Mindfulness In Plain English - Chapter 15: Meditation In Everyday Life

Mindfulness In Plain English

佛教禪修直解

by Mahathera Henepola Gunaratana

德寶法師著作 梁國雄居士譯

Chapter 15: Meditation In Everyday Life

第十五章 在日常生活中的禪修

Every musician plays scales. When you begin to study the piano, that’s the first thing you learn, and you never stop playing scales. The finest concert pianists in the world still play scales. It’s a basic skill that can’t be allowed to get rusty.

每一位音樂家都會練習彈奏音階，這是你開始學鋼琴時首先要學的，也是你永遠不會停止練習彈奏的東西。世界上最好的鋼琴家仍然在練習彈奏音階，那是一種你不能讓之生疏、荒廢的基本技巧。

Every baseball player practices batting. It’s the first thing you learn in Little League, and you never stop practicing. Every World Series game begins with batting practice. Basic skills must always remain sharp.

每一位棒球手都會練習打棒球，那是你在少年棒球隊首先要學的，也是你永遠不會停止練習的東西。每一次的世界棒球錦標賽都是從練習打棒球開始，基本技巧必須不斷保持在頂峰。

(禪修不是游戲，而是練習)

Seated meditation is the arena in which the meditator practices his own fundamental skills. The game the meditator is playing is the experience of his own life, and the instrument upon which he plays is his own sensory apparatus. Even the most seasoned meditator continues to practice seated meditation, because it tunes and sharpens the basic mental skills he needs for his particular game. We must never forget, however, that seated meditation itself is not the game. It’s the practice. The game in which those basic skills are to be applied is the rest of one’s experiential existence. Meditation that is not applied to daily living is sterile and limited.

坐禪是禪修者練習其基本技巧的舞台。禪修者所玩的游戲是其自身生命的經驗，而他所使用的器具則是自身的感官。即使最老練的禪修者亦會繼續練習坐禪的，因為要藉此調整好與磨練好他玩這特殊游戲時所需要的基本技巧。不過，我們千萬不要忘記，坐禪本身不是游戲，它是練習。禪修以外的生活方式，其中需要運用這些基本技巧于個人經驗上才是游戲。若禪修不能運用于日常生活之中，它是枯燥無效的、或其效果是十分有限的。

The purpose of Vipassana meditation is nothing less than the radical and permanent transformation of your entire sensory and cognitive experience. It is meant to revolutionize the whole of your life experience. Those periods of seated practice are times set aside for instilling new mental habits. You learn new ways to receive and understand sensation. You develop new methods of dealing with conscious thought, and new modes of attending to the incessant rush of your own emotions. These new mental behaviors must be made to carry over into the rest of your life.

內觀禪之目的，就是要從根本上永遠轉化你的整個感覺與認知經驗，亦即是要革新(徹底改變)你的整個人生經驗。那些坐禪練習時間，就是為了灌輸新的心理習慣而設的，你學習用新的方式來接收和了解感覺，你發展新的方法來處理意識思維，以及采用新的方式來照顧自己不停湧現的情緒。這些新的心理習慣，一定要被帶入到你個人生活的其他部分之中，否則，禪修仍是枯燥無效，只算是個人生活方式的一個理論上的環節，查實與其他部分毫無關連。為了連系這兩個環節而要付出一些努力是必要的，因為，若不精進，某程度的禪修技巧轉移到日常生活之中亦會自然發生，但這過程往往緩慢和不可靠，你亦可能生起一事無成的感覺，乃至放棄這個似屬無益的訓練過程。

(練習做個局外人)

Otherwise, meditation remains dry and fruitless, a theoretical segment of your existence that is unconnected to all the rest. Some effort to connect these two segments is essential. A certain amount of carry-over will take place spontaneously, but the process will be slow and unreliable. You are very likely to be left with the feeling that you are getting nowhere and to drop the process as unrewarding.

然而，上述可喜的體驗尚未算完善，除非你能積極促進前述的轉化過程。坐禪最重要的一刻，就是在你離開坐墊時那一刻。結束禪坐後，你可以很快地站起來，然後把禪修拋諸腦後，你亦可隨即把禪修技巧趁機帶進生活的其他活動之中。

One of the most memorable events in your meditation career is the moment when you first realize that you are meditation in the midst of some perfectly ordinary activity. You are driving down the freeway or carrying out the trash and it just turns on by itself. This unplanned outpouring of the skills you have been so carefully fostering is a genuine joy. It gives you a tiny window on the future. You catch a spontaneous glimpse of what the practice really means. The possibility strikes you that this transformation of consciousness could actually become a permanent feature of your experience. You realize that you could actually spend the rest of your days standing aside from the debilitating clamoring of your own obsessions, no longer frantically hounded by your own needs and greed. You get a tiny taste of what it is like to just stand aside and watch it all flow past. It’s a magic moment.

