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2024-12-20T23:07:02.000000Z
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法本
《就在今生》这本书，是班迪达尊者依循佛陀的教义、缅甸上座部佛教马哈希尊者的传统，将纯正的毗婆舍那实修操作技巧，正确且精简的介绍、奉献给热爱禅修的人。此书著重于实际修行的操作方法，热忱于出世间法的行者们，阅读此书将受益匪浅。至于尚未禅修的人，阅读此书也会增加对禅修的了解，并培养起兴趣。
这些论述的出版，有助于实现五个有益的目的。第一、使你接触到未曾听过的佛法新观点。第二、如果你已听过这些主题，或许可以巩固你的佛法知识。第三、如果你有疑虑，这些文章或有助于厘清它们。第四、如果你有某些宝贵的见解或错误的先入为主之见，通过对佛法正确且恭敬地作意，也许可以将之去除。最后，也或许是最有帮助的，你可以就这本书所写的内容，来与自己的经验作一印证。如果你的修习深入，那么当你发觉自己的经验与理论一致时，将会是快乐和喜悦的近因。如果你并未禅修，也许这些文章可以鼓励你开始练习。然后，智慧——那最有效的药，可以解除你心中的痛苦。
《就在今生》学习视频：
https://youtu.be/Ugfk_a09c5U?list=PLmPTQ1jTigTj7xpfIKQwDBrszbT3qw71c
我们禅修并非为了得到他人的赞美，而是为了促进世界和平。我们努力遵循佛陀的教法，并接受值得信赖的老师的指导，是希望自己也能达到如佛陀一般清净的境界。一旦明了这份清净原本就存在于自心，我们便可鼓励他人，并与他人分享此佛法与真理。
We do not practice meditation to gain admiration from anyone. Rather we practice to contribute to peace in the world. We try to follow the teachings of the Buddha, and take the instructions of trustworthy teachers, in hopes that we too can reach the Buddha’s state of purity. Having realized this purity within ourselves, we can inspire others and share this Dhamma, this truth.
佛陀的教法可概括为戒、定、慧三部分。
The Buddha's teachings can be summed up in three parts:
sīla, morality;
samādhi concentration; and
pañña, intuitive wisdom.
首先提到戒，因为它是其余两者定与慧的根基，其重要性再如何强调也不为过。缺少戒，便无法进一步地修习。对在家人而言，基本须修持的是五戒——不杀生、不偷盗、不邪淫、不妄语、不饮酒或摄取麻醉品。修持五戒培育出一种基本的清净，促使禅修之道上较易有所进展。
Sīla is spoken of first because it is the foundation for the other two. Its importance cannot be overstressed. Without sīla, no further practices can be undertaken. For laypeople the basic level of sīla consists of five precepts or training rules: refraining from taking life, refraining from taking what is not given, refraining from sexual misconduct, refraining from lying, and refraining from taking intoxicating substances. These observances foster a basic purity that makes it easy to progress along the path of practice.
戒律并非是佛陀所传承下来的一套命令，也无须将之限制于佛教的教义中。实际上，戒是源起于基本的人性。例如，假设我们有股突如其来的怒气，想要去伤害别人，若是我们能易地而处，并诚实地考量自己计划中的行为，其即刻反应将会是：「不！不要这样对待我，那会是残忍与不合理的！」对我们计划中的行为若有这种感觉，便能相当肯定此举是恶的行为。
Sīla is not a set of commandments handed down by the Buddha, and it need not be confined to Buddhist teachings. It actually derives from a basic sense of humanity. For example, suppose we have a spurt of anger and want to harm another being. If we put ourselves in that other being's shoes, and honestly contemplate the action we have been planning, we will quickly answer, "No, I wouldn't want that done to me. That would be cruel and unjust." If we feel this way about some action that we plan, we can be quite sure that the action is unwholesome.
如此看来，戒律可视为我们与其他众生感同身受的显现。我们知道被人伤害的感觉是什么样的，因此便会以关怀和善解的心去避免伤害他人。我们应决定说实话，避免恶口、妄语或毁谤。随着修行戒除愤怒的行为和言语，粗劣的身口业将渐渐不再生起，或至少会减弱减少其出现的频率。
In this way, morality can be looked upon as a manifestation of our sense of oneness with other beings. We know what it feels like to be harmed, and out of loving care and consideration we undertake to avoid harming others. We should remain committed to truthful speech and avoid words that abuse, deceive or slander. As we practice refraining from angry actions and angry speech, then this gross and unwholesome mental state may gradually cease to arise, or at least it will become weaker and less frequent.
当然，愤怒并非是伤害他人的唯一原因。贪欲也会使人尝试以非法或不道德的手段去掠取某些东西；淫欲也会让人去执著别人的伴侣。同样地，如果我们顾及此举会伤害他人，便会努力避免向淫欲屈服。
Of course, anger is not the only reason we harm other beings. Greed might make us try to grab something in an illegal or unethical way. Or our sexual desire can attach itself to another person's partner；Here again, if we consider how much we could hurt someone, we will try hard to refrain from succumbing to lustful desire.
使人迷醉的酒精或麻醉品，即使是少量，也会让人变得不敏锐，更容易被粗劣的贪与嗔念所支配。有些人为毒品或酒精辩护，声称它们并非那么糟。实际上，它们是非常危险的，甚至会使善良的人变得疏忽大意。使人迷醉的东西就如罪行的帮凶一般，开启了众多问题之门，从仅是语无伦次，到难以解释的盛怒，甚至是会危及自己和他人性命的疏失。瘾毒与酗酒的后果是无法预测的，因此，戒绝一切迷幻品是保护其戒行的方法。
Even in small amounts, intoxicating substances can make us less sensitive, more easily swayed by gross motivations of anger and greed. Some people defend the use of drugs or alcohol saying that these substances are not so bad. On the contrary, they are very dangerous; they can lead even a good-hearted person into forgetfulness. Like accomplices to a crime, intoxicants open the door to a host of problems, from just talking nonsense, to inexplicable bursts of rage, to negligence that could be fatal to oneself or others. Indeed, any intoxicated person is unpredictable. Abstaining from intoxicants is therefore a way of protecting all the other precepts.
基于虔诚而想更深一层持戒的人，在家人有八戒与十戒，出家女众有十戒（此指南传出家女众），比丘有二二七条戒，在书末的词汇表中对各种戒有更多的说明。
For those whose devotion makes them wish to undertake a further discipline, there are also sets of eight and ten precepts for laypeople, ten precepts for nuns, and the Vinaya or 227 rules for monks. There is more information about these forms of sīla in the Glossary.
增益禅修的细行
Refinements During a Retreat
在密集禅修期间，以有助于强化禅修的方法改变我们的某些行为将增益修行。禅修中，禁语与独居生活，分别是正语与不淫的适当表现。要吃得清淡，以避免昏沉，并削弱感官的欲望。佛陀建议中午以后直到隔日清晨禁食，如果很难做到，可在午后吃一点被允许的饮食项目。当禅修有成绩时，修行者将会充分发现到，佛法的滋味超越一切世间的滋味！
During a meditation retreat it becomes useful to change some of our conduct in ways that support the intensification of meditation practice. In a retreat, silence becomes the appropriate form of right speech, and celibacy that of sexual conduct. One eats lightly to prevent drowsiness and to weaken sensual appetite. The Buddha recommended fasting from noon until the following morning; or, if this is difficult, one could eat only a little in the afternoon. During the time one thus gains to practice, one may well discover that the taste of the Dhamma excels all worldly tastes!
洁净是另一个激励内观与智慧的方法。洗澡、修剪指甲与头发，并注意排便的规律，即所谓的内在洁净。衣着与寝室应当保持整齐清洁。依此奉行，可以让心清晰与敏锐。然而也不可执著洁净。在密集禅修中，装饰品、化妆品、香水以及花时间修饰身体的行为都不适当。
Cleanliness is another support for developing insight and wisdom. You should bathe, keep nails and hair trimmed, and take care to regulate the bowels. This is known as internal cleanliness. Externally, your clothing and bedroom should be tidy and neat. Such observance is said to bring clarity and lightness of mind. Obviously, you do not make cleanliness an obsession. In the context of a retreat, adornments, cosmetics, fragrances, and time-consuming practices to beautify and perfect the body are not appropriate.
事实上，世间没有任何装饰品胜过戒的清净。没有更大的庇护所及其他的基础能使内观与智慧开花结果。戒的美，并非涂抹于外表，而是发自于内心并映现于整个人的身上，戒适用于任何人，不论年龄、身份、家境，它是四季通用的装饰品。因此，请确保自身的品德是清新且具有活力的。
In fact, in this world there is no greater adornment than purity of conduct, no greater refuge, and no other basis for the flowering of insight and wisdom. Sīla brings a beauty that is not plastered onto the outside, but instead comes from the heart and is reflected in the entire person. Suitable for everyone, regardless of age, station or circumstance, truly it is the adornment for all seasons. So please be sure to keep your virtue fresh and alive.
然而，即使身口业净化到相当的程度，戒本身仍不足以调伏心。我们需要一个让心成熟的方法，帮助我们了解生命的真理，同时让心达到更高层次的证悟，这方法即是禅修。
Even if we refine our speech and actions to a large extent, however, sīla is not sufficient in itself to tame the mind. A method is needed to bring us to spiritual maturity, to help us realize the real nature of life and to bring the mind to a higher level of understanding. That method is meditation.
坐禅（Sitting Meditation）
佛陀建议我们，无论于森林的树下，或任何安静的地方都适合禅修。他说，禅修者应安详地结跏趺坐。如果盘腿而坐确实有困难，可以采用其他坐姿。背部有毛病的人，坐在椅子上也无妨。为了使心平静，我们需确保身体处于祥和的状态，因此，选择一个可以持久又舒适的坐姿十分重要。
The Buddha suggested that either a forest place under a tree or any other very quiet place is best for meditation. He said the meditator should sit quietly and peacefully with legs crossed. If sitting with crossed legs proves to be too difficult, other sitting postures may be used. For those with back trouble a chair is quite acceptable. It is true that to achieve peace of mind, we must make sure our body is at peace. So it is important to choose a position that will be comfortable for a long period of time.
坐时背部要挺直，与地面成直角，但不要太僵硬。坐直的理由不难明白，就是因为拱起或弯曲背部，很快便会产生疼痛；此外，不靠外在支持而保持挺直的身精进，可激励禅修。
Sit with your back erect, at a right angle to the ground, but not too stiff. The reason for sitting straight is not difficult to see: An arched or crooked back will soon bring pain. Furthermore, the physical effort to remain upright without additional support energizes the meditation practice.
闭上双眼，将注意力置于腹部，自然呼吸，不要用力，不急不缓，只是正常地呼吸。吸气时，会察觉到腹部升起；呼气时，腹部下降。现在，把心更精确地导向主要目标，并全心专注于每个活动过程，觉知腹部升起时的感觉，从开始，中间到结束，然后，观察腹部下降时的感觉，从开始，中间直到结束。
Close your eyes. Now place your attention at the belly, at the abdomen. Breathe normally, not forcing your breathing, neither slowing it down nor hastening it, just a natural breath. You will become aware of certain sensations as you breathe in and the abdomen rises, as you breathe out and the abdomen falls. Now sharpen your aim and make sure that the mind is attentive to the entirety of each process. Be aware from the very beginning of all sensations involved in the rising. Maintain a steady attention through the middle and the end of the rising. Then be aware of the sensations of the falling movement of the abdomen from the beginning, through the middle, and to the very end of the falling.
描述腹部的起伏活动，有开始、中间与结束的阶段，只是为了让初学者知道，观照必须是持续且彻底的，并非是要刻意地将整个过程分成三段。尝试观照每个起、伏的活动，从开始直到结束，把它视为一个完整的过程、一个整体。不要过度用力地盯着目标，执著于寻找腹部起伏的开始和结束。
Although we describe the rising and falling as having a beginning, a middle and an end, this is only in order to show that your awareness should be continuous and thorough. We do not intend you to break these processes into three segments. You should try to be aware of each of these movements from beginning to end as one complete process, as a whole. Do not peer at the sensations with an overfocused mind, specifically looking to discover how the abdominal movement begins or ends.
在禅修中，同时具备精进与精确的瞄准，是很重要的。如此观照，心才会直接而有力地接触目标。一个有助于精密与准确观照的方法，是为觉知的目标做安稳的记录。温和地在心中默念出那感觉的名称，例如：「起、起……伏、伏。」
In this meditation it is very important to have both effort and precise aim, so that the mind meets the sensation directly and powerfully. One helpful aid to precision and accuracy is to make a soft mental note of the object of awareness, naming the sensation by saying the word gently and silently in the mind, like "rising, rising...falling, falling.”
收回闲逛的心
Returning from Wandering
有些片刻闲逛的心生起，会开始打妄想，这个时候要监视心！觉知自己正在「想」，并在心中专注默念：「想、想」，以观照这念头，好让自己清楚这状况，然后回到腹部的起伏。
There will be moments when the mind wanders off. You will start to think of something. At this time, watch the mind! Be aware that you are thinking. To clarify this to yourself, note the thought silently with the verbal label “thinking, thinking” and come back to the rising and falling.
同样的练习，要运用在其他觉知的目标（所缘境）上；目标会在所谓的六根门：眼、耳、鼻、舌、身、意，任何一根门生起。尽管行者有精进地依指示修习，却没有人能保持绝对圆满的专注于腹部的起伏，其他次要目标必然会生起而变得明显。因此，禅修目标的范围包括我们所有六根触六尘产生的色、声、香、味、触与法（如幻想或情绪）时的经验。一旦觉知到任何一种目标生起时，就要集中念力直接观照它，并在心中和缓地做出标记。
The same practice should be used for objects of awareness that arise at any of what are called the six sense doors: eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind. Despite making an effort to do so, no one can remain perfectly focused on the rising and falling of the abdomen forever. Other objects inevitably arise and become predominant. Thus, the sphere of meditation encompasses all of our experiences: sights, sounds, smells, tastes, sensations in the body and mental objects such as visions in the imagination or emotions. When any of these objects arise you should focus direct awareness on them, and use a gentle verbal label "spoken" in the mind.
坐禅时，如果有其他目标强烈冲击觉知心，使得注意力从腹部的起伏转移，这时就必须清楚地观照这个目标。例如，有个响亮的声音在禅修时生起，在它一生起时便警觉地转移观照。将觉知声音作为直接的经验，并轻轻地默念：「听到、听到」，把目标简明地指认出来。当声音逐渐消失及不再明显，就回到腹部的起伏。这是坐禅中要遵守的基本原则。
During a sitting meditation, if another object impinges strongly on the awareness so as to draw it away from the rising and falling of the abdomen, this object must be clearly noted. For example, if a loud sound arises during your meditation, consciously direct your attention toward that sound as soon as it arises. Be aware of the sound as a direct experience, and also identify it succinctly with the soft internal verbal label “hearing, hearing." When the sound fades and is no longer predominant, come back to the rising and falling. This is the basic principle to follow in sitting meditation.
标记目标时，不必使用复杂的语言，最好是简单的一个字。对眼睛、耳朵与舌头等根门目标而言，只要简单地标记：「看到、看到……听到、听到……尝到、尝到」。而对于身体的感觉，则可选择用稍有叙述性的词语，例如：温暖、压迫、僵硬或移动等。
In making the verbal label, there is no need for complex language. simple word is best. For the eye, ear, and tongue doors we simply say, "Seeing, seeing... Hearings, hearing... Tastings, tasting.” For sensations in the body we may choose a slightly more descriptive term like warmth, pressure, hardness, or motion.
法念处的目标，则呈现出令人困惑的多样性。但实际上，它们只列入几个明确的范畴，例如：思考、想像、回忆、计划与幻想等。但要记住，运用标记的技巧，目的不在于增进辞汇能力，而是帮助我们清楚地察觉我们的实际经验，同时不陷入其中。标记促使心力与专注力的增长。在禅修中，我们探索一种对名色深入、清晰与精确的觉知。这直觉会展现出我们生命的真理，即名色过程的本质。
Mental objects appear to present a bewildering diversity, but actually they fall into just a few clear categories such as thinking, imagining, remembering, planning, and visualizing. But remember that in using the labeling technique, your goal is not to gain verbal skills. Labeling technique helps us to perceive clearly the actual qualities of our experience, without getting immersed in the content. It develops mental power and focus. In meditation we seek a deep, clear, precise awareness of the mind and body. This direct awareness shows us the truth about our lives, the actual nature of mental and physical processes.
禅修并非在一小时的禅坐后便结束，而是一整天都可以持续练习。当你起坐时，必须小心观照。从想睁开眼睛的意念开始，观：「想要、想要……睁开、睁开。」如实体验想要的心念及感受张开眼睛的感觉。继续以充分的观察力，审慎且精确地观照每个姿势的转变，直到站起来，开始走路那一刻。
Meditation need not come to an end after an hour of sitting. It can be carried out continuously through the day. When you get up from sitting, you must note carefully beginning with the intention to open the eyes. "Intending intending... Opening, opening." Experience the mental event of intending, and feel the sensations of opening the eyes. Continue to note carefully and precisely, with full observing power, through the whole transition of postures until the moment you have stood up, and when you begin to walk.
一整天中，也应当觉知并观照一切日常的活动，诸如：伸直、弯曲手臂、拿起汤匙、穿上衣服、刷牙、关门、开门、闭眼、吃东西……等，所有活动都要小心地以正念及一个和缓的标记做观照。
Throughout the day you should also be aware, and mentally note, all other activities, such as stretching, bending your arm, taking a spoon, putting on clothes, brushing your teeth, closing the door, opening the door, closing your eyelids, eating, and so forth. All of these activities should be noted with careful awareness and a soft mental label.
除了熟睡的几个小时之外，一切醒着的时刻，都要努力保持持续的正念。其实这并不是一项繁重的工作，就只是在禅坐及行禅时，纯粹地保持正念，观照任何当下生起的目标。
Apart from the hours of sound sleep, you should try to maintain continuous mindfulness throughout your waking hours. Actually this is not a heavy task; it is just sitting and walking and simply observing whatever occurs.
在密集禅修的一整天中，通常是以相同的时间，交替进行坐禅与正规的行禅。一小时行禅算是标准的时间，四十五分钟也可以。对正规的行禅来说，修禅者可选择一条大约二十歩长的路径，循着路线慢慢地来回行走。
During a retreat it is usual to alternate periods of sitting meditation with periods of formal walking meditation of about the same duration, one after another throughout the day. One hour is a standard period, but forty-five minutes can also be used. For formal walking, retreatants choose a lane of about twenty steps in length and walk slowly back and forth along it.
在日常生活中，行禅也可以是非常有益的。禅坐前正式地行禅一小段时间，例如十分钟，有利于心力的集中。除此好处外，在行禅中所培育的正念，帮助我们于日常活动中，警觉地四处移动身体。
In daily life, walking meditation can also be very helpful. A short period — say ten minutes — of formal walking meditation before sitting serves to focus the mind. Beyond this advantage, the awareness developed in walking meditation is useful to all of us as we move our bodies from place to place in the course of a normal day.
行禅，培养平衡且精准的正念与持久的定力。在行禅时，可觉察到非常深奥的佛法，甚至获得证悟！事实上，于坐禅前不行禅的行者，就如耗尽电池的车一般，很难在坐禅时发动正念的引擎。
Walking meditation develops balance and accuracy of awareness as well as durability of concentration. One can observe very profound aspects of the Dhamma while walking, and even get enlightened! In fact a yogi who does not do walking meditation before sitting is like a car with a rundown battery. He or she will have a difficult time starting the engine of mindfulness when sitting.
行禅，由注意行走的过程所组成。如果走得相当快，就注意双脚的活动，心中标记：「左歩、右歩、左歩、右歩」，并以正念密切注意遍及脚部跨歩时的实际感觉。如果走得较慢，就要注意观照每一个脚部「提起」、「推前」与「放下」的活动。在任何提起、推前或放下的活动情况中，禅修者都必须试着将心保持在脚部活动时的感觉。
Walking meditation consists of paying attention to the walking process. If you are moving fairly rapidly, make a mental note of the movement of the legs, “Left, right, left right” and use your awareness to follow the actual sensations throughout the leg area. If you are moving more slowly, note the lifting, moving and placing of each foot. In each case you must try to keep your mind on just the sensations of walking.
当走到歩道尽头，所有生起的过程，如：停住、站住、转身及再度开歩，都要注意观照。除非遇到地上有障碍物，否则不要低头看脚，在致力于觉知提起、推前或放下的感觉时，心中执持脚的影像并无助益。你要专注于感觉本身，而不是视觉的。对很多人来说，当他们能纯粹地觉知诸如轻盈、刺痛、冷、热等色法的目标时，便是个极好的发现。
Notice what processes occur when you stop at the end of the lane, when you stand still, when you turn and begin walking again. Do not watch your feet unless this becomes necessary due to some obstacle on the ground; it is unhelpful to hold the image of a foot in your mind while you are trying to be aware of sensations. You want to focus on the sensations themselves, and these are not visual. For many people it is a fascinating discovery when they are able to have a pure, bare perception of physical objects such as lightness, tingling, cold, and warmth.
