静住

Staying Put

如今科学领域的迅猛发展，给人们的生活带来了日新月异的变化。人们在尽情享受现代化所赐予的各种方便的同时，却从未抽出一丝闲暇，思考如何让自己如狂象般飞驰的心得以休憩。人们的希求越来越高，总是为永不满足的欲望而奔波于仕途经济。许许多多的修行人，也为外境所转，为了自我安慰、自我陶醉，整日忙于一些毫无意义的散乱之事。

The rapid development in all fields of science has brought ever-changing new amenities to human daily life. While taking full advantage of what modern technology has to offer, people do not spare a moment’s leisure to reflect on how to rest their minds that are running wild like crazed elephants. In order to satisfy their never-ending, ever-stronger desires, they are totally engrossed in chasing higher positions or piling up more wealth. Many practitioners, sadly, are likewise dominated by external affairs, gleefully spending all their days in meaningless distraction, and feeling rather proud of their own prowess.

作为修行人，应甘于寂寞，远离喧哗场所，调柔三门，时常安住一处。

As spiritual practitioners, however, we should accept loneliness willingly and feel at ease being alone. Staying away from places bustling with disturbing activities and noises, we should settle down to a quiet place and concentrate on taming our body, speech, and mind.

记得阿底峡尊者曾说：“如今五浊之恶世，非为装模作样时，乃为策励精进时；非为寻求高位时，乃为置于卑位时；非为摄受眷仆时，乃为依止静处时；非为调化弟子时，乃为调服自心时；非为随持词句时，乃为思维意义时；非为到处游逛时，乃为安住一处时。”
I remember Master Atisha once said:
This degenerate time is no time to make a pretense; it is a time to work diligently;
This is no time for seeking high positions; it is a time for keeping a humble profile;
This is no time for amassing servants and retinues; it is a time for living in solitude;
This is no time for taking care of disciples; it is a time for taming your own mind;
This is no time for reciting words; it is a time for pondering the meaning of those words;
This is no time for being out and about; it is a time for staying put in one place.

意为在五浊猖獗之今日，那些自心尚未调服，仅仅背诵了一些事相名词，根本没有理解其深刻含义，为了寻求高位，却装模作样，打着度化众生的旗号，到处游逛、摄受弟子、眷仆的行为必须舍弃。

What he meant is that in degenerate times, there are impostors who memorize a few stanzas or some Dharma phrases but have neither tamed their minds nor realized the profound meaning of the Dharma. For the sake of seeking high positions, they make a pretense traveling about in the name of benefiting beings, accepting students, as well as keeping an entourage of servants. All such activities are wrong and must be cast off.

《楞严经》指出：“末法时代，邪师说法，如恒河沙。”我们不应做这样的邪师，而应当如噶当派前辈大德一样不依外缘，依止静处，策励精进，自视低微，反复思维佛法的深刻含义，一心一意调服自心。只有这样，才能使正法真正融入自相续。

It has been pointed out in The Surangama Sutra: “At the time of degeneration, charlatans preaching the Dharma will be as many as the grains of sand in the Ganges River.” We should not become one of them but follow the old-time great masters of Kadampa—staying in places of solitude, cutting off external contact, practicing with tenacity, taking a low place, meditating again and again on the profound meaning of the Dharma, and concentrating only on taming the mind. Through these actions, and only these, can the Dharma truly infuse the mind.

在许多人乐于栖身的城市，到处充满了蛊惑的能量。若没有修持到一定境界，就应到旷野无人之境，“身体恒时应有心，床榻恒时应有身”，直至证得真如境界。如果身为一名修行人，却乐于在人山人海的大城市中毫无意义地闲逛，那就完蛋了！

Big cities that attract many people to come to stay are filled with poisonous, swaying energies. If our practice has not reached a high enough state, it is best to go to a barren and solitary place. Until we attain the level of perfect realization, we should “always link mind and body together, and let the body stay put at home.” If one calls oneself a spiritual practitioner, yet still finds great pleasure in wandering senselessly in big cities with huge crowds, then he is all done for!

壬午年五月初一　　
2002年6月11日

1st of May, Year of RenWu
June 11, 2002