在你的禪修經歷中，其中一件最令人難忘的事，就是當你首次發現自己，在某項甚為平常的生活活動中正在禪修的那一刻。例如：當你在高速公路上駕駛時，或往倒垃圾的途中，禪修竟然自動地開始了。你小心培育的技巧，在沒有預先計劃下流露出來，實在令人欣喜異常，它給你開了一個可以看到未來的小窗，令你瞥見修行的真正寓意。這種意識轉化能成為常態經驗的可能性，令你感到震撼，你認識到在余生之中，你是可以安靜地旁觀著強迫性觀念(obsessions)的刻意擾攘與喧鬧，不必再受自己的需求與貪欲之瘋狂困擾；你淺嘗法味，開始知道站在一旁，靜觀一切現象流逝的體驗滋味，那是神奇的一刻。

That vision is liable to remain unfulfilled, however, unless you actively seek to promote the carry-over process. The most important moment in meditation is the instant you leave the cushion. When your practice session is over, you can jump up and drop the whole thing, or you can bring those skills with you into the rest of your activities.

然而，上述可喜的體驗尚未算完善，除非你能積極促進前述的轉化過程。坐禪最重要的一刻，就是在你離開坐墊時那一刻。結束禪坐後，你可以很快地站起來，然後把禪修拋諸腦後，你亦可隨即把禪修技巧趁機帶進生活的其他活動之中。

(任何時候都可以禪修)

It is crucial for you to understand what meditation is. It is not some special posture, and it’s not just a set of mental exercises. Meditation is a cultivation of mindfulness and the application of that mindfulness once cultivated. You do not have to sit to meditate. You can meditate while washing the dishes. You can meditate in the shower, or roller skating, or typing letters. Meditation is awareness, and it must be applied to each and every activity of one’s life. This isn’t easy.

了解禪修是什麼對你很重要，它不是一些特殊姿勢，也不是一套心靈體操；禪修是靜觀的培育及對剛培育出來的靜觀之運用。你不一定要坐著來禪修，你可以在洗碟時禪修，可以在洗澡時禪修，也可以在溜冰或寫信時禪修。禪修即是覺察或覺知，它必須被運用于人生的所有活動之中，這並不容易。

We specifically cultivate awareness through the seated posture in a quiet place because that’s the easiest situation in which to do so. Meditation in motion is harder. Meditation in the midst of fast-paced noisy activity is harder still. And meditation in the midst of intensely egoistic activities like romance or arguments is the ultimate challenge. The beginner will have his hands full with less stressful activities.

我們選擇在安靜的地方用坐姿來培育覺察力，是因為那是最容易修習的情境。在行動中禪修則較難，在節奏快速、熱鬧嘈雜的活動中禪修則更難，而在極度自我中心的活動中，例如：談情說愛或激烈爭論中禪修，那真是測試極限的挑戰。事實上，初學者在低壓力的禪修活動中已忙得不可開交。

Yet the ultimate goal of practice remains: to build one’s concentration and awareness to a level of strength that will remain unwavering even in the midst of the pressures of life in contemporary society. Life offers many challenges and the serious meditator is very seldom bored.

可是，禪修練習的終極目標依然是：建立起定力(集中力)與覺察力至足夠的強度水平，好讓禪修者能在現代的社會的生活壓力下，仍然可以屹立不搖。對于生活中源源不絕的挑戰，認真的禪修者是極少會感到厭煩的。

Carrying your meditation into the events of your daily life is not a simple process. Try it and you will see. That transition point between the end of your meditation session and the beginning of ‘real life’ is a long jump. It’s too long for most of us. We find our calm and concentration evaporating within minutes, leaving us apparently no better off than before. In order to bridge this gulf, Buddhists over the centuries have devised an array of exercises aimed at smoothing the transition. They take that jump and break it down into little steps. Each step can be practiced by itself.

把禪修帶入你的日常生活之中，決不是一個簡單的過程，試一試你就會明白。從坐禪結束到「現實生活」的開始之轉捩點是一大躍進，對大多數人而言，那個距離實在太長了。我們發覺在幾分鍾之內，我們的平靜與定力被蒸發得無影無蹤，接下來的狀態並不比以前好。為了跨越這道鴻溝，佛教徒在過去多個世紀以來，已設計出一系列的練習方法，以便順利促成這個轉移。他們成功了大躍進，然後把它分成幾個小部分，每一部分都可以單獨練習。

1. Walking Meditation

(1) 在行走中禪修(行禪)

Our everyday existence is full of motion and activity. Sitting utterly motionless for hours on end is nearly the opposite of normal experience. Those states of clarity and tranquility we foster in the midst of absolute stillness tend to dissolve as soon as we move. We need some transitional exercise that will teach us the skill of remaining calm and aware in the midst of motion. Walking meditation helps us make that transition from static repose to everyday life. It’s meditation in motion, and it is often used as an alternative to sitting. Walking is especially good for those times when you are extremely restless. An hour of walking meditation will often get you through that restless energy and still yield considerable quantities of clarity. You can then go on to the seated meditation with greater profit.

