Mindfulness In Plain English - Chapter 4: Attitude

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 4: Attitude

第四章 禪修的態度

Within the last century, Western science and physics have made a startling discovery. We are part of the world we view. The very process of our observation changes the things we observe. As an example, an electron is an extremely tiny item. It cannot be viewed without instrumentation, and that apparatus dictates what the observer will see. If you look at an electron in one way, it appears to be a particle, a hard little ball that bounces around in nice straight paths. When you view it another way, an electron appears to be a wave form, with nothing solid about it. It glows and wiggles all over the place. An electron is an event more than a thing. And the observer participates in that event by the very process of his or her observation. There is no way to avoid this interaction.

在上一世紀，西方的科學有一驚人發現，我們都是我們所看見的世界的一部分，我們的觀察過程本身會改變我們正在觀察的東西。例如：電子是極為微小的東西，沒有儀器是觀察不到它的，而觀察者會看到什麼則取決于那件儀器。用某一方法看電子時，它是一顆微粒(Particle)，像細小的皮球硬體一樣依直線彈來彈去；用另一方法看它時，它是一種波動(Wave form)，空而不實，它發光發熱，扭動著遍布該處，此時，電子看來不是一個實物，而是一件事(Event)。而觀察者在其觀察過程中自然地會成為該事件的參與者，這種互動作用是無法避免的。

Eastern science has recognized this basic principle for a very long time. The mind is a set of events, and the observer participates in those events every time he or she looks inward. Meditation is participatory observation. What you are looking at responds to the process of looking. What you are looking at is you, and what you see depends on how you look. Thus the process of meditation is extremely delicate, and the result depends absolutely on the state of mind of the meditator. The following attitudes are essential to success in practice. Most of them have been presented before. But we bring them together again here as a series of rules for application.

至于東方科學，很早已認識此基本原理了。心本身就是一系列事件，每一次你向內觀心時，一定會參與那些事件的。禪修是參與性的觀察，你的觀察對象會對觀察過程產生反應，你看的對象是你自己，而你看到什麼則取決于你怎麼樣看。因此，禪修是一種非常微妙的過程，其結果完全取決于禪修者的心態。下列態度，對禪修實踐的成功與否至為重要，大部分在前面已經講過，我們把它們集合起來，好讓禪修者作為一系列的準則來應用。

1. Don’t expect anything. Just sit back and see what happens. Treat the whole thing as an experiment. Take an active interest in the test itself. But don’t get distracted by your expectations about results. For that matter, don’t be anxious for any result whatsoever. Let the meditation move along at its own speed and in its own direction. Let the meditation teach you what it wants you to learn. Meditative awareness seeks to see reality exactly as it is. Whether that corresponds to our expectations or not, it requires a temporary suspension of all our preconceptions and ideas. We must store away our images, opinions and interpretations someplace out of the way for the duration. Otherwise we will stumble over them.

(1) 不要期望任何東西只管坐著，看看什麼事情會發生。把整件事看成是一種實驗，對試驗本身提起積極的興趣，不要對結果有所期望，以免分心。就此而言，不可為任何會發生的結果而擔憂，讓禪修依其步伐與方向前進，讓禪修教導你。禪修的覺察試圖了解現存事物的實相，因此，不管是否符合期望，我們實有必要暫時中止一切預想與意見。在禪修期間，我們必須把心中的影像、意見、解釋或描述等都封存起來，否則將會被它們絆倒。

2. Don’t strain: Don’t force anything or make grand exaggerated efforts. Meditation is not aggressive. There is no violent striving. Just let your effort be relaxed and steady.

(2) 不要太過繃緊不要過分勉強行事，不要作重大與夸張的努力。禪修不是侵略性行為，實無需作激烈性的斗爭，只須從容不迫地、平穩地用功即可。

3. Don’t rush: There is no hurry, so take you time. Settle yourself on a cushion and sit as though you have a whole day. Anything really valuable takes time to develop. Patience, patience, patience.

(3) 不要匆促行事不必匆忙，從容地進行吧，讓自己好整以暇地端坐在墊子上，就好像你有一整天的時間一樣，任何真正有價值的東西，都需要時間去慢慢發展的，要忍耐、忍耐、再忍耐。

4. Don’t cling to anything and don’t reject anything: Let come what comes and accommodate yourself to that, whatever it is. If good mental images arise, that is fine. If bad mental images arise, that is fine, too. Look on all of it as equal and make yourself comfortable with whatever happens. Don’t fight with what you experience, just observe it all mindfully.

