Mindfulness In Plain English
佛教禅修直解
by Mahathera Henepola Gunaratana
德宝法师著作
梁国雄居士译
Chapter 1: Meditation: Why Bother?
第一章 为什么要禅修
Meditation is not easy. It takes time and it takes energy. It also takes grit, determination and discipline. It requires a host of personal qualities which we normally regard as unpleasant and which we like to avoid whenever possible. We can sum it all up in the American word 'gumption'. Meditation takes 'gumption'. It is certainly a great deal easier just to kick back and watch television. So why bother? Why waste all that time and energy when you could be out enjoying yourself? Why bother? Simple. Because you are human. And just because of the simple fact that you are human, you find yourself heir to an inherent unsatisfactoriness in life which simply will not go away. You can suppress it from your awareness for a time. You can distract yourself for hours on end, but it always comes back--usually when you least expect it. All of a sudden, seemingly out of the blue, you sit up, take stock, and realize your actual situation in life.
禅修并不容易，它需要时间与精力，更需要胆识、决心与自律。它要求许多个人难以做得到的特质，而那些特质又是人人常会找机会逃避的。我们可以用Gumption(精明能干)这一美国字来概括那些特质，禅修就需要这个字的内涵特质：即机智、应变力、魄力与进取心等可令人成功的要素。靠坐在椅子里观看电视，肯定比禅修轻易千万倍。那么，干嘛要自找麻烦？干嘛要浪费时间与精力去禅修，放弃眼前垂手可得的享受？为什么？很简单，因为你是人，就因为你是人这一简单事实，你发觉自己必须承受生命中内在的、挥之不去的缺憾与不满(Unsatisfactoriness) ── 例如：老病死，爱别离，怨憎会，求不得等令人苦恼、不安、逼迫等不如意事情。你可以在意识中暂时把它压抑住一阵子，或令自己分散注意，在几小时内都意识不到它，可是，它总会走回来的，而且，往往是在你最不想它出现的时候！到时你会突然间坐起来，评估一下现状，然后意外地了解到自己的人生实况。
There you are, and you suddenly realize that you are spending your whole life just barely getting by. You keep up a good front. You manage to make ends meed somehow and look OK from the outside. But those periods of desperation, those times when you feel everything caving in on you, you keep those to yourself. You are a mess. And you know it. But you hide it beautifully. Meanwhile, way down under all that you just know there has got be some other way to live, some better way to look at the world, some way to touch life more fully. You click into it by chance now and then. You get a good job. You fall in love. You win the game. and for a while, things are different. Life takes on a richness and clarity that makes all the bad times and humdrum fade away. The whole texture of your experience changes and you say to yourself, "OK, now I've made it; now I will be happy". But then that fades, too, like smoke in the wind. You are left with just a memory. That and a vague awareness that something is wrong.
就这样，你惊觉自己的一生，只是勉强应付过去罢了。你的门面装得好，勉强可以维持生计，表面上你过得去，可是，那些绝望、沮丧的时刻，那些感到一切都与自己作对的时刻，你就秘而不宣了。其实你是一团糟，自己也知道的，可是，你把它掩饰得天衣无缝。同时，你虽身陷困境，仍能确知：一定还有其他生活方式，一种看待世界更好的方式，或是一种更能全面接触人生的方式。偶尔你会走运，例如：你找到一份好工作、遇上情投意合的对象、或是赢了一场比赛。这一阵子，世界转变了，生命显得非常有趣和清晰，过去的坏日子与枯燥无味也消失了，你的感受也全然变了质，于是你对自己说：「好了！现在我成功了！以后我快乐无忧了。」可是，这亦会消逝的，就像风中的烟雾一样，最后只留给你一片迷惘的记忆，你模糊地意识到有些不对劲。
But there is really another whole realm of depth and sensitivity available in life, somehow, you are just not seeing it. You wind up feeling cut off. You feel insulated from the sweetness of experience by some sort of sensory cotton. You are not really touching life. You are not making it again. And then even that vague awareness fades away, and you are back to the same old reality. The world looks like the usual foul place, which is boring at best. It is an emotional roller coaster, and you spend a lot of your time down at the bottom of the ramp, yearning for the heights.