我們的日常生活充滿各式各樣的動作與活動，要連續端坐幾小時不動，實與平常的經驗相反，我們經過不動地坐禪所培養出來的清明(清醒明智)與平靜心態，一動就會很快消失。故此，我們需要一些過渡性練習，使我們在活動中仍能保持平靜與覺知。行禪就是這樣的一種過渡性練習，它有助我們從靜態的禪坐過渡至日常的生活，它是在動中修禪，且經常與坐禪交替地運用。行禪在你非常煩躁不安時特別好用，大約一小時的行禪往往可化解你的不安情緒，還可帶來相當可觀的內心清明，好讓你在接下來的坐禪中得到更大的利益。

Standard Buddhist practice advocates frequent retreats to complement your daily sitting practice. A retreat is a relatively long period of time devoted exclusively to meditation. One or two day retreats are common for lay people. Seasoned meditators in a monastic situation may spend months at a time doing nothing else. Such practice is rigorous, and it makes sizable demands on both mind and body. Unless you have been at it for several years, there is a limit to how long you can sit and profit. Ten solid hours of the seated posture will produce in most beginners a state of agony that far exceeds their concentration powers. A profitable retreat must therefore be conducted with some change of posture and some movement. The usual pattern is to intersperse blocks of sitting with blocks of walking meditation. An hour of each with short breaks between is common.

佛教的禪修傳統，一般都會建議你要經常進行密集禪修(閉關)，以彌補平日坐禪之不足。密集禪修鼓勵人們用一段較長的時間來專心修習，在家人一般用最少一、兩天的時間，至于出家人或老練的禪修者，往往每次用上幾個月的時間來專心修習的。這樣的密集修行是嚴格的，對身心的要求都相當高，除非你已有多年經驗，否則，長時間的修習對你未必有好處。整整十個小時不動的禪坐姿勢，對初學者產生的極大苦痛，是他的有限定力所難以應付的。因此，一個有效益的密集禪修，必須安排一些姿勢改變與活動，通常會采取間隔的坐禪與行禪方式，一般的安排是輪流地坐禪一小時和行禪一小時，其間可休息片刻。

To do the walking meditation, you need a private place with enough space for at least five to ten paces in a straight line. You are going to be walking back and forth very slowly, and to the eyes of most Westerners, you’ll look curious and disconnected from everyday life. This is not the sort of exercise you want to perform on the front lawn where you’ll attract unnecessary attention. Choose a private place.

行禪需要一個沒人干擾的隱蔽地方，且有空間可直線行走至少五至十步。你將要緩慢地來回走動，這在大部分的西方人眼中，你是古怪的與日常生活脫節的。這些練習不是你會在家中前園的草地上做的，那只會引來不必要的注目，因此，要選擇一個較隱蔽的地方。

The physical directions are simple. Select an unobstructed area and start at one end. Stand for a minute in an attentive position. Your arms can be held in any way that is comfortable, in front, in back, or at your sides. Then while breathing in, lift the heel of one foot. While breathing out, rest that foot on its toes. Again while breathing in, lift that foot, carry it forward and while breathing out, bring the foot down and touch the floor. Repeat this for the other foot. Walk very slowly to the opposite end, stand for one minute, then turn around very slowly, and stand there for another minute before you walk back. Then repeat the process. Keep you head up and you neck relaxed. Keep your eyes open to maintain balance, but don’t look at anything in particular. Walk naturally. Maintain the slowest pace that is comfortable, and pay no attention to your surroundings. Watch out for tensions building up in the body, and release them as soon as you spot them. Don’t make any particular attempt to be graceful. Don’t try to look pretty. This is not an athletic exercise, or a dance. It is an exercise in awareness. Your objective is to attain total alertness, heightened sensitivity and a full, unblocked experience of the motion of walking. Put all of your attention on the sensations coming from the feet and legs. Try to register as much information as possible about each foot as it moves. Dive into the pure sensation of walking, and notice every subtle nuance of the movement. Feel each individual muscle as it moves. Experience every tiny change in tactile sensation as the feet press against the floor and then lift again.