通常我们将行禅分成三个明显的动作，即：脚部的提起、推前和放下。为扶助精确的觉知，我们清楚地区分这些动作，在每个动作开始时，轻缓地做标记，并确保心清楚、有力地跟随活动直到结束。重点是在脚部开始往下移动时，就要即刻观照那放下的活动。
Usually we divide walking into three distinct movements: lifting, moving and placing the foot. To support a precise awareness, we separate the movements clearly, making a soft mental label at the beginning of each movement, and making sure that our awareness follows it clearly and powerfully until it ends. One minor but important point is to begin noting the placing movement at the instant that the foot begins to move downward.
发现感觉中的新世界
A New World in Sensations
让我们看看提脚的活动。我们都知道它观念性的名称，但在禅修中，重要的是洞察观念的背后，以了解整个提脚活动的本质。从想要提起的意念开始，持续到整个实际的过程结束，当中包含着许多感觉。
Let us consider lifting. We know its conventional name, but in meditation it is important to penetrate behind that conventional concept and to understand the true nature of the whole process of lifting, beginning with the intention to lift and continuing through the actual process, which involves many sensations.
观照提脚时的精进力，不得过剩或不及。心的清晰及精确的瞄准力，是有助于平衡精进力的。当心具足平衡的「精进力」和精确的「瞄准力」时，「正念」就会扎实地建立位于觉知的目标上。只有在这三项因素：精进、准确和正念都存在时，「定力」才会增长。当然，定力是心力的集中、一境性。其特相是不使心变得散乱或涣散。
Our effort to be aware of lifting the foot must neither overshoot the sensation nor weakly fall short of this target. Precise and accurate mental aim helps balance our effort. When our effort is balanced and our aim is precise, mindfulness will firmly establish itself on the object of awareness. It is only in the presence of these three factors — effort, accuracy and mindfulness — that concentration develops. Concentration, of course, is collectedness of mind, one-pointedness. Its characteristic is to keep consciousness from becoming diffuse or dispersed.
当我们远看成排爬行的蚂蚁时，觉得它似乎是条静止的线；但当趋进看时，觉察它开始摇晃和震动；更近一点看时，则发现这条线分解成一只只的蚂蚁。于是我们明瞭起先那条线的概念，只不过是个幻觉。现在已清楚地察觉到这条线，是由一只接一只的蚂蚁连接而成。
As we get closer and closer to this lifting process, we will see that it is like a line of ants crawling across the road. From afar the line may appear to be static, but from closer up it begins to shimmer and vibrate. And from even closer the line breaks up into individual ants, and we see that our notion of a line was just an illusion. We now accurately perceive the line of ants as one ant after another ant, after another ant.
同样的，在行禅中，随着正念越来越接近提脚的过程，当心准确地观照提脚的全程活动时，内观智慧将更加接近观照的目标。观智愈接近，就更能清楚地体悟到提脚过程的真实本质。这是一个令人惊异的事实！当我们的心经由毗婆舍那禅修而内观智慧生起并加深时，所有存在的真理特相，便会以确切的顺序显现出来，此一顺序即是「观智的进展」。
Exactly like this, when we look accurately at the lifting process from beginning to end, the mental factor or quality of consciousness called “insight” comes nearer to the object of observation. The nearer insight comes, the clearer the true nature of the lifting process can be seen. It is an amazing fact about the human mind that when insight arises and deepens through vipassanā or insight, meditation practice, particular aspects of the truth about existence tend to be revealed in a definite order. This order is known as the progress of insight.
禅修者开始体会到的最初观智，并非来自智力或思考，而是相当直觉的。提脚的过程是由清楚的名法与色法所组成，它们成对地一同生起。属于色法的是身体的感觉，属于名法的是觉知；名、色法是互相关联的，可却又彼此不同。
The first insight which meditators commonly experience is to begin to comprehend — not intellectually or by reasoning, but quite intuitively — that the lifting process is composed of distinct mental and material phenomena occurring together, as a pair. The physical sensations, which are material, are linked with, but different from, the awareness, which is mental.
我们开始察觉到整个系列的觉知心与身体的感觉，并开始领会有关名法与色法的因果关系。我们以最鲜明与直截的心发现——名法引生色法，例如：想要提起脚的念头，引发了身体的动作；也会发现——色法引生名法，例如：当身体感觉到非常热时，心中产生想要换到阴凉的地方行禅的念头。这种对因果的领悟，即「缘摄受智」，它会有多种的显现形式。但当它生起时，人生对我们而言似乎比以前单纯多了。我们的人生，只不过是一系列名色的因果连续罢了！这是标准「观智过程」中的第二观智。
We begin to see a whole succession of mental events and physical sensations, and to appreciate the conditionality that relates mind and matter. We see with the greatest freshness and immediacy that mind causes matter — as when our intention to lift the foot initiates the physical sensations of movement, and we see that matter causes mind — as when a physical sensation of strong heat generates a wish to move our walking meditation into a shady spot. The insight into cause and effect can take a great variety of forms; but when it arises, our life seem far more simple to us than ever before. Our life is no more than a chain of mental and physical causes and effects. This is the second insight in the classical progress of insight.
随着定力增长，我们甚至能更深入地发现一提脚过程所发生的现象是无常与无我的。它们奇特的一个接着一个急速生起和消失。这是下一个「观智」，是专注的心变得有能力，直接觉知存在的下一层面。
As we develop concentration we see even more deeply that these phenomena of the lifting process are impermanent, impersonal, appearing and disappearing one by one at fantastic speed. This is the next level of insight, the next aspect of existence that concentrated awareness becomes capable of seeing directly.
正在发生的事物背后并没有「一个人」；根据因果法则，现象的生起与消逝是个空无的过程。这活动与实体的假象就如电影。就一般的看法，电影是充满着角色与物体，与真实世界无异。但若把电影的速度放慢，就会发现——实际上它是由一幅幅不同的静止胶卷所构成。
There is no one behind what is happening; the phenomena arise and pass away as an empty process, according to the law of cause and effect. This illusion of movement and solidity is like a movie. To ordinary perception it seems full of characters and objects, all the semblances of a world. But if we slow the movie down we will see that it is actually composed of separate, static frames of film.
以行禅发现正道
Discovering the Path by Walking
若以正念观照单一的提脚过程，也就是说心与活动一致，以正念洞察正在发生事物的真实本质，就会在当下开启了佛陀所教导的解脱道。佛陀的八正道，即一般所称的「中道」，包含八个要素：正见、正思惟、正语、正业、正命、正精进、正念与正定。
When one is very mindful during a single lifting process - that is to say, when the mind is with the movement, penetrating with mindfulness into the true nature of what is happening at that moment - the path to liberation taught by the Buddha opens up. The Buddha's Noble Eightfold Path, often known as the Middle Way or Middle Path, consists of the eight factors of right view or understanding, right thought or aim, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration.
于正念稳固的那一刹那，八正道中的五支便会活跃于心中，亦即正精进、正念、正定、正思惟；而当我们开始对诸法的本质有所领悟，正见也会生起。这八正道中的五支现起之际，心便完全地解脱各种杂染。
During any moment of strong mindfulness, five of the eight path factors come alive in consciousness. There is right effort; there is mindfulness; there is one-pointedness or concentration; there is right aim; and as we begin to have insight into the true nature of the phenomena, right view also arises. And during a moment when these five factors of the Eightfold Path are present, consciousness is completely free from any sort of defilement.
在运用净化了的心，洞察正在发生事物的本质时，我们便从「自我」的假相或愚痴中解脱，只觉知到现象的生起和消失。观智使得我们对因果的机制，有了直觉的领悟，明白名色如何互相关联，并对诸法的本质不再存有错误的观念。
As we make use of that purified consciousness to penetrate into the true nature of what is happening, we become free of the delusion or illusion of self; we see only bare phenomena coming and going. When insight gives us intuitive comprehension of the mechanism of cause and effect, how mind and matter are related to one another, we free ourselves of misconceptions about the nature of phenomena.
觉知到每个目标只维持一刹那，我们从「有常」和「相续性」的错误观念解脱出来。也因为了解无常与其背后潜藏的苦，我们从「身心非苦」的错误观念中解脱出来。
Seeing that each object lasts only for a moment, we free ourselves of the illusion of permanence, the illusion of continuity. As we understand impermanence and its underlying unsatisfactoriness, we are freed from the illusion that our mind and body are not suffering.
实修中对「无我」的了解，使我们不再骄傲自大，亦摆脱有常、自我的邪见。在仔细观察提脚的过程时，我们彻见名色是苦，因而消除执著。有「常存法」之称的三种心法——我慢、邪见与执著，是由于不知胜义谛，而助长导致娑婆生命永久轮转的执著和苦。于行禅时审慎的专注，会击碎这些「常存法」，让我们更接近解脱。
This direct seeing of impersonality brings freedom from pride and conceit, as well as freedom from the wrong view that we have an abiding self. When we carefully observe the lifting process, we see mind and body as unsatisfactory and so are freed from craving. These three states of mind - conceit, wrong view and craving - are called “the perpetuating dhammas.” They help to perpetuate existence in samsāra, the cycle of craving and suffering which is caused by ignorance of ultimate truth. Careful attention in walking meditation shatters the perpetuating dhammas, bringing us closer to freedom.
你会发现，观照脚的提起，竟有如此令人难以置信的潜在价值 ! 而这一切都存在于向前推动及把脚放下的活动中。当然，以上在行禅所使用的深入和详尽的观照方式，也必须应用在坐禅时的腹部起伏，以及其它一切的身体活动上。
You can see that noting the lifting of one's foot has incredible possibilities! These are no less present in moving the foot forward and in placing it on the ground. Naturally, the depth and detail of awareness described in these walking instructions should also be applied to noting the abdominal movement in sitting, and all other physical movements.
行禅的五项利益
Five Benefits of Walking Meditation
佛陀叙述行禅，有五项额外且独特的利益。首先，常练习行禅的人，具有长途跋涉的耐力。这点在佛陀时代是重要的，当时的比丘与比丘尼，除了步行以外，再也没有其它交通工具。今日禅修的你，可以想像自己是位比丘，而这行禅可增进身体的健康。
The Buddha described five additional specific benefits of walking meditation. The first is that one who does walking meditation will have the stamina to go on long journeys. This was important in the Buddha's time, when bhikkhus and bhikkhunis, monks and nuns, had no form of transportation other than their feet and legs. You who are meditating today can consider yourselves to be bhikkhus, and can think of this benefit simply as physical strengthening.
行禅的第二项利益，是让禅修本身带来耐力。行禅需要双重精进力。除了一般需要用来提脚的机械性的精进力之外，还需精进观照活动的心力，这正是八正道中的正精进。如果这双重的精进力，持续维持在整个提脚、推前与放下的活动中，便能强化心的稳固和坚定能力。其重要性是所有毗婆舍那行者都知道的。
The second benefit is that walking meditation brings stamina for the practice of meditation itself. During walking meditation a double effort is needed. In addition to the ordinary, mechanical effort needed to lift the foot, there is also the mental effort to be aware of the movement - and this is the factor of right effort from the Noble Eightfold Path. If this double effort continues through the movements of lifting, pushing and placing, it strengthens the capacity for that strong, consistent mental effort all yogis know is crucial to vipassanā practice.
第三，据佛陀所说，坐禅与行禅之间的平衡有益健康，这依次加速修行的进步。显然的，生病时很难禅修，坐太久会导致许多色身的毛病，变换姿势与行禅的活动，会使肌肉恢复活力并促进循环，这有助于预防疾病。
Thirdly, according to the Buddha, a balance between sitting and walking contributes to good health, which in turn speeds progress in practice. Obviously it is difficult to meditate when we are sick. Too much sitting can cause many physical ailments. But the shift of posture and the movements of walking revive the muscles and stimulate circulation, helping prevent illness.
行禅的第四项利益是帮助消化。消化不良会导致许多不适，因而成为修行的障碍。行禅能保持肠道通畅，使昏沈和睡眠减到最少。饭后与禅坐前应该好好的行禅以驱逐睡意。在早晨起床后立即行禅建立正念，是避免在一天的第一支坐禅时段，就打瞌睡的好方法。
The fourth benefit is that walking meditation assists digestion. Improper digestion produces a lot of discomfort and is thus a hindrance to practice. Walking keeps the bowels clear, minimizing sloth and torpor; After a meal, and before sitting, one should do a good walking meditation to forestall drowsiness. Walking as soon as one gets up in the morning is also a good way to establish mindfulness and to avoid a nodding head in the first sitting of the day.
行禅最后一项利益，也是最重要的一项利益，即是建立持久的定力。当心在行走时，专注于每个活动阶段，定力变得持续。每个脚步都在为接下来的坐禅建立基础，帮助心时时刻刻地保持在目标上，最终在最深的层次揭露出实相本质。
Last, but not least, of the benefits of walking is that it builds durable concentration. As the mind works to focus on each section of the movement during a walking session, concentration becomes continuous. Every step builds the foundation for the sitting that follows, helping the mind stay with the object from moment to moment - eventually to reveal the true nature of reality at the deepest level.
以汽车电池来做比喻，如果汽车从不开动，电池就会耗尽。一个从不行禅的行者，是很难坐在蒲团上而有任何进展的；但勤于行禅的人，会自动地将稳固的正念与坚实的定力带入坐禅中。
This is why I use the simile of a car battery. If a car is never driven, its battery runs down. A yogi who never does walking meditation will have a difficult time getting anywhere when he or she sits down on the cushion. But one who is diligent in walking will automatically carry strong mindfulness and firm concentration into sitting meditation.
我希望各位都能成功地完成这项练习，愿大家持戒清净，于言行中增长戒品，以创造出开展三摩地与智慧的因缘。
I hope that all of you will be successful in completely carrying out this practice. May you be pure in your precepts, cultivating them in speech and action, thus creating the conditions for developing samādhi and wisdom.
May you follow these meditation instructions carefully, noting each moment's experience with deep, accurate and precise mindfulness, so that you will penetrate into the true nature of reality. May you see how mind and matter constitute all experiences, how these two are interrelated by cause and effect, how all experiences are characterized by impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and absence of self so that you may eventually realize nibbāna - the unconditioned state that uproots mental defilements - here and now.
修毗婆舍那禅，有如耕耘一片花园，我们有清晰且完美的观察力，也就是用来观照诸法的「正念」种子。为了培育这颗种子，培植这棵树苗，收成其卓越智慧的果实，我们必须遵循五个步骤，即所谓的「五种保护」（Five Protections）或「五资助」(Five Nuggahitas)。
Vipassanā meditation is like planting a garden. We have the seed of clear and complete vision, which is the mindfulness with which we observe phenomena. In order to cultivate this seed, nurture the plant, and reap its fruit of transcendent wisdom, there are five procedures we must follow. These are called the Five Protections, or the Five Nuggahitas.
就如园丁所做的一般，我们必须在自己小小的土地上围起篱笆，以防止鹿与兔子等大型动物在种子一发芽时，就吞噬了它们柔弱的嫩叶。
As gardeners do, we must build a fence around our little plot to protect against large animals, deer and rabbits, who might devour our tender plant as soon as it tries to sprout.
第一种是「戒资助」(sīla nuggahita)，即「戒」的保护。以免受粗野的行为扰动我们的心，障碍定力与智慧的生起。
This first protection is sīla nuggahita, morality's protection against gross and wild behavior which agitates the mind and prevents concentration and wisdom from ever appearing.
接着，必须为种子浇水，即是要听闻佛法的开示并阅读经典，然后审慎地应用所学到的知识。正如过度浇水会使种子腐坏，我们闻法的目的只是为了澄清观念，决不是要令自己困惑或迷失于种种概念的迷阵中。这第二种保护，称为「闻资助」(sutta nuggahita)。
Second, we must water the seed. This means listening to discourses on the Dhamma and reading texts, then carefully applying the understanding we have gained. Just as overwatering will rot a seed, our goal here is only clarification. It is definitely not to bewilder ourselves, getting lost in a maze of concepts. This second protection is called sutta nuggahita.
第三种我将在此详述的保护，是「议资助」(sākacchā nuggahita)，即与导师讨论。可用栽培花草的许多程序来比拟。植物在不同时期需要不同的东西，根部附近的土壤需要翻松，但又不可过度，否则根部会失去它的抓地力；枝叶也需要细心的修剪，过于繁茂的树要修整。同样地，当我们与老师讨论禅修时，老师会依不同的需要，给予不同的指导，好让我们保持在正道上。
The third protection is the one I will dwell on here. It is sākacchā nuggahita, discussion with a teacher, and it is likened to the many processes involved in cultivating a plant. Plants need different things at different times. Soil may need to be loosened around the roots, but not too much, or the roots will lose their grip in the soil. Leaves must be trimmed, again with care. Overshadowing plants must be cut down. In just this way, when we discuss our practice with a teacher, the teacher will give different instructions depending on what is needed to keep us on the right path.
第四种保护是「止资助」(samatha nuggahita)，「定力」的保护，是不让毛虫与杂草的不善心接近。修习的时候，我们很精进地觉知当下，诸如观照任何六根门：眼、耳、鼻、舌、身、意，所生起的目标。当心如此明确地专注且充满活力时，贪、嗔、痴就无机会潜入。因此，可将定力比喻为清除花草附近的杂草，或是使用一种非常有益且自然的杀虫剂。
The fourth protection is samatha nuggahita, the protection of concentration, which keeps off the caterpillars and weeds of unwholesome states of mind. As we practice we make a strong effort to be aware of whatever is actually arising at the six sense doors - eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind - in the present moment. When the mind is sharply focused and energetic in this way, greed, hatred and delusion have no opportunity to creep in. Thus, concentration can be compared to weeding the area around the plant, or to applying a very wholesome and natural type of pesticide.
如果上述的四种资助具足，观智便有机会开展。然而，行者多半会执着初期的观智，以及与定力强时有关的不寻常经验。不幸的是，这些都会阻碍他们的修行，让他们无法成就更深层次的观智。于此，第五种保护，「观资助」（vipassanā nuggahita）开始运作。那就是持续有力地保持高水准的禅修，绝不停下来浪费时间享受安宁的心，或其它由定力所带来的喜悦。执着这种喜悦叫「欲求爱」（nikantī tanhā)，它如蜘蛛网、蚜虫、霉菌、小蜘蛛般微小，这些带有黏性的小东西，终究会扼杀花草的成长。
If these first four protections are present, insights have the opportunity to blossom. However, yogis tend to become attached to early insights and unusual experiences related to strong concentration. Unfortunately, this will hinder their practice from ripening into the deeper levels of vipassanā. Here, the fifth protection, vipassanā nuggahita, comes into play. This is meditation which continues forcefully at a high level, not stopping to dawdle in the enjoyment of peace of mind nor other pleasures of concentration. Craving for these pleasures is called nikantī tanhā. It is subtle, like cobwebs, aphids, mildew, tiny spiders - sticky little things that can eventually choke off a plant’s growth.
然而，即使行者陷入这种陷阱，一位好的老师还是可以在小参中发现这个情况，并轻轻地将他推回正轨。这就是为何与老师讨论自己的经验，对禅修是如此重要的保护。
Even if a yogi gets caught in such booby traps, however, a good teacher can find out about this in the interview and nudge him or her back onto the straight path. This is why discussing one's experiences with a teacher is such an important protection for meditation practice.
小参的步骤
The Interview Process
在密集的毗婆舍那禅修期间，应尽可能地经常进行个人小参，最好每天都有。小参有正式的结构，行者依下列方法表达自己的经验后，老师会针对个别的细节提出问题，之后再简要地给予评论与指示。
During an intensive vipassanā retreat, personal interviews are held as often as possible, ideally every day. Interviews are formally structured. After the yogi presents his or her experiences as described below, the teacher may ask questions relating to particular details before giving a pithy comment or instruction.
小参的步骤相当简单，要能在十分钟内表达自己禅修时的精华。把它当作是在报告对自己所做的研究，这实际上即是毗婆舍那。试着遵循科学界使用的标准：简洁、精确且严谨。
The interview process is quite simple. You should be able to communicate the essence of your practice in about ten minutes. Consider that you are reporting on your research into yourself, which is what vipassanā actually is. Try to adhere to the standards used in the scientific world: brevity, accuracy and precision.
首先，报告最近二十四小时内，花在坐禅与行禅的时间各有多少。如果对此相当诚实坦白，便可以显示出对修行的诚意。其次，描述坐禅的情况。无须详述每次的坐禅，如果坐的情况类似，可将其特色合并在一起做综合报告。试着描述一次或多次最清楚的坐禅细节。从禅修的主要目标——腹部的起伏开始报告，之后再加入其它于六根门生起的目标。
First, report how many hours of sitting you did and how many of walking in the most recent twenty-four-hour period. If you are quite truthful and honest about this, it will show the sincerity of your practice. Next, describe your sitting practice. It is not necessary to describe each sitting in detail. If sittings are similar, you may combine their traits together in a general report. Try using details from the clearest sitting or sittings. Begin your description with the primary object of meditation, the rise and fall of the abdomen. After this you may add other objects that arose at any of the six sense doors.
