A couple of weeks of meditation and all my problems will go away

Sorry, meditation is not a quick cure-all. You will start seeing changes right away, but really profound effects are years down the line. That is just the way the universe is constructed. Nothing worthwhile is achieved overnight. Meditation is tough in some respects. It requires a long discipline and sometimes a painful process of practice. At each sitting you gain some results, but those results are often very subtle. They occur deep within the mind, only to manifest much later. and if you are sitting there constantly looking for some huge instantaneous changes, you will miss the subtle shifts altogether. You will get discouraged, give up and swear that no such changes will ever occur. Patience is the key. Patience. If you learn nothing else from meditation, you will learn patience. And that is the most valuable lesson available.

错误观念(１１)：只须几个星期禅修，我的一切问题就会消失

对不起，禅修不是速效的万灵丹。你会开始看到一些即时转变，但深远的改变，要经年累月修习始得。这是宇宙的内在规律，有价值的东西是不会一夜之间成就的。在某方面来说，禅修是艰辛的，它要作长期的纪律训练，间中也要经历痛苦的修持过程。每次禅修必有得益，但其结果多不明显，它们发生在内心深处，久而久之，才会显现出来。若坐禅时，你仍想着巨大的瞬间转变，必将全部错过本会发生的微细改变，你会很快气馁，跟着放弃，还会向人誓言，那些转变是绝不会发生的。「忍耐」是个关键，忍耐啊！假若你从禅修学不到什么东西，至少学到「忍耐」。「忍耐」是任何深远转变所不可或缺的要素。

【注释】

[1] 神通：又称神通力、神力、通力、通等。神，指变化莫测；通，指无拘无碍。那是修习禅定(止禅)至四禅的定境(Jhana)时，可以进一步修习得到的无碍自在、超人间的、不可思议的心灵作用或功能。佛教可修得六神通──神足、天眼、天耳、他心、宿命、漏尽(烦恼永灭)等六神通，其他宗教(外道)只能修得前面的五种神通，不能修得佛教所特有的漏尽通。

[2] 定境(Jhana)：修习「禅定(止禅)」所能达致的不同阶层的心灵安定境界(安止定或根本定)，佛教称之为「四禅八定」，此定境成就，非佛教所独有，其他宗教亦可修得。修习「禅定」要专心歛念，守一不散，经历大约九个阶段(九住心)，才可到达「色界四禅」的初禅── 第一个阶层的定境，继续精进修习，便可相继达致「色界四禅」其余的二禅、三禅、四禅，甚至可达致无色界的「四空定」── 空无边处定、识无边处定，无所有处定、非想非非想处定等。【译者注：综合各位大师的讲法，佛教并非以定境为究竟，而是以能导致解脱的内观智慧为究竟，因此，佛教禅修，一般主张：(一)先修禅定(止禅)一段日子，定境最高不用超过四禅，即可转修观禅(内观禅)；或是(二)同时修习禅定(止禅)与观禅，达致剎那定/瞬间定(Momentary Concentration)或初禅的近分定(Access Concentration)，即有成就内观智慧的可能。】