你感到实应另有境界，那里的人生更为有深度和灵敏度；由于诸种原因，你就是看不到。结果，你感到与世隔绝，感官好像被棉纱罩住，令你无法享受到甜美的经验，你接触不到人生，于是，你又失败了。到那模糊的意识也消失时，你又回到往日的现实之中，世界一如往常的不净和恐怖，它像一列惊心动魄、急转突变的过山车(Roller Coaster)，你大部分时间都处在斜坡的底部，期望着再闯高峰。
So what is wrong with you? Are you a freak? No. You are just human. And you suffer from the same malady that infects every human being. It is a monster in side all of us, and it has many arms: Chronic tension, lack of genuine compassion for others, including the people closest to you, feelings being blocked up, and emotional deadness. Many, many arms. None of us is entirely free from it. We may deny it. We try to suppress it. We build a whole culture around hiding from it, pretending it is not there, and distracting ourselves from it with goals and projects and status. But it never goes away. It is a constant undercurrent in every thought and every perception; a little wordless voice at the back of the head saying, "Not good enough yet. Got to have more. Got to make it better. Got to be better." It is a monster, a monster that manifests everywhere in subtle forms.
那么，你出了什么问题？你是怪物吗？不！你只是一个凡人，与其他人一样患上相同的弊病。它是一只妖怪，躲在所有人的内部，它有许多手臂：如慢性紧张、对人(包括自己或亲属)缺乏真诚的慈悲、冷漠、无情等。谁也不能完全摆脱它，我们可以否认它、尝试抑制它、在周围建立起一套文化来躲避它、假装着它并不存在、甚至不断为自己设立目标、实践计划、或追求重要的身份/地位/资格来分散注意力。可是，它从来就没有离开过，它是一股断不了的潜流，存在于每一个念头和知觉之中，它是心底里的一个细小声音，经常在说：「还不够好，得要更多！做好一些，要不断改善！」它是一只妖怪，一只以微妙方式显现在所有地方的妖怪。
Go to a party. Listen to the laughter, that brittle-tongued voice that says fun on the surface and fear underneath. Feel the tension, feel the pressure. Nobody really relaxes. They are faking it. Go to a ball game. Watch the fan in the stand. Watch the irrational fit of anger. Watch the uncontrolled frustration bubbling forth from people that masquerades under the guise of enthusiasm, or team spirit. Booing, cat-calls and unbridled egotism in the name of team loyalty. Drunkenness, fights in the stands. These are the people trying desperately to release tension from within. These are not people who are at peace with themselves. Watch the news on TV. Listen to the lyrics in popular songs. You find the same theme repeated over and over in variations. Jealousy, suffering, discontent and stress.
去参加一个聚会，听听里面的笑声，在谈笑风生的表面乐趣中，实掩盖不了内心的恐惧；再感受一下那里的紧张和压力，没有人是真正轻松的，大家都在假装而已。去观看一场球赛，留意一下看台上的球迷，看看那些非理性的愤怒表现，留意一下在热情与团队精神的伪装下，不时冒出的那些失控的挫败感。例如：喝倒采、嘲骂、在忠于球队名义下的自我放纵、酗酒、在看台上打架等球迷，全都是不顾一切地想缓解内在紧张的人，全都不是内心安稳、和平的人。看看电视新闻，听听流行歌曲的歌词，你会发现，同样的情况：嫉妒、苦恼、不满和压力，正以不同的方式一遍又一遍地在重复着。
Life seems to be a perpetual struggle, some enormous effort against staggering odds. And what is our solution to all this dissatisfaction? We get stuck in the ' If only' syndrome. If only I had more money, then I would be happy. If only I can find somebody who really loves me, if only I can lose 20 pounds, if only I had a color TV, Jacuzzi, and curly hair, and on and on forever. So where does all this junk come from and more important, what can we do about it? It comes from the conditions of our own minds. It is deep, subtle and pervasive set of mental habits, a Gordian knot which we have built up bit by bit and we can unravel just the same way, one piece at a time. We can tune up our awareness, dredge up each separate piece and bring it out into the light. We can make the unconscious conscious, slowly, one piece at a time.