(4) 不要執著任何東西，也不要排斥任何東西要來的就讓它來，無論遇到什麼事情，都應隨遇而安。若內心出現美好的影像，那是好的；若內心出現丑惡的影像，亦佳。對所有出現的東西應等量齊觀，萬事都要泰然自若，不要和你的經驗作對，只須留心地觀察著它們即可。

5. Let go: Learn to flow with all the changes that come up. Loosen up and relax.

(5) 放下學習隨順一切遇到的轉變，好好地松開和松弛。

6. Accept everything that arises: Accept your feelings, even the ones you wish you did not have. Accept your experiences, even the ones you hate. Don’t condemn yourself for having human flaws and failings. Learn to see all the phenomena in the mind as being perfectly natural and understandable. Try to exercise a disinterested acceptance at all times and with respect to everything you experience.

(6) 接受一切發生的事情接受你的任何感受，即使那是你所不想有的。接受你的任何經驗，即使那是你所憎恨的。不要責怪自己擁有人性上的缺點與過失，學習了解內心之一切現象完全是自然的，是可以理解的。對自己所經驗的一切，要隨時采取公正無私的接受態度。

7. Be gentle with yourself: Be kind to yourself. You may not be perfect, but you are all you’ve got to work with. The process of becoming who you will be begins first with the total acceptance of who you are.

(7) 好好善待自己對自己仁慈一點吧！你也許並不完美，可是，你只有自己這個合作夥伴，別無他選。你的自我改變過程，首先得由完全接受你自己現在的樣子開始。

8. Investigate yourself: Question everything. Take nothing for granted. Don’t believe anything because it sounds wise and pious and some holy men said it. See for yourself. That does not mean that you should be cynical, impudent or irreverent. It means you should be empirical. Subject all statements to the actual test of your experience and let the results be your guide to truth. Insight meditation evolves out of an inner longing to wake up to what is real and to gain liberating insight to the true structure of existence. The entire practice hinges upon this desire to be awake to the truth. Without it, the practice is superficial.

(8) 審查你自己質疑每一件事，沒有什麼是理所當然的。不要因為它聽起來似有見識、虔誠、或出于聖者之口就相信，要親自去查看。這不是要你憤世嫉俗、放肆無禮、或是不敬，而是要你根據經驗，要你親自驗證所有觀點，讓結果作為你接近真理的向導。內觀禪的逐步形成，乃源于欲領悟現實的內在渴求，以及獲得洞悉生存結構的解脫智慧。整個修行都是以此為依歸── 欲領悟真理的渴求；若缺少了它，禪修是膚淺的。

9. View all problems as challenges: Look upon negatives that arise as opportunities to learn and to grow. Don’t run from them, condemn yourself or bear your burden in saintly silence. You have a problem? Great. More grist for the mill. Rejoice, dive in and investigate.

(9) 視所有問題為挑戰視一切出現的逆境為學習與成長的機會，不要逃避它們、不要責備自己、或獨自黯然神傷。你有問題嗎？太好了！自我砥礪的良機來了，欣喜吧！投入其中，作深入的考察吧！

10. Don’t ponder: You don’t need to figure everything out. Discursive thinking won’t free you from the trap. In mediation, the mind is purified naturally by mindfulness, by wordless bare attention. Habitual deliberation is not necessary to eliminate those things that are keeping you in bondage. All that is necessary is a clear, non-conceptual perception of what they are and how they work. That alone is sufficient to dissolve them. Concepts and reasoning just get in the way. Don’t think. See.

(10) 不要考慮太多你不必事事都要搞清楚，散漫的思考是不能令你解困的。在禪修中，透過靜觀與無言的單純注意，你的心自然得到淨化。要消除束縛你的東西，並不需要慣性的思慮，你需要的只是清楚地、非概念性地直接覺知到「那是什麼」，以及「它是怎麼樣運作的」，即可化解；概念與推理思維只會造成障礙，不要想，要觀察。

11. Don’t dwell upon contrasts: Differences do exist between people, but dwelling upon then is a dangerous process. Unless carefully handled, it leads directly to egotism. Ordinary human thinking is full of greed, jealousy and pride. A man seeing another man on the street may immediately think, “He is better looking than I am.” The instant result is envy or shame. A girl seeing another girl may think, “I am prettier than she is.” The instant result is pride. This sort of comparison is a mental habit, and it leads directly to ill feeling of one sort or another: greed, envy, pride, jealousy, hatred. It is an unskillful mental state, but we do it all the time. We compare our looks with others, our success, our accomplishments, our wealth, possessions, or I.Q. and all these lead to the same place–estrangement, barriers between people, and ill feeling.

