---
title: 尋找佛陀 Looking for the Buddha
description: "Achaan Chah has been unusually tolerant of the comings and goings of his Western disciples. Traditionally, a new forest "
---

Looking for the Buddha

　　尋找佛陀

Achaan Chah has been unusually tolerant of the comings and goings of his Western disciples. Traditionally, a new forest monk will spend at least five rains retreats with his first teacher before beginning his ascetic wanderings. Achaan Chah stresses discipline as a major part of his practice-working precisely and carefully with the monks' rules and learning to surrender to the monastic style and to the way of the community. But somehow Western monks, like favored children, have been allowed more than the traditional space to travel in order to visit other teachers. Usually when someone does leave, there is no fuss and not much memory. Life in the Dharma is immediate, full, and complete. Achaan Chah has said that from where he sits, "Nobody comes and nobody goes."

　　阿姜 查對于西方弟子的來來去去特別地寬容。依照傳統的規矩，一位新出家的森林僧，在他開始苦行云游以前，必須跟他的第一位師父過至少五次的夏安居。阿姜 查強調，規律是他修行的主要的部份──嚴謹地、小心地守好出家人的戒，然後學習去遵循寺院的作息和團體的規矩。然而，西方的弟子們就如受寵的小孩，在傳統上，被容許有更大的空間，可以四處參訪其他的老師。通常，當某人離開時也不會有什　驚擾或惦念。在「法」的生活中，是當下的、圓滿的、完整的。阿姜 查說，對他而言：「沒有人來，也沒有人去。」

After only a year and a half of practice at WatBa Pong, one American asked and received permission to travel and study with other Thai and Burmese teachers. A year or two later, he returned full of tales of his travels, of many months of extraordinary and intensive practice and of a number of remarkable experiences. After completing his usual prostrations, he was greeted as if he had never left. At the end of the morning Dharma discussion and business with monks and visitors, Achaan Chah finally turned to him and asked if he had found any new or better Dharma outside the forest monastery. No, he had learned many new things in his practice, but actually, they were to be found at WatBa Pong as well. The Dharma is always right here for anyone to see, to practice. "Ah yes," Achaan Chah laughed, "I could have told you that before you left, but you wouldn't have understood. "

　　有一位美國弟子，只在巴蓬寺里修行了一年半，就請求並允許去云游並跟其他泰國、緬甸的禪師參學。一、兩年後，他帶回了許多云游的見聞、數月的格外精進修行和一些特殊的經驗。消完假之後，他受到如以往的對待。阿姜 查結束他早上的法義探討及與僧侶、在家眾的事情處理完後，終于轉身詢問他，在森林道場之外是否有找到任何新的、更好的「法」。沒有，雖然他學習到許多新事物，但，事實上，在巴蓬寺里也一樣學得到。「法」，一直都在當下這里，等著你來看、等著你來修習。「是啊!」阿姜 查笑著說：「我在你離開前，就可以這樣告訴你，但當時你是不會明了的。」

Then the Western monk went to the cottage of Achaan Sumedho, the senior Western disciple of Achaan Chah, and told all his stories and adventures, his new understandings and great insights into practice. Sumedho listened in silence and prepared afternoon tea from the roots of certain forest plants. When the stories were completed and the insights recounted, Sumedho smiled and said, "Ah, how wonderful. Something else to let go of." Only that.

　　後來，這位西方僧侶到阿姜 查西方弟子中的大弟子──阿姜 蘇美多的茅蓬，告訴他所有的見聞及奇遇，和他的新領悟與對修行的深厚內觀。蘇美多靜靜地聽著，同時準備著用森林里的某種植物的根所做的下午茶。當他把故事及內觀都敘述完之後，蘇美多笑著說：「啊，很好，不過，還有須要放下的。」如此而已。

Yet the Westerners kept coming and going, all to learn these lessons for themselves. At times, Achaan Chah would bless their travels; often, though, he would tease.

　　然而，還是有很多西方弟子們繼續來來去去，但，他們都親身體驗了這一課。有時候，阿姜 查會祝福他們的行腳──但是，通常他都會調侃他們。

An English monk, vacillating in his search for the perfect life, the perfect teacher, had come and gone, ordained and disrobed, several times. "This monk," Achaan Chah finally chided, "has dog droppings in his monk's bag, and he thinks every place smells bad."

　　有一位英國僧侶，為了尋求完美的生活、完美的師父而猶豫不定，來來去去、出家還俗好幾次。「這個出家人，」阿姜 查終于責備道：「他的僧袋里有狗屎，因而認為每個地方都很臭。」

Another English monk who had come and gone from the monastery, to Europe, to a job, to a marriage engagement, to monk hood several times-was seated one day at Achaan Chah's cottage. "What this monk is looking for," Achaan Chah declared to the assembly, "is a turtle with a moustache. How far do you think he will have to travel to find it?"

　　另一位英國僧侶，曾經出入于寺院，到歐洲、工作、訂婚、又出家好幾次。有一天，他正坐在阿姜 查的茅蓬外，阿姜 查便向大眾說：「這個出家人所要找的，是一只有胡須的烏龜，你認為他要走多遠才能找得到呢?」

Out of frustration, another Western monk went to Achaan Chah asking permission to leave. Practice and surrender to the monastic life were hard, and this monk began to find fault with all that surrounded him. ''The other monks talk too much. Why do we have to chant? I want more time alone to meditate. The senior monks don't teach newcomers very well, and even you," he said to Achaan Chah in desperation, "even you don't seem so enlightened. You're always changing-sometimes you're strict, sometimes you don't seem to care. How do I know you're enlightened?"

　　另一位西方僧侶因為受到挫折的緣故，便去請求阿姜 查允許他離開。因為修行和遵循寺院生活很困難，所以這位出家人開始挑剔周遭的環境。「其他的僧侶話太多了。我們為何要課誦呢？我要有更多的時間獨自禪坐。年長的僧侶也沒有好好地教導新進比丘，還有你，」他譴責阿姜 查：「就連你看起來都不像開悟了。你總是在課誦，有時很嚴格，有時又似乎漠不關心。我怎麼知道你有沒有開悟?」

Achaan Chah laughed heartily at this, which both amused and irritated the young monk. '11's a good thing I don't appear to be enlightened to you," he said, "because if I fit your model of enlightenment, your ideal of how an enlightened person should act, you would still be caught looking for the Buddha outside yourself. He's not out there-he's in your own heart. "

　　阿姜 查對這點哈哈大笑，使得這位僧侶又氣又好笑。「在你看來，我並沒有開悟，那是件好事，」他說：「因為，如果我符合你的開悟形象，符合你對覺悟者應有的舉止觀念，那麼，你就會依然執著于向外的尋找佛陀之中。他不在外面，而是在你自己的心中。」

The monk bowed and returned to his cottage to look for the real Buddha.