Looking for the Buddha

　　寻找佛陀

Achaan Chah has been unusually tolerant of the comings and goings of his Western disciples. Traditionally, a new forest monk will spend at least five rains retreats with his first teacher before beginning his ascetic wanderings. Achaan Chah stresses discipline as a major part of his practice-working precisely and carefully with the monks' rules and learning to surrender to the monastic style and to the way of the community. But somehow Western monks, like favored children, have been allowed more than the traditional space to travel in order to visit other teachers. Usually when someone does leave, there is no fuss and not much memory. Life in the Dharma is immediate, full, and complete. Achaan Chah has said that from where he sits, "Nobody comes and nobody goes."

　　阿姜 查对於西方弟子的来来去去特别地宽容。依照传统的规矩，一位新出家的森林僧，在他开始苦行云游以前，必须跟他的第一位师父过至少五次的夏安居。阿姜 查强调，规律是他修行的主要的部份──严谨地、小心地守好出家人的戒，然後学习去遵循寺院的作息和团体的规矩。然而，西方的弟子们就如受宠的小孩，在传统上，被容许有更大的空间，可以四处参访其他的老师。通常，当某人离开时也不会有什　惊扰或惦念。在“法”的生活中，是当下的、圆满的、完整的。阿姜 查说，对他而言：“没有人来，也没有人去。”

After only a year and a half of practice at WatBa Pong, one American asked and received permission to travel and study with other Thai and Burmese teachers. A year or two later, he returned full of tales of his travels, of many months of extraordinary and intensive practice and of a number of remarkable experiences. After completing his usual prostrations, he was greeted as if he had never left. At the end of the morning Dharma discussion and business with monks and visitors, Achaan Chah finally turned to him and asked if he had found any new or better Dharma outside the forest monastery. No, he had learned many new things in his practice, but actually, they were to be found at WatBa Pong as well. The Dharma is always right here for anyone to see, to practice. "Ah yes," Achaan Chah laughed, "I could have told you that before you left, but you wouldn't have understood. "

　　有一位美国弟子，只在巴蓬寺里修行了一年半，就请求并允许去云游并跟其他泰国、缅甸的禅师参学。一、两年後，他带回了许多云游的见闻、数月的格外精进修行和一些特殊的经验。消完假之後，他受到如以往的对待。阿姜 查结束他早上的法义探讨及与僧侣、在家众的事情处理完後，终於转身询问他，在森林道场之外是否有找到任何新的、更好的“法”。没有，虽然他学习到许多新事物，但，事实上，在巴蓬寺里也一样学得到。“法”，一直都在当下这里，等著你来看、等著你来修习。“是啊!”阿姜 查笑著说：“我在你离开前，就可以这样告诉你，但当时你是不会明了的。”

Then the Western monk went to the cottage of Achaan Sumedho, the senior Western disciple of Achaan Chah, and told all his stories and adventures, his new understandings and great insights into practice. Sumedho listened in silence and prepared afternoon tea from the roots of certain forest plants. When the stories were completed and the insights recounted, Sumedho smiled and said, "Ah, how wonderful. Something else to let go of." Only that.

　　後来，这位西方僧侣到阿姜 查西方弟子中的大弟子──阿姜 苏美多的茅蓬，告诉他所有的见闻及奇遇，和他的新领悟与对修行的深厚内观。苏美多静静地听著，同时准备著用森林里的某种植物的根所做的下午茶。当他把故事及内观都叙述完之後，苏美多笑著说：“啊，很好，不过，还有须要放下的。”如此而已。

Yet the Westerners kept coming and going, all to learn these lessons for themselves. At times, Achaan Chah would bless their travels; often, though, he would tease.

　　然而，还是有很多西方弟子们继续来来去去，但，他们都亲身体验了这一课。有时候，阿姜 查会祝福他们的行脚──但是，通常他都会调侃他们。

An English monk, vacillating in his search for the perfect life, the perfect teacher, had come and gone, ordained and disrobed, several times. "This monk," Achaan Chah finally chided, "has dog droppings in his monk's bag, and he thinks every place smells bad."

　　有一位英国僧侣，为了寻求完美的生活、完美的师父而犹豫不定，来来去去、出家还俗好几次。“这个出家人，”阿姜 查终於责备道：“他的僧袋里有狗屎，因而认为每个地方都很臭。”

Another English monk who had come and gone from the monastery, to Europe, to a job, to a marriage engagement, to monk hood several times-was seated one day at Achaan Chah's cottage. "What this monk is looking for," Achaan Chah declared to the assembly, "is a turtle with a moustache. How far do you think he will have to travel to find it?"

　　另一位英国僧侣，曾经出入於寺院，到欧洲、工作、订婚、又出家好几次。有一天，他正坐在阿姜 查的茅蓬外，阿姜 查便向大众说：“这个出家人所要找的，是一只有胡须的乌龟，你认为他要走多远才能找得到呢?”

Out of frustration, another Western monk went to Achaan Chah asking permission to leave. Practice and surrender to the monastic life were hard, and this monk began to find fault with all that surrounded him. ''The other monks talk too much. Why do we have to chant? I want more time alone to meditate. The senior monks don't teach newcomers very well, and even you," he said to Achaan Chah in desperation, "even you don't seem so enlightened. You're always changing-sometimes you're strict, sometimes you don't seem to care. How do I know you're enlightened?"

　　另一位西方僧侣因为受到挫折的缘故，便去请求阿姜 查允许他离开。因为修行和遵循寺院生活很困难，所以这位出家人开始挑剔周遭的环境。“其他的僧侣话太多了。我们为何要课诵呢？我要有更多的时间独自禅坐。年长的僧侣也没有好好地教导新进比丘，还有你，”他谴责阿姜 查：“就连你看起来都不像开悟了。你总是在课诵，有时很严格，有时又似乎漠不关心。我怎么知道你有没有开悟?”

Achaan Chah laughed heartily at this, which both amused and irritated the young monk. '11's a good thing I don't appear to be enlightened to you," he said, "because if I fit your model of enlightenment, your ideal of how an enlightened person should act, you would still be caught looking for the Buddha outside yourself. He's not out there-he's in your own heart. "

　　阿姜 查对这点哈哈大笑，使得这位僧侣又气又好笑。“在你看来，我并没有开悟，那是件好事，”他说：“因为，如果我符合你的开悟形象，符合你对觉悟者应有的举止观念，那么，你就会依然执著於向外的寻找佛陀之中。他不在外面，而是在你自己的心中。”

The monk bowed and returned to his cottage to look for the real Buddha.