Mindfulness

　　正 念

Just as animal life can be classified into two groups, creatures of the land and creatures of the sea, subjects of meditation can be divided into two categories, concentration and insight. Concentration meditations are those that are used to make the mind calm and one pointed. Insight, on the one hand, is the growing perception of impermanence, suffering, and emptiness of self and, on the other, our bridge over those waters.

　　禅坐的科目可分为两大类：止(定)与观(慧)；就如生物的生命型态可分为两类：陆上生物与水中的生物一般。止的禅修是善於使心平静且专一的禅修；观的禅修，一方面是在增长对无常、苦和无我的体会，另一方面，则是使我们能够跨过这些水的桥梁。

No matter how we may feel about our existence, our business is not to try to change it in any way. Rather, we just have to see it and let it be. Where suffering is, there too is the way out of suffering. Seeing that which is born and dies and is subject to suffering, Buddha knew there must also be something beyond birth and death, free of suffering.

　　不管我们对我们的生存感觉如何，我们的职责都不是去设法使它做任何改变。相反地，我们只须去洞见它，然後随它去。不论苦在哪里，那儿就必定有离苦之道。去彻见是什么在生与死，和是什么倾向苦。佛陀知道那儿也必须有超越生、死的东西、苦的解脱。

Methods of meditation all have value in helping to develop mindfulness. The point is to use mindfulness to see the underlying truth. With this mindfulness, we watch all desires, likes and dislikes, pleasures and pains that arise in the mind. Realizing they are impermanent, suffering, and empty of self, we let go of them. In this way, wisdom replaces ignorance, knowledge replaces doubt.

　　各种禅修的法门都有协助正念增长的价值。要点是在於，利用正念去洞见潜藏的真理。用这种正念，去观照在心中生起的欲望、喜、恶、苦、乐，并领悟它们是无常、苦和无我的，然後放下它们。如此一来，智慧便会取代愚痴，智慧便会取代疑惑。

As for singling out one object of meditation, you yourself must discover what fits your character. Wherever you choose to be mindful, it will bring wisdom to the mind. Mindfulness is knowing what is here, noticing, being aware. Clear comprehension knows the context in which the present is occurring. When mindfulness and clear comprehension act together, their companion, wisdom, always appears to help them complete any task.

　　至於选择一个禅修对象，你自己必须去发现哪一种适合你的性向。不论你选择哪一个做为你观照的对象，都将会把智慧带入心中。正念就是觉知当下、觉察和觉醒。清明的领悟(正知)觉知当下正在发生的情况。当正念和正知一齐运作时，它们的伙伴──智慧，永远会帮它们完成任何的工作。

Watch the mind, watch the process of experience arising and ceasing. At first the movement is constant as soon as one thing passes, another arises, and we seem to see more arising than ceasing. As time goes by we see more clearly, understanding how things arise so fast, until we reach the point where they arise, cease, and do not arise again.

　　观照心，观照经验的生、灭过程。刚开始的动态是迁流不息的 ── 一个刚灭，另一个就马上生起，我们似乎看到生比灭还多。随著时间流逝，我们会更清楚地看见，并明了它们是如何迅速地生起，一直到有一天，我们达到它们生、灭後便不再生起的境地为止。

With mindfulness you can see the real owner of things. Do you think this is your world, your body? It is the world's world, the body's body. If you tell it, Don't get old, does the body listen? Does your stomach ask permission to get sick? We only rent this house; why not find out who really owns it?

　　有了正念，你便可以彻见事物真正的主人。你认为这是你的世界、你的身体吗?这是世界的世界，身体的身体。如果你告诉它，不要去，身体会听从吗?你的胃会先申请允许才生病吗?我们只是租用这栋房子，为何不去追突出谁才是真正的主人呢?