(４２)上一则引生下面的问题：
“我们在何处可以止息苦？”

42) This subject brings us to the question,

42) “Where can we put an end to suffering (dukkha)?”

　　我们不可能在寺院、森林、家里、高山等地方止息痛苦，而必须在苦本身的起因上去止息。我们要做的是，每天在自己的身上检查并去发现：苦到底是怎么一回事？苦从何来？而后必须切断它们各自的因。昨天的苦已经事过境迁了，它不会再回来，而今天、现在生起的苦，才是真正的问题。明天可能生起的苦还不是问题，但今日、现在所生的苦，则必须根绝。那么，它可以从哪里根绝呢？它必须从“因”根绝。如佛陀所说，我们必须在生活中学习，直到我们了解——苦的生起只是单纯地由于“执著”。

WE DON’T PUT an end to suffering in the monastery, in the forest, in the home, or on the mountain. We have to put an end to suffering right at the cause of suffering itself. What we must do is investigate and find out the way suffering arises in us each day and from what root it originates. Then we have to cut off that particular root. Yesterday’s suffering has already been and gone. It can’t come back, it is over and done with. It is suffering that arises today, right now, that is the problem. Suffering that may arise tomorrow is not as yet a problem, but the suffering arising and existing right now must be eradicated. So then, where is it to be eradicated? It must be eradicated at its root. We must study life until we realize that, as the Buddha said, suffering arises simply from grasping and clinging.

　　生、老、死是苦，通常被说得非常夸张而含糊，容易引起误解。事实上，若不执著“我的生”、“我的老”、“我的死”，生就不是苦，老也不是苦，死更不是苦。此刻，我们执著生、老、死是“我们的”，如果我们不执著，它们就不是苦，它们只是身体的变化罢了。当身体这样变化我们称它为“生”；当身体那样变化，我们称它为“老”；而当身体又这样变化时，我们称它为“死”。但我们只把它当作是身体的变化，而把它看作是“真的生”，甚至还称它为“我的生”、“我的老”、“我的死”。

　　这多重的假相，是由“我”的假相开始，进一步对身体的变化生出“我的生”、“我的老”等假相，使我们无法把这些只看作是身体的变化。现在，当我们把这些当作只是单纯的身体变化，生、老、死的假相就会消失，同时“我”的假相也不见了，不再有任何“我”，这情形就不苦了。

It is usually proclaimed eloquently, but ambiguously, that birth, aging, and death are suffering. But birth is not suffering, aging is not suffering, death is not suffering where there is no attachment to “my birth”, “my aging”, “my death” At the moment, we are grasping at birth, aging, pain, and death as “ours”. If we don’t grasp, they are not suffering, they are only bodily changes. The body changes thus, and we call it “birth”; the body changes thus, and we call it “aging”; the body changes thus, and we call it “death”; but we fail to see it as just bodily changes. We see it as actual birth, and what is more, we call it “my birth”, “my aging”, and “my death”. This is a multiple delusion because “I” is a delusion to start with; so seeing a bodily change as “my birth”, or “my aging” is yet a further delusion. We fail to see that these are simply bodily changes. Now just as soon as we do see these as only bodily changes, birth, aging, and death disappear, and “I” disappears at the same time. There is no longer any “I”, and this condition is not suffering.

　　佛陀说：“生是苦，老是苦，死是苦”。大部分的人——实际上几乎全部的人，都误解了佛陀的意思，他们说生、老、死的现象是苦，有些人根本没办法解释；有些人则犹豫、不肯定，解释得支支吾吾、含含糊糊。这是因为他们忘了佛陀曾说：“取著五蕴是苦”(sankittena pancupadanakkhandhadukkha)，五蕴既是身和心，身、心组合而成为人。若执著其中任何一个为“我”或“我所有”，则五蕴是苦、是重担、是苦源、是热火。所以，取著五蕴是苦。

The Buddha said, “Birth is suffering, aging is suffering, death is suffering”, and the majority of people, almost all in fact, mis- understand him. They point to the condition of birth, the condition of aging, and the condition of death as being suffering. Some can’t explain it at all. Some, hesitant and uncertain, explain it vaguely and ambiguously, evasively hemming and hawing. This is because they forget that the Buddha said “Sa.khittena pa.cupādānakkhandhā dukkhā” (the five aggregates, when clung to, are suffering). The aggregates are body and mind; together they constitute the person. If there is grasping at anything as being “I” or “mine”, then the five aggregates are suffering. Those five aggregates are a heavy burden, a source of suffering. There is fire and brimstone in those five aggregates. So the five aggregates, if associated with grasping and clinging, are suffering.

　　现在，假设我们的五蕴处在“老”的状态中，若我们的心不执着五蕴为“老”或“我老”，那么它们就不是苦了。我们应视色是空、受是空、想是空、行是空、识是空，诸行旋转流动的现象也是空，一切皆空，就不可能苦了。这样的五蕴是清净的五蕴(pancakkhandha)，我们把它当作是阿罗汉的五蕴，事实上，阿罗汉不会成为五蕴的主人，因为这种心境，无论如何都不可能把五蕴执为“我所有”，但五蕴可以说正是阿罗汉德行的容器，我们姑且称它为“阿罗汉清净的五蕴”(pancakkhandha of an arahant)。

Now suppose these five aggregates are in the condition known as “aging”. If the mind does not grasp at and cling to them as “aging”, or as “my aging”, then they will not be suffering. We shall then see the body as empty, the feelings as empty, the perceptions as empty, the willed activities as empty, and consciousness as empty. We shall see the whole flowing and swirling conditioning of everything as empty. Without clinging it cannot be suffering. Such are pure pa.cakkhandha (aggregates dissociated from grasping). Such are the five aggregates of an arahant, or what we presume to call the five aggregates of an arahant. For really, an arahant cannot be described as being the owner of the five aggregates, but we look on those aggregates as being the receptacle of the virtues of arahantship. That type of mind cannot grasp at the aggregates in any way as being “mine”, still we presume to call them the pure pa.cakkhandha of an arahant.

　　何处才可以止息苦呢？我们必须从苦因(执取某种事物)灭苦，苦由执取金钱而来，就得在执取的那儿灭苦；苦由执取权力、声望、荣誉、名气而来，也得在执取的那儿灭苦。其实金钱、权力、声望本身并不是苦。当发现苦从何来，就在那儿止息它，古代有句法语说：“它怎么起，就叫它那么落！”

Where to put an end to suffering? We have to eliminate suffering at the root of suffering, namely grasping and clinging to things. Suffering due to attachment to wealth must be eradicated there in that attachment. Suffering due to grasping and clinging to the illusions of power, prestige, honour, and fame must be eradicated there in that grasping and clinging. Then wealth, power, and prestige will not be in themselves suffering. So find out where it arises and eliminate it there. In the words if the old-time Dhamma experts, “whichever way it goes up, bring it down that same way.”