人生好像一场无休止的挣扎，一场极端不利自己的奋斗。对所有这些不满，我们有解决的办法吗？我们往往陷于「只要…… 我就……」的想法而不能自拔，例如：只要我有多一些钱，我就可以快乐了；只要我能找到真正爱我的人就好了；只要我能减少二十磅就好了；只要我有一台彩色电视、热水缸、卷曲的头发…… 等等数之不尽的事物就好了。这些无意义的妄念是从哪里来的？更重要的是，我们可以对之做些什么？它来自我们的内心习性，它是一组深层、隐微、遍布各处的心理习性，一个我们不断缠绕而成的、棘手的结，一个我们可以用同样的方法，渐进式地，慢慢可以解开的结。我们可以调升自己的觉察力(Awareness)，向内先挖出一小块，让它曝光；我们可以让觉察不到的「无意识[1]」里的东西变成「意识」里可以觉察得到的东西，慢慢地一次一小块。
The essence of our experience is change. Change is incessant. Moment by moment life flows by and it is never the same. Perpetual alteration is the essence of the perceptual universe. A thought springs up in you head and half a second later, it is gone. In comes another one, and that is gone too. A sound strikes your ears and then silence. Open your eyes and the world pours in, blink and it is gone. People come into your life and they leave again. Friends go, relatives die. Your fortunes go up and they go down. Sometimes you win and just as often you lose. It is incessant: change, change, change. No two moments ever the same.
经验的本质是变化，永无间断的变化。生命时刻流逝，从来就不会重复，永恒的变动原来就是感知世界的本质。在脑子里冒起的念头，半秒后即会消失，随后生起的念头，同样也会消失。一个声音敲击你的耳朵，跟着便沉静下来。张开你的眼睛，世界顿时涌入，眨眼间，它又消失了。人们进入你的生命后，很快就会离开── 朋友会离开，亲属会死亡。你的命运时好时坏，有时候赢，有时候输。它总是永无休止地变化、变化、变化…… ，从未有两个片刻是相同的。
There is not a thing wrong with this. It is the nature of the universe. But human culture has taught u some odd responses to this endless flowing. We categorize experiences. We try to stick each perception, every mental change in this endless flow into one of three mental pigeon holes. It is good, or it is bad, or it is neutral. Then, according to which box we stick it in, we perceive with a set of fixed habitual mental responses. If a particular perception has been labeled 'good', then we try to freeze time right there. We grab onto that particular thought, we fondle it, we hold it, we try to keep it from escaping. When that does not work, we go all-out in an effort to repeat the experience which caused that thought. Let us call this mental habit 'grasping'.
这情况其实没有任何问题，宇宙的本性就是如此── 不断的迁流变化，只是人类的文化教我们对之作出奇怪的反应而已。我们将经验分类，试图把变迁中的每个感受、每个心理变化塞进分类架中的三个分类小间隔内：好的、坏的或中性的；接着视乎不同的分类小间隔，我们就会作出不同的一组习性心理反应。如果某感受是好的，我们就在那里冻结时间，抓住那个心念，爱抚着它、紧握着它、不让它逃跑；如果失败了，我们就会竭尽全力去重复产生那个念头的经验。让我们称此心理习性为「执着(Grasping)」吧。
Over on the other side of the mind lies the box labeled 'bad'. When we perceive something 'bad', we try to push it away. We try to deny it, reject it, get rid of it any way we can. We fight against our own experience. We run from pieces of ourselves. Let us call this mental habit 'rejecting'. Between these two reactions lies the neutral box. Here we place the experiences which are neither good nor bad. They are tepid, neutral, uninteresting and boring. We pack experience away in the neutral box so that we can ignore it and thus return jour attention to where the action is, namely our endless round of desire and aversion. This category of experience gets robbed of its fair share of our attention. Let us call this mental habit 'ignoring'. The direct result of all this lunacy is a perpetual treadmill race to nowhere, endlessly pounding after pleasure, endlessly fleeing from pain, endlessly ignoring 90 percent of our experience. Than wondering why life tastes so flat. In the final analysis, it's a system that does not work.
心内的另一端还有一个坏的分类小间隔。当我们感受到坏的东西时，我们会尝试推开它、否定它、拒绝它、甚至用尽方法去消除它。我们与自己的感受搏斗，想离开本属自己的那些部分。让我们称此心理习性为「排斥(Rejecting)」吧。好与坏之间有一个中性的分类小间隔，在这里我们会放进不好亦不坏的东西，它们是不冷不热的、中性的、没有趣味的，我们把感受放入中性的分类小间隔内，让我们可以不理它，然后回过头来，继续照顾那些无休止的爱憎活动。因此，这些感受并没有得到应得的注意。让我们称此心理习性为「忽略(Ignoring)」吧。这些愚蠢行为的直接结果是：单调乏味、无休止的追求快乐与逃避痛苦、以及忽略我们约百分之九十的经验。接着，我们质疑：「为什么生活如斯乏味！」分析到最后，这些反应方式是行不通的。
No matter how hard you pursue pleasure and success, there are times when you fail. No matter how fast you flee, there are times when pain catches up with you. And in between those times, life is so boring you could scream. Our minds are full of opinions and criticisms. We have built walls all around ourselves and we are trapped with the prison of our own lies and dislikes. We suffer.
