眼识

Visual Perception

人们习惯于赞美日出日落。尽管日心说已诞生500年，太阳从地平线升起、陨落的观念仍在人们的心中挥之不去。即使在读小学时，老师再三地告诉他们，不是太阳围绕地球旋转，而是地球的自转导致了日出日落的假相，但人们似乎更相信自己的眼睛。

For ages people have been admiring the spectacular beauty of sunrise and sunset, and have had a firm notion that the sun rises and sets from the earth’s horizon. Such a perception still prevails even though the heliocentric theory has been in existence for 500 years. Since elementary school, teachers have taught us: The sun does not move; rather, it is the earth’s daily rotation on its axis that causes the sun to appear as though it goes up and down in our sky. Yet people tend to lean more toward what they see with their eyes.

如果你再告诉他们，不仅日出日落是错觉，而且眼中所见的日月星辰、山川大地均是幻象时，他一定会张大双眼，并考虑是否将你送进疯人院。

Still, if you tell them that not only are the sunrise and sunset erroneous, but also that everything we see—the sun, the moon, the stars, mountains, and rivers—are all illusory, your audience will widen their eyes and wonder if they should check you into a mental hospital.

无始以来，人们执著于自己的眼睛所看到的东西，认为是实有，从而产生贪嗔痴等染污意识，并建立了自己心中固有的世界观。一旦看到佛教中关于世界观的提法、关于佛刹的种种描述，立刻会用自以为证据确凿的现量眼识加以否定，并有更多的人簇拥左右为其摇旗呐喊。这种自以为是的行为，实在无异于井蛙之见。

From time without beginning, humans are fixated on what they see with their eyes. Believing all visual objects truly exist, they become attached, averted, or indifferent to these objects and establish their inherent view of the universe. The cosmic view of Buddhism and the various descriptions of Buddha’s Pure Land, on the other hand, are flatly denied, as they cannot be validly proven by direct sensory perceptions, the seemingly indisputable gauge. Many followers identify with this viewpoint and champion it. This kind of self-righteous attitude is simply very shallow and confined.

《三摩地王经》云：“眼耳鼻非量，舌身意也非，若此为正量，圣道复益谁？”

The King of Concentration Sutra says:
Eyes, ears, and nose are not valid instruments of measurement;
Nor are tongue, body, and consciousness reliable.
Should their perceptions be true,
Whom should the holy Doctrines benefit?

说明了凡夫的眼识不是究竟的。在你眼前一名活生生的美女，若详细观察，不仅可将其粗分为皮、肉、骨、血，甚至可分至无分微尘，并最终抉择为空性。这个“大胆”的观点，一定会让很多世间人大跌眼镜，然而它却是放之四海而皆准的真理。

This teaching explains that our mortal eye consciousness is not something ultimate. For instance, a lively and pretty lady in front of you, if subjected to careful analysis, can be mentally dissected grossly into skin, flesh, bones, blood, and other components, and even divided further into subtle indivisible particles, which in the end are not intrinsically existent and thus empty in nature. Such a “bold” conclusion is sure to shock many ordinary people, yet it is a truism applicable everywhere.

如同牛不仅是色盲，而且在它眼中，所有的东西都是横着的。鹅看一切东西，都比实际的尺寸小，才导致了它不可一世的个性。在昆虫的复眼里，世界一定又是另外一番模样。六道众生、菩萨与佛陀观察世界所得出的结论也是大相径庭的。所以，眼见为实的观点怎么会是究竟的呢？

Cows are color-blind; moreover, they see all things as lying on the side. In the eyes of a goose, things all look smaller than their actual size, and that’s the reason for the goose’s overbearing manner. To insects with compound eyes, the world is totally different from how it appears to us. The conclusions of the world viewed from beings of the six realms and from the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are all completely different. Therefore, how can the statement “to see is to believe” be an ultimate and irrefutable one?

千万不要相信自己的眼识！

Never trust your own eyes!

壬午年七月十八日 　
2002年8月26日 　

18th of July, Year of RenWu
August 26, 2002