快修
Practice Immediately
当今很多在家修行人，时常被各种琐事所缠绕，父母、儿子、工作、家庭……时刻悬悬在念，始终舍不得放弃；而应当以修行为主业的出家人，虽然披上了袈裟，却整日忙碌于建道场、塑佛像、摄受弟子……执著一些名相上的善事，往内观的时间实在是微乎其微。这些不正常的现象，令人生出无数感慨：作为一名真正的修行人，应放下外缘，内观心的本性。这也是历代大成就者成功的要诀。
Many lay practitioners today are often entrapped in trifles—parents, children, job, family; they worry about these things constantly and have never learned to let go. Similarly, robe-clad monks and nuns who should be concentrating on Dharma practice are busying themselves with building Dharma centers, erecting Buddha statues, and caring for disciples. They are concerned about these token good deeds all day long, leaving little or no time for inward reflection. This is not a proper trend and I worry about it. To be a genuine Dharma practitioner, one should give up external affairs and realize the mind’s essence. This is also the secret of success from many past great siddhas.
《米拉日巴广传》中曾有这样的一段描述：一次，至尊米拉日巴即将返回家乡，在与玛尔巴译师依依惜别之际，译师赠送了一段金玉良言作为精神口粮：
In the Life Story of Milarepa, there is such a passage: Once Jetsun Milarepa was about to leave for his hometown; his teacher Marpa, bidding goodbye reluctantly, imparted to his student the following golden advice as spiritual sustenance:
“弟子啊！如果没有舍弃尘世，将世间琐事与胜法混为一谈，则修法必将荒废。弟子当思轮回苦，所谓轮回之自性，
My heart son! Unless you renounce worldly affairs and never mix the supreme Dharma with mundane trivialities, your practice will be neglected or wasted.
My heart son, you should reflect deeply on the suffering of samsara, which is the so-called nature of samsara.
纵吾幻变生百舌，历经无边俱胝劫，不能尽数悉宣说，吾演妙法莫糟蹋。”
Even if I grow a hundred tongues with magic, and spend countless kalpas, I cannot completely describe all the sufferings. So don’t waste the marvelous Dharma that I have taught you.
米拉日巴一直牢记上师言教，离开上师后也依教奉行，最终圆证圣者果位。
Keeping these words firmly in his heart, Milarepa practiced accordingly and finally attained complete enlightenment.
不仅佛教的成就者们有此感慨，包括世间的智者，也深知贪恋荣华富贵，浪费大好时光，终将落得一场空的道理。《菜根谭》中云：“一场闲富贵，狠狠争来，只得还是失；百岁好光阴，忙忙过了，纵寿也为夭。”生死者，呼吸之间也。
Not only great Buddhist masters feel this way, but also worldly sages who recognize that running after fame and money is a waste of valuable time and ultimately gains nothing. In Tending the Root of Wisdom it says:
Striving hard you seize power and wealth; yet finally you must give it all up, all gains are but losses.
To live to 100 years old is wonderful; yet rushing through it, a long life still meets its final end.
What we call life is something that hinges on this breath and the next, that’s it.
学会放下吧！
Just learn to let go of attachment!
壬午年正月初二
2002年2月14日
2nd of January, Year of RenWu
February 14, 2002