无论你如何努力争取快乐与成功，总会有时候失败的；无论你逃跑得多快，总会有时候被痛苦追上的；而处于两者之间的生活，又令你烦闷得尖声大叫。我们的内心又充满种种主张与批评，在自己周围建造墙壁，把自己困在自建的爱憎牢狱之中，从而令自己苦恼不堪。
Suffering is big word in Buddhist thought. It is a key term and it should be thoroughly understood. The Pali word is 'dukkha', and it does not just mean the agony of the body. It means the deep, subtle sense of unsatisfactoriness which is a part of every mental treadmill. The essence of life is suffering, said the Buddha. At first glance this seems exceedingly morbid and pessimistic. It even seems untrue. After all, there are plenty of times when we are happy. Aren't there? No, there are not. It just seems that way. Take any moment when you feel really fulfilled and examine it closely. Down under the joy, you will find that subtle, all-pervasive undercurrent of tension, that no matter how great the moment is, it is going to end. No matter how much you just gained, you are either going to lose some of it or spend the rest of your days guarding what you have got and scheming how to get more. And in the end, you are going to die. In the end, you lose everything. It is all transitory.
在佛教思想中，「苦」是一个重要的字眼。它是一个关键词，必须被彻底了解。它的巴利文是Dukkha，不但包括身苦，还包括内心深处隐微的不如意感(Dissatisfaction)，此不如意感念念都有，是心念不断生起的结果。佛陀曾说：生命的本质是苦。乍看起来，这说法似乎极为病态和悲观，甚至不可能是真的。毕竟我们有很多时候是快乐的，不是吗？不！没有，似是而非而已。随便选一个你真正感到满意的时刻来审查吧，在喜悦底下，你总会找到一些潜伏、隐微、普遍存在的不安，即无论任何美好时光，总会有消逝的一天。无论你刚得到多少(名利、成就等)，总难免会损失一部分，或要用下半生日子去守护着它，同时计划着怎样可以得到更多。到最后，你总会死去的，到最后，你总会失去一切所有的。一切事物就是那么无常，转瞬即逝。
Sounds pretty bleak, doesn't it? Luckily it's not; not at all. It only sounds bleak when you view it from the level of ordinary mental perspective, the very level at which the treadmill mechanism operates. Down under that level lies another whole perspective, a completely different way to look at the universe. It is a level of functioning where the mind does not try to freeze time, where we do not grasp onto our experience as it flows by, where we do not try to block things out and ignore them. It is a level of experience beyond good and bad, beyond pleasure and pain. It is a lovely way to perceive the world, and it is a learnable skill. It is not easy, but is learnable.
听起来很凄凉，不是吗？幸运地，不，一点也不凄凉。只有用世俗人的眼光去看才会觉得凄凉，因为那是世俗人的惯常心态。在世俗见解底下，实有另一层次的看法，一种完全不同的世界观。这层次的心理运作，不会试图冻结时间、不会试图执着无休止流逝的经验(感受)、也不会排斥或忽视它们。这层次的体验，可超越好与坏、苦与乐，它是一种体会世界的美妙方式，它是一种可以学得到的技巧，虽然并不容易，但可以学得到的。
Happiness and peace. Those are really the prime issues in human existence. That is what all of us are seeking. This often is a bit hard to see because we cover up those basic goals with layers of surface objectives. We want food, we want money, we want sex, possessions and respect. We even say to ourselves that the idea of 'happiness' is too abstract: "Look, I am practical. Just give me enough money and I will buy all the happiness I need". Unfortunately, this is an attitude that does not work. Examine each of these goals and you will find they are superficial. You want food. Why? Because I am hungry. So you are hungry, so what? Well if I eat, I won't be hungry and then I'll feel good. Ah ha! Feel good! Now there is a real item. What we really seek is not the surface goals. They are just means to an end. What we are really after is the feeling of relief that comes when the drive is satisfied. Relief, relaxation and an end to the tension. Peace, happiness, no more yearning.
