Opposing Lust

　　对治贪欲

If the lay life were the most suitable for practice, the Buddha would not have had us become monks. Our bodies and minds are a gang of thieves and murderers, constantly pulling us toward the fires of greed, hatred, and delusion. In lay life, it is so much more difficult, with constant sense contact, as if someone were calling in welcoming tones from a house, "Oh, come here, please come here." and as you approached, they were to open the door and shoot you.

　　如果在家生活是最适合修行的话，佛陀就不会叫我们出家了。我们的身和心就好像一群小偷和杀人犯，不断地把我们拉入贪、嗔、痴的火焰中。在感官的不断接触下，在家的生活进而难上加难，就好像一个人在屋内以一种欢迎的语调控召唤著：“喔，来这里，请来这里!”然而，当你靠近时，它们便开门拿枪射你。

You can do ascetic practices, such as using worn out unattractive things or doing the corpse meditation, looking at everyone you see, including yourself as a corpse or a skeleton. Yet these practices are not easy. As soon as you see a pretty young girl, you stop seeing corpses.

　　你可以去做例如：用粗陋之物或以尸体做禅修的苦行，将你所看到的每一个人──包括你自己，都视为尸体或骷髅。然而，这些修行并不容易，因为，你一看到年轻貌美的女孩，就不再看到尸体了。

Body meditation is an example of opposition. We normally consider the body good and beautiful; the Path is to contemplate its impermanent and unpleasant aspects. When we are young and strong, not yet afflicted with serious illness, it is easy to think wrongly and act unskilfully. Death seems far away, one fears no one and nothing. If one does not meditate, a taste of illness and a realization of aging may be necessary to change one's outlook. Why wait for this? Just be as one who has died. Your desires have not yet died, it is true, but behave as if they had.

　　观身的禅修是一个对治的例子。我们通常都认为身体是完美和美丽的──而“道”是要你去思惟(观)它的无常和苦的一面。当我们年轻力壮，还不曾受过重病的折磨时，比较会有错误的观念和做不好的事，死，仍乎也离得很遥远，所以没有丝毫恐惧。如果我们不禅坐的话，尝到病痛的滋味或衰老的觉悟时，也许才会改变我们的看法。为什　要等到那时候呢?就把自己当作死了一样，虽然欲望还没死，没错，但，就当它们已死了一般。

Sometimes it is necessary to go to extremes, such as living near dangerous beasts. If you know there are tigers and wild elephants about and fear for your life, you will not have time to think about sex. Or you can reduce your food or fast to temporarily reduce energy.

　　有时候，走极端点是必要的，例如：住在危险的野兽附近。如果你知道附近有老虎和野象，而且也为你自己的性命担忧，你就没有时间去想淫欲了。抑或，你可以以节食或断食的方法，暂时地减低你的精力。

Some monks live in cemeteries and make death and decay their constant object of meditation. As a young monk, I liked to live with old men, asking them what it was like to get old, seeing them and realizing we all must go the same way. Constantly keeping death and decay in mind, dispassion and disappointment in the world of senses arise, leading to rapture and concentration. One sees things as they are and is free of them. Later, when meditation is firmly established, there are no difficulties. We are only driven by lust because meditation is not yet unshakable.

　　有些出家众住在坟场里，以死亡和衰败做为他们不断的禅修对象。身为一位僧青年的话，我会喜欢和老人住在一起，问他们年老的感觉，看到他们後，觉悟有一天我们都必会如此。要不断地将死亡和衰败牢记在心，对於世间感官的厌离便会生起，进而导致专注与禅定。一位见到事物的本然的人，就已解脱了它们。往後，当禅坐已坚固地建立起时，就不再困难了。我们之所以被贪欲所驱，是因为禅坐尚不到不动摇的地步。

When we come to live in the forest as monks, we are no longer letting the defilements be content in their own way, so we find they kick at us quite hard. Patience and endurance are the only remedy. In fact, at times in our practice there is nothing else, only endurance. Yet of course it will all change.

　　身为出家人, , 来到森林里居住，就已不再让烦恼(杂染)为所欲为了，因此我们会发现它们非常用力地在踢我们。耐心及毅力在此时则是唯一的处方。事实上，有时候我们的修行中什　也没有，唯一有的只是毅力而已。当然啦!一切都会改变。

People outside may call us mad to live in the forest like this, sitting like statues. But how do they live? They laugh, they cry, they are so caught up that, at times, they kill themselves or one another out of greed and hatred. Who are the mad ones?

　　我们这样住在森林里，外面的人大概都会说我们神经病，坐得跟佛像一样。但他们又是如何生活呢?他们笑、哭，他们如此地被束缚，有时候，因为贪婪与嗔恚而自杀或杀他人。到底是谁疯了?

Remember to keep in mind why we ordain. Anyone who comes to a practice like ours and does not taste enlightenment has wasted his time. Lay people with families, possessions, and responsibilities have attained it. One who is ordained should certainly be able to do the same.

　　切记!要把我们为何出家牢记在心。任何来此像我们这般修行的人，如果没尝到觉悟的滋味，只是浪费了他们的时间。拥有家庭、财富及责任的在家人都能成就，一位出家人当然更应该办得到啊!