§9. The strategies of clear insight, techniques for uprooting defilement.

九、清净内明的战略，根除烦恼的技术

The nature of all good things is that they come from things that aren't good, just as lotuses that are fair and lovely are born from mud that is filthy and repulsive; yet once they rise clear of the mud, they are clean and pure, becoming a fitting headdress for a king, a viceroy, or a courtier, never again returning to the mud. In this they are like the earnest meditator, one engaged in a persistent effort. Such a person must investigate a thing that is filthy and repulsive if the mind is to gain release from all filthy and repulsive things. The 'thing that is filthy and repulsive' here is the body. The body is an assemblage of filth, urine, and excrement. The things that are exuded from the hair of the head, the hair of the body, nails, teeth, skin, and so on are all forms of excrement. When they fall into food, people take offense at it. The food has to be thrown out, for no one can stomach it. Moreover, the body has to be constantly washed and scrubbed if it is to look presentable. If we don't clean it, it will smell rank and no one will let us come near. Clothing and other accessories, when they are apart from the body, are clean and attractive, but as soon as they come into contact with the body they become dirty. If we let them go without washing for a long time, no one will let us come near, because of the smell.

　　所有美好事物的本性是它们来自并不美好的事物，就像白净可爱的莲花却生自污秽恶心的淤泥中，一旦它们长出淤泥，它们就白净而纯洁，成为国王、总督或大臣适当的头饰，不再回到淤泥中。它们就像热诚的禅思者，致力于持续的努力，这样的人，如果心里想要从所有污秽恶心的事物中获得解脱，就必须观察思惟一个污秽恶心的事物。所谓‘污秽恶心的事物’这里是指身体。身体是垢秽、尿液和粪便的聚集。从头发、体毛、指甲、牙齿、皮肤等所排出的东西，都是各种的粪秽。当它们掉入食物中，人们就会不悦。这食物必须扔掉，因为没人能下咽。还有，如果身体看起来要能见人的样子，就要经常的擦洗。如果我们不予清理，就会有臭味，没有人愿意让我们接近他。衣服和饰品，当它们还没穿上身的时候，是洁净而动人的，但是只要它们一与身体接触，它们就弄脏了。如果我们长时间任其自然，不予洗濯，就有臭味，没有人愿意让我们接近他。

From this we can see that the body is a house of urine and excrement, asubha — unattractive; patikkula — repulsive. When still alive, it's bad enough; when there is no more life to it, it's even more disgusting, to the point where nothing else can compare. So from the very beginning, all earnest meditators investigate the body methodically until they have it mastered. Before the body becomes clear, they investigate whichever part or aspect of the body is agreeable to their temperament until a particular aspect of the body appears as an uggaha nimitta. Then they focus on that aspect, working at it and developing it repeatedly.

　　由此我们可以知道，身体是粪尿的库房，不净—不可爱，可厌—令人厌恶的。当活著的时候就够糟了；当没有生命的时候，它就更令人嫌恶，肯定没有其它东西可以比拟了，所以从一开始，所有热诚的禅思者就有条理地观察思惟这个身体，直到他们洞悉了身体。在身体变得清楚明白以前，他们就自己个性上所愿意的，身体的任何一个部位，加以观察，直到身体的某一特殊部位呈现一个‘取相’(禅思时自发地生起的影像)，然后他们专注于那个部位，重复地在它上面下工夫并开发它。

'Working at it and developing it repeatedly' should be understood as follows: When rice farmers grow rice, they work in the soil, plowing the soil and planting rice in the soil. The following year they grow rice in the soil again. They don't grow their rice in the air or in the middle of the sky. They grow it only in the soil, and the rice then fills their granaries of its own accord. When they work repeatedly in the soil, they don't have to plead, 'Rice, O rice, please come and fill our granaries.' The rice pours in of its own accord. And even if they forbid it, saying, 'Rice, O rice, don't come and fill our granaries,' if they have completed their work in the soil, there's no doubt but that the rice will still come and keep their granaries full.