「快乐与安宁」的确是人生两件大事，所有人都在追求，但我们通常不易察觉，因为，在这根本目标之上，常常覆盖着许多表层目标。例如：我们需要食物、财富、性欲、娱乐以及别人的尊重等。我们甚至对自己说：「『快乐』的概念太抽象了，看！我很实际，只要有钱，便可买到我想要的快乐。」不幸地，这种态度是行不通的。只要审查一下这些目标，你就会发觉它们都很肤浅。举例说：你需要食物，为什么？因为肚子饿了，对！你是真的饿了，那又怎么样？嗯！我吃了东西，就不饿了，我会感到舒服。啊哈！感觉舒服！真正重要的东西出现了，我们真正追求的不是那些表层目标，它们不过是为达目的之手段而已，我们想要的，实是本能需要获得满足后的那分舒缓感觉── 即缓解、松弛、紧张结束、平静、快乐──无欲(不再有任何欲望)。
So what is this happiness? For most of us, the perfect happiness would mean getting everything we wanted, being in control of everything, playing Caesar, making the whole world dance a jig according to our every whim. Once again, it does not work that way. Take a look at the people in history who have actually held this ultimate power. These were not happy people. Most assuredly they were not men at peace with themselves. Why? Because they were driven to control the world totally and absolutely and they could not. They wanted to control all men and there remained men who refused to be controlled. They could not control the stars. They still got sick. They still had to die.
那么，这种快乐是什么？对大多数人来说，完美的快乐是：万事如意，要风得风，要雨得雨，唯我独尊，天下为我一人所支配、役使。同样，这是行不通的。看看历史上曾经拥有那么大权力的人士吧！他们都不是快乐的人。可以肯定，他们的内心并不安宁，为什么？因为他们想完全、绝对掌控天下一切的欲望并没有成功，仍然有不少人不受其所控；这些有权势的人，仍然无法控制天上的繁星，他们仍然会病、仍然会死。
You can't ever get everything you want. It is impossible. Luckily, there is another option. You can learn to control your mind, to step outside of this endless cycle of desire and aversion. You can learn to not want what you want, to recognize desires but not be controlled by them. This does not mean that you lie down on the road and invite everybody to walk all over you . It means that you continue to live a very normal-looking life, but live from a whole new viewpoint. You do the things that a person must do, but you are free from that obsessive, compulsive drivenness of your own desires. You want something, but you don't need to chase after it. You fear something, but you don't need to stand there quaking in your boots. This sort of mental culture is very difficult. It takes years. But trying to control everything is impossible, and the difficult is preferable to the impossible.
你怎么可以万事如意呢！那是不可能的。幸运地，你还有另一个选择：你可以学习控制自心，走出爱与憎的恶性循环。你可以学习不随心之所欲，认知生起的爱欲而不受其所控制。这并非要你躺下来任人践踏，它的目的是要你继续如常生活，但要用一全新的观点来生活。你做常人会做的事，但不会让自己再受欲望的迷惑与驱使，作强迫性的反应；你仍需要东西，但不会追逐它们；你仍会有恐惧，但不会颤抖。这类心智培育是很困难的，要多年努力才有成就。但是，试图控制一切是不可能的，既然如此，选择做困难而会成功的事，岂不更为明智吗？
Wait a minute, though. Peace and happiness! Isn't that what civilization is all about? We build skyscrapers and freeways. We have paid vacations, TV sets. We provide free hospitals and sick leaves, Social Security and welfare benefits. All of that is aimed at providing some measure of peace and happiness. Yet the rate of mental illness climbs steadily, and the crime rates rise faster. The streets are crawling with delinquents and unstable individuals. Stick you arms outside the safety of your own door and somebody is very likely to steal your watch! Something is not working. A happy man does not feel driven to kill. We like to think that our society is exploiting every area of human knowledge in order to achieve peace and happiness.
等一等！快乐与安宁！那不是人类文明所关注的吗？我们兴建摩天大楼与高速公路，我们享受有薪假期与电视机，我们提供免费医疗与病假、社会安全保障制度与社会福利等，一切都是为了提供某程度的安宁与快乐。可是，心理病患的比率正持续攀升，而罪案比率飙升得更快，街上充满极具侵略性与心态失常的人，若把手伸出自家屋子安全范围之外，很可能手表即时被人偷去！一定有些地方出了问题，一个快乐的人是不会偷窃的，一个内心安宁的人是不会想杀人的。我们总喜欢一厢情愿地以为：我们的社会正全面利用着人类每一领域的知识，为人类谋求快乐与安宁，但事实并非如此。
We are just beginning to realize that we have overdeveloped the material aspect of existence at the expense of the deeper emotional and spiritual aspect, and we are paying the price for that error. It is one thing to talk about degeneration of moral and spiritual fiber in America today, and another thing to do something about it. The place to start is within ourselves. Look carefully inside, truly and objectively, and each of us will see moments when "I am the punk" and "I am the crazy". We will learn to see those moments, see them clearly, cleanly and without condemnation, and we will be on our way up and out of being so.