描述完坐禅后，才进入行禅的报告。在这里只要直接叙述与行禅活动相关的经验，不要像报告坐禅那样的报告一系列的目标。如果在行禅中使用三分法：提起、推前、放下，报告时就应试着报告每一分法中的经验。
After describing the sitting, go into your walking practice. Here you must only describe experiences directly connected with your walking movements - do not include a range of objects as you might in reporting a sitting. If you use the three-part method of lifting, moving and placing in your walking meditation, try to include each segment and the experiences you had with it.
出现什么？如何观照它？它又怎么了？
What Occurred, How You Noted It, What Happened to It
这一切目标，其实包括任何禅修目标。请以三个阶段来报告自己的经验。第一、确认出现什么；第二、如何观照它；第三、察觉、感觉或了解了什么，也就是说当观照时，发生了什么事。
For all of these objects, indeed with any object of meditation, please report your experience in three phases. One, you identify what occurred. Two, you report how you noted it. And three, you describe what you saw, or felt, or understood; that is, what happened when you noted it.
让我们以主要目标——腹部的起伏活动为例，第一件要做的事，是识别腹部上升过程的生起:「上」出现。
Let us take as an example the primary object, the rising and falling movement of the abdomen. The first thing to do is to identify the occurrence of the rising process.
“Rising occurred.”
其次，要去观照它，并在心中做标记——观照它「上」。
The second phase is to note it, give it a silent verbal label.
“I noted it as ‘rising’.”
第三阶段是描述「上」怎么了？观照「上」时，这是我的经验，我所感受到的不同感觉，也就是当时那些感觉的变化。
The third phase is to describe what happened to the rising.
"As I noted ‘rising’, this is what I experienced, the different sensations I felt. This was the behavior of the sensations at that time."
然后以同样的三阶段描述法继续小参，报告「下」的过程，与坐禅时生起的其它次要目标。先报告目标的生起，描述如何观照它，叙述接下来的经验，直到目标消失或注意力移至它处。
Then you continue the interview by using the same three-phase description for the falling process and the other objects that arise during sitting. You mention the object's occurrence, describe how you noted it and relate your subsequent experiences until the object disappears or your attention moves elsewhere.
或许打个比方会有助于明了。想像我正坐在你面前，突然间我向空中伸出手并张开手掌，以便让你看到我握着一颗苹果。你将注意力转向苹果，你识别它，并（这是个比拟）对自己说「苹果」。现在，你继续识别苹果是红的、圆的且富有光泽。最后我慢慢握拳，苹果便消失了。
Perhaps an analogy will serve to clarify. Imagine that I am sitting in front of you, and suddenly I raise my hand into the air and open it so that you can see that I am holding an apple. You direct your attention toward this apple; you recognize it and (because this is an analogy) you say the word "apple" to yourself. Now you go on to discern that the apple is red, round and shiny. At last I slowly close my hand so that the apple disappears.
如果苹果是禅修的主要目标，你要如何报告关于苹果的经验？你会说：「苹果出现，我观照它：“苹果，苹果”；我察觉它是红的、圆的且富有光泽；然后苹果慢慢地消失。」
How would you report your experience of the apple, if the apple were your primary object of meditation? You would say, "The apple appeared. I noted it as 'apple' and I noticed that it was red, round and shiny. Then the apple slowly disappeared. ”
因此，你会对有关苹果做出三个阶段的精确报告。首先，当苹果出现的刹那，你能察觉到它。接着，将注意力移到苹果，并辨别它是什么，由于你以苹果为「禅修」的目标，你特别精进地在心中标记它。第三，你继续注意苹果，并识别它如何从你的觉知消失。
Thus, you would have reported in a precise way on the three phases of your involvement with the apple. First, there was the moment when the apple appeared and you became able to perceive it. Second, you directed your attention to the apple and recognized what it was; since you were "practicing meditation" with the apple, you made the particular effort to label it verbally in your mind. Third, you continued attending to the apple and discerned its qualities, as well as the manner of its passing out of your awareness.
这三个步骤与实际毗婆舍那禅修，所必须遵循的步骤相同；不同的是你所观照与报告的是腹部起伏的经验。一个告诫：你观察那虚构苹果时的任务，不要延伸到揣想其多汁的样子，或想像你正在吃它！同样地，在禅修小参中，你的描述必须限制在直接的经验，而非你对目标的揣测、想像或你所认为的。
This three-step process is the same one you must follow in actual vipassanā meditation, except, of course, that you observe and report on your experiences of the rising and falling of your abdomen. One warning: your duty to observe the fictitious apple does not extend to imagining the apple's juiciness or visualizing yourself eating it! Similarly, in a meditation interview, you must restrict your descriptions to what you have experienced directly, rather than what you may imagine, visualize and opine about the object.
你会发现：这种报告方式，其实是实际毗婆舍那禅修时，该如何运作正念的一种指引。因此，小参有助于禅修。它除了是接受老师指导的机会外，还附加了更深一层的动机。行者通常会发现被指示做这类报告，对自己的禅修有激励的效果，因为这样的要求，所以行者会尽可能清楚地专注于自己的禅修经验。
As you can see, this style of reporting is a guide for how awareness should be functioning in actual vipassanā mediation. For this reason, meditation interviews are helpful for an additional reason beyond the chance to receive a teacher's guidance. Yogis often find that being required to produce a report of this kind has a galvanizing effect on their meditation practice, for it asks them to focus on their experiences as clearly as they possibly can.
觉知、精确、坚忍
Awareness, Accuracy, Perseverance
漠不关心、漫不经心，或散漫、无意识地注视目标是不够的，这不是不费心思地背诵一些心理公式的练习，而是必须全心投入观照目标，把注意力全部导向目标，越精确越好。如此地保持注意力，以便能洞察目标的实相。
It is not enough to look at the object indifferently, haphazardly, or in an unmindful, automatic way. This is not a practice where you mindlessly recite some mental formula. You must look at the object with full commitment, with all of your heart. Directing your whole attention toward the object, as accurately as possible, you keep your attention there so that you can penetrate into the object's true nature.
尽管我们尽最大的努力，心还是无法经常规规矩矩地保持在腹部的起伏，它闲逛去了。这时，新的目标——闲逛的心生起，要如何处理呢？我们要觉知闲逛，这是第一阶段。第二阶段是在心中标记:「闲逛、闲逛」。闲逛生起多久后，我们才觉知到它？一秒？两分钟？半小时？在我们标记它后，又发生什么事？闲逛的心立即消失了吗？还是继续闲逛？或是思绪慢慢减弱而最后消失了？在旧的目标消失之前，是否有发现任何新的目标生起？如果完全无法观照闲逛的心，必须将此告诉老师。
Despite our best efforts, the mind may not always be so well-behaved as to remain with our abdomen. It wanders off. At this point a new object, the wandering mind, has arisen. How do we handle this? We become aware of the wandering. This is the first phase. Now the second phase: we label it as “wandering, wandering.” How soon after its arising were we aware of the wandering? One second, two minutes, half an hour? And what happens after we label it? Does the wandering mind disappear instantly? Does the mind just keep on wandering? Or do the thoughts reduce in intensity and eventually disappear? Does a new object arise before we have seen the disappearance of the old one? If you cannot note the wandering mind at all, you should tell the teacher about this, too.
一旦闲逛的心消逝，就回复到观照腹部的起伏。必须要描述自己的注意力，是否能回到腹部。若能在报告中说出新的目标生起前，心通常在起伏活动上停留多久，也是好的。
If the wandering mind disappears, you come back to the rising and falling. You should make a point to describe whether you are able to come back to it. In your reports it is good, also, to say how long the mind usually remained with the rising and falling movements before a new object arose.
禅坐一段时间之后，各种疼痛与不悦的感受一定会生起。例如：突然生起一阵痒，一个新的目标，你标记它「痒、痒」。这痒变化不明显或越来越强烈？是否有变弱或消失？有新的目标生起吗？譬如想抓痒的欲望？这些都应尽量明确地描述。
Pains and aches, unpleasant sensations, are sure to arise after some time of sitting. Say an itch suddenly appears - a new object. You label it as ‘itching’. Does the itch get worse or remain the same? Does it change or disappear? Do new objects arise, such as a wish to scratch? All this should be described as precisely as possible.
同样的，对于各种影像、声音、味道、冷热、紧绷、震动、刺痛，以及川流不息、无止尽的心念处目标也是一样，要如实观照。不论何种目标，只须应用这同样的三步骤原则。
It is the same with visions and sights, sounds and tastes, heat and cold, tightness, vibrations, tinglings, the unending procession of objects of consciousness. No matter what the object, you only have to apply the same three-step principle to it.
这一切过程的操作，就像在进行一项沉默的研究、来到了我们自己最接近的体验，不要问自己一大堆问题而迷失在思虑之中。对老师来说，重要的是，你是否能够觉知任何生起的目标；是否拥有精确的心观照目标，及保持忍心毅力观照到底；是否能坚忍地完整观察到目标。
All of this process is done as a silent investigation, coming very dose to our experience - not asking ourselves a lot of questions and getting lost in thought. What is important to the teacher is whether you could be aware of whatever object has arisen, whether you had the accuracy of mind to be mindful of it, and the perseverance to observe it fully.
对老师要诚实，如果无法发现目标或观照它，或是无法注意到目标，或在标记后仍无任何经验，这并不意味着你修行很糟！清楚和明确的报告，可以让老师评估你的修行，进而指出错误或加以纠正，好让你回归正道。
Be honest with your teacher. If you are unable to find the object, or note it, or experience anything at all after making a mental label, it may not always mean that you are practicing poorly! A clear and precise report enables the teacher to assess your practice; then point out mistakes or make corrections to put you back on the right path.
愿你在这些小参的指导中，获得利益。但愿将来有一天，老师能协助你去帮助你自己。
May you benefit from these interview instructions. May a teacher someday help you help yourself.
毗婆舍那禅修，可被理解为是一种发展某些建设性心理因素，一直到它们具足力量持续控制心境的一个过程。这些心理因素称为「五根」：信心、精进、正念、定力与智慧。特别是在设定一个密集禅修里，正确的练习能培养强而持久的信心、稳固的精进力、深度的定力、敏锐的正念，并开展愈来愈深奥的内观或智慧。这最后的成绩是智慧（paññā），是心中的力量，得以契入实相的最深真理，从而使我们解脱无明及无明之果：苦、愚痴与一切的不快乐。
Vipassanā meditation can be seen as a process of developing certain positive mental factors until they are powerful enough to dominate the state of the mind quite continuously. These factors are called “the controlling faculties,” and they are five in number: faith, effort or energy, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom. Especially in an intensive retreat setting, proper practice develops strong and durable faith, powerful effort, deep concentration, penetrative mindfulness, and the unfolding of more and more profound insight or wisdom. This final product, intuitive wisdom or paññā, is the force in the mind which cuts through into the deepest truth about reality, and thus liberates us from ignorance and its results: suffering, delusion, and all the forms of unhappiness.
然而，为了要有这样的发展，必须有适当的起因。有九个因素能令五根增长。
For this development to occur, however, the appropriate causes must be present. Nine causes lead to the growth of the controlling faculties; they are listed here, and will be discussed in more detail below.
一、将注意力导向心的一切目标之无常性；
The first cause is attention directed toward the impermanence of all objects of consciousness.
二、以审慎与尊重的态度禅修；
The second is an attitude of care and respect in meditation practice.
三、保持相续不间断的正念；
The third is maintaining an unbroken continuity of awareness.
四、支持禅修的环境；
The fourth cause is an environment that supports meditation.
五、记得过去曾对自己禅修有利的情境或状况，特别是当困难生起时，行者可以维持或再创造那些因缘；
The fifth is remembering circumstances or behavior that have been helpful in one’s past meditation practice so that one can maintain or recreate those conditions, especially when difficulties may arise.
六、培养导向证悟特性的七觉支；
The sixth is cultivating the qualities of mind which lead toward enlightenment.
七、自愿操作密集的禅修；
The seventh is willingness to work intensely in meditation practice.
八、耐心且坚忍地面对疼痛或其它障碍；
The eighth is patience and perseverance in the face of pain or other obstacles.
九、决心持续禅修，直到完成解脱的目标。
The ninth and last cause for the development of the controlling faculties is a determination to continue practicing until one reaches the goal of liberation.
即使只圆满前三项使五根现起的因素，行者也能在这修行中有很快的进展。也就是说，倘若他有认真和持续不断及细心地觉知名色法的灭去，那他将具足信心、精进、正念、定力与智慧的特性。在这些情况下，禅修的内在障碍很快会被消除。五根能令心平静，清除纷扰。如果你是这样的行者，你将会经验到未曾有过的轻安，或许你会充满敬畏的想：「太棒了，这是真的！我真正经验了那些老师们所说的安详与宁静。」因此，第一根「信根」便于你的修习中生起。
A yogi can travel far in this practice if he or she fulfills even just the first three causes for the controlling faculties to arise. That is, the yogi’s mental state will come to be characterized by faith,
energy, mindfulness, concentration and wisdom if she or he is aware of the passing away of mental and physical phenomena meticulously, respectfully, and with persistent continuity. Under these conditions, the inner hindrances to meditation will soon be removed. The controlling faculties will calm the mind and clear it of disturbances. If you are such a yogi, you will experience a tranquillity you may never have felt before. You may be filled with awe. “Fantastic, it’s really true! All those teachers talk about peace and calm and now I’m really experiencing it!” Thus faith, the first of the controlling faculties, will have arisen out of your practice.
这种特殊的信心，称为初步的善解（已证实的信心）。亲身的经验使你感觉到，佛法更进一步的许诺确实会是真的。
This particular kind of faith is called “preliminary verified faith.” Your own experience leads you to feel that the further promises of the Dhamma may actually be true.
伴随信心而来的是一种自然的激励，精力的激发。精力出现时，精进便随之而来。你会告诉自己：「这才刚开始，如果我更用功些，会有比这还要好的经验。」增强的精进引导心，在每个刹那切中观照目标，正念因而强固且深入。
With faith comes a natural inspiration, an upsurge of energy. When energy is present, effort follows. You will say to yourself, “This is just the beginning. If I work a little harder, I’ll have experiences even better than this.” A renewed effort guides the mind to hit its target of observation in each moment. Thus mindfulness consolidates and deepens.
正念有异乎寻常的能力，去引发心的一境性或定力。当正念刹那至刹那的渗透入所观照的目标时，心即获得维持稳定和不分心的能力，从而满足于禅修。在如此自然的状态下，定力变得稳固和强大。总的来说，正念愈强，定力也随之增强。
Mindfulness has the uncanny ability to bring about concentration, one-pointedness of mind. When mindfulness penetrates into the object of observation moment by moment, the mind gains the capacity to remain stable and undistracted, content within the object. In this natural fashion, concentration becomes well-established and strong. In general, the stronger one’s mindfulness, the stronger one’s concentration will be.
有了信心、精进、正念与定力，便具足了五根中的四根，第五根「智慧」便无须特别的引介。若前四根存在，智慧或观智便自行展现。行者开始非常清晰、直觉地发现到名与色是如何的生起，各别又是不同的实体。也开始以一种特殊的方式，了解名色如何藉由因果而相关连。在每一观智里，善解（已证实的信心）也随之加深。
With faith, effort, mindfulness and concentration, four of the five controlling faculties have been assembled. Wisdom, the fifth, needs no special introduction. If the first four factors are present, wisdom or insight unfolds of itself. One begins to see very clearly, intuitively, how mind and matter are separate entities, and begins also to understand in a very special way how mind and matter are connected by cause and effect. Upon each insight, one’s verified faith deepens.
经历到目标刹那至刹那生灭的行者，会感到非常满足，心想：「真是令人难以置信！就只是刹那至刹那间生灭的现象，其背后没有自我，没有所谓的人住在其中。」这个发现，为心带来莫大的解放与自在。其后继的观智里，对无常、苦、无我的体验，则具有激励信根的特强能力，让我们充满强而有力的信心，确信佛陀所说的法皆真实、可信赖。
A yogi who has seen objects arising and passing away from moment to moment feels very fulfilled. “It’s fabulous. Just moment after moment of these phenomena with no self behind them. No one at home.” This discovery brings a sense of great relief and ease of mind. Subsequent insights into impermanence, suffering and absence of self have a particularly strong capacity to stimulate faith. They fill us with powerful conviction that the Dhamma as it has been told to us is authentic.
修习毗婆舍那，好比在磨刀石上磨刀，一定要以正确的角度拿稳刀身，不能太高或太低，使出恰好的压力，持续不断地在石头上磨，直到第一面完成后，才能翻转刀身，再用相同的压力与角度，开始磨另一面。这是个出自佛经的比喻。正确的角度就如严密地修习；而压力与磨刀的活动，则好比持续的正念。如果你的禅修真能具足严密和持续性，那就能确保在短时间内，心变得足够敏锐，直接契入存在的真理。
Vipassanā practice can be compared to sharpening a knife against a whetstone. One must hold the blade at just the right angle, not too high or too low, and apply just the right amount of pressure. Moving the knife blade consistently against the stone, one works continuously and until the first edge has been developed. Then one flips the knife over to sharpen the other edge, applying the same pressure at the same angle. This image is given in the Buddhist scriptures. Precision of angle is like meticulousness in practice, and pressure and movement are like continuity of mindfulness. If meticulousness and continuity are really present in your practice, rest assured that in a short time your mind will be sharp enough to cut through to the truth about existence.
第一个发展五根的因素，是去注意一切事物在生起后，都会消失及灭去。禅修时，行者在所有六根门观察名色，行者应抱着「任何生起的现象将会随后消逝去」的意念，来进行观照。无疑的，你知道：这个信念，也只能经由实际观照而获得确认。
The first cause for development of the controlling faculties is to notice that everything which arises will also dissolve and pass away. During meditation one observes mind and matter at all the six sense doors. One should approach this process of observation with the intention to notice that everything which appears will, in turn, dissolve. As you are no doubt aware, this idea can only be confirmed by actual observation.
事先接受事物是无常和短暂的看法，是禅修的一个非常重要的心理准备。在实修过程中，有时候实际的疼痛经验会生起，有了事先的认可，便可避免可能出现的反感。此外，缺少了这认可的行者，或许会在与此看法的相反假设上，花许多时间思索，认为这世间的事物可能是永恒的。这样的假设会阻碍观智的进展。因此，你可以先通过信心接受无常，以后再随着修习深入，实修经验将能证实这信念。
This attitude is a very important preparation for practice. A preliminary acceptance that things are impermanent and transitory prevents the reactions that might occur when you discover these facts - sometimes painfully - through your own experience. Without this acceptance, moreover, a student might spend considerable time with the contrary assumption, that the objects of this world might be permanent an assumption that can block the development of insight. In the beginning you can take impermanence on faith. As practice deepens, this faith will be verified by personal experience.
第二个加强五根的基础，是从事禅修时的审慎态度。以极度的崇敬与严谨，来对待禅修是必要的。为了发展这种态度，思考藉由禅修你可能会享有的利益，将有所帮助。正确地修习身、受、心、法等念处，可导向心的净化、克服忧伤和悲恸，彻底消灭身体疼痛和心理的痛苦，并证得涅槃。佛陀将之称为四念处（satipaṭṭhāna），意指正念的禅修，建立于四种基础目标。这禅修确实是无价之宝！
The second basis for strengthening the controlling faculties is an attitude of great care in pursuing the meditation practice. It is essential to treat the practice with the utmost reverence and meticulousness. To develop this attitude it may be helpful to reflect on the benefits you are likely to enjoy through practice. Properly practiced, mindfulness of body, feelings, mind and mind objects leads to the purification of the mind, the overcoming of sorrow and lamentation, the complete destruction of physical pain and mental distress, and the attainment of nibbāna. The Buddha called it satipaṭṭhāna meditation, meaning meditation on the four foundations of mindfulness. Truly it is priceless!
记住这点，你或许会受到激励。要非常审慎、留意地觉知于六根门生起的目标。在密集禅修时，你应当尽量放慢动作，了解自己的正念是处在婴儿阶段的事实。放慢动作得以让正念跟得上身体的活动，而详细的一一观照。
Remembering this, you may be inspired to be very careful and attentive toward the objects of awareness that arise at the six sense doors. On a meditation retreat, you should also try to slow down your movements as much as possible, appreciating the fact that your mindfulness is at an infant stage. Slowing down gives mindfulness the chance to keep pace with the movements of the body, noting each one in detail.
经典以一个人走狭桥过河的意象，来说明这审慎与严谨的特质。窄桥上无任何扶手，而下方水流湍急。显然的，他是无法蹦蹦跳跳地快跑过桥，而是必须一步步地小心行走。
The scriptures illustrate this quality of care and meticulousness with the image of a person crossing a river on a very narrow footbridge. There is no railing, and swift water runs below. Obviously, this person cannot skip and run across the bridge. He or she must go step by step, with care.
