寂寞

Feeling Lonesome

吃过午饭，我一如既往地去关闭房门。隔壁的喇嘛不解地问道：“你每天下午将自己关在屋里，难道不寂寞吗？”“不但不寂寞，还其乐无穷！”

After lunch, I went off to close my door as usual. Seeing this, the lama next door asked me quizzically: “You always lock yourself up in your own room every afternoon. Don’t you ever feel lonesome?” “Not at all, instead, I find great pleasure in it!”

我说的是实话，每天通过书本，和诸位大德圣哲心贴心地交流；通过内观，与内在的智慧朋友平等地相处，远胜过空耗时光的谈天说地，劳而无功的游山玩水。如果不辨取舍，与世间增长贪嗔痴的狐朋狗友在一起为非作歹，那就更是愚蠢之至了。

I was telling the truth. Each day, through reading books, I communicate intimately with many sages and great masters; through insight meditation, I get along well with friends of innate wisdom. It is much better than idling time away in chatter or sightseeing fruitlessly. What’s more, if I were not careful as to what to adopt and what to avoid, I might hang out with some scoundrels who incite greediness, hatred, and delusion. Wouldn’t I be a raving fool should I commit evil acts as a result of my foolish choice?

“与君子游，如日之长，加益不自知也；与小人游，如履薄冰，几何而不行陷乎？”

The adage goes:

Associating with a man of noble character, you will be influenced positively over time, without knowing it yourself.

Associating with a man of mean character is like walking on thin ice, how can you avoid falling into misery?

与高尚的人相处，时间一长，不自觉地都会受其熏染；而与卑劣的人同行，就像行走于薄冰之上，怎么可能不陷于污水之中，而受其污染呢？前辈的大德们，就是世间早已难以寻觅、如同摩尼宝般的朋友，我怎能错过学习他们的机会呢？即使有这样品德智慧俱全的高尚之士，你又怎么忍心每天前去打扰，而浪费他的宝贵时光呢？通过独处，我深深体会到其中的无限风光。

To associate ourselves with a noble-minded person, we can’t help being influenced in a positive way over time. On the other hand, keeping company with an evil person is like being led onto thin ice; we will find ourselves falling into dangerous icy water and become defiled. Great sages appearing in this world are few and far between; they are our jewel-like best counsels. How can I let slip a chance to learn things from them? Even if such noble characters with perfect wisdom were living today, how could we have the heart to disturb them every day and waste their precious time? By being alone, I come to appreciate profoundly the immense beauty of it.

每天关上房门，拉上窗帘，装出一付不在家的样子，与前辈伟人们倾心交谈，与觉性朋友促膝相知，是每天最快乐的一段经历。

For me, it is my happiest hour of the day when I can talk heart-to-heart with great sages of the past behind closed doors and drawn curtains. In the guise of being away from home, I have intimate chats with friends of awareness.

如果因为惧怕寂寞，而去寻找世间友人，或是到处游逛。其结果只是徒劳。一位修行人曾告诉过我他的感觉：如果你的心是寂寞的，即使你身处众人当中，寂寞仍然难以排遣；如果你的心不寂寞，即使你在山洞中独自度过一生，你也是快乐的。因为寂寞来自于内心！

If I could not stand being lonely and instead searched for worldly companions or traveled about, would that be helpful at all? A practitioner once told me his feeling: If you are lonely in your heart, even mingling with a big crowd will not help to dispel your lonesomeness. If you do not feel lonely in your heart, even spending your whole life in solitude on a mountain you are happy, because loneliness comes solely from the mind!

对此，《窍诀宝藏论》中也有十分精辟的见解。如果明白了寂寞都是咎由自取的结果，不能通过调整外境来改变的道理，你还会走出户外去消除寂寞吗？

In The Precious Treasury of Pith Instructions we also find many insightful teachings on this topic. We have only ourselves to thank for our feelings of loneliness: manipulating external conditions can’t change the feelings that our mind has created.o If you understand this, would you still consider going places away to rid yourself of loneliness?

壬午年六月十六日 　
2002年7月25日 　

16th of June, Year of RenWu
July 25, 2002