至今我们才开始了解：人类物质生活的过度发展，已经深深伤害了内层的感情与灵性，现正因错误而自食苦果。谈美国今天的道德沦亡与精神素质低落是一回事，做点事去补救又是另一回事。我们应从自己内部做起，仔细向内观察，如实和客观地看，大家将不难在瞬间发现：「我原来是一个流氓」，以及「我原来是一个疯癫的人」。我们将学懂了解自己的行为表现，清楚地、纯净地看到，没有责备，那么，我们就可逐渐好转与摆脱现况了。
You can't make radical changes in the pattern of your life until you begin to see yourself exactly as you are now. As soon as you do that, changes flow naturally. You don't have to force or struggle or obey rules dictated to you by some authority. You just change. It is automatic. But arriving at the initial insight is quite a task. You've got to see who you are and how you are, without illusion, judgement or resistance of any kind. You've got to see your own place in society and your function as a social being. You've got to see your duties and obligations to your fellow human beings, and above all, your responsibility to yourself as an individual living with other individuals. And you've got to see all of that clearly and as a unit, a single gestalt of interrelationship. It sounds complex, but it often occurs in a single instant. Mental culture through meditation is without rival in helping you achieve this sort of understanding and serene happiness.
除非如实地看清自己的现况，否则，要根本改变自己的生活模式是不可能的。一旦你做得到，改变将会自然流露，不用你强迫、挣扎或遵守某位权威制定的规条。那是自动自发的，你只是改变。不过，要达到此初步领悟亦颇不容易的，你必须在没有错觉、判断与抗拒的前提下，看清楚「你是谁」，以及「你的现况如何」；你要看到自己在社会里的角色与功能；你要看到自己对人类的责任与义务，尤其是要看到，与别人一起生活时对自己的责任。最后，你要清楚地把上述一切看成是一个整体，一个不可分割的、相互关联的整体。听起来似很复杂，但事实上，是有可能在瞬间发生的。通过禅修来培育心智，对于帮你达到此等领悟、安祥与快乐，实是无与伦比的。
The Dhammapada is an ancient Buddhist text which anticipated Freud by thousands of years. It says: "What you are now is the result of what you were. What you will be tomorrow will be the result of what you are now. The consequences of an evil mind will follow you like the cart follows the ox that pulls it. The consequences of a purified mind will follow you like you own shadow. No one can do more for you than your own purified mind-- no parent, no relative, no friend, no one. A well-disciplined mind brings happiness".
《法句经(The Dhammapada)》[2]是一部很古老的佛经，它比佛洛依德[3]还早出二千几年，其中有言：「你现在的情况是你过去所作所为的结果，你未来的情况是你现在所作所为的结果。行恶之心所带来的恶果，就像牛车的轮紧跟着拉它的牛一样。行善之心所带来的善果，也会如影随形地跟随着你的。没有人比自己净化了的心更能带给自己福乐！你的父母不能，你的亲属、朋友也不能，没有任何人可以！一颗训练良好的心，才可以带来福乐。」
Meditation is intended to purify the mind. It cleanses the thought process of what can be called psychic irritants, things like greed, hatred and jealousy, things that keep you snarled up in emotional bondage. It brings the mind to a state of tranquility and awareness, a state of concentration and insight.
禅修是用来净化心意的。它能清理折磨人的内心烦恼，如贪、瞋与嫉妒等，这些烦恼令你处于不断咆哮的情绪束缚之中。禅修能导致心境安宁与觉醒── 一种定与慧的状态。
In our society, we are great believers in education. We believe that knowledge makes a cultured person civilized. Civilization, however, polishes the person superficially. Subject our noble and sophisticated gentleman to stresses of war or economic collapse, and see what happens. It is one thing to obey the law because you know the penalties and fear the consequences. It is something else entirely to obey the law because you have cleansed yourself from the greed that would make you steal and the hatred that would make you kill. Throw a stone into a stream. The running water would smooth the surface, but the inner part remains unchanged. Take that same stone and place it in the intense fires of a forge, and the whole stone changes inside and outside. It all melts. Civilization changes man on the outside. Meditation softens him within, through and through.