禅修者也好比运送着一碗盛满油的人，在不得让油溢出的要求下，你可想像那审慎的程度。在你的禅修中，也要有同样程度的正念。
A meditator can also be compared to a person carrying a bowl brimful of oil. You can imagine the degree of care that is required not to spill it. This same degree of mindfulness should be present in your practice.
第二个例子是佛陀亲口所说。有群比丘居住在森林中，表面上在禅修，实际上十分懒散。坐禅一支香结束时，他们会突然散漫地跳起来，漫不经心地四处走动。他们看着枝头的鸟儿与天上的云朵，毫不管束自己的心，因此修行上没有任何进步。
This second example was given by the Buddha himself. It seems there was a group of monks residing in a forest, ostensibly practicing meditation. They were floppy, though. At the end of a sitting, they would leap up suddenly and unmindfully. Walking from place to place, they were careless; they looked at the birds in the trees and the clouds in the sky, not restraining their minds at all. Naturally they made no progress in practice.
当佛陀得知此事，他审察之后发现，这群比丘错在不尊重佛法、不尊重老师的教导与禅修，于是趋前向他们述说捧油碗的譬喻。佛陀的开示（sutta）激励了他们，决定从此对所做的每件事都要严谨审慎。结果在短时间内，所有人都证悟了。
When the Buddha came to know of this, his investigation showed that the fault lay in the monks' lack of respect and reverence for the Dhamma, for the teaching, and for meditation. The Buddha then approached the monks and spoke to them about the image of carrying a bowl of oil. Inspired by his sutta, or discourse, the monks resolved thereafter to be meticulous and careful in all that they did. As a result they were enlightened in a short time.
你可以在密集禅修中，以自己的经验来证实这项结果。放慢下来，审慎地移动，你将能在观照自己的经验上，运用尊重的特质。动作愈缓慢，禅修的进步愈快。
You can verify this result in your own experience on a retreat. Slowing down, moving with great care, you will be able to apply
a quality of reverence in noting your experience. The slower you move, the faster you will progress in your meditation.
当然，人活在这世上，必须适应一般的环境。有些情况需要速度，如果你以蜗牛的速度行驶于高速公路上，最后可能会入狱或死亡。相反地，在医院中，则必须极度温和地对待病人，容许他们缓慢行动。如果医生、护士，为了更有效率地完成医院的工作，而催促他们，病人会很痛苦，也许最后进了太平间呢！
Of course, in this world one must adapt to the prevailing circumstances. Some situations require speed. If you cruise the highway at a snail's pace, you might end up dead or in jail. At a hospital, in contrast, patients must be treated with great gentleness and allowed to move slowly. If doctors and nurses hurry them along so that the hospitals work can be finished more efficiently, the patients will suffer and perhaps end up on a mortuary slab.
行者必须了解自己的处境，不论身处何处都要适应环境。在密集禅修或其它情境中，如果有人等在你后面，最好体贴地以正常的速度移动。然而，你也必须了解我们的首要目标是培养正念，因此，当你单独一人时，就可以回复缓步徐行。你可以慢慢地吃，用最强的正念来洗脸、刷牙与洗澡，假如当时无人在排队等待。
Yogis must comprehend their situation, wherever they are, and adapt to it. On retreat, or in any other situation. It is good to be considerate and to move at a normal speed if others are waiting behind you. However, you must also understand that one's primary goal is to develop mindfulness, and so when you are alone it is appropriate to revert to creeping about. You can eat slowly, you can wash your face, brush your teeth and bathe with great mindfulness - as long as no one is waiting in line for the shower or tub.
坚持正念的相续是发展五根的第三要素。行者应试着尽量以正念活在当下，刹那至刹那无间断的观照。以此方式，可以确立正念，正念的力量也会增长。守护我们的正念，即阻止烦恼障（kilesas）—那贪、嗔、痴会伤害与引起痛苦的特质潜入，并使我们失念。稳固的正念现起时，烦恼障是无法生起的，这是生命的真相。当心解脱烦恼障，就不会有负担，轻松且快乐。
Persevering continuity of mindfulness is the third essential factor in developing the controlling faculties. One should try to be with the moment as much as possible, moment after moment, without any breaks in between. In this way mindfulness can be established, and its momentum can increase. Defending our mindfulness prevents the kilesas, the harmful and painful qualities of greed, hatred and delusion, from infiltrating and carrying us off into oblivion. It is a fact of life that the kilesas cannot arise in the presence of strong mindfulness. When the mind is free of kilesas, it becomes unburdened, light and happy.
尽一切努力来保持正念相续，一次只做一个动作。当要改变姿势时，把动作分解成个别的小动作，并高度审慎地观照每个动作。当你想起坐时，观照想睁开眼睑的意念，然后，观照眼皮开始活动的感觉；接着，观照手从膝盖提起、换腿等等。一整天都要保持高度的觉知，甚至是最微细的小动作；不只是行、住、坐、卧，还包括闭眼、转头、扭门把等。
Do whatever is necessary to maintain continuity. Do one action at a time. When you change postures, break down the movement into single units and note each unit with the utmost care. When you arise from sitting, note the intention to open the eyelids, and then the sensations that occur when the lids begin to move. Note lifting the hand from the knee, shifting the leg, and so on. Throughout the day, be fully aware of even the tiniest actions - not just sittings, standing, walking and lying, but also closing your eyes, turning your head, turning doorknobs and so forth.
除了睡眠时间外，密集禅修中的行者，应当持续保持正念。正念应相续到实际上没有时间省思、迟疑、思考、推论，或以自己的经验来和曾阅读过与禅修有关的内容比较，时间仅足以用于全然的觉知。
Apart from the hours of sleeping, yogis on retreat should be continuously mindful. Continuity should be so strong, in fact, that there is no time at all for reflection, no hesitation, no thinking, no reasoning, no comparing of one's experiences with the things one has read about meditation - just time enough to apply this bare awareness.
经典将修习佛法比喻为生火，在火柴与放大镜尚未发明前，起火必须使用原始的摩擦生热法。人们水平的握着一种弓形的器具，再将绕在弓上的线，缠上一根垂直的棒子，其一端嵌入一小块有凹槽的板子，再将凹槽塞满木屑或树叶。随着弓前后的移动，棒端会快速旋转，最后燃起树叶或木屑；另一个方法，仅是以两手掌握着，转动棒子。不论以何种方法，人们摩擦再摩擦，直到累积足够的摩擦力，而点燃木屑。试想：如果他们摩擦十秒，接着休息五秒，来思考这件事，会怎么样呢？你觉得火生得起来吗？同样的，持续地精进也正是如此，必须有它才能点燃智慧之火。
The scriptures compare practicing the Dhamma to starting a fire. In the days before the invention of matches or magnifying glasses, fire had to be started by the primitive means of friction. People used an instrument like a bow, held horizontally. In its looped string they entwined a vertical stick whose point was inserted into a slight depression in a board, which was in turn filled with shavings or leaves. As people moved the bow back and forth, the stick's point twirled, eventually igniting the leaves or shavings. Another method was simply to roll that same stick between the palms of the hands. In either case, people rubbed and rubbed until sufficient friction accumulated to ignite the shavings. Imagine what would happen if they rubbed for ten seconds and then rested for five seconds to think about it. Do you think a fire would start? In just this way, a continuous effort is necessary to start the fire of wisdom.
你可曾研究过变色龙的行为？经典以这种蜥蜴来形容断断续续的修习。变色龙以一种有趣的方式接近目标，一看到美味的苍蝇或可能成为配偶的对象，它会突然向前冲，但却不立刻抵达，它快跑一小段路后，停止下来凝视天空，东张西望，接着再向前冲一段，再次停下来凝视，永远不在第一次就冲到目的地。
Have you ever studied the behavior of chameleon? The scriptures use this lizard to illustrate discontinuous practice. Chameleons approach their goals in an interesting way. Catching sight of a delicious fly or a potential mate, a chameleon rushes suddenly forward, but does not arrive all at once. It scurries a short distance, then stops and gazes at the sky, tilting its head this way and that. Then it rushes ahead a bit more and stops again to gaze. It never reaches its destination in the first rash.
如此一曝十寒地练习，保持正念一阵子，接着做白日梦的人，就是变色龙行者。尽管变色龙缺乏持续性，它仍然得以生存，但行者的修行则不尽然如此。有些行者每次有了新经验，就觉得要停下来反省、思考，想知道他们已经到了第几观智。有些人无须新奇的经验，也会思考并忧虑类似的事。
People who practice in fits and starts, being mindful for a stretch and then stopping to daydream, are chameleon yogis. Chameleons manage to survive despite their lack of continuity, but a yogi's practice may not. Some yogis feel called to reflect and think each time they have a new experience, wondering which stage of insight they have reached. Others do not need novelty, they think and worry about familiar things.
「我今天觉得疲累，可能是睡眠不足，也许是吃太多了，小憩一下或许是我所需要的。我的脚痛死了，不知是否起了水泡，这可是会影响禅修！也许我该睁开眼睛检查看看。」这正是犹豫的变色龙行者。
"I feel tired today. Maybe I didn't sleep enough. Maybe I ate too much. A little nap might be just the ticket. My foot hurts. I wonder if a blister is developing, That would affect my whole meditation! Maybe I should just open my eyes and check." Such are the hesitations of chameleon yogis.
第四个发展五根的因素，是要确保有适于让内观开展的情境。正确、合宜且适切的活动，可使观智生起。要创造适于禅修的环境，需符合七种适宜的条件。
The fourth cause for developing the controlling faculties is to make sure that suitable conditions are met for insights to unfold. Proper, suitable and appropriate activities can bring about insight knowledge. Seven types of suitability should be met in order to create an environment that is supportive of meditation practice.
首先，是「适当的地方」。禅修环境要配置完整、补给充足，要是一个有能力让行者证得内观的地方。
The first suitability is that of place. A meditative environment should be well-furnished, well-supported, a place where it is possible to gain insight.
第二项，是适当的「行境」，指的是古代每日托钵的修行。比丘的禅修地点与村落距离要够远，才不致分心；但也要够近，才能依赖村民每日供养的钵食。对在家行者而言，不但要容易取得食物，还得供应充足，但不能因这些事分心。此前提下，行者须避开会破坏个人定力的环境，也就是繁忙且活动多的地方。这些地方会使心受干扰，而无法安住于禅修的目标。总之，相当程度的安静非常重要，但不能太远离尘嚣，以致无法取得赖以维生的物资。
Second is what is known as suitability of resort. This refers to the ancient practice of daily alms rounds, A monk's place of meditation should be far enough from a village to avoid distraction, but near enough so that he can depend on the villagers for daily alms food. For lay yogis, food must be easily and consistently available, yet perhaps not distractingly so. Under this heading, one should avoid places which ruin one's concentration. This means busy, active places where the mind is likely to be distracted from its meditation object. In short, a certain amount of quiet is important, but one must not go so far from the noises of civilization that one cannot obtain what one needs to survive.
第三项，是适当的「言谈」。在密集禅修期间，合适的谈话在种类与次数上多有限制。注释书将此限定为聆听法的开示，我们可以再加上与老师一同讨论禅修的小参。有时，花些时间讨论修行的情况是必要的，特别是在行者对如何进一步修习，感到困惑或不确定时。
The third suitability is that of speech. During a retreat, suitable speech is of a very limited kind and quantity. The commentaries define it as listening to Dhamma talks. We can add participating in Dhamma discussions with the teacher - that is, interviews. It is essential at times to engage in discussions of the practice, especially when one is confused or unsure about how to proceed.
但要记住，任何事过度了就有害。我曾在某个地方教学，那儿种有盆栽，有位学员过度热心地为盆栽浇水，以致所有的叶子都掉光了。同样的，如果你一直忙着讨论禅修，你的禅定也会发生同样的状况。
But remember that anything in excess is harmful. I once taught in a place where there was a potted plant which my attendant was overzealous in watering. All its leaves fell off. A similar thing could happen to your samādhi if you get involved in too many Dhamma discussions.
即使是老师的开示，行者也要仔细评估，一般原则是慎思明辨，所听到的是否会增长已生起的定力，或令未生起的定力生起。如果答案是否定的，就必须加以避免，甚至选择不出席老师的开示，或不要求额外的小参。
And one should carefully evaluate even the discourses of one's teacher. The general rule is to exercise discretion as to whether what one is hearing will develop the concentration that has already arisen, or cause to arise concentration that has not yet arisen. If the answer is negative, one should avoid the situation, perhaps even choosing not to attend the teacher’s discourses or not requesting extra interviews.
在密集禅修中，行者当然必须尽量避免任何的交谈，尤其是闲谈俗事。即使是严肃的佛法讨论，在密集禅修中都是不恰当的，行者要避免与同修者辩论教义。最不适宜的是谈论食物、住所、生意、经济、政治等，这些话题被称之为「畜生论」（animal speech）。
Yogis on intensive retreat should of course avoid any kind of conversation as much as possible, especially chatting about worldly affairs. Even serious discussion of the Dharmma is not always appropriate during intensive practice. One should avoid debating points of dogma with fellow yogis on retreat. Thoroughly unsuitable during retreats are conversations about food, place, business, the economy, politics and so forth; these are called "animal speech."
禁止这类言谈的目的，是避免行者分心。佛陀慈悲地对禅修者说：「尽责的禅修者不应放纵于言谈，若确实有经常的交谈，将会导致严重的分心。」
The purpose of having this kind of prohibition is to prevent distractions from arising in the yogi's mind. Lord Buddha, out of deep compassion for meditating yogis, said, “For an ardent meditator, speech should not be indulged. If indeed speech is resorted to frequently, it will cause much distraction.”
当然，在密集禅修中也可能真的需要说话，此时你应审慎地不要超越那绝对必要的话题，同时在谈话的过程中要保持正念。首先，会有想说话的意念，要说什么与如何说的想，会在心中生起。你应观照，并小心标记所有这些想、心中对说话的准备、接着是实际说话的行为，包含身体的动作，你的双唇与脸部的动作，以及任何随之生起的手势，都要成为正念观照的目标。
Of course it may become really necessary to talk during a retreat. If so, you should be careful not to exceed what is absolutely necessary to communicate. You should also be mindful of the process of speaking. First there will be a desire to speak. Thoughts will arise in the mind as to what to say and how to say it. You should note and carefully label all such thoughts, the mental preparation for speaking; and then the actual act of speaking itself, the physical movements involved. The movements of your lips and face, and any accompanying gestures, should be made the objects of mindfulness.
几年前，缅甸有位刚退休的政府高级官员，他是个非常热心的佛教徒，读过很多译成缅甸文的佛教经典与文学，也花了一些时间禅修。他禅修的功夫不深，但由于拥有很多常识，又想教导别人，因此成为老师。
Some years ago in Burma there was a high-ranking government official who had just retired. He was a very ardent Buddhist. He had read a lot of Buddhist scriptures and literature in the fine translations available in Burmese and had also spent some time meditating. His practice was not strong, but he had a lot of general knowledge and he wanted to teach, so he became a teacher.
有天，他来到仰光中心禅修。当我指导行者时，通常先解释禅修，然后将我的教学与经典比较，试着调和其中明显的差异。这位先生立刻问我：「这些引述摘自何处？参考资料是什么？」我客气地劝他忘了所关切的问题，继续禅修，但他无法做到。连续三天，他在每次的小参都重复这样的行为。
One day he came to the center in Rangoon to meditate. When I give instructions to yogis, usually I explain the practice and then compare my instructions to the scriptural texts, trying to reconcile any apparent differences. This gentleman immediately began to ask me, “From where did this quotation come and what is its reference?" I advised him politely to forget about this concern and to continue his meditation, but he could not. For three days in a row, he did the same thing at each interview.
最后我问他：「你为什么来这里？你是来当我的学生，还是想来教导我？」对我而言，他似乎只是想来炫耀自己的知识，而不是因为想禅修。
Finally I asked him, “Why are you here? Did you come here to be my student or to try to teach me?" It seemed to me he had only come to show off his general knowledge, not because he wished to meditate.
这个人轻率地说：「哦！我是学生，你是老师。」
The man said airily, "Oh, I'm the student and you're the teacher.”
我说：「三天以来，我试着婉转地告诉你，但现在我必须直接跟你说。你就像是为新郎与新娘证婚的牧师，轮到自己要结婚的那天，却不站在新郎应站的位置，反而走上圣坛主持婚礼，群众们都感到非常诧异。」这位先生终于明白，而承认自己的错误，尔后成为恭顺的学生。
I said, "I’ve been trying to let you know this in a subtle way for three days, but I must now be more direct with you. You are like the minister whose job was to marry off brides and bridegrooms. On the day it was his turn to get married, instead of standing where the bridegroom should stand he went up to the altar and conducted the ceremony. The congregation was very surprised." Well, the gentleman got the point; he admitted his error and thereafter became an obedient student.
真正想了解佛法的行者，不要试图模仿这位先生。事实上，经典也曾提到，无论学识多么渊博或经验丰富，在禅修期间，行者应该不能恣意而为，而是要非常柔顺服从。就这点来说，我想与你们分享我在年轻时所养成的态度。当我在某个领域中的技巧尚未纯熟、能力无法胜任或经验不足时，我不会莽撞强加意见；即使我已熟稔某个领域，足以胜任且经验丰富，我也不会介入，除非是有人徵询我的意见。
Yogis who truly want to understand the Dhamma will not seek to imitate this gentleman. In fact, it is said in the texts that no matter how learned or experienced one may be, during a period of meditation one should behave like a person who is incapable of doing things out of his or her own initiative, but is also very meek and obedient. In this regard, I'd like to share with you an attitude I developed in my youth. When I am not skilled, competent or experienced in a particular field, I do not intrude in a situation. Even if I am skilled, competent and experienced in a field, I do not intrude unless someone asks for my advice.
第四项，是适当的「人」，主要指的是禅修老师。如果老师的指导能让人进步，增长已生起的定力，或令未生起的定力生起，他便是位适合的老师。
The fourth suitability is that of person, which chiefly relates to the meditation teacher. If the instruction given by one's teacher helps one to progress, developing concentration that has already arisen, of bringing about concentration that has not yet arisen, then one can say that this teacher is suitable.
另外两个与「人」有关的部分，一是支持行者禅修的团体，一是行者自己与团体中其他人的关系。在密集禅修中，行者需要很多护持。为了开展正念与定力，行者放弃世俗的活动，因而需要朋友协助执行购物、准备食物、修膳住处等琐事，以免在密集禅修中分心。
Two more aspects of suitability of person have to do with the community that supports one's practice, and one's own relationship with the community of other people. In an intensive retreat, yogis require a great deal of support. In order to develop their mindfulness and concentration, they abandon worldly activities. Thus, they need friends who can perform certain tasks that would be distracting for a yogi in intensive practice, such as shopping for and preparing food, repairing the shelter, and so on.
而对参加集体禅修的人来说，思量自己对团体的影响是很重要的；得体地为其他行者设想，是非常有帮助的。唐突或吵杂的动作十分干扰他人，将此牢记在心，尊重其他行者，自己便能成为别人合适的人。
For those engaged in group practice, it is important to consider one's own effect on the community. Delicate consideration for other yogis is quite helpful. Abrupt or noisy movements can be very disruptive to others. Bearing this in mind, one can become a suitable person with respect to other yogis.
第五项，是「食物」，意指适于个人亦有益于禅修进步的食物。然而，要谨记在心的是，这方面是不可能一直满足每个人的各别嗜好。团体禅修有时规模相当大，食物是为大家一起烹煮的，在此情况下，最好采取接受任何所提供的食物的态度。如果禅修被食物不足，或厌恶的感觉所困扰，若情况允许，是可以试着修正的。
The fifth area of suitability, of food, means that the diet one finds personally appropriate is also supportive to progress in meditation. However, one must bear in mind that it is not always possible to fill one's every preference. Group retreats can be quite large, and meals are cooked for everyone at once. At such times, it is best to adopt an attitude of accepting whatever is served. If one's meditation is disturbed by feelings of lack or distaste, it is all right to try to rectify this if convenient.
玛帝卡玛塔的故事
The Story of Mātikamātā
曾经有六十位比丘在森林中禅修，他们有一位非常虔诚的护持者，女居士玛帝卡玛塔（Mātikamātā）。她试着去找出比丘的喜好，并每天烹煮足量的食物供养他们。一天，她与这群比丘接洽，询问在家人是否也可以像比丘们一样禅修。他们告诉她：「当然可以！」并指导她禅修。
Once sixty monks were meditating in the forest. They had a laywoman supporter named Mātikamātā, who was very devout. She tried to figure out what they might like, and every day she cooked enough food for all of them. One day Mātikamātā approached the monks and asked whether a lay person could meditate as they did. “Of course,” she was told, and they gave her instructions.
她欢喜地回去开始练习，即使在煮饭或做家事时，也从未间断的禅修，最后证得阿那含果（anāgāmī）。并且由于过去世累积了殊胜功德，使她同时具有天眼通——可看到远方的东西；天耳通——可听到远处的声音，以及能了知他人想法的他心通。
Happily she went back and began to practice. She kept up her meditation even while she was cooking for the monks and carrying out her household chores. Eventually she reached the third stage of enlightenment, anāgāmī or nonreturner; and because of the great merit she had accumulated in the past, she also had psychic powers such as the deva eye and deva ear - i,e. the abilities to see and hear distant things - and the ability to read people's minds.