　　‘重复地在它上面下工夫并开发它’必须作如是瞭解：当农夫栽种稻子时，他们在田地上工作，犁耕田地并栽种稻子。下一年，他们又在田地上栽种稻子。他们不会在空气中或半空中栽种稻子，他们只在田地上栽种，然后稻米自然会充满他们的谷仓，当他们重复地在田地上工作时，他们不必祈求：‘稻米，哦！稻米，请长出来并充满我们的谷仓。’稻米自然会倾泻而入。即使他们对它下禁令：‘稻米，哦！稻米，不要长出来，不要充满我们的谷仓。’如果他们已经完成田里的工作，毫无疑问的，稻米还是会长出来并装满他们的谷仓。

In the same way, we as earnest meditators should keep investigating the body at the point that is agreeable to our temperaments or first appears for us to see. No matter what, we should not neglect or abandon that point. Working at it repeatedly doesn't refer only to the practice of walking meditation. We should be mindful, continuing our investigation in all places and at all times. Sitting, standing, walking, and lying down; eating, drinking, working, speaking, and thinking, we should always have all-round mindfulness of the present: This is what is meant by 'working at it repeatedly'.

　　同样地，就像热诚的禅思者一样，就我们的个性所愿意的身体部位，或首先显现给我们看的身体部位，应该持续地予以观察思惟。不论如何，我们都不应该忽略或放弃这一点，重复地在它上面下工夫，不只是指经行禅思的修习而已，我们随时随地都要念住或持续我们的观察思惟，行、住、坐、卧，吃、喝、工作、说话和思考，我们随时都要全面地念住现前，这就是‘重复地在它上面下工夫’的意义。

Once you have investigated the body until it is clear, you should then consider dividing it up into its various parts, using your own way of being methodical. Separate the body into the elements of earth, water, fire, and wind, examining it until you really see it in those terms. At this stage, you may use any strategies of your own devising that are agreeable to your temperament, but you must not in any event abandon the original reference point that first appeared to you. When you are investigating at this stage, you should work at it and develop it repeatedly. Don't investigate once and then let it go for half a month or a month. Investigate in and out, back and forth, again and again. In other words, withdraw inward to quiet the mind and then come out again to investigate the body. Don't exclusively investigate the body or exclusively quiet the mind.

　　一旦你已经把身体观察思惟到很清楚明白，接下来你应该考虑，运用你自己有条理的方法，把它分解成不同的部份，把身体分解成地、水、火、风诸元素，并检查它，直到你真的以此观点视之。在这个阶段，你可以运用适合自己个性而设计的任何策略，但无论如何，你不能舍弃最先显现给你的原始参考点。当你正在这个阶段观察思惟时，你必须重复地在它上面下工夫并开发它，不要观察思惟一次，然后就任它一去半个月或一个月。内、外、前、后，一遍又一遍的观察思惟。换句话说，撤入内在以平息心意，然后出来再度观察思惟身体，不要一味地观察思惟身体或一味地平息心意。

When you have investigated in this way until you have it thoroughly mastered, what happens next is what comes of its own accord. The mind is bound to converge in a big way; and the instant it converges, everything will appear to converge, being one and the same. The entire world will be nothing but elements. At the same time, an image will appear of the world as being level as a drum head, because the entire world is of one and the same inherent nature. Forests, mountains, people, animals — even you yourself — will all ultimately have to be leveled down in one and the same way. Together with this vision, knowledge arises, cutting off all doubts in the heart. This is called yatha-bhuta-ñana-dassana vipassana: the clear insight that both knows and sees things for what they actually are.

　　当你已经用这种方法来观察思惟，一直到你已经完全洞悉身体时，接下来所发生的，就是顺其自然而来的部份了。心意必定会大规模的蕴集，而在它蕴集的瞬间，一切事物将随著蕴集，如同其一，整个世界不过是四大所成。在这同时，一个平坦如鼓皮的世界境相将会出现，因为整个世界有著相同如一而与生俱来的属性。森林、山岳、人们、动物‥‥‥‥乃至你自己‥‥ ‥‥ 最后都必将被铲平如一，伴随著这个境相，知见生起，切断所有心里的疑惑，这叫做：‘如实知见禅观’—清净内明，知道而且见到事物的本来面目。

