禮物 Gift

〖禮物〗

我們應該觀察身體里的身體。不管身體里有什麼東西，去看看它吧！如果我們祗看外表，那是不清楚的。我們所看的頭髮、指甲等等，它們的漂亮迷惑了我們，所以佛陀教我們看看身體的內部——身體里的身體。身體里面有什麼東西？仔細地看清楚！我們會看見里面有很多東西會使我們很驚訝，因為縱然這些東西在我們體內，我們卻從來沒有看過它們。無論走到哪里，我們都帶著它們，可是卻不認識它們。

就像我們造訪親友的家，他們送我們禮物，我們接受後，把它放入袋中，卻擱著沒去打開來看里頭是什麼東西。最後，當我們打開它時卻發現里頭全都毒蛇！

我們的身體也是如此。如果我們祗看身體的外表，就以為它很完美、很漂亮，我們忘了自己，忘了無常、苦、無我。如果我們觀察這身體的內在，真的很惡心，里頭根本沒有一樣美麗的東西。如果我們如實觀照，不故意去美化它的話，我們將會發現那真是可悲和令人厭煩，接著就會生起厭離心。這種厭離的感覺並不是要我們仇視這個世間，而是我們的心逐漸清明，心能放下了。我們看清一切事物都是不實在、不可靠的。不管我們對它們懷有多大的希望，它們仍會無情地離去——無常的事物還是無常；不完美的事物還是不完美。

所以佛陀說，當我們經驗到色、聲、香、味、觸、法時，應該要遠離它們。不管快樂或不快樂，其實都一樣，所以放下它們吧！

Gift

We should investigate the body within the body. Whatever’s in the body, go ahead and look at it. If we just see the outside, it’s not clear. We see hair, nails, and so on and they are just pretty things that entice us. So the Buddha taught us to look at the inside of the body, to see the body within the body. What is the body? Look closely and see! We will see even though it is within us, we’ve never seen it. Wherever we go we carry it with us, but we still don’t know it at all. It’s as if we go and visit some relatives at their house and they give us a gift. We take it and put it in our bag and then leave without opening it to see what is inside. When at last we open it we find it is full of poisonous snakes! Our body is like that. If we just see the shell of it, we say it’s fine and beautiful. We forget ourselves. We forget impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and not-self. If we look within this body, it’s really repulsive. There’s nothing beautiful in it. If we look according to reality, without trying to sugar things over, we’ll see that it’s really sad and wearisome. Dispassion will then arise. This feeling of disinterest does not come from feeling an aversion toward the world. It’s simply our mind clearing up, our mind letting go. We see all things as not being substantial or dependable. However we want them to be, they just go their own way, regardless. Things that are unstable are unstable. Things that are not beautiful are not beautiful. So the Buddha said that when we experience sights, sounds, tastes, smells, bodily feelings or mental states, we should let them go. Whether happiness or unhappiness, they’re all the same. So let them go!