玛帝卡玛塔满怀喜悦与感激，心想：「我所体证的佛法真是殊胜，虽然我这么忙碌，每天要料理日常杂务，并为比丘们准备食物，我确信那些比丘的法一定比我更高。」她以神通察看六十位比丘的禅修状况，令她震惊的是，他们竟然无人获得丝毫的观智。
Filled with joy and gratitude, Mātikamātā said to herself, “The Dhamma I've realized is very special. I'm such a busy person, though, looking after my household chores as well as feeding the monks every day, I’m sure those monks have progressed much further than I.” With her psychic powers she investigated the meditation progress of the sixty monks, and saw to her shock that none of them had had even the vaguest ghost of a vipassanā insight.
「究竟出了什么问题？」玛帝卡玛塔觉得奇怪！她又以神通探查比丘们的情形，看到底是哪里出了状况——并非禅修地点的问题，也不是他们之间相处不好，而是没有得到适当的食物！有些比丘喜欢酸的口味，有些则喜欢咸的，有人喜欢辣椒，有人则喜欢糕饼，还有人偏好蔬菜。由于他们教导她禅修，而引导她至奥妙的解脱，玛帝卡玛塔出于感恩地开始迎合每位比丘在食物上的喜好。结果，所有的比丘很快的都成为彻底觉悟的阿罗汉（arahant）。
“What’s wrong here?” Mātikamātā wondered. Psychically, she looked into the monks' situation to determine where the unsuitability lay. It was not in the place they were meditating. It was not because they weren't getting along - but it was that they were not getting the right food! Some of the monks liked sour tastes, others preferred the salty. Some liked hot peppers and others liked cakes, and still others preferred vegetables. Out of great gratitude for the meditation instructions she had received from them, which had led her to profound enlightenment, Mātikamātā began to cater to each monk's preference. As a result all of the monks soon became arahants, fully enlightened ones.
这位妇女迅速且深奥的成就，以及她的智慧与奉献，给为人父母者与其他提供照顾者一个良好的典范。在为他人的需要而提供服务的同时，是不必放弃对于甚深观智的抱负。
This woman’s rapid and deep attainments, as well as her intelligence and dedication, provide a good model for people like parents and other caretakers, who serve the needs of others, but who do not need to relinquish aspirations for deep insights.
就此主题，我想谈一下素食主义。有些人认为只吃蔬菜才是道德。在上座部（Theravada）佛教里，并不认为这作法能引导人对真理有特殊的理解。
While on this subject, I would like to talk about vegetarianism. Some hold the view that it is moral to eat only vegetables. In Theravada Buddhism there is no notion that this practice leads to an exceptional perception of the truth.
佛陀并未完全禁止食肉，只是为此制定某些规则，例如：不能特别为了给个人食用而杀生。提婆达多（Devadatta）曾要求佛陀制戒禁止食肉，但佛陀在深思之后，拒绝了这项作法。
The Buddha did not totally prohibit the eating of meat. He only lay down certain conditions for it. For example, an animal must not be killed expressly for one's personal consumption. The monk Devadatta asked him to lay down a rule expressly forbidding the eating of meat, but the Buddha, after thorough consideration, refused to do so.
当时与现在一样，大多数人吃的是肉类与蔬菜混合的食物，只有较高的种姓——婆罗门是素食者。当比丘们托钵时，他们接受所有种姓的人供养，区分素食与肉食的供养，则有违托钵的精神。再者，不论是婆罗门或其他的种姓，都可以加入僧团成为比丘、比丘尼，佛陀将一切会牵涉到的状况都列入考虑，也包括了这点。
In those days as now, the majority of people ate a mixture of animal and vegetable food. Only Brahmins, or the upper caste, were vegetarian. When monks went begging for their livelihood, they had to take whatever was offered by donors of any caste. To distinguish between vegetarian and carnivorous donors would have affected the spirit of this activity. Furthermore, both Brahmins and members of other castes were able to join the order of monks and nuns. The Buddha took this fact into consideration as welt with all of its implications.
因此，在修学佛法上不需自限于素食。当然，均衡的素食有益于健康，如果出于悲悯的动机而不吃肉，这样的想法确实是良善的。从另一方面来看，如果你的新陈代谢已适应肉食，或有其它的健康需要必须吃肉，则不必因此而有罪孽深重或有害修行等想法。一个大多数人无法遵循的律法是无效的。
Thus, one needn't restrict oneself to vegetarianism to practice the Dhamma. Of course, it is healthy to eat a balanced vegetarian diet, and if your motivation for not eating meat is compassion, this impulse is certainly wholesome. If, on the other hand, your metabolism is adjusted to eating meat, or if for some other reason of health it is necessary for you to eat meat, this should not be considered sinful or in any way detrimental to the practice. A law that cannot be obeyed by the majority is ineffective.
第六项，是「气候」。人类对于气候有很强的适应力，不论多热或多冷，都会找出让自己舒适的方法。当这些方法有限或难以取得时，便会干扰禅修。这时如果可能的话，最好在温和不极端的气候里修行。
The sixth type of suitability is that of weather. Human beings have a fantastic ability to adapt to weather. No matter how hot or cold it may be, we devise methods of making ourselves comfortable. When these methods are limited or unavailable, one's practice can be disrupted. At such times it may be better to practice in a temperate climate, if possible.
第七，也是最后一项的是「姿势」。在此指的是传统的四威仪——行、住、坐、卧。坐姿最有利于止禅（samātha），在马哈希尊者（Mahāsi Sayadaw）的传统中，毗婆舍那的修习以坐禅与行走为基础。无论哪种禅修，一旦建立了动力，姿势就不是那么重要，四者中的任何一种都适合。
The seventh and last kind of suitability is that of posture. Posture here refers to the traditional four postures: sitting, standing, walking and lying down. Sitting is best for samātha or tranquillity meditation. In the tradition of Mahāsi Sayadaw, vipassanā practice is based on sitting and walking. For any type of meditation, once momentum builds, posture does not really matter; any of the four is suitable.
初学者，应避免卧姿与站姿。站姿会很快产生痛——腿的压力与绷紧，这会干扰修行。卧姿的问题则是会引发睡意，因为无须太多的努力便能维持卧姿，而且非常的舒适。
Beginning yogis should avoid the lying and the standing postures. The standing posture can bring about pain in a short while: tightness and pressure in the legs, which can disrupt the practice. The lying posture is problematic because it brings on drowsiness. In it there is not much effort being made to maintain the posture, and there is too much comfort.
检查你自己的情况，看看以上七种适合的环境，是否具足？如果没有，也许要做点调整，以符合要求。如此你的修习才能有所进展。如果这些安排，是为了让禅修进步，就不算是自私自利。
Investigate your own situation to find out whether the seven types of suitability are present. If they are not, perhaps you should take steps to ensure they are fulfilled, so that your practice can develop. If this is done with the aim of making progress in your practice, it will not be self-centered.
第五个增长五根的方法，是利用「三摩地的徵兆」，来成就观禅。意指过去曾有过修行良好的情境：良好的正念与定力。
The fifth way of sharpening the controlling faculties is to bring about the completion of meditative insight using what is called "the sign of samādhi.” This refers to circumstances in which good practice has occurred before: good mindfulness and concentration.
我们都知道修行会起起落落，有时会高居于定境的云端，有时则低落沮丧、充满烦恼障、无法对任何事情保持正念。运用三摩地的徵兆，意思是：当你处在定境的云端或念力强时，要试着注意是什么情境，导致这良好的禅修——你是如何操作心？在这良好的禅修中，有什么特定的情境？下次遇到困难时，你就能回想生起正念的因素，并且重新建立之。
As we all know, practice is an up and down affair. At times we are high up in the clouds of samādhiland; at other times, we're really depressed, assaulted by kilesas, not mindful of anything. Using the sign of samādhi means that when you are up in those clouds, when mindfulness is strong, you should try to notice what circumstances led to this good practice. How are you working with the mind? What are the specific circumstances in which this good practice is occurring? The next time you get into a difficult situation, you may be able to remember the causes of good mindfulness and establish them again.
第六个增长五根的方法，是培养七觉支：念、择法、精进、喜、轻安、定、舍。这些心的特质——心所，确实是导致觉悟的因素。当它们存在并活跃于心时，便会助长觉悟，或可说更接近觉悟。再者，七觉支属于所谓的「圣道与圣果心识」。在佛教里，当我们说到「心识」，指的是特定的、刹那的那类心识，是特别的内心事件，具有可辨认的特相。
The sixth way of sharpening the controlling faculties is cultivating the factors of enlightenment: mindfulness, investigation, energy, rapture or joy, tranquility, concentration, and equanimity. These qualities of mind, or mental factors, are actually the causes which bring about enlightenment. When they are present and alive in one's mind, the moment of enlightenment is being encouraged, and may be said to be drawing nearer. Furthermore, the seven factors of enlightenment belong to what is known as “noble path and fruition consciousness.” In Buddhism, we speak of “consciousnesses” when we mean specific, momentary types of consciousness - particular mental events, with recognizable characteristics.
道与果，是构成觉悟经验的相互连结的内心事件，它们是当心从「有为法」转移到注意「无为法」的涅盘时，所发生的情况。如此转移的结果，断除了特定的烦恼障，因此心已不同于以往。
Path and fruition consciousness are the linked mental events that constitute an enlightenment experience - They are what is occurring when the mind shifts its attention from the conditioned realm to nibbāna, or unconditioned reality. The result of such a shift is that certain defilements are uprooted, so that the mind is never the same afterwards.
在创造使道识、果识生起的因缘而修行时，了解七觉支的行者，可运用它们来平衡自己的禅修。当心沮丧时，以精进、喜与择法觉支来振奋它；而当心太活跃时，则以轻安、定与舍觉支来使它平静。
While working to create the conditions for path and fruition consciousness, a yogi who understands the factors of enlightenment can use them to balance her or his meditation practice. The enlightenment factors of effort, joy, and investigation uplift the mind when it becomes depressed, while the factors of tranquility, concentration, and equanimity calm the mind when it becomes hyperactive.
有些时候，行者可能会感到沮丧、气馁、失念，觉得自己修得糟透了，正念无法像过去一样观照目标。此时很重要的是，脱离这个状态，振奋自己的心。行者必须为自己寻找鼓舞与激励。一个方法是聆听令人满意的开示，开示可以带来喜觉支；或可以激发更强的精进觉支；或可经由禅修知识的提供，而加深择法觉支。喜、精进与择法，是面对沮丧与气馁，最有帮助的三个觉支。
Many times a yogi may feel depressed and discouraged, having no mindfulness, thinking that his or her practice is going terribly badly. Mindfulness may not be able to pick up objects as it has in the past. At such a time it is essential for a yogi to pull out of this state, brighten the mind. He or she should go in search of encouragement and inspiration. One way to do this is by listening to a good Dhamma talk. A talk can bring about the enlightenment factor of joy or rapture; or it can inspire greater effort, or it can deepen the enlightenment factor of investigation by providing knowledge about practice. These three factors of enlightenment - rapture, effort and investigation - are most helpful in facing depression and discouragement.
一旦，振奋人心的开示引生喜、精进或择法觉支，你应该利用这个机会，让心清晰地集中于观照的目标，目标也因而清晰地出现于心眼中。
Once an inspiring talk has brought up rapture, energy or investigation, you should use this opportunity to try to focus the mind very clearly on objects of observation, so that the objects appear very clearly to the mind's eye.
其它时候，行者也许有不寻常的经验，或因其它原因而被愉快、喜悦、欢乐所淹没，心变得活跃而过度亢奋。在密集禅修时，你可发现有的行者眉开眼笑，走起路来好像离地六尺高，飘飘欲仙。由于精进力过剩，心不自觉地偏离，拒绝专注在当下生起的目标，就算注意力有接触目标，它也会立刻背离。
At other time, yogis may have an unusual experience, or for some other reason may find themselves flooded with exhilaration, rapture and joy. The mind becomes active and overenthusiastic. On a retreat you can spot such yogis beaming, walking around as if they were six feet above the ground. Due to excess energy, the mind slips; it refuses to concentrate on what is happening in the present moment. If attention touches the target object at all, it immediately goes off on a tangent.
倘若你发现自己极度兴奋，应当培养轻安、定与舍三觉支来恢复平静。开始的好方法是———了解自己精进力过剩，并反省：「没有什么好急的！佛法会自然显现。我只要冷静地休息，以轻柔的觉知来观照就好了。」这会促进轻安觉支。然后，当精进平稳下来，就可开始运用定觉支。
If you find yourself excessively exhilarated, you should restore your equilibrium by developing the three enlightenment factors of tranquility, concentration and equanimity. A good way to start is by realizing that your energy is indeed excessive; and then reflecting, “There's no point in hurrying. The Dhamma will unfold by itself, I should just sit back coolly and watch with gentle awareness.” This stimulates the factor of tranquility. Then, once the energy is cooled, one can begin to apply concentration.
最实用的方式是缩小禅修的范围，不要观照太多目标，而要致力专注在几个目标上。心会很快恢复正常、较慢的步调。最后就可采取舍的态度，以此想法来抚慰心：「行者没有偏好，也没什么好急的。对我来说，唯一重要的就是观照任何当下生起的目标，无论是好或是坏。」
The practical method of doing this is to narrow down the meditation. Instead of noting many objects, cut down to concentrate more fully on a few. The mind will soon renew its normal, slower pace. Lastly, one can adopt a stance of equanimity, cajoling and soothing the mind with reflections like, "A yogi has no preferences. There's no point in hurrying. The only thing that matters for me is to watch whatever is happening, good or bad.”
如果你可以维持心的平衡，抚平亢奋，并从沮丧中振作，就可确信智慧很快便会自行显现。
If you can keep your mind in balance, soothing excitement and lightening up depression, you can be sure that wisdom will shortly unfold on its own.
事实上，于禅修中最能胜任「调整不平衡」的人，即是位合格的禅师。若老师能藉由小参，稳定地记录学生的状态，那他就能辨认并纠正，许多行者易犯的过剩情况。
Actually, the person best qualified to rectify imbalances in practice is a competent meditation teacher. If he or she keeps steady track of students through interviews, a teacher can recognize and remedy the many kinds of excesses that yogis are susceptible to.
我想提醒所有行者，在想到禅修哪里出问题时，千万不要气馁！行者就如同婴儿或小孩，我们都知道，婴儿要经历许多成长阶段，当从一个阶段过渡到另一个阶段时，必须经历许多心理与生理的剧变。他们会显得十分烦躁且难以照顾，不时地呜咽或嚎啕大哭，没有经验的母亲，在这期间也许就会为孩子担忧。
I would like to remind all yogis never to feel discouraged when they think something is wrong with their meditation. Yogis are like babies or young children. As you know, babies go through various stages of development. When babies are in a transition from one stage of development to another, they tend to go through a lot of psychological and physical upheaval. They seem to get irritated very easily and are difficult to care for. They cry and wail at odd times. An inexperienced mother may worry about her baby during periods like this.
但事实上，婴儿若未经历这种痛苦，便无法成长，婴孩的困境通常是发育成长的徵兆。因此，如果你感到自己的修习就要失败了，不要忧虑！你也许就像处在成长阶段、过渡时期的小孩一样。
But truly, if infants don't go through this suffering they will never mature and grow up. Babies' distress is often a sign of developmental progress. So if you feel your practice is falling apart, do not worry. You may be just like that little child who is in a transition between stages of growth.
第七个增长五根的方法，是勇猛精进地修习。为了要持续不间断的禅修，行者甚至会愿意牺牲自己的身体与生命。这意谓着：减少我们习惯性对色身的照顾。与其花时间装扮自己，或满足我们追求舒适的心愿，不如尽量奉献精进力于禅修。
The seventh way of developing the controlling faculties is to practice with courageous effort, so much so that you are willing to sacrifice your body and life in order to continue the practice uninterrupted. This means giving rather less consideration toward the body than we tend to be accustomed to give to it. Rather than spending time beautifying ourselves or catering to our wishes for greater comfort, we devote as much energy as possible to going forward in meditation.
虽然现在，我们觉得充满青春活力，但当我们死亡，身体便一无是处。尸体有什么用呢？身体就像是非常脆弱的容器，只能在未受损时使用，一旦它掉落地上，对我们来说便毫无用处了。
Although it may feel very youthful right now, our body becomes completely useless when we die. What use can one make of a corpse? The body is like a very fragile container which can be used as long as it is intact, but the moment it drops on the floor, it is of no further help to us.
当我们尚活着，仍拥有相当的健康，更庆幸的是能练习禅修，就让我们在身体还未成为无用的尸体之前，及时试着从色身中萃取珍贵的精华吧！当然，我们的目标并不在于促进此事的发生，我们应明智的维持身体的健康，但愿禅修能持续到成功。
While we are alive and in reasonably good health, we have the good fortune to be able to practice. Let us try to extract the precious essence from our bodies before it is too late, before our bodies become useless corpses! Of course, it is not our aim to hasten this event. We should also try to be sensible, and to maintain this body’s health, if only for our practice to continue.
你也许会问：我们能从身体中萃取出什么精华？曾有个科学研究，要测定组成人体物质，诸如铁、钙等的市场价值？我相信它共计不到一美元。萃取所有这些元素的成本，远比这全部价值高出许多倍。就算没有这萃取的过程，尸体除了能为土壤堆肥之外，它毫无价值。如果死者的器官可以移植到活人身上，那是好的。即使如此，它也只不过是延缓我们，朝向完全无生命、无价值尸体的过程。
You might ask what essence one can extract from the body. A scientific study was once made to determine the market value of the substances composing the human body; iron, calcium and so on. I believe it came to less than one American dollar, and the cost of extracting all those components was many times greater than this total value. Without such a process of extraction, a corpse is valueless, beyond providing compost for the soil. If a dead person's organs can be used for transplants into living bodies, this is good; but in this case, progress toward becoming an entirely lifeless and valueless corpse has only been delayed.
身体可被视为令人作呕、充满不洁物的垃圾场。缺乏创造力的人，在垃圾场里找不到有用的东西，但有点子的人，则了解资源回收的价值，他可以从垃圾堆中拿出又脏又臭的东西，清洗干净后便能再度利用。现在就有许多人，做回收生意而赚取百万的故事。
The body can be looked at as a rubbish dump, disgusting and full of impurities. Uncreative people have no use for things they might find in such a dump, but an innovative person understands the value of recycling. He or she may take a dirty, smelly thing off the rubbish heap and clean it and be able to use it again. There are many stories of people who have made millions from the recycling business.
我们仍然可通过修行佛法，从这称为「垃圾堆」的身体里萃取出黄金。一种黄金是「戒」行为的净化；这是一种调伏并教化行为的能力。再进一步的萃取，将会产生信心、精进、正念、定力与智慧五根，这些都是通过禅修，而由身体萃取出来的无价之宝。
From this rubbish heap we call our body, we can nonetheless extract gold through the practice of the Dhamma. One form of gold is sīla, purity of conduct, the ability to tame and civilize one's actions. After further extraction, the body yields up the controlling faculties of faith, mindfulness, effort, concentration and wisdom. These are priceless jewels which can be extracted from the body through meditation.
五根确立后，心不再受到贪、嗔、痴的支配。一旦人的内心不再有这些痛苦与沉重的烦恼障时，他将体验到金钱买不到的非凡快乐与宁静。他所在之处都会变得安详与和蔼，因而使旁人也感到振奋。这种内在的解脱，不受任何环境与条件的支配，只有通过热切地禅修，才能获得这样的结果。
When the controlling faculties are well-developed, the mind resists domination by greed, hatred and delusion. A person whose mind is free of these painful, oppressive qualities experiences an exquisite happiness and peace that cannot be bought with money. His or her presence becomes calm and sweet, so that others feel uplifted. This inner freedom is independent of all circumstances and conditions, and it is only available as a result of ardent meditation practice.
任何人都能了解，内心的痛苦状态不会如我们所愿而消失。明知若沈迷于欲望就会伤害他人，谁又不曾与欲望搏斗？谁不希望在烦躁乖戾时，会有快乐和满足的感受做替代？有谁没有体验过困惑的痛苦？实际上，是有可能根除造成生命中痛苦与不满的随眠烦恼障，但对多数的我们而言，并不容易。高要求的心灵修行工作和其报酬几乎一样；然而，我们不应就此沮丧。毗婆舍那禅修的目标与效果，是要解脱身心各种类型、程度、层次的苦。如果你想要得到这种解脱，就应该高兴自己，具足努力达到成就的机会。
Anyone can understand that painful mental states do not vanish just because we wish them to do so. Who has not wrestled with a desire they knew would hurt someone if they indulged it? Is there anyone who has never been in an irritable, grumpy mood and wished they were feeling happy and contented instead? Has anyone failed to experience the pain of being confused? It is possible to uproot the tendencies which create pain and dissatisfaction in our lives, but for most of us it is not easy. Spiritual work is as demanding as it is rewarding. Yet we should not be discouraged. The goal and result of vipassanā meditation is to be free from all kinds, all shades and all levels of mental and physical suffering. If you desire this kind of freedom, you should rejoice that you have an opportunity to strive to achieve it.
