The Discriminating Mind
分别心
Right understanding ultimately means non-discrimination-seeing all people as the same, neither good nor bad, neither clever nor foolish; not thinking that honey is sweet and good and some other food is bitter. Although you may eat several kinds of food, when you absorb and excrete them, they all become the same. Is it one or many? Is a glass big? In relation to a little cup, yes; when placed next to a pitcher, no.
正见的根本意义是：没有分别，视所有的人都是平等的，非好、坏，也非聪明或愚笨;也不去认为蜂蜜是甜又好，而其他食物却很苦涩。虽然你吃了很多种不同的食物，但是你食用而後排泄时，其实都是一样的。它是一还是异呢?对一个小茶杯来说，这个杯子大吗?是的，但放在一个大水罐边时，就不是了。
Our desire and ignorance, our discrimination color everything in this way. This is the world we create. Again, a pitcher is neither heavy nor light; we just feel that it is one way or the other. In the Zen koan of the flag in the wind, two persons are watching a flag: one says it is the wind that moves, the other says it is the flag. They can argue forever, take sticks and fight it out, all to no avail, for it is the mind that moves.
我们的欲望、无知和我们的分别心，如此地染著一切事物。这就是我们创造的世界。再说，一个水罐是既非重也非轻的，我们只觉得它不是这样就必是那样。在禅宗里，有个风动或幡动的公案：二个人同时在看一面旗子，一个人认为是风在动；另一个人说是幡在动。他们可以一直争论，甚至拿棍子打起来，都还是徒劳无功的，因为是心在动啊!
There are always differences. Get to know those differences, yet learn to see the sameness too. In our group people come from different backgrounds, different cultures. Yet without thinking, 'This one's Thai, that one's Lao, he's Cambodian, he's a Westerner," we should have mutual understanding and respect for the ways of others. Learn to see the underlying sameness of all things, how they are all truly equal, truly empty. Then you can know how to deal with the apparent differences wisely. But do not get attached even to this sameness.
差异是遍一切虚的，而要认识这些差异的同时，也要学著去看那些共同之处。在我们的团体中，人们来自不同的背景、不同的文化，但不要去想：“这个人是泰国人，那个人是寮国人，他是高棉人，那个是西方人……”我们应该有著相互的了解，并且去尊重他人的习俗，学习去看一切事物潜在的共通点，一切是如何地完全平等、真实空的，然後你才会知道该如何有智慧去处理这些明显的差异。可是也不要去执著这个共同点。
Why is sugar sweet and water tasteless? It is just their nature. So too with thinking and stillness, pain and pleasure-it is wrong understanding to want thinking to cease. Sometimes there is thought, sometimes stillness. We must see that both are by nature impermanent, unsatisfactory, not a cause for lasting happiness. But if we continue to worry and think further, '1 am suffering, I want to stop thinking," this wrong understanding only complicates things.
为什么糖是甜的，而水是无味的?这是它们的本然。思想和平静、痛苦和享乐也是一样的──想要思想终止是一种错误的见解。有时候会有想;有时候是静止的，我们必须了解二者都是由无常、不圆满的本然所始然，而非延续快乐的因素。但，如果我们继续担忧并进而认为：“我在受苦、我要停止想。”这种错误的见解，只会把事情复杂化。
At times, we may feel that thinking is suffering, like a thief robbing us of the present. What can we do to stop it? In the day, it is light; at night, it is dark. Is this itself suffering? Only if we compare the way things are now with other situations we have known and wish it were otherwise. Ultimately things are just as they are-only our comparisons cause us to suffer.
有时我们会觉得想是苦，就好像一个现在正在打劫我们的贼，我们要怎 做才能停止它呢?白天，是光明的；晚上，是黑暗的。它本身是苦的吗?只有当我们将现在的事物和其他我们所知的状况做比较，并期待有其他意外时，才会如此。事物终究是事物，只因我们的比较，造成我们受苦罢了。
You see this mind at work-do you consider it to be you or yours? "I don't know if it's me or mine," you answer, "but it's certainly out of control." It is just like a monkey jumping about senselessly. It goes upstairs, gets bored, runs back downstairs, gets tired of that, goes to a movie, gets bored again, has good food or poor food, gets bored with that too. Its behavior is driven not by dispassion but by different forms of aversion and fear.
你看著这个心在作用──你会认为它是“你”或“你的”吗?你会回答：“我不知道它是不是我或我的?可是它肯定是无法控制的。”就像一只猴子，无知地四处乱跳。它跳到楼上，无聊了，又跳到楼下；厌倦时，去看电影，然後无聊了，就去享有好的或不好的食物，可是，它对那也厌恶了，它的行为是被不同形式的恐惧与厌恶所驱使，而非冷静。
You have to learn control. Stop caring for the monkey-care for the truth of life instead. See the real nature of the mind: impermanent, unsatisfactory, empty. Learn to be its master; chain it down if you must. Do not just follow it, let it wear itself out and die. Then you have a dead monkey. Let the dead monkey rot away, and you have monkey's bones.
你必需学习去控制，停止对那只猴子的照顾，相反地，去关心生命的真理。去彻见心的真实本然：无常、苦、空。学习成为它的主人，如果必要的话，将它锁起来，不要只是一味地盲从；让它自己精疲力竭而死，那么你就会有一只死猴子了。让那只死猴子烂掉，那你便有猴子的骨头了。
Still enlightenment does not mean to become dead like a Buddha statue. One who is enlightened thinks also but knows the process as impermanent, unsatisfactory, and empty of self. We who practice must see these things clearly. We need to investigate suffering and stop its causes. If we do not see it, wisdom can never arise. There should be no guesswork, we must see things exactly as they are-feelings are just feelings, thoughts are just thoughts. This is the way to end all our problems.
We can see the mind as a lotus. Some lotuses are still stuck in the mud, some have climbed above the mud but are still underwater, some have reached the surface, while others are open in the sun, stain-free. Which lotus do you choose to be? If you find yourself below the surface:, watch out for the bites of fishes and turtles.
