分別心 The Discriminating Mind

The Discriminating Mind

　　分別心

Right understanding ultimately means non-discrimination-seeing all people as the same, neither good nor bad, neither clever nor foolish; not thinking that honey is sweet and good and some other food is bitter. Although you may eat several kinds of food, when you absorb and excrete them, they all become the same. Is it one or many? Is a glass big? In relation to a little cup, yes; when placed next to a pitcher, no.

　　正見的根本意義是：沒有分別，視所有的人都是平等的，非好、壞，也非聰明或愚笨;也不去認為蜂蜜是甜又好，而其他食物卻很苦澀。雖然你吃了很多種不同的食物，但是你食用而後排泄時，其實都是一樣的。它是一還是異呢?對一個小茶杯來說，這個杯子大嗎?是的，但放在一個大水罐邊時，就不是了。

Our desire and ignorance, our discrimination color everything in this way. This is the world we create. Again, a pitcher is neither heavy nor light; we just feel that it is one way or the other. In the Zen koan of the flag in the wind, two persons are watching a flag: one says it is the wind that moves, the other says it is the flag. They can argue forever, take sticks and fight it out, all to no avail, for it is the mind that moves.

　　我們的欲望、無知和我們的分別心，如此地染著一切事物。這就是我們創造的世界。再說，一個水罐是既非重也非輕的，我們只覺得它不是這樣就必是那樣。在禪宗里，有個風動或幡動的公案：二個人同時在看一面旗子，一個人認為是風在動；另一個人說是幡在動。他們可以一直爭論，甚至拿棍子打起來，都還是徒勞無功的，因為是心在動啊!

There are always differences. Get to know those differences, yet learn to see the sameness too. In our group people come from different backgrounds, different cultures. Yet without thinking, ’This one’s Thai, that one’s Lao, he’s Cambodian, he’s a Westerner,” we should have mutual understanding and respect for the ways of others. Learn to see the underlying sameness of all things, how they are all truly equal, truly empty. Then you can know how to deal with the apparent differences wisely. But do not get attached even to this sameness.

　　差異是遍一切虛的，而要認識這些差異的同時，也要學著去看那些共同之處。在我們的團體中，人們來自不同的背景、不同的文化，但不要去想：「這個人是泰國人，那個人是寮國人，他是高棉人，那個是西方人……」我們應該有著相互的了解，並且去尊重他人的習俗，學習去看一切事物潛在的共通點，一切是如何地完全平等、真實空的，然後你才會知道該如何有智慧去處理這些明顯的差異。可是也不要去執著這個共同點。

Why is sugar sweet and water tasteless? It is just their nature. So too with thinking and stillness, pain and pleasure-it is wrong understanding to want thinking to cease. Sometimes there is thought, sometimes stillness. We must see that both are by nature impermanent, unsatisfactory, not a cause for lasting happiness. But if we continue to worry and think further, ’1 am suffering, I want to stop thinking,” this wrong understanding only complicates things.

　　為什麼糖是甜的，而水是無味的?這是它們的本然。思想和平靜、痛苦和享樂也是一樣的──想要思想終止是一種錯誤的見解。有時候會有想;有時候是靜止的，我們必須了解二者都是由無常、不圓滿的本然所始然，而非延續快樂的因素。但，如果我們繼續擔憂並進而認為：「我在受苦、我要停止想。」這種錯誤的見解，只會把事情複雜化。

At times, we may feel that thinking is suffering, like a thief robbing us of the present. What can we do to stop it? In the day, it is light; at night, it is dark. Is this itself suffering? Only if we compare the way things are now with other situations we have known and wish it were otherwise. Ultimately things are just as they are-only our comparisons cause us to suffer.

　　有時我們會覺得想是苦，就好像一個現在正在打劫我們的賊，我們要怎　做才能停止它呢?白天，是光明的；晚上，是黑暗的。它本身是苦的嗎?只有當我們將現在的事物和其他我們所知的狀況做比較，並期待有其他意外時，才會如此。事物終究是事物，只因我們的比較，造成我們受苦罷了。

You see this mind at work-do you consider it to be you or yours? “I don’t know if it’s me or mine,” you answer, “but it’s certainly out of control.” It is just like a monkey jumping about senselessly. It goes upstairs, gets bored, runs back downstairs, gets tired of that, goes to a movie, gets bored again, has good food or poor food, gets bored with that too. Its behavior is driven not by dispassion but by different forms of aversion and fear.

　　你看著這個心在作用──你會認為它是「你」或「你的」嗎?你會回答：「我不知道它是不是我或我的?可是它肯定是無法控制的。」就像一只猴子，無知地四處亂跳。它跳到樓上，無聊了，又跳到樓下；厭倦時，去看電影，然後無聊了，就去享有好的或不好的食物，可是，它對那也厭惡了，它的行為是被不同形式的恐懼與厭惡所驅使，而非冷靜。

You have to learn control. Stop caring for the monkey-care for the truth of life instead. See the real nature of the mind: impermanent, unsatisfactory, empty. Learn to be its master; chain it down if you must. Do not just follow it, let it wear itself out and die. Then you have a dead monkey. Let the dead monkey rot away, and you have monkey’s bones.

　　你必需學習去控制，停止對那只猴子的照顧，相反地，去關心生命的真理。去徹見心的真實本然：無常、苦、空。學習成為它的主人，如果必要的話，將它鎖起來，不要只是一味地盲從；讓它自己精疲力竭而死，那麼你就會有一只死猴子了。讓那只死猴子爛掉，那你便有猴子的骨頭了。

Still enlightenment does not mean to become dead like a Buddha statue. One who is enlightened thinks also but knows the process as impermanent, unsatisfactory, and empty of self. We who practice must see these things clearly. We need to investigate suffering and stop its causes. If we do not see it, wisdom can never arise. There should be no guesswork, we must see things exactly as they are-feelings are just feelings, thoughts are just thoughts. This is the way to end all our problems.

We can see the mind as a lotus. Some lotuses are still stuck in the mud, some have climbed above the mud but are still underwater, some have reached the surface, while others are open in the sun, stain-free. Which lotus do you choose to be? If you find yourself below the surface:, watch out for the bites of fishes and turtles.