在人类社会中，我们十分信奉教育，我们相信知识可令人文明起来。可是，文明只能修饰人的表面而已，不信的话，可派遣我们高贵、老练的绅士到有战争与经济崩溃的地方去，然后观察一下结果，即可得知。因为，知道犯法要受惩罚与害怕后果而守法是一回事，而由于清除了内心可导致偷窃的贪心、以及可导致杀人的瞋心而守法又完全是另一回事。抛一块石头到河里，流水会把它的表面磨光，但内部是会保持不变的；若把同一块石头丢进熔炉的烈焰之中，石块从内到外都会改变，它会完全溶化。文明只会改变一个人的外表，而禅修则可把人的内心彻底转化。
Meditation is called the Great Teacher. It is the cleansing crucible fire that works slowly through understanding. The greater your understanding, the more flexible and tolerant you can be. The greater your understanding, the more compassionate you can be. You become like a perfect parent or an ideal teacher. You are ready to forgive and forget. You feel love towards others because you understand them. And you understand others because you have understood yourself. You have looked deeply inside and seen self illusion and your own human failings. You have seen your own humanity and learned to forgive and to love. When you have learned compassion for yourself, compassion for others is automatic. An accomplished meditator has achieved a profound understanding of life, and he inevitably relates to the world with a deep and uncritical love.
「禅修」被称为「伟大的老师」，它像清净内心的炼火，稳健地通过理解起作用，慢慢令心通达诸法实相。理解力越高，你的灵活性与容忍力也会越高；理解力越高，你的慈悲心也会越高；你变得像一位完美的父母或理想的老师，你随时可以宽恕及忘记，你对众生充满慈爱，因为你了解他们；而你了解他们是因为你了解自己，你已深入地看清楚和了解到「自我」的谬误与自己本身的人性弱点，你已了解自己的人性，并学会宽恕和慈爱别人，当你学会对自己慈悲时，对别人的慈悲自会油然而生。有成就的禅修者已对生命达致甚深的了解，而且不可避免地以一种深入、无私的慈爱与世间一切建立起关系。
Meditation is a lot like cultivating a new land. To make a field out of a forest, fist you have to clear the trees and pull out the stumps. Then you till the soil and you fertilize it. Then you sow your seed and you harvest your crops. To cultivate your mind, first you have to clear out the various irritants that are in the way, pull them right out by the root so that they won't grow back. Then you fertilize. You pump energy and discipline in the mental soil. Then you sow the seed and you harvest your crops of faith, morality , mindfulness and wisdom.
禅修很像开垦荒地。在树林中要开辟一块耕地，首先你要砍倒一些树木、拔掉剩下来的树根，然后锄松土地、施放肥料、散播种子，最后才可收割谷物。同样，要开垦自心的荒地，首先你要折服那些令你烦恼的障碍树木，然后根除它们，不让它们复活，跟着在心田施肥，即是说要持戒精进，之后才可播种和收割你的信、戒(道德)、念力(静观力或留意观察能力)和智慧等谷物。
Faith and morality, by the way, have a special meaning in this context. Buddhism does not advocate faith in the sense of believing something because it is written in a book or attributed to a prophet or taught to you by some authority figure. The meaning here is closer to confidence. It is knowing that something is true because you have seen it work, because you have observed that very thing within yourself. In the same way, morality is not a ritualistic obedience to some exterior, imposed code of behavior.
值得一提的是，信与戒(道德)在这里有一特殊的涵义。佛教不太鼓吹源自书本、先知或导师等权威言论的信(Faith)[4]。在这里，信的意思较接近信任(Confidence)， 一种知之为真的心态，因为你见过它的实际效用，且在自心的观察中得到验证。同样，戒(道德)不是对权威人士所订定的、强制性的行为准则作仪式上的顺从，而是因为你认识到它比自己的行为较为殊胜，从而自动自觉地选择的一种健康的行为习惯模式。
The purpose of meditation is personal transformation. The you that goes in one side of the meditation experience is not the same you that comes out the other side. It changes your character by a process of sensitization, by making you deeply aware of your own thoughts, word, and deeds. Your arrogance evaporated and your antagonism dries up. Your mind becomes still and calm. And your life smoothes out. Thus meditation properly performed prepares you to meet the ups and down of existence. It reduces your tension, your fear, and your worry. Restlessness recedes and passion moderates. Things begin to fall into place and your life becomes a glide instead of a struggle. All of this happens through understanding.