至于行禪時身體上的指示則很簡單，選一沒有障礙的地方，從一端開始，在那里站著，並留意著自己的站立姿態一分鍾，手臂可隨意放在身前、身後或身體的兩側；接著，一面吸氣一面提起一只腳的腳跟，然後一面呼氣一面放下那只腳的腳指在地上，然後再吸氣，同時提起那一只腳，然後一面向前一面呼氣，然後放下那只腳在地上；接著，對另一只腳重複做這個動作。就這樣慢慢地走至另一端，然後在那里站立一分鍾。接著慢慢轉身面向另一端，在走回另一端前再站立一分鍾，然後再重複整個過程。

行禪時要保持頭部平正和頸項放松，眼睛要張開來保持平衡，但不可注視任何特別的景物。自然地行走，維持最慢而又舒適的步伐，不可注意周遭的環境，留意身體上是否有緊張，一發現到就要隨即放松。不要為了優雅而作某些特別嘗試，也不要嘗試令自己走起來好看。這不是一項體育練習或舞蹈，它是一種覺知的練習，你的目標是要達致完全警覺、高度敏感，以及對行走動作的無阻塞體驗。把所有注意力都放在腿和腳生起的感覺上，盡量留心記錄每一只腳移動時的所有訊息。深入覺知行走時的純粹感覺，要注意到活動中難以捉摸的細微差別。感受一下個別肌肉活動時的感覺，體驗一下當腳接觸地面後，隨即提起時的觸覺微細轉變。

Notice the way these apparently smooth motions are composed of complex series of tiny jerks. Try to miss nothing. In order to heighten your sensitivity, you can break the movement down into distinct components. Each foot goes through a lift, a swing; and then a down tread. Each of these components has a beginning, middle, and end. In order to tune yourself in to this series of motions, you can start by making explicit mental notes of each stage.

Make a mental note of “lifting, swinging, coming down, touching floor, pressing” and so on. This is a training procedure to familiarize you with the sequence of motions and to make sure that you don’t miss any. As you become more aware of the myriad subtle events going on, you won’t have time for words. You will find yourself immersed in a fluid, unbroken awareness of motion. The feet will become your whole universe. If your mind wanders, note the distraction in the usual way, then return your attention to walking. Don’t look at your feet while you are doing all of this, and don’t walk back and forth watching a mental picture of your feet and legs. Don’t think, just feel. You don’t need the concept of feet and you don’t need pictures. Just register the sensations as they flow. In the beginning, you will probably have some difficulties with balance. You are using the leg muscles in a new way, and a learning period is natural. If frustration arises, just note that and let it go.

注意一下這些看來流暢的活動，是如何由一連串複雜的細微推拉活動所組成，不可遺漏任何細節。為了提升你的敏感度，可以把動作分拆為幾個截然不同的部分。每一只腳都會經過「提起」、「向前擺動」、然後「放下踏地」等階段，而每一部分都有開始、中間和完結。為了讓自己與這些連串動作能調適，你可以在開始時，心中明確地默念(默記)每一個階段。心中明確地默念：「提起、向前擺動、放下、接觸地面、壓下」等等。這是一種練習程序，好讓你熟悉那些連串動作，以及確保不會遺漏任何細節。當你更能覺知正在進行的各式各樣微細的事件時，就再不會有時間顧及文字了。你將發覺自己正熱衷于流動、無間隔的覺知活動上。腳將成為你的全世界，如果你分了心，要像往常一樣覺察到自己的分心，然後再回來注意行走動作。當你做著這些事時，不要看著你的腳，也不要一面來回走動，一面在心中觀看著自己走動的畫面。不可思想，只須感受(體驗)！你不需要腳的概念，也不需要圖畫，只須在感覺流動時當即用心記下即可。開始時，平衡上你可能有些困難，因為你正以新的方式來運用你的腿部肌肉，自然需要一個學習階段。如果有挫敗感生起，只須注意到它，然後讓它離開即可。

The Vipassana walking technique is designed to flood your consciousness with simple sensations, and to do it so thoroughly that all else is pushed aside. There is no room for thought and no room for emotion. There is no time for grasping, and none for freezing the activity into a series of concepts. There is no need for a sense of self. There is only the sweep of tactile and kinesthetic sensation, an endless and ever-changing flood of raw experience. We are learning here to escape into reality, rather than from it. Whatever insights we gain are directly applicable to the rest of our notion-filled lives.

設計內觀的行禪技巧，是為了以單純的感覺像洪水般淹沒你的意識，且要徹底地做到可以排除一切其他東西，不留任何空間與思想或情緒，不容許有時間去執取、或為活動營造一系列的概念，也不必有自我的感覺，有的只是掠過的觸覺與動感(肌肉運動的感覺)，一股無止境的、千變萬化的、處于自然狀態的感受洪流。我們在這里學習逃往現實，而非逃避現實。我們在這里所獲得的任何洞悉，皆可以直接用于其他充滿概念、想法及主張的日常生活上面。

2. Postures

(2) 在其他姿勢中禪修

The goal of our practice is to become fully aware of all facets of our experience in an unbroken, moment-to-moment flow. Much of what we do and experience is completely unconscious in the sense that we do it with little or no attention. Our minds are on something else entirely. We spend most of our time running on automatic pilot, lost in the fog of day-dreams and preoccupations.

