正念 Mindfulness
Mindfulness
正 念
Just as animal life can be classified into two groups, creatures of the land and creatures of the sea, subjects of meditation can be divided into two categories, concentration and insight. Concentration meditations are those that are used to make the mind calm and one pointed. Insight, on the one hand, is the growing perception of impermanence, suffering, and emptiness of self and, on the other, our bridge over those waters.
禪坐的科目可分為兩大類：止(定)與觀(慧)；就如生物的生命型態可分為兩類：陸上生物與水中的生物一般。止的禪修是善于使心平靜且專一的禪修；觀的禪修，一方面是在增長對無常、苦和無我的體會，另一方面，則是使我們能夠跨過這些水的橋梁。
No matter how we may feel about our existence, our business is not to try to change it in any way. Rather, we just have to see it and let it be. Where suffering is, there too is the way out of suffering. Seeing that which is born and dies and is subject to suffering, Buddha knew there must also be something beyond birth and death, free of suffering.
不管我們對我們的生存感覺如何，我們的職責都不是去設法使它做任何改變。相反地，我們只須去洞見它，然後隨它去。不論苦在哪里，那兒就必定有離苦之道。去徹見是什麼在生與死，和是什麼傾向苦。佛陀知道那兒也必須有超越生、死的東西、苦的解脫。
Methods of meditation all have value in helping to develop mindfulness. The point is to use mindfulness to see the underlying truth. With this mindfulness, we watch all desires, likes and dislikes, pleasures and pains that arise in the mind. Realizing they are impermanent, suffering, and empty of self, we let go of them. In this way, wisdom replaces ignorance, knowledge replaces doubt.
各種禪修的法門都有協助正念增長的價值。要點是在于，利用正念去洞見潛藏的真理。用這種正念，去觀照在心中生起的欲望、喜、惡、苦、樂，並領悟它們是無常、苦和無我的，然後放下它們。如此一來，智慧便會取代愚痴，智慧便會取代疑惑。
As for singling out one object of meditation, you yourself must discover what fits your character. Wherever you choose to be mindful, it will bring wisdom to the mind. Mindfulness is knowing what is here, noticing, being aware. Clear comprehension knows the context in which the present is occurring. When mindfulness and clear comprehension act together, their companion, wisdom, always appears to help them complete any task.
至于選擇一個禪修對象，你自己必須去發現哪一種適合你的性向。不論你選擇哪一個做為你觀照的對象，都將會把智慧帶入心中。正念就是覺知當下、覺察和覺醒。清明的領悟(正知)覺知當下正在發生的情況。當正念和正知一齊運作時，它們的夥伴──智慧，永遠會幫它們完成任何的工作。
Watch the mind, watch the process of experience arising and ceasing. At first the movement is constant as soon as one thing passes, another arises, and we seem to see more arising than ceasing. As time goes by we see more clearly, understanding how things arise so fast, until we reach the point where they arise, cease, and do not arise again.
觀照心，觀照經驗的生、滅過程。剛開始的動態是遷流不息的 ── 一個剛滅，另一個就馬上生起，我們似乎看到生比滅還多。隨著時間流逝，我們會更清楚地看見，並明了它們是如何迅速地生起，一直到有一天，我們達到它們生、滅後便不再生起的境地為止。
With mindfulness you can see the real owner of things. Do you think this is your world, your body? It is the world’s world, the body’s body. If you tell it, Don’t get old, does the body listen? Does your stomach ask permission to get sick? We only rent this house; why not find out who really owns it?
有了正念，你便可以徹見事物真正的主人。你認為這是你的世界、你的身體嗎?這是世界的世界，身體的身體。如果你告訴它，不要去，身體會聽從嗎?你的胃會先申請允許才生病嗎?我們只是租用這棟房子，為何不去追突出誰才是真正的主人呢?