NO MATTER HOW DEEP OR CONTINUOUS, samadhi is not an end in itself. Samadhi does not bring about an end to all suffering. But samadhi does constitute an ideal platform from which to launch an all out assault on the kilesas that cause all suffering. The profound calm and concentration generated by samadhi form an excellent basis for the development of wisdom.
无论三摩地有多深或多久，它本身不是最终目的。三摩地不能使所有烦恼熄灭，不过它提供一个理想的平台，以便全力以赴攻击带来一切痛苦的烦恼。三摩地所产生的甚深宁静与定力为智慧的修行提供卓越的基础。
The problem is that samadhi is so peaceful and satisfying that the meditator inadvertently becomes addicted to it. This happened to me: for five years I was addicted to the tranquility of samadhi; so much so that I came to believe that this very tranquility was the essence of Nibbana. Only when my teacher, Acariya Mun, forced me to confront this misconception, was I able to move on to the practice of wisdom.
然而三摩地本身的问题在于，它是那么的宁静和令人满足，以至禅修者一不小心就会耽溺其中。这发生在我身上：我耽溺在三摩地的平静中五年，甚至相信这平静就是涅槃的核心，直到我的老师阿姜曼(Venerable??cariyaMunBhūridatta)逼我正视这个错误的知见，我才能转去修智慧。
Unless it supports the development of wisdom, samadhi can sidetrack a meditator from the path to the end of all suffering. All meditators who intensify their efforts to develop samadhi should be aware of this pitfall. Samadhi’s main function on the path of practice is to support and sustain the development of wisdom. It is well suited to this task because a mind that is calm and concentrated is fully satisfied, and does not seek external distractions. Thoughts about sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and tactile sensations no longer impinge upon an awareness that is firmly fixed in samadhi. Calm and concentration are the mind’s natural sustenance. Once it becomes satiated with its favorite nourishment, it does not wander off where it strays into idle thinking. It is now fully prepared to undertake the kind of purposeful thinking, investigation and reflection that constitute the practice of wisdom. If the mind has yet to settle down—if it still hankers after sense impressions, if it still wants to chase after thoughts and emotions—its investigations will never lead to true wisdom. They will lead only to discursive thought, guesswork and speculation—unfounded interpretations of reality based simply on what has been learned and remembered. Instead of leading to wisdom, and the cessation of suffering, such directionless thinking becomes samudaya—the primary cause of suffering.
除非用来支援智慧的开发，熄灭所有的痛苦，不然三摩地会引导禅修者误入歧途，所有专精修行三摩地的禅者都应该意识到这陷阱。在修行中，三摩地的主要功能是支持和滋润智慧的发展，它非常适合这项任务，因为宁静和有定力的心会满足，不再追寻外在的刺激。定在三摩地中的觉知不会受到与色、声、香、味和触相关的念头冲击。宁静和定是心自然的营养，一旦它得到喜欢的营养就会心满意足，不再胡思乱想。它现在已充分准备好负责智慧的修行，这包括了有目的的思维、观察和反映。如果心还未安住下来——仍然追逐着感官感受，渴望着思想和情绪——那么它的观察就永远不会带来真正的智慧，结果只会导至妄想、猜测和推断——只是按照过去的学习和记忆，对实相作出没有根据的诠释。这种散漫的思考不会带来智慧和苦的熄灭，相反的，它成为集——苦的主要根源。
Since its sharp, inward focus complements the investigative and contemplative work of wisdom so well, the Lord Buddha taught us to first develop samadhi. A mind that remains undistracted by peripheral thoughts and emotions is able to focus exclusively on whatever arises in its field of awareness and to investigate such phenomena in light of the truth without the interference of guesswork or speculation. This is an important principle. The investigation proceeds smoothly, with fluency and skill. This is the nature of genuine wisdom: investigating, contemplating and understanding, but never being distracted or misled by conjecture.
