APPENDIX
Citta—The Mind’s Essential Knowing Nature.
附录：心——意识知道的根本特性
The following comments about the nature of the citta have been excerpted from several discourses given by Ãcariya Mahã Boowa.
以下关于心的特性之评论摘录自阿姜摩诃布瓦几篇不同的开示。
OF FOREMOST IMPORTANCE IS THE CITTA, the mind’s essential knowing nature. It consists of pure and simple awareness: the citta simply knows. Awareness of good and evil, and the critical judgements that result, are merely activities of the citta. At times, these activities may manifest as mindfulness; at other times, wisdom. But the true citta does not exhibit any activities or manifest any conditions at all. It only knows. Those activities that arise in the citta, such as awareness of good and evil, or happiness and suffering, or praise and blame, are all conditions of the consciousness that flows out from the citta. Since it represents activities and conditions of the citta that are, by their very nature, constantly arising and ceasing, this sort of consciousness is always unstable and unreliable.
最重要的是心——意识知道的根本特性。它由纯净与简单的觉知构成——心只是知道。觉知善与恶，以及随之而来的判断，仅仅是心的活动。有时，这些活动可能显示成念；另一些时候，是智慧。可是真正的心完全不会显示活动或任何状态，它只是知道。所有从心生起的活动，比如觉知善与恶，乐与苦，誉与毁，全都是从心流露出来的意识状态。既然代表着心的活动和状态，这类意识的本质不断生起灭去，始终不稳定、不可靠。
The conscious acknowledgement of phenomena as they arise and cease is called viññãna. For instance, viññãna acknowledges and registers the sense impressions that are produced when sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and tactile sensations contact the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body respectively. Each such contact between an external sense sphere and its corresponding internal base gives rise to a specific consciousness that registers the moment at which each interaction takes place, and then promptly ceases at the same moment that the contact passes. Viññãna, therefore, is consciousness as a condition of the citta. Sankhãra, or thoughts and imagination, is also a condition of the citta. Once the citta has given expression to these conditions, they tend to proliferate without limit. On the other hand, when no conditions arise at all, only the citta’s inherent quality of knowing is apparent.
能认知现象生灭的是识(viññaṇa)，比如，识(viññaṇa)认知，同时记录下色、声、香、味、触，接触到眼、耳、鼻、舌、身时产生的影像。每一项外尘与相应的内根接触的同时，都会产生并记录下与之相应的识，并在接触结束的同一时间熄灭。识因此是心的一个状态。行，或思想和想象，是心的另一状态。一旦心对这些状态作出反应，它们就会无止尽地增长。另一方面，如果没有任何状态生起，心本来的功用——知道——就凸显出来。
Still, the essential knowing of the average person’s mind is very different from the essential knowing of an Arahant. The average person’s knowing nature is contaminated from within. Arahants, being khïõãsava, are free of all contamination. Their knowing is a pure and simple awareness without any adulteration. Pure awareness, devoid of all contaminants, is supreme awareness: a truly amazing quality of knowing that bestows perfect happiness, as befits the Arahant’s state of absolute purity. This Supreme Happiness always remains constant. It never changes or varies like conditioned phenomena of the world, which are always burdened with anicca, dukkha, and anattã. Such mundane characteristics cannot possibly enter into the citta of someone who has cleansed it until it is absolutely pure.
无论如何，一般凡夫能知的心与阿罗汉知道的心完全不同。凡夫能知的特性从内部受到了染污。作为漏尽者，阿罗汉已从一切染污中解脱，他们的知道是纯净和简单的觉知，没有染污。纯净的觉知没有任何染污，是无上的觉知——带来圆满快乐、真正殊胜的知道，与阿罗汉彻底清净的境界相应。这无上的快乐是恒常不变的，不像世间一直为无常、苦、无我所累的有为法那般变化，这类世间法根本不可能进入已经彻底清净者的心。
The citta forms the very foundation of samsãra; it is the essence of being that wanders from birth to birth. It is the instigator of the cycle of existence and the prime mover in the round of repeated birth and death. Samsãra is said to be a cycle because death and rebirth recur regularly according to the immutable law of kamma. The citta is governed by kamma, so it is obliged to revolve perpetually in this cycle following kamma’s dictates. As long as the citta remains under the jurisdiction of kamma, this will always be the case. The citta of the Arahant is the sole exception, for his citta has completely transcended kamma’s domain. Since he has also transcended all conventional connections, not a single aspect of relative, conventional reality can possibly become involved with the Arahant’s citta. At the level of Arahant, the citta has absolutely no involvement with anything.
