Meditation and Formal Practice
 
第四章 禅坐和外相的修行

In keeping with his general style, of teaching, the meditation instructions of Achaan Chah are simple and natural. Usually he just tells people to sit and watch their breath or to walk and notice their body. Then, after a while, he asks them to begin to examine their heart and mind in both postures, to see their nature and characteristics. Sometimes this is all that is offered for initial instruction.

　　阿姜 查的禅修指导是简单而自然的 ── 一如他通常的教导风格。通常，他只叫人们去坐，然後看著自己的呼吸，或经行(行禅)并且去注意身体。一段时间之後，他要他们开始在行、坐二种姿势中去审视自己的心，去洞见它们的本然及特性。有时候，对初阶的指导只有这些而已。

Achaan Chah is careful to avoid letting any method of practice be confused with Dharma. The Dharma is what is, and Dharma practice is any way that clearly apprehends the true nature and characteristics of what is, of our world, of body and mind. Therefore, Achaan Chah does not emphasize any particular technique. He wants students to learn inner strength and independence in practice from the beginning, asking questions when necessary, but relying on their own ability to watch and understand the mind and on their own wisdom to illuminate their experience.

　　阿姜 查很小心地避免让任何修行方法与“法”混淆。“法”就是“如是”而已，而任何能够使我们清楚地觉察到“如是”、世间、身与心的真实本然及特质的方法，就是“法”的修习。因此，阿姜 查并不强调任何特殊的技巧。他要学生们在开始时学习内心的力量及独立修行，在必要时才问问题，但平常要靠自己的能力去观察和了解心，并依自己的智慧去启开自己的经验。

Still, after being at Wat Ba Pong for some time, practicing alone, learning from some of the senior monks, and hearing many questions answered and many Dharma talks. one learns certain subtleties of formal practice. A variety of traditional forest meditations such as the simple mantra "Buddho," or cemetery meditations, or contemplations on the thirty-two parts of the body are also taught when deemed appropriate for particular students. Otherwise, meditation is developed in a simple and straightforward fashion.

　　然而，在巴蓬寺住了一段时间，独自修行，向资质较长的出家人学习，并听了许多问题的解答及“法”的开示後，我们才学习到外相修行上的某些微妙之处。种种传统的森林禅修，例如：简单的咒语“逋哆”、或冢间禅修、或观身体的三十二个部份，在认为对某些特殊的学生合适时，也会教授。除此之外，禅修通常是在一种简单而直接的方式下成长的。

In sitting practice, Achaan Chah says it is best to sit with a balanced and erect posture, legs crossed or in some other position that keeps the back and head straight and the chest open for unrestricted breathing. One should sit quite still, allowing the body to become settled and quiet in preparation for the initial breathing meditation.

　　在坐禅方面，阿姜 查说，最好的姿势是挺直、保持平衡、盘腿，或是其它能使背部和头挺直的姿势，挺起胸来以使呼吸顺畅。要坐得平稳，让身体安定下来，在平静中为观呼吸的禅修作准备。

The first direction of sitting practice is to still and concentrate the mind. Focus the attention on the breath in an easy and natural way, allowing it to come and go without interference. Use the sensation, the direct experience of the breath as it enters and leaves the nostrils, as the point of concentration. Silently follow the sensation of the breath for as long as you can. Then, each time you notice the mind has wandered (which will be thousands of times until it is trained), return gently to concentration on the breath.

　　坐禅的第一个方向是将心平静和集中起来，以一种轻松而自然的方式，将注意力放在呼吸上，让呼吸在不受干扰下进出。利用呼吸在进出鼻孔时的直接感觉经验，作为专注的焦点。尽可能地静静跟随呼吸的感觉，然後，每当你觉察到心散乱时(在经过训练以前，会发生上千次)，轻轻地再回到呼吸的专注上。

This meditation is a way of using our most immediate experience. the ever-changing reality of the breath, to concentrate the mind. One is instructed to patiently continue this simple exercise as a way of strengthening the power of the mind to focus and see. Eventually, this very simple breath concentration can lead to the highest levels of meditative absorption and samadhi.

