---
title: 現代生活的本質 Nature of Modern Life
description: "Today we are living in a world where people have to work very hard physically and mentally. Without hard work, there is "
---

Nature of Modern Life

現代生活的本質：

Today we are living in a world where people have to work very hard physically and mentally. Without hard work, there is no place for people in the modern society. Very often keen competition is going on everywhere. One is trying to beat the other in every sphere of life and man has no rest at all. Mind is the nucleus of life. When there is no real peace and rest in the mind, the whole life will collapse. People naturally try to overcome their miseries through pleasing the senses: they drink, gamble, sing and dance?all the time having the illusion that they are enjoying he real happiness of life. Sense stimulation is not the real way to have relaxation. The more we try to please the senses through sensual pleasures, the more will we become slaves to the senses. There will be no end to our craving for satisfaction. The real way to relax is to calm the senses by the control of mind. If we can control the mind, then we will be able to control everything. When the mind is free from mental disturbances it can see many things which others cannot see with their naked eyes. Ultimately, we will be able to attain our salvation and find peace and happiness.

今天，我們的生活非常忙碌，人們不辛勤的工作，就無法生存于現代社會。現代社會充滿了激烈的競爭，在每一個生活領域里，都有人想盡辦法，無休無止的去打擊另外一個人。「心」是生命的核心，如果「心」中沒有和平與安寧，整個生命將會崩潰。人們很自然的以感官的樂趣來克制他們的憂慮，他們喝酒、賭博、唱歌、跳舞，把所有的時間幻想于他們在享受並獲得心情的愉快，這樣一來，就成為感官欲樂的奴隸了，我們的欲望是永遠得不到滿足的。真正放松的辦法是：控制心識來冷靜我們的感官。如果，我們能控制心識，就能控制一切。當「心」完全被控制和淨化後，就能消除精神的困擾，就能看到別人用肉眼看不到的許多事物。到最後，我們將獲得解脫和找到和平與幸福。

To practise meditation, one must have strong determination, effort and patience. Immediate results cannot be expected. We must remember that it takes many years for a person to be qualified as a doctor, lawyer, mathematician, philosopher, historian or a scientist. Similarly to be a good meditator, it will take sometime for the person to control the elusive mind and to calm the senses. Practising meditation is like swimming in a river against the current. Therefore one must not lose patience for not being able to obtain rapid results. At the same time the meditator must also cultivate his morality. A congenial place for meditation is another important aspect. The meditator must have an object for his meditation, for without an object the jumping mind is not easy to trap. The object must not create lust, anger, delusion, and emotion in the meditator's mind.

修學禪定要有堅韌不拔的決心、努力和耐心，不能企望馬上收效。我們應該知道，一名醫生、律師、數學家、哲學家、歷史學家或科學家，都是經過長時間的學習才獲得成就的。禪定也一樣，修行者要花很長的時間去控制那不可捉摸的「心」，然後才能獲得平靜。修學禪定如逆水行舟，一個人不能因為得不到眼前的收穫而失去耐心。禪定的修學者必須培養他的道德。在適當的場所修行也很重要。修行者必須為自己訂下目標，那顆跳躍的「心」不容易捕捉，所訂下的目標必須遠離貪、嗔、痴這三種劣根性。

When we start to meditate, we switch the mind from the old imaginative way of thinking, or habitual thought into a new unimpeded or unusual way of thinking. While meditating when we breathe in mindfully, we absorb cosmic energy. When we breathe out mindfully with Metta; loving kindness, we purify the atmosphere. Intellect is necessary for the overcoming of emotionality and spiritual confusion as intuition is necessary for overcoming intellectual limitation and conceptual abstraction.

當我們開始修學禪定時，我們的「心」從舊有的或傳統的思考方式，轉變為新的、無障礙和不尋常的思考方式。在修禪時，我們以整顆「心」在呼吸，我們吸進宇宙能源，呼出慈悲喜舍。淨化了整個胸懷，生起克服欲念和種種不善的智慧，以智慧克服了知識障礙、知識限制和抽象性的概念。

We spend most of our time on our body: to feed it, to clothe it, to cleanse it, to wash it, to beautify it, to relax it, but how much time do we spend on our mind for the same purposes?

我們花了很多時間在我們的身體上，如：吃飯、穿衣服、洗澡、洗手、洗臉、化妝等等。可是，為了同樣的目的，我們卻很少把時間花在我們的「心」。

Some people take the Buddha Image as an object and concentrate on it. Some concentrate on inhaling and exhaling. Whatever may be the method, if anyone tries to practise meditation, he is sure to find relaxation. Meditation will help him a great deal to have physical and mental health and to control the mind when it is necessary.

