§10. The primal mind is radiant and clear by nature, but is darkened because of corruptions.

十、最初的心意本性是光明清净的，但因堕落而黑暗

pabhassaramidam bhikkhave cittam
tanca kho agantukehi upakkilesehi upakkilittham:

　　'Monks, this mind is originally radiant and clear, but because passing corruptions and defilements come and obscure it, it doesn't show its radiance.' This has been compared to a tree in the poem that runs,

比丘，这心意本来是光明而清净的，但是因为经过堕落，而烦恼遮蔽，它才不见光辉。’这就好比诗偈中所说的一棵树，

A tall tree with 6,000 branches:
Big chameleons swarm it each day by the hundreds,
Small chameleons, each day by the thousands.
If the owner doesn't watch out,
They'll bring along more and more of their friends every day.

　　一棵大树有六○○○根树枝：
　　几百只大蜥蜴日日簇拥其上，
　　几千只小蜥蜴群居其中，
　　主人如果不予留意，
　　它们日日将会带来更多的朋友。

This can be explained as follows: The tall tree with 6,000 branches — if we cut off the three zeroes, this leaves us with six, which stands for the six sense doors, the entry way for the chameleons, i.e., things that are counterfeit, not things that are genuine. Defilements aren't genuine. They are simply things that come drifting in through the sense doors by the hundreds and thousands. Not only that, defilements that haven't yet arisen will arise more and more every day as long as we don't find a means for rectifying the nature of the mind.

　　这可以解释如下：一棵大树有六○○○根树枝—如果我们去掉三个○，就剩下六，它就代表六根门，变色蜥蜴的入口，亦即伪装的事物，而非真实的事物。烦恼是不真实的，它们就是那些成千上万地穿过根门流入(心中)的事物了。不仅如此，只要我们尚未找出矫正心性的方法来，未生的烦恼就会日日增长，愈来愈多。

The mind is something more radiant than anything else can be, but because counterfeits — passing defilements — come and obscure it, it loses its radiance, like the sun when obscured by clouds. Don't go thinking that the sun goes after the clouds. Instead, the clouds come drifting along and obscure the sun.

　　心意比其它任何事物更为光辉，但是因为经由烦恼的伪装和遮蔽，就失掉了它的光辉，就像太阳被浮云遮蔽了一般，不要认为太阳走到浮云后面去了，而是浮云飘来遮蔽了太阳。

So meditators, when they know in this manner, should do away with these counterfeits by analyzing them shrewdly, as explained in the strategies of clear insight, § 9. When they develop the mind to the stage of the primal mind, this will mean that all counterfeits are destroyed, or rather, counterfeit things won't be able to reach into the primal mind, because the bridge making the connection will have been destroyed. Even though the mind may then still have to come into contact with the preoccupations of the world, its contact will be like that of a bead of water rolling over a lotus leaf.

　　所以禅思者，当他们知道了这回事，就应该以敏锐的分析来对付这些伪装，就如第节中所说的清净内明的策略。当他们开发心意到达最初心意的阶段，这就是说所有的伪装都被摧毁了，或宁可说是伪装的事物不能进入最初的心意，因为用来衔接的桥梁已经被摧毁了。即使心意或许仍必须要与世间事接触，它的接触就像水珠仔滚过荷叶一般。