心构造轮回的真正根本，它是有情不断轮回的本质。心是轮回的煽动者，也是生死相续流转中的主要驱动者。说轮回不断流转，是因为有情不可避免地受业力支配不断地生死不息。心被业力所统治，因此而受业力所奴役恒常流转生死。只要心继续受业力统治，情况就必然如此。唯一例外的是阿罗汉的心，他的心已完全的超越了业力的主宰，同时他也彻底超越一切世间的相对，没有任何世俗法有可能干涉阿罗汉的心。在阿罗汉的境界，心彻底出离一切。
Once the citta is totally pure, it simply knows according to its own inherent nature. It is here that the citta reaches it culmination; it attains perfection at the level of absolute purity. Here the continuous migration from one birth to the next finally comes to an end. Here the perpetual journey from the higher realms of existence to the lower ones and back again, through the repetitive cycle of birth, ageing, sickness, and death, totally ceases. Why does it cease here? Because those hidden, defiling elements that normally permeate the citta and cause it to spin around have been completely eliminated. All that remains is the pure citta, which will never again experience birth and death.
一旦心彻底的清净，它就只是依据自己内在的本性觉知。在这里心才证得它最高的境界，它在这绝对纯净的境界中证得圆满。在这个境界里，从一期生命延续到另一期生命的轮回终于止息。在这个境界，那无止尽地从高层次的生命堕落到低层次的生命，然后又回升，不断历尽生、老、病、死的轮回，终于止息。为什么会在这个境界止息呢？这是由于那些平时渗透入心，使它不断轮转的隐密杂染因缘，已彻底熄灭，剩下的只是纯净不再经历生死的心。
Rebirth is inevitable, however, for the citta that has yet to reach that level of purity. One may be tempted to deny that rebirth follows death, or one may doggedly hold to the nihilistic viewpoint that rejects all possibility of life after death, but such convictions cannot alter the truth. One’s essential knowing nature is not governed by speculation; nor is it influenced by people’s views and opinions. Its preeminence within one’s own being, coupled with the supreme authority of kamma, completely override all speculative considerations.
如果心还未达到这个层次的清净，轮回将无可避免。有人可能会否认死后有轮回，或者有人会顽固地坚信虚无主义，否定死后生命会延续的任何可能。但是信仰无法改变事实，一个人意识知道的根本特性不受猜测所主宰，也不会被个人的观点或意见所影响。它是一个人自己内在最主要的主宰，与无上权威的业力联合，凌驾一切猜测思想。
As a consequence, all living beings are compelled to move from one life to the next, experiencing both gross incarnations, like the creatures of land, sea and air, and the more refined incarnations of ghosts, devas and brahmas. Although the later are so ethereal as to be invisible to the human eye, the citta has no difficulty taking birth in their realms. The appropriate kamma is all that is required. Kamma is the determining factor; it is the power that propels the citta on its ceaseless journey in samsãra.
结果是，一切有情被迫从一期生命投向另一期，经历或粗的，如陆上、海或水中生命；或微细的，如饿鬼、天、梵的生命。虽然后者是那么的微细，不为人类的肉眼所见，不过心可以毫无困难地投生这些道中，所需要的只是相应的业。业力是决定性的因素，它驱使心在轮回中流转无尽。心极端的微细，以至难以明了它到底是由什么建构而成。
The citta is something so extremely subtle that it is difficult to comprehend what actually constitutes the citta. It is only when the citta attains a state of meditative calm that its true nature becomes apparent. Even experienced meditators who are intent on understanding the citta are unable to know its true nature until they have attained the meditative calm of samãdhi.