　　这种禅修方法是利用我们最直接的经验──呼吸的不变真理，来专注心。我们要接受耐心地继续这种简单的练习，做为增强心力的方法，以使我们能够专注和洞见。最後，这种简易的呼吸专注法可以导致禅那的最高境界和三摩地。

However, absorption is not the goal of the practice as taught by Achaan Chah, even though for some it may arise naturally in the course of meditation. Students are instructed to use the concentration and stillness they develop through mindfulness of breathing to aid hi the second aspect of their practice. Once the mind is somewhat quiet and focused. one is instructed to begin to examine the workings of the mind and body. To examine or to contemplate does not mean to think about, but rather to feel. to experience directly, how our world is happening. Examine the aggregates of body and mind. Achaan Chah often advises. Notice first the body, which is directly experienced as an ever-changing play of senses. Of elements-hot, cold, bright. dark. soft. hard. heavy, light, and so on.

　　虽然对有些人而言，禅那(定)在禅修的过程中自然地生起，然而，禅那(定)并不是阿姜 查所教导的修行目标。阿姜 查指导学生们去利用他们在透过观呼吸後所增长的“定”与平静，来协助他们修行中的第二阶段。一旦心平静、专注後，他教我们要开始去审视身、心的运作。去审视或思惟(观)并不意味著光空想而已，而是去感觉，去直接地经验我们的世间正在如何的变迁。阿姜 查经常建议我们，去审视身、心的组成成份(五蕴)。首先，先觉察身体(色)──直接经验感官和元素的不断变迁：热、冷、明、暗、软、硬、重、轻等等。

Examine the aggregates of feeling pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant-changing each moment. Notice the play of perception, of memory and thought, of reactions and volition, of consciousness, the quality each of these experiences brings anew in each moment. See how life is a dynamic interplay of these aggregates arising, changing, passing away. Sense objects, feeling, recognition, reaction, volition, the same process again and again. Notice what experience is like when desire or expectation arises. Notice the causes of suffering. Notice the stillness when the mind is not caught by desire.

审视感觉(受)的组成成份(蕴)──乐、无记、苦──刹那刹那都在改变。觉察想、行、识的把戏，觉知这些每一刹那的经验的本质。看看生命为何是这些生、异、灭要素的互动动力。色、受、想、行、识同样的过程一而再、再而三的发生。当欲望或期待生起时，要觉察那种经验是怎　样的。觉察苦的起因；觉察当心不被欲望所束缚时的那种宁静。

Is there any part of experience that does not share the characteristics of constant change and fleeting instability, any part that gives lasting satisfaction and is not empty of a self, of an I, of an ego? Where is the self in all this? Examine and you will see how absolutely everything is changing. No me exists, no fixed self. Only this process.

　　有任何并不具备迁变、迅速变异之特质的经验吗?有任何会永保完美，有“自性”、有“我”、有“自我”的部份吗?在这一切当中，“我”在那里呢?去审视看看，你就会到一切事物都在变迁。没有“我”存在，没有固定的“自我”，有的只是这个过程。

To learn to see deeply into experience and its characteristics is not limited to sitting meditation. Walk and watch. Do the walking meditation back and forth at a natural pace; do it for many hours, if possible. Learn to pay attention, and there is nothing you will not understand. This is the heart of the practice.

　　深入观察经验及其特性的学习，并不只限於坐禅而已。走路时也可以观察，用一种自然的速度来回地经行；如果可能的话，走个几小时。学习去注意，就没有什么不能了解的了。这就是修行的核心。

In many monasteries, daily interviews with the teacher are an integral part of the practice, but Achaan Chah discourages this. Although he is always available to answer questions, he does not conduct formal interviews. Learning to answer your own question is better, he says. Learn about doubting in the mind, how it arises and how it passes. No one and nothing can free You but your own understanding. Still the mind, the heart, and learn to watch. You will find the whole Dharma of the Buddha is revealing itself in every moment.

　　在许多寺院里，和师父每天面谈是修行中不可或缺的一部份，但阿姜 查并不鼓励这点。虽然他会回答你的问题，可是，他并不做正式的面谈。他说：“学习去解答自己的问题比较好。向心中的疑惑学习，它如何生起，如何消失。除了你的领悟外，没有任何东西能让你得到解脱。静下心来学习去观察，你将发现整个佛陀的“法”无时无刻都在显现著。”