努力的最佳时机就是现在！如果你还年轻，应该庆幸自己拥有良好的处境，因为年轻人最有精力禅修。如果你年纪较大，可能体能较差；不过，也许你有足够的人生阅历，而有智慧的思想，能够亲身领会生命的短暂与不可预期。
The best time to strive is right now. If you are young, you should appreciate your good situation, for young people have the most energy to carry out the meditation practice. If you are older you may have less physical energy, but perhaps you have seen enough of life to have gained wise consideration, such as a personal understanding of life's fleetingness and unpredictability.
「迫切感抓住了我！」
Urgency Seized Me
佛陀时代，有位来自富裕家庭的年轻比丘，年少健壮的他，出家前有很多机会享受各种欲乐。他很富裕，亲友众多，财富让他拥有各式各样的嗜好。然而，他放弃这一切而寻求解脱。
During the Buddha's time there was a young bhikkhu, or monk, who had come from a wealthy family. Young and robust, he'd had the chance to enjoy a wide variety of sense pleasures before his ordination. He was wealthy, he had many friends and relatives, and his wealth made available to him the full panoply of indulgences. Yet he renounced all this to seek liberation.
一天，国王骑马经过森林，遇见这位比丘。国王说：「尊贵的先生！你年轻力壮，正值青春，又生于富裕的家庭，有许多享受的机会，为何你要离家穿上僧袍，过隐居的生活呢？你不觉得寂寞吗？不会觉得无聊吗？」
One day when the king of that country was riding through the forest, he came across this monk. The king said, “Venerable sir, you are young and robust; you are in the prime of youth. You come from a wealthy family and have lots of opportunities to enjoy yourself. Why did you leave your home and family to wear robes and live in solitude? Don't you feel lonely? Aren't you bored?"
这位比丘答道：「哦！伟大的国王，当我听闻佛陀激发出离心的开示时，一股强大的迫切感向我袭来，我希望在死前，及时从自身中萃取最好的效用，这便是我为何放弃世俗生活而穿上僧服的原因。」
The monk answered, "Oh great king, when I was listening to the Buddha's discourse that leads to arousing spiritual urgency, a great sense of urgency seized me. I want to extract the optimum utility from this body of mine in time before I die. That is why I gave up the worldly life and took these robes.”
如果，宁舍对色身或生命的执着也必须禅修的迫切感，尚未说服你，佛陀的话语，或许对你有所帮助。
If you still are not convinced of the need to practice with great urgency, without attachment to body or life, the Buddha's words may also be helpful for you.
佛陀说：我们应当深思这事实，这整个世间的众生是没什么东西构成的。所谓的众生，不外是那生起了且又不停留的名与色。就连一刹那时间，名与色都不会保持不变。它们处在接连不断的变迁中。一旦我们发现自己处在这样的身心中，就知道是不可能做任何事来阻止成长的发生。年幼时，我们想要长大；而当我们老了，却又被无法逆转的衰老过程困住。
One should reflect, he said on the fact that the whole world of beings is made up of nothing but mind and matter which have arisen but do not stay. Mind and matter do not remain still for one single moment; they are in constant flux. Once we find ourselves in this body and mind, there is nothing we can do to prevent growth from taking place. When we are young we like to grow, but when we are old we are stuck in an irreversible process of decline.
我们想要身体健康，但这希望确是无法保证能实现，我们终其一生受疾病、受伤、疼痛和不适的折磨。长生不老是遥不可及的，所有的人都会死。死亡与我们的希望恰恰相反，也无法阻止，唯一的问题是：死亡早来或是晚到。
We like to be healthy, but our wishes can never be guaranteed. We are plagued by sickness and illness, by pain and discomfort, throughout our existence. Immortal life is beyond our reach. All of us will die. Death is contrary to what we would wish for ourselves, yet we cannot prevent it. The only question is whether death will come sooner or later.
地球上没有任何人，可以对我们的成长、健康与长生不老的希望提供保证。人们却拒绝接受这事实。老年人希望自己看起来年轻，科学家发明各种疗程与装置，来延缓人类老化的过程，他们甚至试图让人起死回生！生病时，我们服药来让自己感觉好些，可是即使我们已痊愈，往后还是会再生病的。自然法是不可能被蒙蔽的，因此老与死是我们无法避免的。
Not a single person on earth can guarantee our wishes regarding growth, health or immortality. People refuse to accept these facts. The old try to look young. Scientists develop all manner of cures and contraptions to delay the process of human decay. They even try to revive the dead! When we are sick we take medicines to feel better. But even if we get well, we will get sick again. Nature cannot be deceived. We cannot escape old age and death.
众生的主要弱点是没有安全感。没有一个安全的庇护所，可以让众生避开年老、疾病与死亡。让我们看看其他众生，看看动物，然而最重要的还是看看你自己。
This is the main weakness of beings: beings are devoid of security. There is no safe refuge from old age, disease and death. Look at other beings, look at animals and most of all look at yourself.
要是你已深入禅修，就不会对这些事实感到意外。内观的直觉让你发现——名色法如何刹那至刹那无止息地生起。你知道没有任何可以让你投奔的庇护所，因而没有安全感。然而，即使你的观智不及此，也许思考生命的不稳定性，也能引发迫切感，激发想禅修的强烈动力。修习毗婆舍那（观智）可以引领你至超越这一切恐惧的地方。
If you have practiced deeply, these facts will come as no surprise to you. If you can see with intuitive insight how mental and physical phenomena arise endlessly from moment to moment, you know there is no refuge anywhere that you can run to. There is no security. Yet, if your insight has not reached this point, perhaps reflecting on the precariousness of life will cause some urgency to arise in you, and give you a strong impulse to practice Vipassanā meditation can lead to a place beyond all these fearsome things.
众生另外还有个大弱点是没有财产。这听起来也许有点奇怪，我们一出世便立刻开始吸收知识，也获得种种的证书。大多数人会去找工作做，然后以所得的薪资购买很多物品，并将之称为「自己的财产」，在相对的关系上，这些的确是我们的财产，毋庸置疑。
Beings have another great weakness: lack of possessions. This may sound strange. We are born. We begin procuring knowledge right away. We obtain credentials. Most of us get a job, and buy many items with the resulting wages. We call these our possessions, and on a relative level, that is what they are - no doubt about it.
如果财产真的是属于我们，那么我们就永远不会与之分开；如果我们把所拥有的财产，处于一些究竟的意义中，试问它们还会破碎、遗失或遭窃吗？人死的时候是无法带走任何东西的，他的一切所得、所收集、所储存和所贮藏的东西，都会被遗留下来，因而说一切众生没有财产。我们所有的财产，就在死那一刻必须留下。
If possessions really belonged to us, though, we would never be separated from them. Would they break, or get lost, or stolen the way they do if we owned them in some ultimate sense? When human beings die there is nothing we can take with us. Everything gained, amassed, stored up and hoarded is left behind. Therefore it is said that all beings are possession-less. All of our property must be left behind at the moment of death.
财产有三种。第一种是不动产，例如建筑物、土地与房地产等，按照惯例这些都属于你，不过你一定要在死的时候将它们留下。第二种是动产：椅子、牙刷与衣服……你存活在这地球、四处游历时，带着走的所有东西。接着是知识：艺术、科学、赖以维生的技术。只要我们的身体处于良好、可运作的状态，这知识的财产便不可或缺；然而，你也不能保证它们不会遗失。你也许会忘记所知道的事，或由于政府的命令与其它不幸事件，而让你无法发挥专长。比如，你是位外科医生，你的手臂有可能严重骨折，或者你的福利遭到其它的破坏，你将因而异常的焦虑到无法维持生计。
Property is of three types, the first of which is immovable property: buildings, land, estates, and so forth. Conventionally these belong to you, but you must leave them behind when you die. The second type of property is moveable property: chairs, toothbrushes and clothing - all the things you carry along as you travel about during your existence on this planet. Then there is knowledge: arts and sciences, the skills you use to sustain your life and that of others. As long as we have a body in good working order, this property of knowledge is essential. However, there is no insurance against losing that either. You may forget what you know, or you may be prevented from practicing your specialty by a government decree or some other unfortunate event. If you are a surgeon you could badly break your arm, or you could meet with some other kind of attack on your well-being which leaved you too neurotic to continue your livelihood.
当我们活在地球的期间，这全部的财产就无法带给我们任何的保障，更何况是在未来世。如果我们了解自己并不拥有什么、了解生命极其短暂，那么，当不可避免的事发生时，我们会有更多的平静。
None of these kinds of possessions can bring any security during existence on earth, let alone during the afterlife. If one can understand that we possess nothing, and that life is extremely transitory, then we will feel much more peaceful when the inevitable comes to pass.
唯一真正的财产
Our Only True Possession
然而，有某些东西会跟随人类穿越死亡之门，它就是业（kamma）——行为的果报。我们的善业和恶业如影随形地跟着我们，即使想摆脱它们也无法如愿。
However, there are certain things that follow human beings through the doors of death. This is kamma（Sanskrit: karma), the results of our actions. Our good and bad kammas follow us wherever we are; we cannot get away from them even if we want to.
然而，相信业是你唯一真正的财产，就会带来想要热切且彻底地修习佛法的强烈期望。你会了解有利及良善的行为，是自己未来快乐的投资，而恶行则将回报在自己身上。
Believing that kamma is your only true possession brings a strong wish to practice the Dhamma with ardor and thoroughness. You will understand that wholesome and beneficial deeds are an investment in your own future happiness, and harmful deeds will rebound upon you.
因此，你会基于善意、慷慨、仁慈等崇高的想法，周到的行事；你会尝试捐款给医院，和那些遭遇不幸的人；你将会扶持家人、老人、残障人士、穷人、你的朋友，以及其他需要帮助的人。你会希望保持行为纯净和调伏言行，以创造更美好的社会。
Thus, you will do many things based on noble considerations of benevolence, generosity and kindness. You will try to make donations to hospitals, to people suffering from calamity. You will support members of your family, the aged, the handicapped and underprivileged, your friends, and others who need help. You will want to create a better society by maintaining purity of conduct, taming your speech and actions.
当你造就一个安详的环境时，你致力于禅修以降伏心中生起的烦恼障，你将经历各个阶段的观智，而最终体证终极的目标。所有布施（dana）、持戒（sīla）、禅修（bhāvanā）等善行功德，将如影随形地跟着你到未来世。因此可别停止你善业的培育！
You will bring about a peaceful environment as you strive to meditate and tame the obsessive kilesas that arise in the heart. You will go through the stages of insight and eventually realize the ultimate goal. All of these meritorious deeds of dana, of giving; of sīla, morality; and of bhāvanā, mental development or meditation - they will follow you after death, just as your shadow follows you wherever you go. Do not cease to cultivate the wholesome!
我们都是贪欲的奴隶，它虽低劣，却又是真的！欲望是永不满足，我们一获得某样东西，就发觉它并不如想像中的那么理想，于是又去试其它东西。这就是人的本性！好比试图用捕虫网舀水，众生是无法从欲望的命令和物质的追求中获得满足。欲望永远无法满足欲望，如果我们真正了解这道理，便不会以这种不利于自己的方式来寻求满足。这便是为什么佛陀说，知足是最大财富的原因。
All of us are slaves of craving. It is ignoble, but it is true. Desire is insatiable. As soon as we get something, we find it is not as satisfying as we thought it would be, and we try something else. It is the nature of life, like trying to scoop up water in a butterfly net. Beings cannot become contented by following the dictates of desire, chasing after objects. Desire can never satisfy desire. If we understand this truth correctly, we will not seek satisfaction in this self-defeating way. This is why the Buddha said that contentment is the greatest wealth.
有个故事是这样的，有位编织篮子的人，他很单纯，喜欢编织篮子，吹吹口哨、哼哼歌，一天就在工作中快乐度过了，晚上便回到小屋就寝，一觉到天明。有一天，一位富翁经过，看见这贫穷的编织工人，生起了一股悲心，就给他一千元。他说：「拿去吧！好好地享受一番吧！」
There is a story of a man who worked as a basket weaver. He was a simple man who enjoyed weaving his baskets. He whistled and sang and passed the day happily as he worked. At night he retired to his little hut and slept well. One day a wealthy man passed by and saw this poor wretched basket weaver. He was filled with compassion and gave him a thousand dollars. "Take this,” he said, “and go enjoy yourself.”
编织工人非常感激地把钱收下，一辈子从未看过一千元的他，把钱带回到那破烂不堪的小屋。他不知要把钱存放在哪里，小屋太不安全了，又担心会有强盗，甚至担心老鼠会啃食它。就这样，他一整夜无法入眠。
The basket weaver took the money with much appreciation. He had never seen a thousand dollars in his life. He took it back to his ramshackle hut and was wondering where he could keep it. But his hut was not very secure. He could not sleep all night because he was worrying about robbers, or even rats nibbling at his cash.
第二天，他带着一千元去工作，但不哼歌或吹口哨，因为他又非常担忧这笔钱了。那晚，他再度失眠，隔天一早，他便把这一千元还给富翁，他说：「把快乐还给我吧！」
The next day he took his thousand dollars to work, but he did not sing or whistle because he was worrying so much about his money again. Once more, that night he did not sleep, and in the morning he returned the thousand dollars to the wealthy man, saying, "Give me back my happiness."
你也许会以为佛教不鼓励追求知识或证书，或辛苦工作赚钱，让你可以养活自己、扶持家人与朋友，并为值得的理由或团体而奉献。不！你应尽力善用生命与你的聪明才智，合法并诚实地获取这一切。重点是要对你所拥有的感到满足，而不要变成贪欲的奴隶！这才是佛陀的教诫。思惟众生的弱点，可以让你在老病到无法修行，而只好离开这无用的尸体之前，从自己的身体与生命中获得最多。
You may think that Buddhism discourages you from seeking knowledge or credentials, or from working hard to earn money so you can support yourself and family and friends and contribute to worthy causes and institutions. No. By all means, make use of your life and your intelligence, and obtain all these things legally and honestly. The point is to be contented with what you have. Do not become a slave of craving：that is the message. Reflect on the weaknesses of beings so that you can get the most from your body and life before you are too sick and old to practice and can only depart from this useless corpse.
如果你不惜生命，奋力修习，将能开展勇猛精进，而使你完成修行的较高阶段。如此无畏的态度，不仅存在于第七个培养五根的因素里，也包含在第八个因素中。这第八个特质，就是以耐心和坚忍面对痛苦，特别是色身疼痛。
If you practice with heroic effort entertaining no considerate attachment to body or life, you can develop the Liberating energy which will carry you through the higher stages of practice. Such a courageous attitude contains within itself not only the seventh, but also the eighth means of developing the controlling faculties. This eighth quality is patience and perseverance in dealing with pain, especially painful sensations in the body.
所有行者都熟悉一柱香禅坐，所生起的不悦感受。心会对这些感受生起痛苦的反应。除此之外，照理说禅修是把心控制好，可是心却抗拒。
All yogis are familiar with the unpleasant sensations that can come up during the course of a single sitting, the suffering of the mind in reaction to these sensations, and on top of that, the mind's resistance to being controlled as it must be in the practice.
一小时的禅坐有很多功课要做。首先，你试着尽可能将心保持在主要的目标上，对习惯四处奔驰的心来说，这种限制与控制是个很大的虐待。维持注意力的过程变成一种压力，这种心的压力和抗拒被控制的心态，是一种痛苦。
An hour's sitting requires a lot of work. First, you try to keep your mind on the primary object as much as possible. This restraint and control can be very threatening to the mind, accustomed as it is to running wild. The process of maintaining attention becomes a strain.
当心充满着抗拒，身体通常也跟着反应，紧张生起，在短时间内你会被疼痛困扰。把这疼痛加在先前的抗拒上，你手上就有相当的苦差事得做了！你的心受限制、身体紧绷，你失去耐心直观身体的疼痛，现在你的心处于完全疯狂状态，也许充满着厌恶与愤怒。你现在的苦共三重：心最初的抗拒、身体实际的疼痛，以及因色身的苦而导致的内心痛苦。
This strain of the mind, resisting control is one form of suffering. When the mind fills with resistance, often the body reacts also. Tension arises. In a short time you are besieged by painful sensations. What with the initial resistance and this pain on top of it, you've got quite a task on your hands. Your mind is constricted, your body is tight, you lose the patience to look directly at the physical pain. Now your mind goes completely bonkers. It may fill with aversion and rage. Your suffering is now threefold: the mind's initial resistance; the actual physical pain；and the mental suffering that results from physical suffering.
这时是运用增长五根的第八因素的好时机，试着以耐心与坚忍直接观照痛。如果你还未准备好以耐心来面对痛，便会被贪、嗔等烦恼障开启了一扇门——「哦！我讨厌这疼痛！要是我能回到五分钟前美好舒适的状态就好了。」在贪、嗔现起，又失去耐心时，心也会变得愚痴迷惑。没有任何目标是清楚的，你无法看到疼痛的真正本质。
This would be a good time to apply the eighth cause for strengthening the controlling faculties, patience and perseverance, and try to look at the pain directly. If you are not prepared to confront pain in a patient way, you only leave open the door to the kilesas, like greed and anger. "Oh, I hate this pain. If only I could get back the wonderful comfort I had five minutes ago." In the presence of anger and greed, and in the absence of patience, the mind becomes confused and deluded as well. No object is clear, and you are unable to see the true nature of pain.
此时，你会认为疼痛就如刺一般，是修习的障碍。你也许会决定变换姿势，以便能更加专注。如果这种活动成为习惯，你将失去深入禅修的机会。持续维持身体的静止不动，是心平静与轻安的基础。
At such a time you will believe that pain is a thorn, a hindrance in your practice. You may decide to shift position in order to "concentrate better," If such movement becomes a habit, you will lose the chance to deepen your meditation practice. Calmness and tranquility of mind have their foundation in stillness of body.
不停地活动身体，确实是隐藏疼痛本质的好方法。疼痛可能就在你的眼前，它是你经验中最明显的目标，可是如果你移动身体，故意地去忽视它，那么就会失去了一个了解疼痛真相的好机会。
Constant movement is actually a good way to conceal the true nature of pain. Pain may be right under your nose, the most predominant element of your experience, but you move your body so as not to look at it. You lose a wonderful opportunity to understand what pain really is.
事实上，自从我们出世在这地球，就已经一直的与疼痛为伴，既然它与我们的一生是如此接近，我们又何必要逃离它呢？如果疼痛生起，将它视为是一个珍贵的机会，真正地以深入且新的方法，去了解我们熟悉的东西。
In fact we have been living with pain ever since we were born on this planet. It has been close to us all our lives. Why do we run from it? If pain arises, look on it as a precious opportunity really to understand something familiar in a new and deeper way.
偶尔当你不在禅修时，可练习以耐心对待苦受，特别是当你专注于某件你所感兴趣的事上。假设你是个热爱下棋的人，你坐在椅子上，非常专心地看着棋盘，对手刚下了一步好棋，将你一军。你或许已在椅子上坐了两小时，但你却丝毫不觉察那受局限的姿势，因为你试图找出脱困的策略。你的心完全投入思考，即使真的感到疼痛，你也会很好的忽略它，直到你实现目标。
At times when you are not meditating, you can exercise patience toward painful sensations, especially if you are concentrating on something you are interested in. Say you are a person who really loves the game of chess. You sit in your chair and look very intently at the chessboard, where your opponent has just made a fantastic move, putting you in check. You may have been sitting on that chair for two hours, yet you will not feel your cramped position as you try to work out the strategy to escape from your predicament. Your mind is totally lost in thought. If you do feel the pain, you may very well ignore it until you have achieved your goal.
实际上，在禅修时练习耐心更为重要，它比下棋还能开展更高层的智慧，使我们脱离根本的困境。
It is even more important to exercise patience in the practice of meditation, which develops a much higher level of wisdom than does chess, and which gets us out of a more fundamental kind of predicament.
对付疼痛的策略
Strategies for Dealing with Pain
洞察现象真实本质的程度，取决于我们所开展的定力程度。心愈是定，愈能更深入地洞察并了解实相，这在观照疼痛目标时最为真实。若定力微弱，就无法真正地感觉到一直出现在身上的不适，而在定力开始加深时，即使最轻微的不适都变得特别清楚。它就像被放大与夸张地呈现出来。
The degree of penetration into the true nature of phenomena depends very much on the level of concentration we can develop. The more one-pointed the mind, the more deeply it can penetrate and understand reality. This is particularly true when one is being aware of painful sensations. If concentration is weak, we will not really feel the discomfort which is always present in our bodies. When concentration begins to deepen, even the slightest discomfort becomes so clear that it appears to be magnified and exaggerated.
