(４０)接下来，关于“神通”(iddhi)的问题是：
“我们要对神通关心到什么程度？”

40) Next, concerning what are called iddhis (psychic powers) the question is,

40) “How far should we take interest in these things called iddhis?”

　　首先，我们该谈谈iddhi本身。iddhi 这个字的意思是“能力”。它原本是日常用字。被引用于具有某种能力，可促成事物圆满完成的东西，任何东西只要具有促进事物圆满成功的力量，就称为iddhi。
　　后来它的意思被引申，包括以神奇的、不可思议的方式成就某事，最后我们发现iddhi的用法变成专指心灵现象。iddhi一旦演变成心灵现象，就具有孳生和改善的特性，使它远比任何物质更神通广大。
　　iddhi就像省力的器具，现在我们有牵引拖车，能在短时间内修筑许多马路，这也称为iddhi，但这是物质的奇迹。在这里我们所谈论的iddhi则与心有关，是心灵的，而非物质的。

FIRST OF ALL, we shall say something about the iddhis themselves. The word iddhi means “power”. It was originally an everyday word, a household term applied to things with the ability to promote success in perfectly normal ways. Anything with the ability to promote success was called an iddhi. The meaning was then extended to cover success in marvellous, miraculous ways, until we come across the sort of iddhis that are exclusively mental phenomena. Because they are mental, they have productive and beneficial properties that render them far more marvellous and wide-ranging than anything physical. They are like our labour-saving devices. Nowadays we have tractors that can build roads and so on. These too would have been called iddhis. But these are physical marvels. The iddhis we are concerned with here have to do with the mind; they are mental, not physical.

　　神通专家能训练自己的心，具备以下的能力：使人经验他要他们感觉的；使人亲眼看到他要他们看的；使人清晰的听到他要他们听的；使人闻到他要他们闻的；使人经验尝的感觉就好像真正用舌头品尝一般；使人仿佛亲由皮肤去感觉软、硬和其他触觉。除了这些之外，还可再扩展——使人心里不由自主地感到恐惧、爱和任何心灵状态。

An exponent of iddhis (psychic powers) has trained his mind to such a degree that he can cause other people to experience whatever sensations he wishes to have them feel. He can cause others to see things with their own eyes just as he wishes them to see, to hear clearly and distinctly such sounds as he wishes them to hear, to smell just as he wishes them to smell, to experience taste sensations as if really experiencing them with the tongue, and to feel as if through the skin softness, hardness, and other such tactile stimuli. The process can then be extended until the demonstrator is able to cause the other person to experience fear, love or any mental state without realizing why. 　

　　神通真是有用了！太妙了！因为它能使人经验他要他们感觉的。但是这种心灵现象并不能制造物质，换句话说，超自然力量无法变现任何实用的物质，它不可能变现比丘的茅蓬、殿堂、饭菜，而让他的生活没问题，这种事不可能发生。这些眼、耳、鼻、舌、身、意所经验和出现的现象，也只有在显神通时存在，过后它们就消失了。所以，神通无法建茅蓬、盖殿堂，而必须由家护法建造供养，例如祇园精舍(Jetavana)和迦兰陀竹园(Veluvana)就是居士建来供养佛陀的。佛陀也有几次因为饥荒没有食物，必须吃乾马麦，而且一天只有一把[译注一]。这启示我们物质和心灵是两个不同的领域，而二种都可能显神通。

The iddhis are thus extremely useful and quite wonderful.But this kind of mental phenomenon does not produce physical things. The psychic powers are incapable of creating real physical things of any practical value. They alone can’t create bhikkhu’s huts, temples, rice, fish, or food, so that one might live without any problems. This sort of thing can’t happen. The objects appear to exist or are experienced as existing in eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, or mind for only as long as the iddhi is being demonstrated. There after they disappear. So the iddhis are not capable of building a hut or a temple by themselves. There definitely has to be a lay supporter to build and offer it. For instance, Jetavana and Veluvana had to be built and offered to the Buddha. And several times the Buddha went without food because of famine and had to eat rice set out as horse feed, and only a handful of it a day.This serves to remind us that the physical and mental are two distinct and different realms. It is possible to demonstrate iddhis of both types.

　　佛陀没有否认心灵的神通，但他极力反对显这类神通，因为它们只不过是幻象罢了，所以他禁止比丘们显神通，自己也戒除显神通。在巴利经典中，我们并没有发现佛陀显神通的记载，而有关佛陀显神通的记载，都出现在论书和后期的典籍中，虽然我们不必去判断它们是真是假，但这些记载的真实性实在令人怀疑。

The Buddha did not deny mental iddhis, but he strongly disapproved of demonstrating them because they are mere illusions. He therefore prohibited the demonstration of them by bhikkhus, and he himself refrained from it. We don’t come across it in the Tipi.aka that the Buddha demonstrated iddhis. There do exist accounts of the Buddha demonstrating iddhis, but they occur only in commentaries and other works. Consequently, the truth of these accounts is dubious — though really there is no need for us to judge them true or false.