我們的禪修目標，是要念念綿延不斷地知道我們自身感受的一切方面。我們的許多活動和感受都是完全無意識的(不知不覺的)，那是說，我們沒有、或很少注意我們的活動，我們的心全放在其他事情上，我們把大部分時間花在機械式的反應上，迷失在白日夢與成見的迷霧之中。

One of the most frequently ignored aspects of our existence is our body. The technicolor cartoon show inside our head is so alluring that we tend to remove all of our attention from the kinesthetic and tactile senses. That information is pouring up the nerves and into the brain every second, but we have largely sealed it off from consciousness. It pours into the lower levels of the mind and it gets no further. Buddhists have developed an exercise to open the floodgates and let this material through to consciousness. It’s another way of making the unconscious conscious.

在生存之中，最常被我們忽略的其中之一是身體，腦子里面誘人的彩色漫畫影片，常令我們的注意力離開了觸覺與動感，這些訊息每秒鍾都不停地流入我們的神經系統與腦袋，但大部分都被封鎖在意識之外。它流入心的底層後，就不可再前進了。佛教里面有一種方法可以打開閘門，讓這些東西可流進意識層面，這是另一種讓「無意識」變成為「意識」的方法。

Your body goes through all kinds of contortions in the course of a single day. You sit and you stand. You walk and lie down. You bend, run, crawl, and sprawl. Meditation teachers urge you to become aware of this constantly ongoing dance. As you go through your day, spend a few seconds every few minutes to check your posture. Don’t do it in a judgmental way. This is not an exercise to correct your posture, or to improve you appearance. Sweep your attention down through the body and feel how you are holding it. Make a silent mental note of ‘Walking’ or ‘Sitting’ or ‘Lying down’ or ‘Standing’. It all sounds absurdly simple, but don’t slight this procedure. This is a powerful exercise. If you do it thoroughly, if you really instil this mental habit deeply, it can revolutionize your experience. It taps you into a whole new dimension of sensation, and you feel like a blind man whose sight has been restored.

每一天，你的身體都會經歷各式各樣的扭轉動作，如行住坐臥、彎腰伸展或爬行走動等。禪師們都會激勵你，要覺察到這些持續進行著的身體舞動。你在日常生活中，應隔幾分鍾就要花幾秒時間來檢查一下自己的身體姿勢，不可以批判的方式來做，這不是一個用來改正姿態或改善外貌的練習。用心由頭到腳掃描整個身體，感受一下你保持身體姿勢的方式，心中默念(默記)：「行走」、「坐著」、「躺下」或「站著」。這做法聽起來實在簡單可笑，然而，不可輕視這個步驟，這是一個很有效用的練習，如果你做得精確、透徹，如果你能令此心理習慣根深柢固，它可革新你的體驗，帶你進入一個全新的感覺領域，令你有如盲者突然重見光明之感。

3. Slow-Motion Activity

(3) 慢動作的禪修

Every action you perform is made up of separate components. The simple action of tying your shoelaces is made up of a complex series of subtle motions. Most of these details go unobserved. In order to promote the overall habit of mindfulness, you can perform simple activities at very low speed–making an effort to pay full attention to every nuance of the act.

你的每一個行動都是由很多個別成分所組成的，像綁鞋帶那麼簡單的動作，就是由一連串複雜的細微動作構成，而大多數這些細節都是沒有被察覺到的。為了促進整體的靜觀(留意覺察)習慣，你可以盡量放慢速度來做簡單的活動，同時奮力全神貫注于每一動作的微妙之處。

Sitting at a table and drinking a cup of tea is one example. There is much here to be experienced. View your posture as you are sitting and feel the handle of the cup between your fingers. Smell the aroma of the tea, notice the placement of the cup, the tea, your arm, and the table. Watch the intention to raise the arm arise within your mind, feel the arm as it raises, feel the cup against your lips and the liquid pouring into your mouth. Taste the tea, then watch the arising of the intention to lower your arm. The entire process is fascinating and beautiful, if you attend to it fully, paying detached attention to every sensation and to the flow of thought and emotion.