多数人都像近视一般，没有定力的眼镜，这世界显得朦胧、模糊且难以辨认。但是当我们戴上眼镜，一切都会清楚和明亮。这不是因为目标改变了，而是视力变得敏锐。
Most human beings are myopic in this sense Without the eyeglasses of concentration, the world appears hazy, blurry and indistinct. But when we put them on, all is bright and clear. It is not the objects that have changed; it is the acuity of our sight.
当你用肉眼注视一滴水，看不到什么；但若把样本放到显微镜下，就会开始看到其中发生很多现象，许多东西在舞动、移动，极好看的！同样的，在禅修中若你能戴上定力的眼镜，你会感到惊讶，在表面上看来停滞又无趣的疼痛点上，竟发生了那么多的变化。
When you look with the naked eye at a drop of water, you do not see much. If you put a sample under the microscope, however, you begin to see many things happening there. Many things are dancing and moving, fascinating to watch. If in meditation you are able to put on your glasses of concentration, you will be surprised at the variety of changes taking place in what would appear to be a stagnant and uninteresting spot of pain.
定力愈深，对疼痛的了解也愈深入。你将会被那越来越显着的疼痛连续变化现象所吸引。觉知它是从一种感觉到另一种感觉的变化，其增强、减弱、波动或舞动现象。定力与正念将会加强并变得敏锐，就在这场表演变得精彩绝伦之际，有时会突然意外地结束，好像戛然落幕一般，疼痛就这样奇迹般地消失了。
The deeper the concentration, the deeper your understanding of pain. You will be more and more enthralled the more clearly you can see that these painful sensations are in a constant state of flux, from one sensation to another, changing, diminishing, growing stronger, fluctuating and dancing. Concentration and mindfulness will deepen and sharpen. At times when the show becomes utterly fascinating, there is a sudden and unexpected end to it, as though the curtain is dropped and the pain just disappears miraculously.
那些不能鼓起足够勇气或精进力来注视疼痛的人，将永远无法了解深藏于其中的潜力。我们必须培养心的勇气，利用勇猛的精进力考察疼痛。让我们学习不逃避痛苦，而宁愿直入其中。
One who is unable to arouse enough courage or energy to look at pain will never understand the potential that lies in it. We have to develop courage of mind, heroic effort, to look at pain. Let's learn not to run from pain, but rather to go right in.
当疼痛生起，第一个策略是将注意力直接朝向它的中心，尝试进入疼痛的核心。观痛就只是痛，持续不断地观照，尝试努力地沈入疼痛的更深层面，以便不受它影响。
When pain arises, the first strategy is to send your attention straight toward it, right to the center of it. You try to penetrate its core. Seeing pain as pain, note it persistently, trying to get under its surface so that you do not react.
或许你有非常努力地观痛，但仍渐渐感疲惫，疼痛使你耗尽心力。若是你无法维持相当程度的精进、正念与定力，这时便是你潇洒地离开的时候。
Perhaps you try very hard, but you still become fatigued. Pain can exhaust the mind. If you cannot maintain a reasonable level of energy, mindfulness and concentration, it is time to gracefully withdraw.
第二个处理疼痛的策略是与它一起游戏。首先沈入疼痛，然后稍微放松，将注意力保持在疼痛，减轻正念与定力的强度，这样做能让心休息一下。然后再一次尽力接近疼痛，如果不成功，就再撤离一次。如此进进出出、来来回回二至三次。
The second strategy for dealing with pain is to play with it. You go into it and then you relax a bit. You keep your attention on the pain, but you loosen the intensity of mindfulness and concentration. This gives your mind a rest. Then you go in again as closely as you can; and if you are not successful you retreat again. You go in and out, back and forth, two or three times.
如果疼痛还是那么的强烈，尽管是有这些策略，你的心发觉已变得紧绷和压缩，这时正是你优雅投降的时刻了！但这并不表示是马上转换身体的姿势，而是指转换你正念的方位。完全忽略疼痛，并将心放在腹部的起伏，或你所使用的任何主要目标。试着一心专注其上，那么你就能将疼痛阻隔于觉知之外。
If the pain is still strong and you find your mind becoming tight and constricted despite these tactics, it is time for a graceful surrender. This does not mean shifting your physical position just yet it means shifting the position of your mindfulness. Completely ignore the pain and put your mind on the rising and falling or whatever primary object you are using. Try to concentrate so strongly on this that the pain is blocked out of your awareness.
治疗身心
Healing Body and Mind
我们必须试着克服任何胆怯的心，只要你有勇士般的心力，便可藉由了解疼痛的本质而克服它。在禅修中，身体会产生许多种难以忍受的感觉，几乎所有的行者都清楚发现：不舒服经常存在于色身之中，肯定的它是因为定力而被放大了。
We must try to overcome any timidity of mind. Only if you have the strength of mind of a hero will you be able to overcome pain by understanding it for what it really is. In meditation many kinds of unbearable physical sensations can arise. Nearly all yogis see clearly the discomfort that has always existed in their bodies, but magnified by concentration.
在密集修习期间，疼痛经常来自旧伤、幼时的不幸事故，或过去的慢性病浮上表面，而目前或最近的疾病可能会突然加重，如果上述两者发生在你身上，可说是幸运女神降临了。你有机会通过自己的勇猛精进，来克服疾病或慢性病痛，而无须服用任何药物。许多行者只是通过禅修，便完全克服并超越他们的健康问题。
During intensive practice pain also frequently resurfaces from old wounds, childhood mishaps, or chronic illnesses of the past. A current or recent illness can suddenly get worse. If these last two happen to you, you can say that Lady Luck is on your side. You have the chance to overcome an illness or chronic pain through your own heroic effort, without taking a drop of medicine. Many yogis have totally overcome and transcended their health problems through meditation practice alone.
大约十五年前，有一位多年被胃疾问题所困扰的男人，当他去检查时，医生说他有个肿瘤，必须开刀。但他害怕手术会失败而导致死亡。
About fifteen years ago there was a man who'd been suffering from gastric troubles for many years. When he went to his checkup, the doctor said he had a tumor and needed surgery. The man was afraid that the operation would be unsuccessful and he might die.
因此他决定小心行事，免得真的死了。他告诉自己：「我最好去禅修。」就这样，他在我的指导下修习。他很快就开始感到许多疼痛，起初并不严重，但随着他的进步，修习到与苦有关联的内观阶段时，他开始有如酷刑般难以忍受的剧痛。他告诉我这些情况，我说：「你当然可以随时回家看医生，然而，你为何不多待几天呢？」
So he decided to play it safe in case he did die. “I had better go meditate," he said to himself. He came to practice under my guidance. Soon he began to feel a lot of pain. At first it was not bad, but as he made progress in practice and reached the level of insight connected with pain, he had a severe, unbearable, torturous attack. He told me about it and I said. "Of course you are free to go home to see your doctor. However, why don't you stay a few more days?"
他考虑后，觉得自己还是没把握能从手术中生还，所以决定留下继续禅修。他每两个小时吃一茶匙的药，偶尔疼痛处于优势，偶尔他战胜疼痛。这是场双方皆有败绩的长期抗战，但他有极大的勇气。
He thought about it and decided there still was no guarantee he would survive the operation. So he decided to stay and meditate. He took a teaspoon of medicine every two hours. At times the pain gut the better of him; at times he overcame the pain. It was a long battle, with losses on both sides. But this man had enormous courage.
在一次坐禅中，他的疼痛是如此的剧烈，使得他整个身体不停颤抖，衣服被汗水浸湿。胃里的肿瘤愈来愈严重，压迫感也愈加强烈。就在他留心观照腹部时，腹部的概念顿时消失，只剩下他的心识与一个疼痛的目标，它是非常的痛，但又很有趣。他持续观察，发现——就只有观照的心与益发难受的痛。
During one sitting the pain was so excruciating that his whole body shook and his clothes were soaked in sweat. The tumor in his stomach was getting harder and harder, more and more constricted. Suddenly his idea of his stomach disappeared as he was looking at it. Now there was just his consciousness and a painful object. It was very painful but it was very interesting. He kept on watching and there was just the noting mind and the pain, which got more and more excruciating.
然后，有个如炸弹般的大爆炸发生了！他说甚至可听到巨大的声响，之后一切都结束了。他从一身是汗的禅坐中起来，触摸腹部，那曾因肿瘤而突出的部位，已无任何东西，他痊愈了！此外，他完成了禅修，体悟了涅盘。
Then there was a big explosion like a bomb. The yogi said he could even hear a loud sound. After that it was all over. He got up from his sitting drenched in sweat. He touched his belly, but in the place where his tumor once protruded, there was nothing. He was completely cured. Moreover, he had completed his meditation practice, having had an insight into nibbāna.
他离开中心后不久，我请他告诉我医生对这胃部问题的看法，医生对肿瘤消失感到震惊。现在，他可以忽略遵循了二十年的严格饮食控制，他至今仍健康地活着，甚至连那医生也都成为毗婆舍那的行者！
Soon afterwards this man left the center and I asked him to let me know what the doctor said about the gastric problem. The doctor was shocked to see that the tumor was gone. The man could forget the strict diet he had followed for twenty years, and to this day he is alive and in good health. Even the doctor became a vipassanā yogi!
我遇过无数从慢性头痛、心脏病、结核病，甚至癌症与早年受过重大伤害，而痊愈的人。他们其中还有些被医生宣告是不治的，这些人都必须经历巨大的疼痛，然而他们成功地锻炼坚忍不拔与勇猛精进力，最后治愈了自己。更重要的是，很多人以坚决的勇气观察疼痛，从而对真理的实相，达致更加深入的了解，而后契入智慧。
I have come across innumerable people who have recovered from chronic headaches, heart trouble, tuberculosis, even cancer and severe injuries sustained at an early age. Some of them had been declared incurable by doctors. All of these people had to go through tremendous pain. But they exercised enormous perseverance and courageous effort, and they healed themselves. More important, many also came to understand far more deeply the truth about reality by observing pain with tenacious courage and then breaking through to insight.
行者是不应该对疼痛感到气馁的，你应该保持信心和毅力，坚忍不拔地禅修，一直到你了解自己。
You should not be discouraged by painful sensations. Rather, have faith and patience. Persevere until you understand your own true nature.
第九，也是增长五根的最后一个因素，是保持正直的心，不走岔路更不半途而废，无间断禅修一直到路的尽头。
The ninth and last factor leading to the development of the controlling faculties is the quality of mind that keeps you walking straight to the end of the path without becoming sidetracked, without giving up your task.
你禅修的目标是什么呢？为什么修习戒、定、慧三学？赏识那禅修的目标是重要的。不过更重要的是要对自己诚实，这样才能知道自己对该目标所做出的奉献程度。
What is your objective in practicing meditation? Why do you undergo the threefold training of sīla, samādhi and paññā? It is important to appreciate the goal of meditation practice, it is even more important to be honest with yourself, so that you can know the extent of your commitment to that goal.
善行与我们最大的潜能
Good Deeds and Our Highest Potential
让我们来省思戒行。我们得到此不寻常的机会，出世在地球做人，理解到自己这非凡的人生，是过去善行的果报，因此我们应当尽力活出人性最高的潜能。
Let us reflect on sīla. Having this amazing opportunity to be born on this planet as human beings, understanding that our wondrous existence in this world comes about as a result of good deeds, we should endeavor to live up to the highest potential of humanity.
「人性」一词的正面涵意是大慈悲。发愿成就这大慈悲，不就适合于这世间的每一个人吗？要是能培养一颗充满慈悲的心，那么就会容易地以和谐且良善的方式生活。
The positive connotations of the word “humanity” are great loving-kindness and compassion. Would it not be proper for every human being on this planet to aspire to perfect these qualities? If one is able to cultivate a mind filled with compassion and loving-kindness, it is easy to live in a harmonious and wholesome way.
戒行奠基于关心一切众生的感受，包括他人与自己。有道德的行为，不仅对他人无危害，亦可避免自己来世的痛苦。我们都应避免造下那些会导致不利果报的行为，努力走在善行的路上，让我们永远不堕恶趣。
Morality is based on consideration for the feelings of all beings, others as well as oneself. One behaves in a moral way not only to be harmless toward others, but also to prevent one's own future sorrow. We all should avoid actions that will lead to unfavorable consequences, and walk the path of wholesome actions, which can free us forever from states of misery.
业是我们唯一真实的财产。假如你能将这看法，当作你的行为、修行与整个生命的基础，那将大有助益。不论善或恶，业在此世与下一世，都如影随形地跟着我们。倘若我们履行善巧与和谐的行为，就在今生便能受人尊重，智者会赞叹喜欢我们，而我们也能期待来世的良好因缘，直到证得最终的涅盘。
Kamma is our only true property. It will be very helpful if you can take this view as a basic foundation for your behavior, for your practice, for your life as a whole. Whether good or bad, kamma follows us everywhere, in this life and the next. If we perform skillful harmonious actions, we will be held in high esteem in this very life. Wise persons will praise us and hold us in affection, and we will also be able to look forward to good circumstances in our future lives, until we attain final nibbāna.
做出恶或不善的行为，就连这一生都会蒙受羞辱，声名狼藉，智者会谴责、看轻我们，未来也无法逃离行为的恶果报。
Committing bad or unskillful actions brings about dishonor and notoriety even in this life. Wise people will blame us and look down upon us. Nor in the future will we be able to escape the consequences of our deeds.
强大的业力潜能，带来善与恶的果报。它可比拟为食物。有些食物是适当于健康的，有的则对身体有害。要是我们懂得什么食物是有营养的，并能适时、适量食用它们，那么我们便能享有长寿与健康的人生。另一方面，如果我们对不健康且有害的食物感兴趣，就必须受其后果之苦。我们可能会生病，并痛苦万分，甚至会死亡。
In its powerful potential to bring good and bad results, kamma can be compared to food. Some foods are suitable and healthy, while others are poisonous to the body. If we understand which foods are nutritious, eating them at the proper time and in proper amounts, we can enjoy a long and healthy life. If, on the other hand, we are tempted by foods which are unhealthy and poisonous, we must suffer the consequences. We may fall sick and suffer a great deal. We may even die.
美好的行为
Beautiful Acts
布施或慷慨的行为，可以减少贪心。基本的五戒，有助于控制情绪，与非常粗劣的贪欲和嗔恨的烦恼障。戒律的修行，使心受到某个程度的控制，好让烦恼障不从身体甚至谈话中显现。
Practicing dāna or generosity can lessen the greed that arises in the heart. The five basic sīla precepts help control the emotions and very gross defilements of greed and hatred. Observing the precepts, the mind is controlled to the extent that it does not manifest through the body and perhaps not even through speech.
若能持戒清净，你或许看来像是很圣洁的人，但内心也许仍受到突发的不耐烦、嗔恨、贪婪与狡诈所折磨。因此，下一步就是禅修（bhāvanā）。bhāvanā在巴利语，意指培养非凡的善心。禅修的第一部分是防止不善心生起，而第二部分则是在没有恶心的情况下，发展智慧。
If you can be perfect in precepts, you may appear to be a very holy person, but inside you may still be tortured by eruptions of impatience, hatred, covetousness and scheming. Therefore, the next step is bhāvanā, which means in Pāli "the cultivation of exceptionally wholesome mental states.” The first part of bhāvanā is to prevent unwholesome states from arising. The second part is the development of wisdom in the absence of these states.
微妙的禅定与其缺陷
Blissful Concentration and its Flaws
定力的禅修（Samatha bhāvanā）或止禅，有使心平静和安定的能力，它使心远离烦恼障。止禅抑制烦恼障，让它们无法攻击心。止禅并非佛教所独有，你可以在许多其它的宗教体系中找到，特别是印度的教派。
Samatha bhāvanā, or concentration meditation, has the power to make the mind calm and tranquil and to pull it far away from the kilesas. It suppresses the kilesas, making it impossible for them to attack. Samatha bhāvanā is not unique to Buddhism. It can be found in many other religious systems, particularly in Hindu practices.
值得赞扬的是，当止禅修习者沉入禅修目标的时候，他证得心的清净，成就微妙的喜、乐与安定。有时通过这种境界，就连神通都可被培养。
It is a commendable undertaking in which the practitioner achieves purity of mind during the time he or she is absorbed in the object of meditation. Profound bliss, happiness and tranquility are achieved. At times even psychic powers can be cultivated through these states.
然而，止禅的成就并不意味着，行者获得了对名色法内观实相的了解。烦恼障只是被抑制，而尚未根除，心仍无法洞察实相。因此，修习者并未从轮回的罗网中解脱，甚至可能在未来世堕入恶趣。行者可以从禅定中收获良多，但仍是个失败者。
However, success in samatha bhāvanā does not at all mean that one gains an insight into the true nature of reality in terms of mind and matter. The kilesas have been suppressed but not uprooted; the mind has not yet penetrated the true nature of reality. Thus, practitioners are not freed from the net of samsāra, and may even fall into states of misery in the future. One can attain a great deal through concentration and yet still be a loser.
佛陀觉悟后，花了四十九天的时间在菩提伽耶享受解脱的寂乐。然后开始思考，如何向其他人宣说这深奥微妙的真理。他环顾四周，看到这世界大多布满一层厚厚的烦恼障尘土，人们于黑暗深处打滚，他开始明白自己的任务是多么重大。
After the Buddha's supreme enlightenment, he spent forty-nine days in Bodh Gaya enjoying the bliss of his liberation. Then he started to think about how he could communicate this profound and subtle truth to other beings. He looked around and saw that most of the world was covered by a thick layer of dust, of kilesas. People were wallowing in deepest darkness. The immensity of his task dawned on him.
当时想起有两位心清净无染，很能接受他教义的人。事实上，他们是佛陀以前的两位老师——阿罗逻迦蓝（Alāra the Kalāma）与优陀罗罗摩子（Udaka the Rāmaputta）。由于禅定的成就，他们各自有许多追随者，佛陀依次精通了他们的每一个教义，但后来了解到自己所要寻求的东西，超出他们所教导的范围。
Then it occurred to him that there were two people who would be quite receptive to his teachings, whose minds were quite pure and clear of the kilesas. In fact, they were two of his former teachers, the hermits Alāra the Kalāma and Uddaka the Rāmaputta. Each of them had a large number of followers due to their attainments in concentration. The Buddha had mastered each of their teachings in turn, but had realized that he was seeking something beyond what they taught.
这两位仙人的心都非常纯净，阿罗逻迦蓝精通了第七禅定，而优陀罗罗摩子则达到第八禅定或最高的禅定。他们远离烦恼障，即使在没有禅修时也是如此。佛陀很肯定只要他们能听到几句重要的佛法，他们必然会完全觉悟。
Yet both of these hermits' minds were very pure. Alāra the Kalāma had mastered the seventh level of concentration, and Uddaka the Rāmaputta the eighth, or highest, level of absorption. The kilesas were kept far from them, even during the times when they were not actually practicing their absorptions. The Buddha felt certain they would become completely enlightened if only he would speak a few significant words of Dhamma to them.
正当佛陀如是思惟时，一位天人（deva）告诉他，两位隐士都已去世了。阿罗逻迦蓝七天前逝世，而优陀罗罗摩子则在前一夜去世。他们两位都已投生至无色界梵天，一个只有心没有色法的地方。所以他们没有耳朵可听，也没有眼睛可看，他们无法看到佛陀或听闻佛法。既然得遇导师与聆听佛法，是唯一能找到正确修行方法的两个途径，而这两位隐士竟错失了完全觉悟的机会。佛陀感慨地说：「他们的损失可大了！」
Even as the Buddha considered in this way, an invisible deva, a being from a celestial realm, announced to him that both of the hermits had died, Alāra the Kalāma had passed away seven days before, and Uddaka the Rāmaputta only the previous night. Both had been reborn in the formless world of the brahmas, where mind exists but matter does not. Therefore the hermits no longer had ears for hearing nor eyes for seeing, It was impossible for them to see the Buddha or to listen to the Dhamma; and, since meeting with a teacher and listening to the Dhamma are the only two ways to discover the right way of practice, the two hermits had missed their chance to become fully enlightened. The Buddha was moved. “They have suffered a great loss,” he said.
直观的智慧使人解脱
Liberating Intuition
止禅到底缺少了什么？它只是无法使人了解真理，因此我们需要毗婆舍那禅。只有通过内观洞悉名法与色法的实相，才能使人解脱自我、「人」或「我」等观念。缺乏这种纯粹正念观照的智慧，便不能从这些观念中解脱出来。
What exactly is missing from concentration meditation? It simply cannot bring the understanding of truth. For this we need vipassanā meditation. Only intuitive insight into the true nature of mind and matter can free one from the concept of ego, of a person, of self or "I." Without this insight, which comes about through the process of bare awareness, one cannot be free from these concepts.
因与果结构的直观智慧，使人领会到名法与色法循环的连结关系，从而解脱「一切事物的生起是没有因」的愚痴。一旦体验到现象的快速生灭，行者就能从「事物都是永恒、坚实与相续的」愚痴中解脱。
Only an intuitive understanding of the mechanism of cause and effect - that is, seeing the link of recurrence of mind and matter - can free one from the delusion that things happen without a cause. Only by seeing the rapid arising and disappearance of phenomena can one be released from the delusion that things are permanent, solid and continuous.
