雞或雞蛋 The Chicken or the Egg?

The Chicken or the Egg?

　　雞或雞蛋

During his first visit to England, Achaan Chah spoke to many Buddhist groups. One evening after a talk he received a question from a dignified English lady who had spent many years studying the complex cybernetics of the mind according to the eighty-nine classes of consciousness in the Buddhist abhidharma psychology texts. Would he please explain certain of the more difficult aspects of this system of psychology to her so she could continue her study?

　　阿姜 查在他第一次訪英國期間，曾與許多佛教團體演講。有一天晚上，演講後，有一位花了數年時間，根據阿昆達摩唯識學中，八十九種心法來研究複雜的心理活動的英籍女士，同他提出問題。他會向她解釋唯識系統中較困難的層面，讓她能繼續她的研究嗎?

Dharma teaches us to let go. But at first, we naturally cling to the principles of Dharma. The wise person takes these principles and uses them as tools to discover the essence of our life.

　　佛法教導我們要放下，但剛開始，我們很自然地會去執取佛法的義理。智者會擷取這些義理，然後拿它做利用的工具，來發現我們生命的根本。

Sensing how caught up she was in intellectual concepts rather than benefiting from practice in her own heart, Achaan Chah answered her quite directly, ’’You, madam, are like one who keeps hens in her yard,” he told her, “and goes around picking up the chicken droppings instead of the eggs.”

　　阿姜 查意識到她是如何地執著于知識的概念，而不從自心的修行中得益，于是阿姜 查很直接地回答她：「這位女士，你就像一個在院子里養雞的人，不撿雞蛋，反倒四處去撿雞屎。」