由于三摩地尖锐而往内专注，能很好地辅助智慧进行观察和思维的工作，因此佛世尊教导我们先修三摩地。心能够保持不被周围的思想和情绪所干扰的话，就能全神专注在觉知范围内生起的一切，并且依照实际观察这现象，不受猜想或推测介入——这是一个重要的原则。观察能流畅和熟练顺利地进行，这是真正智慧的本性：观察，思维和明白而决不受猜想干扰或误导。
The practice of wisdom begins with the human body, the grossest and most visible component of our personal identity. The object is to penetrate the reality of its true nature. Is our body what we’ve always assumed it to be—an integral and desirable part of who we really are? To test this assumption we must thoroughly investigate the body by mentally deconstructing it into its constituent parts, section by section, piece by piece. We must research the truth about the body with which we are so familiar by viewing it from different angles. Begin with the hair on the head, the hair on the body, the nails, the teeth and the skin, and move on to the flesh, blood, sinews and bones. Then dissect the inner organs, one by one, until the whole body is completely dismembered. Analyze this conglomeration of disparate parts to clearly understand its true nature.
智慧的修行从人的身体——自我身分最粗糙和明显的组合开始。这样做的目的是为了穿透实相的真正本质。我们的身体是否就如我们理所当然的假设那样——一个完整和理想中我们真正的自我？要验证这个假设我们必须全面地观察身体，内心把它分解成各组合部位，一个部位衔接一个部位，一片连接一片。对这副熟悉不过的身体，我们必须从不同的角度来研究它的真相，开始从头发、体毛、指甲、牙齿和皮肤，然后移到肉、血、肌腱和骨头。接着解剖内部的器官，一个连接一个，直至整个身体从头到脚肢解，分析这整个组合的不同部位，清楚明白它的真正本质。
If you find it difficult to investigate your own body in this way, begin by mentally dissecting someone else’s body. Choose a body external to yourself; for instance, a body of the opposite sex. Visualize each part, each organ of that body as best you can, and ask yourself: Which piece is truly attractive? Which part is actually seductive? Place the hair in one pile, the nails and teeth in another; do the same with the skin, the flesh, the sinews and the bones. Which pile deserves to be an object of your desire? Examine them closely and answer with total honesty. Strip off the skin and pile it in front of you. Where is the beauty in this mass of tissue, this thin veneer that covers up the meat and entrails? Do those various parts add up to a person? Once the skin is removed, what can we find to admire in the human body? Men and women—they are all the same. Not a shred of beauty can be found in the body of a human being. It is just a bag of flesh and blood and bones that manages to deceive everyone in the world into lusting after it.
假如你觉得这样观察自己的身体有困难，那么可以在心里解剖别人的身体。选择一副别人的躯体，比如，一个异性的身体，尽己之能观想它的每一部分，每一器官，同时问你自己：哪一片真正吸引人？哪一部位真正引诱人？把头发放在一堆，指甲和牙齿另一堆，皮肤、肉、肌腱和骨头各一堆，哪一堆是你所喜欢的对象？仔细地检验它们，绝对真诚地回答。把皮剥下来放在你面前，这团组织、把肌肉和内脏包起来的薄片，哪里漂亮？这些不同的部位加起来成为一个人吗？一旦皮被拿掉，人类的身体有什么值得爱慕的？男人和女人——全都一样。在人类的身体上，找不到哪怕是一丁点的漂亮，就只不过是一包足以欺瞒全世界所有人生起贪欲的肉、血和骨头罢了。
It is wisdom’s duty to expose that deception. Examine the skin carefully. Skin is the great deceiver. Because it wraps up the entire human body, it’s the part we always see. But what does it wrap up? It wraps up the animal flesh, the muscles, the fluids and the fat. It wraps up the skeleton with the tendons and the sinews. It wraps up the liver, the kidneys, the stomach, the intestines, and all the internal organs. No one has ever suggested that the body’s innards are desirable things of beauty, worthy of being admired with passion and yearning. Probing deeply, without fear or hesitation, wisdom exposes the plain truth about the body. Don’t be fooled by a thin veil of scaly tissue. Peel it off and see what lies underneath. This is the practice of wisdom.