(11) 不要耽于比較或對照人與人之間確實有很多差異，耽于比較是危險的。若不小心處理，這會直接演變成唯我主義(Egotism) ── 自私自利、自尊自大。世人的思想充滿貪欲、妒忌與傲慢。一個男人在街上遇到另一個男人時，或會立刻想到：「他比我好看。」內心即時就會生起妒忌與羞愧；一個女孩看到另一個女孩時，或會立刻想到：「我比她漂亮。」內心即時就會生起驕傲。類似這些比較都是一種心理習慣，它會直接引起一些不良的心態，例如：貪欲、妒忌、傲慢、怨恨與敵意等。比較是一種不善巧的心態，而我們竟一直做個不停。我們與他人比較外觀、成功、成就、財富、財產或智商，這一切做法只會導致人與人之間的疏離、不和、隔閡與反感。

The meditator’s job is to cancel this unskillful habit by examining it thoroughly, and then replacing it with another. Rather than noticing the differences between self and others, the meditator trains himself to notice similarities. He centers his attention on those factors that are universal to all life, things that will move him closer to others. Thus his comparison, if any, leads to feelings of kinship rather than feelings of estrangement.

禪修者的主要工作，是通過徹底審察這些不善的習慣來消除它，然後代之以善者；不是去注意彼此間的差異，而是訓練自己去留意彼此相同的地方。禪修者的關注點是所有生命的共同要素，那些能令他更接近別人的東西。因此，即使有所比較，那也只會帶來親密而非疏離感。

Breathing is a universal process. All vertebrates breathe in essentially the same manner. All living things exchange gasses with their environment in some way or other. This is one of the reasons that breathing is chosen as the focus of meditation. the meditator is advised to explore the process of his own breathing as a vehicle for realizing his own inherent connectedness with the rest of life. This does not mean that we shut our eyes to all the differences around us. Differences exist. It means simply that we de-emphasize contrasts and emphasize the universal factors. The recommended procedure is as follows:

呼吸是生命共有的過程，所有脊椎動物的呼吸方式基本上是相同的，眾生皆以某一方式與環境交換氣體。禪修采用呼吸為集中對象，原因之一就在于此。禪修者被教導去探索自己的呼吸過程，其實是了解自己與其他生命的內在聯系的一個方便法門。這不是說，我們要閉上眼睛，對身邊的一切差異漠不關心，差異是存在的，只是我們不想強調差異，而是強調共同的地方。

When the meditator perceives any sensory object, he is not to dwell upon it in the ordinary egotistical way. He should rather examine the very process of perception itself. He should watch the feelings that arise and the mental activities that follow. He should note the changes that occur in his own consciousness as a result. In watching all these phenomena, the meditator must be aware of the universality of what he is seeing. That initial perception will spark pleasant, unpleasant or neutral feelings. That is a universal phenomenon. It occurs in the mind of others just as it does in his, and he should see that clearly. Following these feelings various reactions may arise. He may feel greed, lust, or jealousy. He may feel fear, worry, restlessness or boredom. These reactions are universal. He simple notes them and then generalizes. He should realize that these reactions are normal human responses and can arise in anybody.

以下是可取的步驟：作為禪修者的我們，當覺知到任何一種感官對象時，不可依慣常的自我中心方式去持續地細想著它，而是審察那個覺知過程本身。我們應觀看那個對象如何影響著感官與知覺，應觀看生起的感受與隨後而來的心理活動，接著，我們應注意在意識中出現的改變。在觀看這些現象時，禪修者要覺察到所觀現象的普遍性。知覺開始時，快樂、不快樂、或中性的感受是會出現的，這是一種普遍現象，在自己與在別人的心里也會生起，我們應清楚地看到這一點。在這些感受之後，可能會出現各種各樣的反應，我們可能生起貪欲、色欲、或妒忌，也可能感到恐懼、憂慮、不安或厭倦。這些反應也都很普遍，我們只須注意它們，然後加以概括。我們應了解，這些都是平常人所有的反應，在任何人的身上都會發生。

The practice of this style of comparison may feel forced and artificial at first, but it is no less natural than what we ordinarily do. It is merely unfamiliar. With practice, this habit pattern replaces our normal habit of egoistic comparing and feels far more natural in the long run. We become very understanding people as a result. we no longer get upset by the failings of others. We progress toward harmony with all life.

上述的修習方式，開始時可能令人覺得有點勉強和做作，可是，與我們的慣常做法相比，它不算過分，我們只是不熟悉而已。透過練習，這個習慣會取代我們慣常的以自我為中心的比較模式；長遠來說，它會令人覺得較為自然；我們會變得善解人意，對別人的錯失也不再介懷，並且逐漸能與一切眾生和諧共處。