手電筒 Flashlight

〖手電筒〗

在佛教里，我們不斷地聽到放下而不要去執著任何事物，這是什麼意思呢？意思是要我們取而不著。就拿這只手電筒做比方吧！我們會想知道：「這是什麼？」所以我們將它拾起，才發現：「噢，原來是只手電筒。」于是就會放下它。我們以這種方式來取。如果什麼都不取，我們能做什麼呢？行禪或其他的事都不能做了，所以首先我們必須要取。是的，是欲求沒錯，但未來它將導引你到達圓滿。

到這里來也是一樣。首先你必須想來這里，如果你不想來，今天你們也不會在此地。我們是因欲望而有行動的，但當欲望升起時，不要去執著它，就好像我們不會去執著那只手電筒一樣——「這是什麼？」我們撿起來，「噢，是只手電筒！」于是就放下它。這就是「取而不著」的含義。知道了後，就放下，不要愚癡地執著事物，但要以智慧「取」，然後放下它們。善或惡，兩者皆要全盤放下。

Flashlight

In Buddhism we are endlessly hearing about letting go and about not clinging to anything. What does this mean? It means to take hold of but not to cling. Take this flashlight, for example. We wonder: “What is this?” So we pick it up: “Oh, it’s a flashlight.” Then we put it down again. We take hold of things, even of wanting, in this way. If we didn’t take hold of wanting, what could we do? We couldn’t do walking meditation or anything else. It’s wanting, yes, a defilement, that’s true, but later on that leads to perfection. So we must take hold of things first. It is like coming here. First you had to want to come here. If you didn’t want to, you wouldn’t be here today. We do things because of wanting, but when wanting arises, we don’t cling to it, just like we don’t cling to that flashlight - “What’s this?” We pick it up. “Oh, it’s a flashlight.” We then put it down again. This is what “holding but not clinging” means. We know and then we let go. We don’t foolishly cling to things, but we “hold” them with wisdom and then let them go. Good or bad, we let them all go.