智慧的任务就是揭开这个骗局。仔细检验皮，皮是个大骗子，因为它包裹了整个躯体，它是我们整天看到的部分。不过它包裹了什么呢？它包裹了躯体的肌肉、体液和脂肪，它用筋和肌腱包裹着骨架，它包着肝、肾、胃、肠和所有的内部器官。没有人认为身体的内脏是漂亮，值得欲望热切贪爱的。深深地探索，不要畏惧或犹豫不决，智慧会将身体的真相暴露出来，不要被一层组织干燥的薄纱所愚弄，把它剥开来，看看下面是什么。这是智慧的修行。
In order to really see the truth of this matter for yourself, in a clear and precise way that leaves no room for doubt, you must be very persistent and very diligent. Merely doing this meditation practice once or twice, or from time to time, will not be enough to bring conclusive results. You must approach the practice as if it’s your life’s work—as though nothing else in the world matters except the analysis you are working on at that moment. Time is not a factor; place is not a factor; ease and comfort are not factors. Regardless of how long it takes or how difficult the work proves to be, you must relentlessly stick with body contemplation until all doubt and uncertainty are eliminated.
要清楚明确，没有一丝疑惑地亲自真正看到这事情的真相，你必须要有非常的恒心毅力和精进。只是禅修一两次，或者偶尔为之将无法带来决定性的成果。你得把这当作一辈子的工作——仿佛除了你正在做的这分析，世界上没有任何事情是重要的。时间不重要，地方不重要，安闲舒适不重要。不管这工作需要多长时间、多么困难，你必须不屈不饶地紧紧抓着这观身法门，直到一切疑惑和不确定消除。
Body contemplation should occupy every breath, every thought, every movement until the mind becomes thoroughly saturated with it. Nothing short of total commitment will bring genuine and direct insight into the truth. When body contemplation is practiced with single-minded intensity, each successive body part becomes a kind of fuel feeding the fires of mindfulness and wisdom. Mindfulness and wisdom then become a conflagration consuming the human body section by section, part by part, as they examine and investigate the truth with a burning intensity. This is what is meant by tapadhamma.
身念住的修行是每一呼吸、每一念头、每一动作都在修，直到心全面地渗透它，缺乏拼到底的决心不会带来对实相真正和直接的内观。当身念住修到一心不乱的程度，身体每一连接的部位都成为念住和智慧之火的燃料。念住和智慧成为大火聚，燃烧似的检验观察真相，一片一片、一部位一部位地燃烧身体，这是火法(tapadhamma)的意义。
Focus intently on those body parts that really capture your attention, the ones whose truth feels most obvious to you. Use them as whetstones to sharpen your wisdom. Expose them and tear them apart until their inherently disgusting and repulsive nature becomes apparent. Asubha meditation is insight into the repulsiveness of the human body. This is the body’s natural condition; by nature, it is filthy and disgusting. Essentially, the whole body is a living, stinking corpse—a breathing cesspool full of fetid waste. Only a paper thin covering of skin makes the whole mess look presentable. We are all being deceived by the outer wrapping, which conceals the fundamental repulsiveness from view. Merely removing the skin reveals the body’s true nature.
全心专注那些真正吸引你注意力，最令你感到真实的部位，把它们当作磨利你智慧的磨刀石。揭开它们，把它们撕裂使到内在令人厌恶反感的本质变得明显。不净观是洞察人身的不净，这是身体自然的情况，它本来就是污秽令人厌恶。本质上，整个身体是一个活的、发恶臭的尸体——一个能呼吸，装满了污水的粪池。只不过一层薄纸般的皮令整团粪便体面见得了人，我们全部都被这外面的包装欺骗了，它覆盖了最根本的厌恶，不让人见到，只需把皮除去就暴露了身体真正的本性。
By comparison to the flesh and internal organs, the skin appears attractive. But examine it more closely. Skin is scaly, creased, and wrinkled; it exudes sweat and grease and offensive odors. We must scrub it daily just to keep it clean. How attractive is that? And the skin is firmly wedded to the underlying flesh, and thus inextricably linked to the loathsome interior. The more deeply wisdom probes, the more repulsive the body appears. From the skin on through to the bones, nothing is the least bit pleasing.
把皮跟肤肉或内脏比较，它显得吸引人，可是作更仔细的检查，我们会看到皮肤布满鳞屑皱纹，它会分泌汗液和油脂，散发体臭，我们每天必须洗擦使它保持清洁。这有多吸引人？还有皮紧紧与它下面的肉结合，使它不可避免地与内在不净联系起来。智慧越深入探索，身体越显现得令人厌恶，从皮肤到骨头，找不到一点可爱之处。
