Scenes Change, but the Mind Remains the Same

　　境动而心不动

One would think that to relinquish all worldly life and take the robes and bowl of a forest monk should put an end to the concerns of possessions for a time. No longer the owner of car and stereo, books and wardrobe, the monk is free. But the movement of the attached mind is like a heavy flywheel that only slows down imperceptibly.

　　我们也许会认为一旦舍弃世间的生活，然後出家著衣、持钵就应该已暂时地停止对财物的渴求。出家人解脱了，不再是车子、音响、书、衣柜的主人。可是，执著的行动就如同沉重的飞轮一样，只是稍微缓慢下来罢了。

Therefore, some of the new Western monks soon became attached to their robes and bowl and monk's bag. Carefully, they dyed their robes just the right color or contrived ways to become owners of the newer, lightweight, stainless steel begging bowls. Concern and care for and even attachment to only two or three possessions can take a lot of time when one has little else to do but meditate.

　　因此，有些新的西方僧侣会马上执著他们的袈裟、钵和僧袋。他们会非常小心地将他们的袈裟染得很均匀，或者动脑筋去得到一个较新、较轻、不锈钢的钵。当你除了禅坐外，没什　其他要做时，在意和甚至只执著两、三件东西，就足以耽误很多时间了。

Several of the Western monks who had been world travelers before ordination, extravagantly free in their dress and their lifestyle, soon found the surrender and conformity of the monastery oppressive and difficult. Heads are shaved just alike, robes are worn just alike, even the way to stand and to walk is prescribed. Bows to senior monks are performed just this way, the begging bowl is held in just such a manner. Even with the best intentions, a Westerner can find this surrender frustrating.

　　很多出家前曾是世界旅行家的西方僧侣，衣著和生活方式都非常随便，他们会马上发现寺院的屈就跟遵从的压力和困难。头有一定的剃法，袈裟有一定的穿法，甚至连走路和站立的方式都有规定，顶礼年长的僧侣有一定的方式，持钵也有一定的规矩。但是，虽然他们的动机很好，但他们还是觉得这种屈就的阻挠。

One particular monk had been not only a regular traveler, but as he described himself, a "costume" hippy, with bells and flowery embroidered capes, fancy hats, and long braids. The monastic conformity became so difficult after a few weeks that he was awakened in the middle of the night by a violent dream in which he had taken his golden robes and tiedied them red and green and had painted flowers and Tibetan designs over his black begging bowl.

　　有一位特殊的出家人，曾经是个旅行家，他形容自己是一个“服饰”的嬉皮，穿著缀有铃铛、绣花滚边的斗蓬、怪异的帽子、留著长长的辫子。寺院的遵从对他而言非常困难，几个星期後，他在半夜里被恶梦所惊醒，梦中他把他的金黄色袈裟染得红红绿绿的，然後在黑色的钵上书上花样和西藏的图案。

Achaan Chah laughed when he heard this story the next morning. Then he asked about freedom in America. Did it have to do with hair style, with clothes? Perhaps, he reminded the monk as he sent him back to his meditation, there is a deeper meaning to freedom. His task was to discover that liberation beyond all circumstances and times.

　　第二大早上，当阿姜 查听到这件事之後，哈哈大笑，然後阿姜 查问他美国所谓的自由是什么，难道它跟发型、衣饰有关吗?当他要送这位比丘回去禅坐时，他提醒他，也许自由(自在)有其更深一层的涵义。他的任务是去发觉超越一切时间与空间的解脱。

For each who experiences this greed in the circumstances of renunciation and simplicity, it is a lesson illuminated as never before. The difficulty with possessiveness and desire is quite independent of external circumstances-it takes root in the heart and can take charge in any situation, with any quantity of goods. Until it is thoroughly understood and the lesson of relinquishment deeply learned, the new outer form becomes only another arena in which habits of greed play.

　　对每一个在舍离和朴实的环境中经验这种贪欲的人而言，这是个未曾有的深刻教育。占有欲和欲望的难点在於它跟外界是毫不相干的──它根深蒂固地扎入心中，而且在任何情况、任何物品的数量下，都能控制心。除非彻底明了并深刻地学会舍弃，否则，新的外相只会成为另一个贪婪的游戏场所。

Achaan Chah is well aware of the power of the forest life to illuminate and at times exacerbate problems rooted in the mind / heart. His mastery is to use the ascetic discipline to allow monks to confront and work directly with their own problems of greed or judgment, hatred or ignorance. And his teachings always turn the monks back to their own minds, the source and the root of all trouble.

　　阿姜 查深刻地觉察到能启发心或有时甚至会加重心中的根本问题的森林生活之力量。他的要诀是利用苦行的训练，让僧侣们去面对和对治自心中贪欲、分别、嗔怒和愚痴的种种问题。而他的教导，总是希望僧侣们回到自己的心中!──一切问题的根源。