爱箭

Love Arrow

藏族有句谚语：“草地上中了箭，很容易拔除；心中了爱箭，就难以自拔了。”

A Tibetan proverb goes like this: “An arrow lodged in the earth is easy to pull out, while a love arrow hit in the heart is by no means easy to remove.”

爱欲，是会给人带来痛苦的利箭。佛在《出曜经》中云：“犹如自造箭，还自伤其身，内箭亦如是，爱箭伤众生。”

Love and lust are sharp arrows that bring suffering. The Buddha says in Dhammapada: “The arrow you create may return to hurt you yourself. The same is true for the arrow in your heart. Love arrows bring suffering to beings.”

难怪西方人也将爱情比喻为丘比特的箭，虽然无数文人用美文嘉言赞叹褒颂过它，但只要是箭都会有危害的。《本师传》云：“从爱生忧患，从爱生怖畏。离爱无忧患，离爱无怖畏。”爱不重不生娑婆，爱恋是产生痛苦的根源。且不论爱别离苦，即使形影不离的恋人，也会因彼此执著而引生无穷痛苦。美色如霞转瞬空，弦歌似水弹指灭。世间情感如同朝露，转瞬即逝。深陷爱河而难以自拔，只会徒增烦恼的牵绊。

No wonder Westerners also use the metaphor of “Cupid’s Arrow” to describe love. Love, although glorified and embraced by many poignant writings, poems, and lyrics, is nonetheless an arrow: Its nature is to harm. In The Story of the Buddha it says: “From love comes worry, from love comes fear. Disengaging from love frees you from worry, disengaging from love frees you from fear.” Love and lust are the causes of pain and suffering. If we were not weighed down by strong emotions of love, we would not have taken rebirths in samsara again and again. Separation from loved ones is indeed an unbearable sorrow. But even lovers who never separate for a single day are not immune to tremendous anguish over mutual attachment. Like a gorgeous sunset, beauty fades in no time; like a running brook, music is gone in a snap of the fingers; like the morning dew, worldly love evaporates in a blink. To fall in love intensely without knowing how to extricate oneself will only add layer upon layer of troubles and worries.”

如何才能得以逃脱呢？佛经中的一段公案将此答案告诉了我们：曾有一驯象人将千辛万苦驯服的大象献予国王，当他与国王骑着大象去到森林里时，大象因嗅到母象气息而狂奔不已。国王责怪驯象者，他回答说：“它的贪心增长，铁钩及绳索皆无能为力，我只能调服它的身体，却不能调服它的心。”“那么此等众生的身心何人皆能调服呢？”“唯有佛陀！”

How can we be free from it all? The answer can be found in a story told by the Buddha: A king was offered an elephant tamed meticulously by an elephant specialist. One day during an excursion with the king in the forest, this elephant suddenly became crazed when he sniffed the scent of a female elephant. It could not help but run wildly, to the horrific alarm of the king who subsequently admonished the trainer. This was the trainer’s reply: “When lust flares up, no lasso nor iron hook will work. As a trainer, I can only tame the elephant’s body, but not its mind.” “Then who can tame such beings’ body and mind?” “Only the Buddha can! ”

的确，牵缠俗缘溺爱河，唯有佛陀拯救之。《楞严经》也有“入大爱河，令汝解脱”之说。要逃离爱河，免中爱箭，解除怖畏，唯有修习佛陀的教言。

Indeed, relying on the Buddha is the only way to save us from drowning in the torrents of love or from being entangled in secular relationships. To fall into the great river of love and lust is to drift around in samsara. The Surangama Sutra says: “Until the river of lust and love is dried up, there is no liberation.” For us to run away from the flood of lust, to dodge the love arrow and to be relieved from sorrow and fear, the only recourse is to practice the Buddha’s teachings.

苏轼也有诗云：“欲平苦海浪，先干爱河水。”欲救众生于轮回之苦海，必须先斩断儿女情长之束缚。

A poem written by Su Shih says: “To pacify the pounding waves of the suffering ocean, first let its feeding water of love and lust run dry.” To be rescued from the ocean of samsaric suffering, sentient beings must first cut their Gordian knot of all consuming love.

在漫长的人生中，遭受爱箭痛苦的人有多少呢？

In the long journey of life, how many people have been inflicted with the painful arrow of love?

壬午年四月初五　　
2002年5月17日

5th of April, Year of RenWu
May 17, 2002