禅修的目的是个人的自我转化。经过禅修之后，你会判若两人。禅修改变你的性格是藉由一连串令你变得更为敏锐、更深入觉知自己思想言行的过程。你的傲慢被蒸发了，敌意也枯竭了，你的内心变得平静、安宁，你的人生问题也会慢慢消除。因此，做得恰当，禅修可令你面对人生的顺境与逆境时有备无患，它助你减少压力、恐惧与烦忧；不安减退，情欲适度。情况变得井然有序，你常要挣扎的生活变得顺畅起来，这一切都是通过悟解而生。
Meditation sharpens your concentration and your thinking power. Then, piece by piece, your own subconscious motives and mechanics become clear to you. Your intuition sharpens. The precision of your thought increases and gradually you come to a direct knowledge of things as they really are, without prejudice and without illusion.
禅修增强你的定力与思考力，然后逐渐让你清楚地，看到自己潜意识里的动机与诡计；你的直觉力也增强了，思想的精确度也提高了，渐渐地，你会直接如实洞悉事物的现实状况，没有偏见，也没有幻想。
So is this reason enough to bother? Scarcely. These are just promises on paper. There is only one way you will ever know if meditation is worth the effort. Learn to do it right, and do it. See for yourself.
那么，上述理由足够令你关注禅修吗？相信不够，这不过是纸上谈兵而已。只有一个方法能令你确知禅修的价值与效用，那就是：学习正确的方法，然后不断实践，亲自去体会和了解。
【注释】
[1] 无意识：也称潜意识或下意识，是指那些在正常情况下根本不能变为意识的东西，比如，内心深处被压抑而无从意识到的欲望。正是所谓「冰山理论」：人的意识组成就像一座冰山，露出水面的只是一小部分(意识)，但隐藏在水下的绝大部分(无意识)却对其余部分产生着影响。佛洛伊德认为无意识具有能动作用，它主动地对人的性格和行为施加压力和影响。佛洛伊德在探究人的精神领域时运用了决定论的原则，认为事出必有因。看来微不足道的事情，如做梦、口误和笔误，都是由大脑中潜在原因决定的，只不过是以一种伪装的形式表现出来。由此，佛洛伊德提出关于无意识精神状态的假设，将意识划分为三个层次：意识，前意识和无意识。
[2] 《法句经(The Dhammapada)》： 这里指南传佛教的《法句经》，是南传佛教徒的必读书。本经集合了很多早期佛经的重要偈语，合共四百二十三首，分二十六章，是了解早期佛教思想的一本重要及入门读物。要看的话，最好能找一本有注释的来看。北传佛教也有传本，称《法句譬喻经》，有多个版本，内容也很丰富。
[3] 佛洛依德(Sigmund Freud)： 生卒年份为1856 与1939，奥地利的精神病学家，犹太人。精神分析学的创始人，称为「维也纳第一精神分析学派」，以别于后来由此演变出的第二及第三学派。着作有《梦的解析》、《精神分析引论》等。提出「潜意识」、「自我」、「本我」、「超我」、「伊底帕斯情结」、「性冲动、性欲或性的本能(Libido)」等概念。其成就对哲学、心理学、美学甚至社会学、文学等都有深刻的影响，被世人誉为「精神分析之父」。但他的理论自诞生到如今，却一直饱受争议。
[4] 信(Faith)：佛教的「信」包括「信仰」，那是还未有经过自己深入了解和验证的「信」；也包括「信服」或「信任」，那是有逻辑、事实或亲身体验根据的「信」。佛教鼓励别人敬信「佛法僧」三宝，因为这样才能「从闻思修，入戒定慧」，最终达致体证的「确信」。佛陀是反对「盲信」的。例如，在南传藏经《增支部》的《卡拉玛经》(AN 3.65)中，佛陀对卡拉玛人说：「是的，卡拉玛人啊！你们的怀疑、你们的迷茫是正当的；因为对于一件可疑的事，是应当生起怀疑的。卡拉玛人啊！你们要注意不可被流言、传说、及传统所左右，也不可依据宗教典籍，也不可单靠论理或推测，也不可单看事物的表象，也不可溺好由揣测而得的臆见，也不可因某事物之似有可能而信以为实，也不可作如此想：『他是我们的导师。』卡拉玛人啊！只有在你自己确知某些事是不善、错误、邪恶的时候，你才可以革除它们…… 而当你自己确知某事是善良的、美好的，那时你再信受奉行。」