This step is not the end point. It is the beginning of the next stage we have to practice, which we as earnest meditators are to work at and develop repeatedly in order for heightened awareness to be mastered and complete. Then we will see that the mental fashionings that suppose, 'This is mine... That is me,' are inconstancy; and that because of attachment they are suffering — for all elements have been the way they are all along: arising, aging, growing ill, and dying, arising and deteriorating since before we were born. From time immemorial, this is the way they have been. But because the conditions of the mind and the five khandhas — rupa, vedana, sañña, sankhara, and viññana — have fashioned and labeled throughout every existence up to the present, through lives too numerous to number, the mind has been deluded into following its supposings. It's not the case that our supposings have attached themselves to us. When you come right down to it, there's no doubt but that all phenomena in the world, whether endowed with consciousness or not, have been the way they are — arising and deteriorating on their own — in just this way.

　　这个阶段并不是终点，这是下一阶段，我们必须修习的起点，这也是我们这些热诚的禅思者所要重复地下工夫和开发的，以求精通和完成更高的觉悟，看著种种心态的臆测：‘这是我的‥‥ ‥‥ 那是我’，是无常的；他们痛苦是因为执著的缘故─因为所有的元素(中译注：有情四大)自始至终都是如此：生、老、病、死，早在我们出生之前就生起、衰落。从无始以来，它们就是这个样子。但因为心意和五蕴—色、受、想、行、识的因缘—业已形成并标记所有的存在成为现状，历经生生世世，难以计数，心意已经被痴化成追随它的臆测，而非臆测自行附著于我们。当你正观于此，毫无疑问的，世界上所有的现象，不论是有意识或无意识的，他(它)们一直是这个样子—自行生起、衰落—就是这样。

So we realize, pubbe ananussu tesu dhammesu — these regularities of behavior (lit. 'dhamma-nesses') have been this way from the past. Even though no one has told us, we know that this is just the way they have been. This is why the Buddha maintained with regard to this point that he didn't hear this from anyone, wasn't taught this by anyone — for this is just the way these things had been since before his time. Thus we can see that the regularities in the behavior of all elements are bound to be this way. But because the conditions of the mind have fastened into all of these things for so many lives, they have behaved in line with those supposings. The mind has been overwhelmed by latent tendencies (anusaya) to the point where it is deluded into believing them, and so states of becoming and birth have been created through the clinging of the conditions of the mind.

　　所以我们认知，pubbe ananussutesu dhammesu ─‘前所未闻法’─这些活动规律(中译注：法性)从过去就一直是这样；即使没有人告诉我们，我们也知道他(它)们一直是这样子，关于这一点，就是佛陀为什么坚持说这是他所未曾从别人听闻，未有别人教导—因为在他那时代之前，事情就一直是这样子，因此我们可以知道，所有元素的活动规律必定是这个样子，但是因为心意的因缘，多生以来已经牢牢固著于所有这些事物之中，他们就随著臆测行动。心意已经被潜在的性向所克服，以至于愚痴到相信它们，所以‘有’和‘生’的状态，透过心意因缘的执著，就被产生出来。

Thus the earnest meditator comes to analyze things down in line with their inherent nature, seeing that,

　　热诚的禅思者，到了能够以事物与生俱来的本性去解析它，就会见到：

sabbe sankhara anicca, sabbe sankhara dukkha:

　　‘一切行无常，一切行是苦。’

Acts of mental fashioning — the conditions of the mind — are what is inconstant. The world of living beings is constant: It is simply the way it is. Analyze these things in terms of the four Noble Truths as a way of rectifying the conditions of the mind, so that you can see for certain, in your own right, that these conditions of the mind are inconstant and stressful. And the fact that you haven't seen in your own right that they are inconstant and stressful is why you have fallen for mental fashionings. When you truly see this, it will rectify the conditions of the mind. The realization will come to you,

　　心理状态的作用─亦即心意的因缘─就是无常，有情众生的世间是无常的，它就是这个样子。以四圣谛的观点来解析这些事物，做为改正心意的方法，你自己就一定会知道(中译注：即身观察缘自觉知)，这些心意的因缘是无常和痛苦的，而你尚未觉察到它们是无常和痛苦的事实，正是你陷入心理状态的原因。当你真正见此真相，就会改正心意的因缘。你将会证知　

sankhara sassata natthi:

　　‘诸行无常’。

'There are no mental fashionings that are constant and lasting.' Mental fashionings are simply conditions of the mind, like mirages. As for living beings, they have been a constant feature of the world all along. When you know both sides — i.e., that living beings are simply the way they are, and that mental fashionings are simply a condition of the mind that supposes them — then thitibhutam, the primal mind that has no conditions, can gain release.