另一個例子是：坐在桌子旁邊喝一杯茶。在這活動之中，你可以體驗到很多東西，例如：你可以體驗到坐著時的姿態、感受到手指與杯子把手的接觸、聞到茶葉散發出來的芳香、留意到杯子、茶葉、你的手臂及桌子的放置方式，接著，你會察覺到內心欲提起手臂的意向、感受到手臂提起時的感覺、感受到杯子與嘴唇的接觸、以及液體注入口中的感受，你會品嘗茶的香味，然後察覺到欲放下手臂的意向。如果你能完全投入，以超然的態度來注意每一個感覺、想法和情緒的流動，那麼，整個過程將會十分美好和引人入勝。

This same tactic can be applied to many of your daily activities. Intentionally slowing down your thoughts, words and movements allows you to penetrate far more deeply into them than you otherwise could. What you find there is utterly astonishing. In the beginning, it is very difficult to keep this deliberately slow pace during most regular activities, but skill grows with time. Profound realizations occur during sitting meditation, but even more profound revelations can take place when we really examine our own inner workings in the midst of day-to-day activities. This is the laboratory where we really start to see the mechanisms of our own emotions and the operations of our passions. Here is where we can truly gauge the reliability of our reasoning, and glimpse the difference between our true motives and the armor of pretense that we wear to fool ourselves and others.

同樣的策略亦可被運用于你的許多日常活動之中。刻意放慢你的思想、說話與動作速度，有助你比以前通達它們更深一個層次，你會發現，那里充滿令人驚訝的現象。在開始時，要在平常活動中保持這種刻意的慢速，是十分困難的，不過，隨著經常的練習，技巧自會改進。深切的領悟會在坐禪中發生，然而，當我們在日常的活動中，能認真地仔細檢查一下我們自身的內部運轉，就算更加意義深遠的啟示亦會出現的。就好像在實驗室之中，我們真的開始看到自己本身的情緒機制，以及強烈感情的運作方式；在這里，我們可以真確地估量我們的推理(論證)可信程度，以及瞥見自己的真實動機與自欺欺人的偽裝兩者之分別。

We will find a great deal of this information surprising, much of it disturbing, but all of it useful. Bare attention brings order into the clutter that collects in those untidy little hidden corners of the mind. As you achieve clear comprehension in the midst of life’s ordinary activities, you gain the ability to remain rational and peaceful while you throw the penetrating light of mindfulness into those irrational mental nooks and crannies. You start to see the extent to which you are responsible for your own mental suffering. You see your own miseries, fears, and tensions as self-generated. You see the way you cause your own suffering, weakness, and limitations. And the more deeply you understand these mental processes, the less hold they have on you.

你會發覺，這些訊息大部分都很令人驚訝，有很多更令人煩擾不安，但全部都是有用的。純粹的注意，可為隱藏在內心小暗角的一團雜亂帶來秩序，當你在日常生活之中能實現到清楚的覺知、在投入有通達力的專注之光于那些非理性的心靈暗角或裂隙時，便有能力保持理性與安寧。你開始了解自己對內心痛苦應負的責任程度，你察覺到，自己的苦難、恐懼與壓力皆是自己引起的。你察覺到，自己是怎樣造成自己的痛苦、缺點與侷限，而當你越深入了解這些心理過程，它們就越來越無法控制到你。

4. Breath Coordination

(4) 協調呼吸與活動的禪修

In seated meditation, our primary focus is the breath. Total concentration on the ever-changing breath brings us squarely into the present moment. The same principle can be used in the midst of movement. You can coordinate the activity in which you are involved with your breathing. This lends a flowing rhythm to your movement, and it smooths out many of the abrupt transitions. Activity becomes easier to focus on, and mindfulness is increased. Your awareness thus stays more easily in the present. Ideally, meditation should be a 24 hour-a-day practice. This is a highly practical suggestion.

在坐禪時，我們的主要禪修對象是呼吸。全神貫注于千變萬化的呼吸上，能帶領我們直達當下。同一原理亦適用于活動之中，你可把呼吸與正在從事的活動協調起來，這樣做，可為你的動作帶來流暢的旋律，以及令許多轉變順暢無阻；你更易集中于活動上，專注力會增長，而覺知力更易保持在當下。理想上，禪修應是每天二十四小時都在修習的，這很實際有效。

A state of mindfulness is a state of mental readiness. The mind is not burdened with preoccupations or bound in worries. Whatever comes up can be dealt with instantly. When you are truly mindful, your nervous system has a freshness and resiliency which fosters insight. A problem arises and you simply deal with it, quickly, efficiently, and with a minimum of fuss. You don’t stand there in a dither, and you don’t run off to a quiet corner so you can sit down and meditate about it. You simply deal with it. And in those rare circumstances when no solution seems possible, you don’t worry about that. You just go on to the next thing that needs your attention. Your intuition becomes a very practical faculty.

