Sense Objects and the Mind

　　外尘和心

We do not examine ourselves; we just follow desire, caught in endless rounds of grasping and fearing, wanting to do just as we please. Whatever we do, we want it to be at our ease. If we are not able to have comfort and pleasure any longer, we are unhappy, anger and aversion arise, and we suffer, trapped by our mind.

　　我们不去检视自己，而只去追逐欲望，被无尽的贪婪和惧怕所束缚，只想做我们所喜的事。不论我们做什　，只想得到我们的安逸。如果不能继续拥有舒适和快乐，我们就不高兴，并生嗔恨心，我们於是受到心的欺骗而痛苦不已。

For the most part, our thinking follows sense objects, and, wherever thought leads us, we follow. However, thinking and wisdom are different; in wisdom, the mind becomes still, unmoving, and we are simply aware, simply acknowledging. Normally, when sense objects come, we think about, dwell on, discourse over, and worry about them. Yet none of those objects is substantial; all are impermanent, unsatisfactory, and empty. Just cut them short and dissect them into these three common characteristics. When you sit again, they will arise again, but just keep observing them, keep checking them out.

　　最要紧的是，我们的思想追随著外尘，不管念头把我们带到那里，我们都会追随。总之，思想和智慧是不同的：在智慧之中，心变得宁静、不浮动──我们只是觉知。通常，当外尘出现时，我们会一再的深思、探究、谈论并担忧它们。然而，没有任何外尘是真实的，它们全是无常、不圆满(苦)、空的。只要截住它们，将它们分析成这三个普遍的性质。当你再静坐时，它们就会再生起，可是，你只须持续地观察它们、审视它们。

This practice is like caring for a buffalo and a rice field. The mind is like the buffalo that wants to eat the rice plants, sense objects; the one who knows is the owner. Consider the comparison. When you tend a buffalo, you let it go free but you keep watch over it. You cannot be heedless. If it goes close to the rice plants, you shout at it and it retreats. If it is stubborn and will not obey your voice, you take a stick and hit it. Do not fall asleep in the daytime and let everything go. If you do, you will have no rice plants left, for sure.

　　当你在观察你的心时，觉知者会继续觉察一切。正如经上所言：“一个对自己内心有所警戒的人，将逃离恶魔的罗网。”心虽是心，但是谁在观察呢?心是一回事，觉知者是另一回事。在同一个时间里，心是在思惟也是在觉知。去觉知心──觉知它与外尘接触时是如何的?觉知它与外尘分开时又是如何?当觉知者如此地去观察心时，智慧便随之生起。

When you are observing your mind, the one who knows constantly notices all. As the sutras say, "He who watches over his mind shall escape the snares of Mara the Evil One." Mind is mind, but who is it that observes it? Mind is one thing, the one who knows is another. At the same time the mind is both the thinking process and the knowing. Know the mind-know how it is when it meets sense objects and how it is when it is apart from them. When the one who knows observes the mind in this way, wisdom arises. If it meets an object, it gets involved, just like the buffalo. Wherever it goes, you must watch it. When it goes near the rice plants, shout at it. If it will not obey, just give it the stick.

　　当心经验外尘时，就会紧紧地抓住外尘。当它紧抓不放时，觉知者一定要教导它──解释什么是好的、什么是坏的，指出因与果的定律，显示出任何它所执著的事物都将带来不好的後果──直到心恢复理智、直到心放下。如此一来，训练将会见效，而心也会平静下来。

When the mind experiences sense contact, it grabs hold. When it grabs hold, the one who knows must, teach it-explaining what is good and what is bad, pointing out the workings of cause and effect, showing that anything it holds on to will bring undesirable results until mind becomes reasonable, until it lets go. In this way, the training will take effect, and the mind will become tranquil.

The Buddha taught us to lay everything down, not like a cow or a buffalo but knowingly, with awareness. In order for us to know, he taught us to practice much, develop much, rest firmly on the principles of the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, and apply them directly to our own life.

　　佛陀教导我们要放下一切，不要像只母牛或水牛一般，反倒要时时觉知。为了使我们明白，他教我们要多修行、多培养，坚定地安住於佛、法、僧的宗旨上，直接将它们实践在我们的生活之中。

From the beginning I have practiced like this. In teaching my disciples, I teach like this. We want to see the truth not in a book or as an ideal but in our own minds. If the mind is not yet free, contemplate the cause and effect of each situation until the mind sees clearly and can free itself from its own conditioning. As the mind becomes attached again, examine each new situation-do not stop looking, keep at it, drive the point home. Then attachment will find no where to rest. This is the way I myself have practiced.

　　我一开始就是如此修行的，在教导我的弟子时，我也是这　教的。我不希望只在书中看见真理，或仅是一个理想，而是在我们的内心中。如果心还未解脱，观(思惟)每一个情况的因果，直到心看清并能从自身的情形之中解脱出来。如果心又去执著时，再去审视新的情况──绝不要停止觉察，继续保持下去，引导至家，於是执著将会无处可逃。这就是我自己曾修行的方法。

If you practice like this, true tranquility is found in activity, in the midst of sense objects. At first, when you are working on your mind and sense objects come, you cling to them or avoid them. You are therefore disturbed, not peaceful. When you sit and wish not to have sense contact, not to have thinking the very wish not to have is desire. The more you struggle with your thinking, the stronger it becomes. Just forget about it and continue to practice. When you make contact with sense objects, contemplate: impermanent, unsatisfactory, not self. Throw everything into these three pigeonholes, file everything under these three categories, and keep contemplating.
 
　　如果你这样修行，那　真正的宁静是在活动中、在外尘中被找到的。刚开始，当你在心上用功而外尘出现时，你会执著它们或逃避它们，於是你便被干扰了，而不得平静。当你在静坐时，期望不要有感官的接触，不要有思想，而这种期望就是欲望啊!你愈是和思想挣扎，它就会变得愈强。只要把它忘了，继续修行下去，当你再与外尘接触时，便观想：无常、苦、无我。把一切丢入这三法印之中，把一切都归入这三个的范畴之中，然後继续观。