有些人以佛像為集中精神的目標，有些人關注在入出息念，面無論用什麼方法，他肯定會發現禪定能令他獲得輕松和寧靜。禪定對其它方面的幫助也很多，如：身體健康、心理愉快。禪定在必要時，也能幫助我們控制自己的心念。

Man can do the highest service to the society by simply abstaining from evils. The cultured mind that is developed through meditation performs a most useful service to others. Meditation is not simply a waste of man's valuable time. The advanced mind of a meditator can solve so many human problems and is very useful to enlighten others. Meditation is very useful to help a person live peacefully despite various disturbances that are so prevalent in this modern world. We cannot be expected to retire to a jungle or forest to live in ivory towers?'far from the madding crowd'. By practising right meditation we can have an abode for temporary oblivion. Meditation has the purpose of training a person to face, understand and conquer this very world in which we live. Meditation teaches us to adjust ourselves to bear with the numerous obstacles to life in the modern world.

人類能以謝絕惡行這種簡單的方式為社會做出高度的貢獻。通過禪定開展的文明心念，對服務他人是最有效的。禪定並不浪費時間，禪修者的精進心解決了很多困擾，同時也對啟發他人有很大的幫助。縱使生活在煩惱多多的現代社會，禪定也有助于人獲得寧靜的生活。在這人口密集，充滿煩惱的現代社會里，我們無法企望到樹林、山野去過那種遠離塵囂的生活──象牙塔的生活，禪定不是逃避主義，它不一定要求要隱藏自己才能獲得寧靜，禪定講求的是通過訓練心識去面對、去了解、去戰勝塵俗的生活。我們必須學習調整自己，來承受在這世界過禪定生活的種種障礙。

Some people practise meditation in order to satisfy their material desires; they want to further their material gains. They want to use meditation to get better jobs. They want to earn more money or to operate their business more efficiently. Perhaps they fail to understand that the aim of meditation is not to increase but to decrease desires. Materialistic motives are hardly suitable for proper meditation, the goal of which lies beyond worldly affairs. One should meditate to try to attain something that even money cannot buy or bring.

If you practice meditation, you can learn to behave like a gentleman even though you are disturbed by others. Through meditation you can learn how to relax the body and to calm the mind; you can learn to be tranquil and happy within.

Just as an engine gets overheated and damaged when it is run for a prolonged period and requires cooling down to overcome this, so also the mind gets overtaxed when we subject it to a sustained degree of mental effort and it is only through meditation that relaxation or cooling can be achieved. Meditation strengthens the mind to control human emotion when it is disturbed by negative thoughts and feelings such as jealousy, anger, pride and envy.

有些人修禪是為了滿足物質欲望，利用禪定獲得工作或賺取更多的金錢。他們不了解禪定的意義，禪定不是為了增長，而是為了減少欲望，物欲的動機不適合于禪定。禪定的目的是超越世間的，追求那些非金錢能夠買到的，或他人不能提供的精神領域。在修禪時受到他人騷擾，要以紳士的風度，冷靜的面對他。透過修禪你將學會如何放松自己和使自己的內心安寧，你將獲得寧靜和愉快的內在。在修禪時，你會否定某些思想和感覺，如：嫉妒、嗔恚、傲慢、和羨慕等等，從而學到如何控制自己的心識。

If you practise meditation, you can learn to make the proper decision when you are at a cross-roads in life and are at a loss as to which way to turn. These qualities cannot be purchased from anywhere. No amount of money or property can buy these qualities, yet you attain them through meditation. And finally the ultimate object of Buddhist meditation is to eradicate all defilements from the mind and to attain the final goal--Nibbana.

如果你修學禪定，你將學會如何在迷失方向的十字路口，做出適當的決定。如果你修學禪定，你將會發展自己的涵養，涵養不是金錢能夠買到的。佛教徒修學禪定的目的，是從心中滌除所有的污穢，從而達到終極的目標──涅槃。

Nowadays, however, the practice of meditation has been abused by people. They want immediate and quick results, just as they expect quick returns for everything they do in daily life. In Buddhism, as is the case with other eastern cultures, patience is a most important quality. The mind must be brought under control in slow degrees and one should not try to reach for the higher states without proper training. We have heard of over-enthusiastic young men and women literally going out of their minds because they adopted the wrong attitudes towards meditation. Meditation is a gentle way of conquering the defilements which pollute the mind. If people want 'success' or 'achievement' to boast to others that they have attained this or that level of meditation, they are abusing the method of mental culture. One must be trained in morality and one must clearly understand that to be successful in the discipline of meditation worldly achievement must not be equated with spiritual development. Ideally, it is good to work under an experienced teacher who will help his student to develop along the right path. But above all one must never be in a hurry to achieve too much too quickly.

今天，禪定已被人們濫用，他們想即刻獲得成就，有如在他們日常生活中所得到的一樣。在佛教和其它東方文化一致認為耐心是修學禪定的最重要因素。我們必須按步就班的控制我們自己的心識，我們不應該要求不通過專心訓練，就想達到最高的境界，我們理解到某些人對禪定抱著錯誤的觀念。禪定是以一種溫馴的方式來克服我們心靈的煩惱。如果修禪是為了炫耀我們的成就，就是在濫用禪定。修學禪定必須以道德為基礎，並清楚的了解禪定必須在有經驗老師的指點下，才能在正道有所發展。總的來說，我們修學禪定，不能渴求在短期內獲得最大利益。