只有在心证得某一层次的禅定，它的本质才凸显出来。即使是有经验的禅者也无法了解心的本质，除非他证得三摩地。
Even though the citta resides within the body, we are nevertheless unable to detect it. That’s how very subtle it is. Because it is dispersed throughout the physical body, we cannot tell which part or which aspect is actually the true citta. It is so subtle that only the practice of meditation can detect its presence and differentiate it from all the other aspects associated with the body. Through the practice of meditation we can separate them out, seeing that the body is one thing and the citta is another. This is one level of separation, the level of the citta that is experienced in samãdhi, but its duration is limited to the time spent practicing samãdhi.
虽然心安住在身体中，可是我们却无法侦察出它，它就是那么的微细。因为它遍布在整个躯体中，我们不能说哪部分或侧面是真正的心，它微细到只有禅修才能觉察它，并从身体的各组合中把它辨别出来。通过禅修我们有能力把心分隔出来，看出身与心是不同的存在。这是一个层次的分隔，心在三摩地中的层次，不过这只有在三摩地的状态中做到。
At the next level, the citta can totally separate itself from the physical body, but it cannot yet disengage from the mental components of personality: vedanã, saññã, sankhãra, and viññãna. When the citta reaches this level, one can use wisdom to separate out the body and eventually become detached forever from the belief that one’s body is oneself, but one is still unable to separate the mental factors of feeling, memory, thoughts, and consciousness from the citta. By using wisdom to investigate further, these mental factors can also be detached from the citta. We then see clearly for ourselves—sanditthiko—that all five khandhas are realities separate from the citta. This is the third level of separation.
在另一个层次，心可以从身体中完全分隔出来，可是还无法从受、想、行、识，这些组合成个人心理的作用中分隔出来。心在这个层次，我们可以用智慧把它从身体分隔出来，并且最后永远的不再相信身体是“我”，不过它仍然无法把心从受想行识的作用中分隔出来。继续用智慧分别的话，心最终可以从这些心的作用中分隔，届时我们可以清楚证到——现证——五蕴与心是不同的真实。这是第三层次的分隔。
At the final level, our attention turns to the original cause of all delusion, that extremely subtle pervasion of ignorance we call avijjã. We know avijjã’s name, but we fail to realize that it is concealed there within the citta. In fact, it permeates the citta like an insidious poison. We cannot see it yet, but it’s there. At this stage, we must rely on the superior strength of our mindfulness, wisdom, and perseverance to extract the poison. Eventually, by employing the full power of mindfulness and wisdom, even avijjã can be separated from the citta.
在最后的层次，我们专注于一切虚妄的根本原因，那极端微细渗透的无明。我们只知道无明这个词，可是却无法觉悟到它隐藏在心里面。事实上，它渗透进心里面就像无色无味的毒药，我们无法看到，可是它就在那儿。在这个阶段，我们得依靠高深的念力、智慧和精进把毒取出。最后，通过应用全面发挥的念力与智慧，即使是无明也可以从心中分隔出来。
When everything permeating the citta has finally been removed, we have reached the ultimate stage. Separation at this level is a permanent and total disengagement that requires no further effort to maintain. This is true freedom for the citta. When the body suffers illness, we know clearly that only the physical elements are affected, so we are not concerned or upset by the symptoms. Ordinarily, bodily discomfort causes mental stress. But once the citta is truly free, one remains supremely happy even amid intense physical suffering. The body and the pain are known to be phenomena separate from the citta, so the citta does not participate in the distress. Having relinquished them unequivocally, body and feelings can never again intermix with the citta. This is the citta’s absolute freedom.
当渗入心的一切全部都被除去，我们就证得最终的境界。这个层次的分隔是永恒的，彻底脱离，不需要再努力了，这是心真正的自由。身体生病时，我们清楚知道这只是物质元素受影响，因此不为病状所干扰或沮丧。普通的情况，身体的不适带来心理的不安。一旦心真正自由，尽管身体遭受极端的痛苦，心依然保持无上的喜悦。身体与疼痛跟心是不同的现象，所以心不会受痛苦所恼。被毫不犹豫地舍弃之后，身体和感受就再也无法与心混合。这是心的绝对解脱。