　　佛陀曾说：“显各种不同的神通——飞行、隐身、天眼、天耳等等——是有漏(sasava)、有取(upadhika)的。”“有漏”(sasava)由三漏(asava)[译注二]构成，换句话说，这种有执著或以执著为动机所显现的神通，称为“有潜心”。Upadhi被译为“有取”，以“有取”为动机面显现的神通是有取著的神通，它由执著产生，同时也是执著的对象。这类以执著的心而显现的神通，是“有漏”、“有取”的。

The Buddha once said, “The various iddhis that are demon- strated — flying through the air, becoming invisible, clairaudience, clairvoyance and the like — are sāsavā and upadhikā,” Sāsavā means “associated with āsavas” (the “cankers” of attachment to sensual pleasure, attachment to becoming, attachment to false views, and attachment to ignorance). In other words, iddhis performed with grasping and clinging, or motivated by grasping and clinging, are called sāsavā. The performance of upadhikā iddhis is motivated by upadhi. Upadhi means “grasping and clinging”. They are likewise iddhis motivated by attachment. They are demonstrated by a mind that grasps and clings. Iddhis of this sort are sāsavā and upadhikā.

　　现在，让我们把注意力转移到第二类神通——“无漏”(anasava)和“无取”(anuppdhika)，也就是能自主地调御自己的心。我们举一个特别的例子——“厌恶”来讨论。人能叫自己把可厌的事看成是可厌的，把可喜的事也看成是可厌的；不论任何事都看成是可厌的，或把它们看成是可喜的，或看每件事都没什么，既不可厌也不可喜。
　　这是个例子，显示我们具有可圆满掌握心的能力，以致当面对会影响心的色、声、香、味、触时，还能保持着“念”和“舍”。圆满具足了“念”和“舍”，便是神通，这是“无漏”、“无取”之类的神通，没有烦恼，没有执取，也不会成为执取的对象。这些也成为神通，我们应如此看待它们。

Now let us turn our attention to the opposite kind of iddhi— anāsavā and anuppdhikā — namely the ability to control one’s own mind at will. We shall take as a particular example the subject of unpleasantness. Here one causes oneself to see an unpleasant thing as unpleasant, to see a pleasant thing as unpleasant, to see everything as unpleasant to see everything as pleasant, then to see everything as neither of these, as neither pleasant nor unpleasant. This is one example demonstrating the ability to control the mind so completely that constant mindfulness and equanimity can be maintained in the presence of sense objects — shapes and colours, flavours, odours, sounds, and tactile objects — which influence the mind. The possession of mindfulness, constant awareness, and equanimity is an iddhi. It is an iddhi of the type called anāsavā (free of āsava) and anuppadhikā (free of upadhi, not defiled, not grasping, and not a basis for grasping). These are the things called the iddhis, and this is how we ought to view them.

　　要想修行到真正能变现的神通——“有漏”、“有取”的神通，是很困难的，它需要一大体系的修法，可以做得到，但也只有极少数的人能真正成就。而另一种行幻术的人，他并不能真正变现神通，只是玩弄一些伪造、欺骗的魔术罢了。

The real iddhis that are demonstrated in order to cause the arising of psychic miracles, the sāsavā and upadhikā types, are still difficult to perform. To master them involves much practice, which is organized into a great system. It can be done, genuinely achieved and demonstrated, by only a very few people. But there is a spurious variety too, based on pure deception, sheer trickery, sometimes involving the use of incantations. These are not the real things at all.

　　在巴利文中也谈到，有些魔术师使用咒语或其他法术，能显现出似真的神通，但要成功地训练出那些技巧，也非常困难。至于“无漏”、“无取”的神通，反而是每个人有本事可以做到的，这是值得深思的。
　　现在我们都关心那些难以做到的神通，对于能力所及和最有益处的神通却从来不关心，偏偏依然喜欢“有漏”、“有取”的神通。对于这点，我希望各位能重新思考！

There are people who can demonstrate what are apparently genuine iddhis, but to acquire those skills is very difficult and requires arduous training. By contrast, the anāsavā and anupadhikā iddhis lie within the capabilities of most people. This sort is worth thinking about. As it is, we are interested in the sort of iddhis we can’t perform but aren’t interested in the most beneficial ones (which we can produce). These things called iddhis certainly have a great attraction for us, but our thinking on the subject needs to be completely revised.

　　[译注一]此事见《大正藏》第２２卷，５６８页。
　　[译注二]三漏为欲漏、有漏、无明漏。