留意覺察的心態，是一種準備就緒的心態。內心沒有成見、偏見或煩憂的包袱，對出現的任何事都可立即應對。當你確實在留意覺察時，你的神經系統就會充滿朝氣與彈性，很容易培育出內觀智慧。若有問題出現，你會率直地處理它，迅速、有效而不忙亂。你不會站在那里猶豫不決，也不會逃跑至安靜的角落，好讓你坐下來思考著它。你只率直地處理它，在極少數看似不能解決的情況下，你也不會為之擔心。你只會進行下一件要你關注的事情，你的直覺將成為一種非常有用的能力。

5. Stolen Moments

(5) 善用零碎或空閒的時間來禪修

The concept of wasted time does not exist for a serious meditator. Little dead spaces during your day can be turned to profit. Every spare moment can be used for meditation. Sitting anxiously in the dentist’s office, meditate on your anxiety. Feeling irritated while standing in a line at the bank, meditate on irritation. Bored, twiddling you thumbs at the bus stop, meditate on boredom. Try to stay alert and aware throughout the day. Be mindful of exactly what is taking place right now, even if it is tedious drudgery. Take advantage of moments when you are alone. Take advantage of activities that are largely mechanical. Use every spare second to be mindful. Use all the moments you can.

認真的禪修者是不會有「浪費時間」這一概念的。你日常生活中的許多零碎時間都可以被善用的，你可以拿每一個零碎時間或閒暇來禪修。例如：坐在牙醫診所內憂慮地等候時，可以利用憂慮為緣來禪修；在銀行站著排隊感到煩躁時，可以利用煩躁為緣來禪修；在巴士站等車時感到煩悶、玩弄手指時，可以利用煩悶為緣來禪修。總之，即使是冗長乏味、或單調辛苦的工作，整天都要嘗試保持警惕與覺察，以及靜觀當下正在發生的事情。要善用獨處的片刻，要善用大半是機械化的活動，要利用閒暇的每一刻來靜觀，要利用全部你能拿取的片刻來禪修。

6. Concentration On All Activities

(6) 對所有活動保持靜觀

You should try to maintain mindfulness of every activity and perception through the day, starting with the first perception when you awake, and ending with the last thought before you fall asleep. This is an incredibly tall goal to shoot for. Don’t expect to be able to achieve this work soon. Just take it slowly and let you abilities grow over time. The most feasible way to go about the task is to divide your day up into chunks. Dedicate a certain interval to mindfulness of posture, then extend this mindfulness to other simple activities: eating, washing, dressing, and so forth. Some time during the day, you can set aside 15 minutes or so to practice the observation of specific types of mental states: pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral feelings, for instance; or the hindrances, or thoughts. The specific routine is up to you. The idea is to get practice at spotting the various items, and to preserve your state of mindfulness as fully as you can throughout the day.

每一天的活動與知覺，由覺醒時的首個知覺，到入睡前的最後一念，你都要嘗試對它們保持當下的留意覺察。這是一個非常高遠的目標，不可預期能一步登天，要慢慢來，讓你的能力與時俱增。最可行的方法，是把一天分為幾個時段，把一個時段致力于靜觀姿勢，然後把靜觀伸展至其他的簡單活動，例如：進食、清洗、穿衣等。你亦可在一天之中，撥出大約十五分鍾來修習觀察特定的心態，例如：適意的、不適意的、以及中性的；或者是障礙禪修的五種蓋障(貪、瞋、昏沉、掉舉(散亂)或疑)、其他的思想等。具體程序可自行決定，重點是要你練習識別上述的各個項目，同時要在一天之內，盡量保持完滿的靜觀狀態。

Try to achieve a daily routine in which there is as little difference as possible between seated meditation and the rest of your experience. Let the one slide naturally into the other. Your body is almost never still. There is always motion to observe. At the very least, there is breathing. Your mind never stops chattering, except in the very deepest states of concentration. There is always something coming up to observe. If you seriously apply your meditation, you will never be at a loss for something worthy of your attention.

努力建立起你的日常程序(習慣)，使坐禪與其他生活經驗之間的差別，可減至最低，讓它們能彼此間自然磨合。整體而言，活著的身體是永難靜止的，你總會觀察到它的活動，至少它會呼吸，而內心也會念念不停。除非你正處于甚深的禪定境界，否則，總會有些事物出現給你觀察的。若你認真致力禪修，一定不會因缺少值得你注意的事物而感到困惑的。

Your practice must be made to apply to your everyday living situation. That is your laboratory. It provides the trials and challenges you need to make your practice deep and genuine. It’s the fire that purifies your practice of deception and error, the acid test that shows you when you are getting somewhere and when you are fooling yourself. If your meditation isn’t helping you to cope with everyday conflicts and struggles, then it is shallow. If your day-to-day emotional reactions are not becoming clearer and easier to manage, then you are wasting your time. And you never know how you are doing until you actually make that test.

