诱惑

Lures and Temptations

可怕的魔鬼往往拥有天使般的外衣，让你不知不觉地受其引诱，等到醒悟，已悔之晚矣。

Demons usually appear as angelic apparitions. People tend to fall prey to their temptations before realizing it, but by then it’s too late to go back.

修行人也常常面对各种魔鬼的引诱，比如说金钱魔、名声鬼等等。如果不能善加分辨，它们就会趁其不备，神不知、鬼不觉地成为我们修行路上的绊脚石。

There are many demons trying to woo practitioners, such as the lure of money and of fame. When we let down our guard, they insidiously worm their way in and morph into obstacles to our spiritual growth.

噶当巴的修行人常将自己比为狐狸，名利等魔鬼比为猎人和猎网，网内承载着猎人布下的诱饵。狐狸对诱饵的香味垂涎三尺，最终因贪食诱饵而陷于网中不能自拔。

The Kadampas often described themselves as foxes, the demons of fame and wealth as hunter and hunting net. The hunter sets tempting lures in the net, and the fox, its mouth salivating from the appetizing smell of the bait, walks right into the trap and becomes ensnared beyond help.

修行人被财物所惑，进入魔王波旬设置的陷阱——城市，最终被世间八法所俘获，沦为被其任意鞭打、驱使的奴隶。

Similarly, tempted by money and possessions, practitioners walk into the trap set by the Mara—the city. Sooner or later they are taken prisoners by the eight worldly concerns and reduced to being their slaves, constantly subject to their masters’ bitter beatings and subjugation.

印度一位修行人的上师再三叮咛他：一定要躲避三种最可怕的东西，即：金钱、女人和名声。离开上师后，他一直遵从师训，严防外界侵扰。一次，他在河边发现一些钱，他突发奇想：如果用这些钱来修建寺庙，倒是一件不错的事情。结果，在寻找修庙工人的途中，他历尽艰难，差点命归黄泉。开局的不顺利，使他消除了修庙的打算。

Once in India a teacher bade his student repeatedly to stay away from the three worst things: money, woman, and fame. When the student took leave, he remembered his teacher’s instruction well and took strict precautions against external intrusions. One day he found some money by the riverbank and had a wild thought: It would be wonderful if he could use the money to build a monastery. He began to look for contractors and in the process encountered numerous hardships to the extent that he almost lost his life. He then dropped his project of building a monastery, as it did not pan out from the start.

后来，一个女人闯入了他的世界，她先送给他一只猫，因为猫需要喝奶，她又附送他一头牛，女人因为要承担放牛的工作而留了下来。他们顺其自然地成了家，并生了孩子。当他意识到自己已陷入世间的网罟，早已远离正法时，已悔之晚矣。

Later, a woman came into his life. First, she offered him a kitten and, as the kitten needed milk, she added the gift of a cow. Then, to help herd the cow the woman stayed over at his place, and they became husband and wife and had children. By the time the student realized he was sinking deep into the trap of the world and had long walked in the wrong direction away from the Dharma, it was far too late to turn back.

“浮名浮利过于酒，醉得人心死不醒。”

An adage goes:
Illusory fame and flimsy prosperity are more seductive than wine alone,
They make the mind dead drunk and incapable of awakening.

女人更是包装精美的毒酒，除了圣者，具缚凡夫很难抵挡。如今的大城市里，布满了猎人的诱饵，若身陷其中，恐怕就难以自拔了。

Woman, especially, is a poisonous wine in an exquisitely gift-wrapped exterior. Except for sages, ordinary people in general are incapable of resisting her temptations. In the same way, big cities nowadays are rife with lures set by hunters; once a person falls into the trap, there is little hope to extricate oneself.

壬午年七月初五　　
2002年8月13日 　

5th of July, Year of RenWu
August 13, 2002