　　‘没有永恒而持久的心理状态。’心理状态只是心意的因缘而已，就像海市蜃楼。至于有情众生，他们始终认为世间是恒久的，当你知道了两面，亦即有情众生就是这个样子，而心理状态只是心意臆测的因缘罢了，于是‘住地’，没有因缘相续的初心得到了解脱。

As for the teaching that all phenomena or regularities of behavior are not-self: How could they be the self? Their business is simply to arise the way they do. Thus the Buddha taught,

　　至于一切现象或活动规律无我(中译注：一切法无我)的教导，它们怎能是我？它们的工作只是如其所做而生起。因此佛陀教导：

sabbe dhamma anatta:

　　‘一切法无我’

'All phenomena are not-self.' We as earnest meditators should investigate things to see them clearly in this way, until the mind is made to converge, enabling us to see truly and vividly along these lines in our own right, at the same time giving rise to the knowledge that accompanies this vision. This is what is meant by vutthana-gamini vipassana (clear insight leading to emergence). We should work at this stage until it is mastered, until we see truly and clearly, along with the full convergence of the mind and its concurrent knowledge, converging against the current, curing the latent tendencies, turning supposing into release; or until we converge on the primal mind that is simply the way it is, to the point where it is absolutely clear, with the concurrent knowledge,

　　‘所有的现象都是无我。’我们身为热诚的禅思者，必须这样观察思惟事物，明明白白地看清它们，直到心意专精于一，让我们自己能够沿著这些准绳，真实而清楚地去看待事物，同时伴随著这个洞察力，也增长了知见。这就是所谓的‘生起出离之禅观’(导至出离之清净内明)。我们必须在这个阶段上用功，直到熟练，直到我们看得真确而明白，伴随著全面的念住和正知，逆流(中译注：烦恼流)念住，袪除潜在的性向，转变臆测成为解脱；或直到我们专注于最初的心意─如实知见为止，以：‘此生已尽，不受后有’的正知达到绝对的清明。

Khina jati ñanam hoti:

'There is the knowledge of no more birth.'

This stage is not an assumption or a supposing. It isn't anything fashioned or conjectured into being, nor is it anything that can be obtained by wanting. It is something that arises, is, and knows entirely of its own accord. Intense, relentless practice in which we analyze things shrewdly on our own is what will cause it to arise of its own accord.

　　这个阶段并不是一个假设或臆测，它既非形成或臆测的任何事物，也不是愿望所能获得的任何事物，它是自然生起而完全明白的事情。热心不懈的修习，敏锐地分析我们自己的身心(中译注：即身观察)，就会引导它自然生起(中译注：缘自觉知)。

This has been compared to rice plants. Once we have properly nourished and cared for the rice plant, the results — the grains of rice — are not something that can be obtained by wanting. They will appear of their own accord. If a person who wants to get rice is lazy and doesn't care for the rice plant, he can keep wanting until the day he dies, but no rice grains will appear for him. The same holds true with the reality of release: It isn't something that can be obtained by wanting. A person who wants release but who practices wrongly or doesn't practice — and wastes his time being lazy until the day he dies — won't meet with release at all.

　　这好比是稻子，只要我们适当地培育和照料稻子，结果—谷粒—并不是愿望所能得到的，它们自然会出现的。如果一个想要得到稻米的人，却懒惰而不照料稻子，他可以到死都怀著这个愿望，却不会有稻米呈现在他面前。解脱的实相亦是如此：它不是靠愿望所能获得的，一个想要解脱的人，却错误地修习或不修习─在懒惰中浪费时间，直到死亡之日─终究未能解脱。