你必須運用禪修于你的日常生活情境之中。生活中的禪修就好像你的實驗室，它提供你所需的磨練與挑戰，令你的修持能深化和名副其實。它如煉火，能淨化你的欺詐與謬誤，又如嚴峻的考驗，能顯示你在進步之中、還是在自欺欺人之中。如你的禪修無法幫你應付日常的沖突與掙扎，那麼，它是淺薄的；如你的日常情緒反應，未能越來越被察覺與容易被處理，那麼，你是在浪費時間了。可是，如你還未做實際測試，你是永遠不會知道自己做得如何的。

The practice of mindfulness is supposed to be a universal practice. You don’t do it sometimes and drop it the rest of the time. You do it all the time. Meditation that is successful only when you are withdrawn in some soundproof ivory tower is still undeveloped. Insight meditation is the practice of moment-to-moment mindfulness. The meditator learns to pay bare attention to the birth, growth, and decay of all the phenomena of the mind. He turns from none of it, and he lets none of it escape. Thoughts and emotions, activities and desires, the whole show. He watches it all and he watches it continuously. It matters not whether it is lovely or horrid, beautiful or shameful. He sees the way it is and the way it changes. No aspect of experience is excluded or avoided. It is a very thoroughgoing procedure.

留意覺察的修習必須普及于生活之中，不能一時修習、一時又置之不理，那是你隨時都要做的修習。要躲在象牙塔里修習才能成功的禪修，到現在還未被開發出來。內觀禪修是一種時時刻刻皆在靜觀的修習，禪修者要學習純粹地注意心內一切現象的生起、增長與衰亡，不可逃避，也不可遺漏任何一個現象。對所有思想、情緒、活動、欲望等展示，他全部都要留意觀察，而且要持續不斷地觀察，不管是可愛的、可厭的、美好的、或是羞恥的，他都要即時知道它的現狀及轉變方式，不迴避、亦不排除經驗的任何方面。

If you are moving through your daily activities and you find yourself in a state of boredom, then meditate on your boredom. Find out how it feels, how it works, and what it is composed of. If you are angry, meditate on the anger. Explore the mechanics of anger. Don’t run from it. If you find yourself sitting in the grip of a dark depression, meditate on the depression. Investigate depression in a detached and inquiring way. Don’t flee from it blindly. Explore the maze and chart its pathways. That way you will be better able to cope with the next depression that comes along.

在日常活動之中，如果發覺自己處于厭煩的狀態，那就專注自己的厭煩，看看它是一個怎麼樣的感受，它是怎麼樣運作的，它是由什麼構成的。如果你在憤怒，那就專注自己的憤怒，探究一下憤怒的運作方式，不可迴避它。如果發覺自己陷入沮喪的深淵，那就專注自己的沮喪，以超然、好奇的態度來審查此一沮喪情緒，不可盲目地逃避它，要仔細探究此迷宮，並記下它的路線圖，如此才能在下次沮喪出現時，讓你能處理得更好。

Meditating your way through the ups and downs of daily life is the whole point of Vipassana. This kind of practice is extremely rigorous and demanding, but it engenders a state of mental flexibility that is beyond comparison. A meditator keeps his mind open every second. He is constantly investigating life, inspecting his own experience, viewing existence in a detached and inquisitive way. Thus he is constantly open to truth in any form, from any source, and at any time. This is the state of mind you need for Liberation.

內觀禪修的重點，在于貫徹禪修于日常生活的起起伏伏(盛衰沉浮)之中，這類修習非常嚴格，且要求苛刻，可是，它所練成的心理變通性，卻是無與倫比的。禪修者分分秒秒均保持內心開放，他持續不停地探究生活，檢視自己的經驗，以一種超然、好奇的方式來觀察生命。因此，無論真理來自何時何方、或以何形式出現，他都能以開放的態度接觸得到，這正是解脫所需的心理狀態。

It is said that one may attain enlightenment at any moment if the mind is kept in a state of meditative readiness. The tiniest, most ordinary perception can be the stimulus: a view of the moon, the cry of a bird, the sound of the wind in the trees. it’s not so important what is perceived as the way in which you attend to that perception. The state of open readiness is essential. It could happen to you right now if you are ready. The tactile sensation of this book in your fingers could be the cue. The sound of these words in your head might be enough. You could attain enlightenment right now, if you are ready.

據說，若人內心能維持在準備就緒的禪修狀態，此人隨時隨刻皆有開悟的可能。最微細、最普通的知覺都可以引發開悟，例如：看到月亮、聽到鳥語風聲等。知覺到什麼並不重要，更重要的是你照顧那知覺的方式。開放的準備就緒狀態是必須的，你若準備好，馬上就有可能發生，而引發的因緣可以是：你手指與此書的觸覺、或是這些文字在你腦中的聲音。如果你準備好，現在就有可能開悟！