只有以同样直观方式体验苦，才能深刻明白轮回的存在不值得执取。当了解名色只是依据其自然法则流动，没有一个「人」或任何东西躲在它们背后，才能将「无我」铭记于心。
Only by experiencing suffering in the same intuitive way can one deeply learn that samsāric existence is not worth clinging to. Only the knowledge that mind and matter just flow by according to their own natural laws with no one, and nothings, behind them, can impress upon one's mind that there is no atta, or self essence.
除非，你已经历不同程度的内观智慧，及最后体证涅盘，否则你是不会明白什么是真正的快乐。以涅盘作为禅修的终极目标，你应该试着保持高程度的精进，不停滞或放弃，在达到最终目标之前绝不退却。
Unless you go through the various levels of insight and eventually realize nibbāna, you will not understand true happiness. With nibbāna as the ultimate goal of your practice, you should try to maintain a high level of energy, not stopping or surrendering, never retreating until you reach your final destination.
首先，你要创造、建立自己禅修所需的精进力，将心集中在禅修的主要目标，然后一再地回到这目标上。你设定一个行禅与坐禅的时间表，这称为「出离精进」。它将你安放在修行道上，并使得你向前迈进。
First you will make the effort needed to establish your meditation practice. You focus your mind on the primary object of meditation, and you return to this object again and again. You set up a routine of sitting and walking practice. This is called "Launching Energy;" it puts you on the path and gets you moving forward.
即使障碍生起，你也会坚持自己的禅修，有恒心地克服所有障碍。如果感到厌烦、懒散，你唤起热切的精进。如果感到疼痛，你克服胆怯、选择退避和不愿面对疼痛的心，这称为「出离精进」，让你从懒惰中出离的精进力。你不会退却，你知道自己会继续前进，直到抵达目标。
Even if obstacles arise, you will stick with your practice, overcoming all obstacles with perseverance. If you are bored and lethargic, you summon up ardent energy. If you feel pain, you overcome the timid mind that prefers to withdraw and is unwilling to face what is happening. This is called “Liberating Energy," the energy necessary to liberate you from indolence. You will not retreat. You know you will just keep walking until you reach your goal.
当你克服了禅修这中间阶段的困难，并发现自己处于平稳且微细的情境后，你也不会因此而满足。你将进入下一个排档，努力使心愈来愈振奋，这是既不减弱亦不停滞，而只会持续前进的精进力，称之为「前进精进」，它引领你到所期待的目标。
After that, when you have overcome the intermediate difficulties and perhaps have found yourself in a smooth and subtle space, you will not become complacent. You will go into the next gear, putting in the effort to lift your mind higher and higher. This is an effort which neither decreases nor stagnates, but is in constant progress. This is called "Progressive Effort,” and it leads to the goal you desire.
因此，有助于增长五根的第九因素，实际上意指：实施这一系列层次的精进力，以便让自己不停息、不犹豫，不放弃、也不退却，直到抵达最终的目标与目的地。
Therefore, the ninth factor conducive to sharpening the controlling faculties actually means applying successive levels of energy so that you neither stop nor hesitate, surrender nor retreat, until you reach your final goal and destination.
如此地进行禅修，利用上述这九种心的特质，那么五根：信心、精进、正念、定力与智慧，必能增长茁壮，最终它们会接管你的心，引导你至解脱。
As you go along in this way, making use of all of the nine qualities of mind described above, the five controlling faculties of faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration and wisdom will sharpen and deepen. Eventually they will take over your mind and lead you on to freedom.
我希望你们能细查自己的禅修，如果发现缺少某些元素，就请好好利用上述讯息，好让自己受惠。
I hope you can examine your own practice. If you see that it is lacking in some element, make use of the above information to your own benefit.
请勇往直前，直到抵达你所向往的目标。
Please walk straight on until you reach your desired goal.
禅修可以看作是善心与不善心之间的战争。不善心，是属于烦恼障的力量，也称「十魔军」（The Ten Armies of Māra），在巴利语中Māra（魔罗）意指「杀手」，是扼杀美德与人生之力量化身。它的军队已作好准备工作，要攻击所有的行者；它们甚至尝试在佛陀成道之夜，要战胜佛陀。
Meditation can be seen as a war between wholesome and unwholesome mental states. On the unwholesome side are the forces of the kilesas, also known as "The Ten Armies of Māra." In Pāli, Māra means killer. He is the personification of the force that kills virtue and also kills existence. His armies are poised to attack all yogis; they even tried to overcome the Buddha on the night of his enlightenment.
以下引文记载于《经集》（Sutta Nipāta），佛陀对魔罗说：
欲乐第一军，
不满第二军，
饥渴第三军，
贪欲第四军，
昏眠第五军，
怖畏第六军，
怀疑第七军，
我慢不知感恩（第八军），
利益、崇敬、荣誉及不当的声誉（第九军），
赞扬自己，贬低他人（是第十军的受害者）。
那是魔罗（Namuci）你的十军，那邪恶的攻击力量，懦夫不能战胜它，但若战胜它，就能得到快乐。
Here are the lines the Buddha addressed to Māra, as recorded in the Sutta Nipāta:
Sensual pleasures are your first army,
Discontent your second is called.
Your third is hunger and thirst,
The fourth is called craving.
Sloth and torpor are your fifth,
The sixth is called fear,
Your seventh is doubt,
Conceit and ingratitude are your eighth.
Gain, renown, honor and whatever fame is falsely received (are the ninth),
And whoever both extols himself and disparages others (has fallen victim to the tenth).
That is your army, Namuci [Māra], the striking force of darkness.
One who is not a hero cannot conquer it, but having conquered it, one obtains happiness.
为了克服我们心中的邪恶力量，我们有四念处毗婆舍那禅修的力量，它给予我们正念之剑，以及攻击和防卫的战略。在佛陀的实例，我们知道谁赢得了胜利。现在，哪一边会战胜你呢？
To overcome the forces of darkness in our own minds, we have the wholesome power of satipaṭṭthāna vipassanā meditation, which gives us the sword of mindfulness, as well as strategies for attack and defense. In the Buddha's case, we know who won the victory. Now, which side will win over you?
欲乐是第一魔军。由于过去在欲界或色界的善行，我们投生于这个世界。这里就如其它欲界，众生面对着各种各样吸引人的感官目标。甜美的声音、馥郁的香气、出色的想法，以及其它令人愉快的目标接触我们的所有六根门，与这些目标相遇的自然结果是欲望的产生。可爱的目标与欲望是欲乐的两个根基。
Sense pleasure is the First Army of Māra. Due to previous good actions in sensual or material realms, we find ourselves reborn in this world. Here, as in other sensual spheres, beings are faced with a wide assortment of appealing sense objects. Sweet sounds, rich smell, beautiful ideas, and other delightful objects touch all our six sense doors. As a natural result of encountering these objects, desire arises. Pleasant objects and desire are the two bases of sense pleasure.
我们对家庭、财产、事业与朋友的执着，也构成第一魔军。通常对有情众生而言，这支军队是很难征服的。有些人放下他们的家庭和一切所执取的东西，而成为出家人与它作战。在密集禅修的行者，暂时离开家庭和工作，是为了与执着的力量格斗，致力于解除对六种感官目标的执着。
Our attachments to family, property, business and friends also constitute the First Army. Normally for a sentient being, this army is very difficult to overcome. Some humans fight it by becoming monks and nuns, leaving behind their families and all that they cling to. Yogis on retreat leave behind their family and occupation temporarily, in order to combat the force of attachment which ties us to the six kinds of sense objects.
在你禅修的任何时刻，特别是在密集禅修，你放下许多宜人的事物。尽管在这狭小的范围内，你还是会发现，自己环境中的某些部分比起其他人还要理想。此时，确认到自己正与解脱的敌人「魔罗」面对面打交道，是对禅修有帮助的。
Anytime you practice meditation, especially in a retreat, you leave behind a large number of pleasant things. Even with this narrowing in range, though, you still find that some parts of your environment are more desirable than others. At this time it is useful to recognize that you are dealing with Māra, the enemy of your freedom.
第二支魔军是不满于梵行，特别是指在禅修中的不满。在密集禅修中，你会发现自己的不满与厌烦。原因可能是坐垫的硬度或高度、供给你的食物，以及禅修期间的任何生活状态。有些状况突然出现，结果使得自己无法进入禅修的喜悦中，你可能开始觉得这其实是禅修的误差。
The Second Army of Māra is dissatisfaction with the holy life, with the meditation practice in particular. On a retreat, you may find yourself dissatisfied and bored: with the hardness or the height of your cushion, with the food you are given, with any of the elements of your life during the time of practice. Some issue crops up and, as a result, you cannot quite immerse yourself in the delight of meditation. You may begin to feel that this is actually the fault of the practice.
为了与这「不满」战斗，你必须成为一个虔诚和欢喜学法的人（abhirati）。在找到并实践正确的禅修方法后，你开始克服种种障碍，欢喜、高兴、喜悦与舒适将自然会从你专注的心中生起。这时，你会领悟到法喜远比欲乐殊胜。这就是欢喜学法人的态度。然而，假如你禅修不够彻底与审慎，你将无法发现这种佛法的微细和奥妙滋味，而在修行中所出现的任何困难都会导致嗔恙的生起，魔罗因而获得了胜利。
To combat this discontent, you must become an abhirati, a person who is delighted in and devoted to the Dhamma. Having found and implemented the correct method of practice, you begin to overcome the hindrances. Rapture, joy and comfort will arise naturally from your concentrated mind. At this time you realize that the delight of the Dhamma is far superior to sense pleasures. This is the attitude of an abhirati, However, if you are not thorough and careful in your practice, you will not find this subtle and wonderful taste of the Dhamma, and any difficulty in your practice will cause aversion to arise in you. Then Māra will be victorious.
再者，克服毗婆舍那禅修的困难，就如同战争。行者将依自身的能力采取进攻、防御或游击战的战斗方式。倘若行者是一名强悍的战士，他将会进步；若是虚弱，他或许会暂时撤退，但不是仓促忙乱、蹒跚或无次序的撤退。为了要赢得最后的胜战，行者实行了以退为聚集实力的计划与策略。
The overcoming of difficulty in vipassanā practice is, again, like warfare. The yogi will use an offensive, defensive or a guerrilla style of combat depending on his or her abilities. If he or she is a strong fighter, the yogi will advance. If weak, he or she may withdraw temporarily, but not in a helter-skelter fashion, reeling and running in disorder. Rather, the withdrawal will be strategic, planned and executed with the aim of gathering strength to win the battle at last.
有时对环境或其它禅修资具的不满，不完全是魔罗的错。不满，不完全是由贪心到处攀缘而引起的。然而，普遍的不满，还是会妨碍禅修的进步。为了让禅修能顺利进行，就必须具备某些生活必需品。行者须有适当的膳宿，以及各种不同的服务。圆满了这些需求，他们才能全心全意地进行禅修。
Sometimes discontent with the environmental or other supports of meditation practice is not entirely Māra's fault - not entirely due to the wanderings of a greedy mind. Nonetheless, pervasive discontent may interfere with meditative progress. To allow for meditation, certain necessities of life must be available. Yogis must have proper shelter and meals, as well as sundry other help. With these requirements met they can proceed wholeheartedly to practice meditation.
适当的环境，是九种增长五根因素中的第四种，在前一章已有详尽的讨论。如果你在禅修环境中发现：有某些确实会妨碍禅修的不足时，采取适度的行动来修正它是可以的。当然，你要对自己与他人诚实，并确保自己不是听任于第二魔军。
The need for a suitable environment is the fourth of nine causes for development of the controlling faculties, and was discussed at length in the preceding chapter. If you find a deficiency in your environment that you are certain is hindering your meditation, it is all right to take reasonable steps to correct it. Of course, you should be honest with yourself and others; make sure that you are not merely succumbing to Māra's Second Army.
食物会是问题吗？只有当行者再一次受第三魔军，饥渴的侵袭时，才必要克服贪欲与不满。从前乃至现代，佛教僧人依靠在家信徒所布施的食物。一位比丘正规的行持，是每天到护持他的区域村落里托钵。有时他可能住在一个偏僻的地区，从几户人家获得他所有的资具。因此他的需要不是每一天都能得到充分地照顾。
Is food the problem? Perhaps a yogi has to overcome desire and dissatisfaction, only to be attacked again by Māra's Third Army, hunger and thirst. In the days of old and even now, Buddhist monks and nuns have depended for their food on the generosity of lay people. The normal practice for a monk is to go for an alms round every day in the community or village that supports him. Sometimes a monk may live in a secluded area and take all his support from a small group of families. One day his needs will be well taken care of, another day not.
在家的行者也是如此，在密集禅修时，所提供的食物与家里的并不完全相同，你吃不到自己喜欢的甜点，或你习惯的酸、咸与重口味的食物。由于缺少这些味道，焦虑便产生，使得你不能专注，因而无法见法。
The same goes for lay yogis. At a retreat, the food is not quite like home. You do not get the sweet things you are fond of; or the sour, salty and rich foods you are accustomed to. Agitated by missing such tastes, you cannot concentrate and thus are unable to see the Dhamma.
在世间法也是如此，一个人可以在餐厅花许多钱，然后又不喜欢那些菜肴。事实上，人们很难得到一切真正自己所爱的事物，他们不仅是对食物感到饥渴，就连衣服、娱乐，一般的熟悉活动，或是奇特的刺激性活动，也感到饥渴。这饥渴的概念是与整个人类需求的范围有关连。
In the world also, one can spend a lot of money in a restaurant and then not like the dish. Rarely, in fact, do human beings get everything precisely as they like. They may hunger and thirst not only for food, but also for clothing, entertainment and activities either reassuringly familiar, or exotically exciting. This notion of hunger and thirst relates to the entire range of needs and requirements.
如果你容易知足，采用一种感恩的态度来接受任何你所得到的，那么，第三魔军就不太会困扰你了。我们不可以经常做任何我们想做的事，但却可以努力地把想做的事，维持在有利和适当的范围内。假如你集中精力于更深一层的禅修，你将会体验到法的真正滋味和那无可比拟的满意。此时，第三魔军在你眼中，就像是玩具兵一样。
If you are easily contented, adopting an attitude of being grateful for whatever you receive, Māra's Third Army will not bother you very much. One cannot always do everything one wishes to do, but it is possible to try to remain within what is beneficial and appropriate. If you concentrate your energy on furthering your meditation practice, you will be able to taste the real taste of the Dhamma, which is incomparably satisfying. At such a time, the Third Army of Māra will seem an army of toy soldiers to you.
除此之外，饥渴是很难被修正的。没人会欣然的接受那些不舒服的感觉。当它们攻击时，如果没有正念，心必然会开始计划。你为了要得到想要的东西，而提出想像出来的藉口，说是为了修行啊！为了心理健康！为了帮助消化！然后开始四处寻求你想要的东西，身体也接着参与了满足贪欲的行列。
Otherwise it is hard to adjust to hunger and thirst. They are uncomfortable feelings which no one really welcomes. When they strike, if there is no mindfulness, the mind inevitably begins to scheme. You come up with fantastic justifications for getting what you want - for the sake of your practice! Your mental health! To aid your digestion! Then you begin moving around to get the things you desire. Your body gets involved in satisfying your craving.
贪欲是魔罗的第四支军队。偶尔比丘可能在平常的托钵活动结束时，钵尚未装满，或某些最适合他的食物还未出现钵中，他不返回寺院而决定继续托钵。「这是尚未试过的新路线，在这条路上可能会得到自己所要的佳肴。」像这样的新路线会延伸得很长。
Craving is the Fourth Army of Māra. At times a monk's bowl may not be quite full at the end of his normal alms rounds or some of the things most suitable for his diet have not yet appeared in it；Instead of going home to the monastery, he may decide to continue his alms round. Here is a new route, as yet untried - on it he might get the tidbit he desires. New routes like this can grow quite long.
不论你是不是比丘，可能都会熟悉这个模式，贪爱先出现，然后计划，接着四处活动，以实现它们。这整个过程，可以是非常使人精疲力竭的。
Whether one is a monk or not, one might be familiar with this pattern. First comes craving, then planning, then moving about to materialize these schemes. This whole process can be very exhausting to mind and body.
就这样，第五魔军行进，它正是昏沉与睡眠、睡意。昏沉睡眠所造成的困境值得详述，因为这些困境是出乎意料的重大。巴利语thīna通常译为「昏沉」，实际意指「怯弱的心」：畏怯、退缩、黏稠迟缓的心，无法稳固地捉取禅修的目标。
Thus, the Fifth Army of Māra marches in. It is none other than sloth and torpor, drowsiness. The difficulties caused by sloth and torpor are worth dwelling on, for they are surprisingly great. Torpor is the usual translation of the Pāli word thīna, which actually means a weak mind, a shrunken and withered, viscous and slimy mind, unable to grasp the meditation object firmly.
昏沉让心变得怯弱，它自动引起身体的虚弱。懒散的心无法让你保持坐姿的挺直与稳固，行禅也可说是变得真正的曳步而行。昏沉的存在，意味着热烈（ātāpa）精进力的缺乏。心变得僵硬，失去了活跃的敏捷力。
As thīna makes the mind weak, it automatically brings on weakness of body. The sluggish mind cannot keep your sitting posture erect and firm. Walking meditation becomes a real drag, so to speak. The presence of thīna means that ātāpa, the fiery aspect of energy, is absent. The mind becomes stiff and hard; it loses its active sharpness.
即使行者一开始时有好的精进力，但昏沉仍会覆盖他，因此需要引发额外的精进力，来将它烧毁。昏沉的存在，至少导致所有心的正面力量受到局部阻碍。精进、正念、寻与触等的善心所，会被怯弱所遮蔽，它们的作用也因此变得迟缓。这整个状况称为「昏沉睡眠」（thīna middha），thīna是昏沉心所，而middha（睡眠）是涉及昏沉存在时，心的整个状况。
Even if a yogi has good energy to begin with, sloth can envelop him or her so that an additional burst of energy will be required to burn it away. All the positive forces of mind are at least partially blocked. The wholesome factors of energy and mindfulness, aim and contact, are enveloped in the shroud of weakness; their functions are retarded. This situation as a whole is spoken of as thīna middha, thīna being the mental factor of torpor, and middha referring to the condition of the consciousness as a whole when the factor of torpor is present.
在个人实修经验中，区别昏沉与睡眠的成分，不值一试。一般昏沉心的状态，大家都相当的熟悉。昏沉是个受限制的状态，就如监禁在狭窄的囚房，任何善心所都无法在其中自在地进行它适当的活动。因为是善法的障碍，所以昏沉与睡眠合称为五盖中的一盖。最后，魔罗的第五支军队会使修行完全停顿。眼睑出现抽动的感觉，头骤然向前打盹……我们应如何克服这讨厌的状态？
In one's practical experience, it is not worthwhile to try to distinguish between the two components of thīna and middha. The general state of mind is familiar enough. Like imprisonment in a tiny cell, sloth is a restricted state in which no wholesome factor is free to carry on its proper activity. This obstruction of wholesome factors is why sloth and torpor together are called a hindrance. Eventually Māra's Fifth Army can bring one's practice to a complete standstill. A twitching sensation comes to the eyelids, the head suddenly nods forward... How can we overcome this noxious state?
有一次，佛陀两大弟子之一的摩诃目犍连尊者，在森林中禅修，昏沉与睡眠生起，他的心退缩、失去活力，像块冷冻而变硬的奶油一样无法使用。此时，佛陀探究目犍连尊者的心，看到他的困境而趋前说：「摩诃目犍连！我的孩子，你是不是困倦，想睡？你在打瞌睡吗？」
Once when the Venerable Mahā Moggallāna, one of the Buddha's two chief disciples, was meditating in the forest, thīna middha arose. His mind shrank and withered, as unworkable as a piece of butter that hardens in the cold. At this point the Lord Buddha looked into the Venerable Mahā Moggallāna's mind. Seeing his plight, he approached and said, “My son Mahā Moggallāna, you drowsy, are you sleepy, are you nodding?"
尊者回答：「是的，世尊！我正在打瞌睡。」他率直坦白地回答。佛陀说：「听着，孩子！现在我要教你克服昏沉、睡眠的八种技巧。」
The elder replied, “Yes, Lord, I am nodding." He was frank and candid in his reply. The Buddha said, "Listen, my son, I will now teach you eight techniques of overcoming sloth and torpor."
保持清醒的八种方法
Eight Ways to Stay Awake
第一个方法是改变自己的态度。当昏沉来袭时，人也许会被诱惑而向这样的想法投降：「我好困，在这里茫然地坐着对我毫无益处，或许我躺个一分钟可以恢复精力。」只要你怀有这样的想法，昏沉与睡眠便会受到鼓舞而继续存在。
The first is to change one's attitude. When torpor attacks, one may be tempted to surrender to thoughts like, “I’m so sleepy. It’s not doing me any good just to sit here in a daze. Maybe I’ll lie down for a minute and gather my energy.” As long as you entertain such thoughts, the mental state of sloth and torpor will be encouraged to remain.
而另一方面，如果行者决然地说：「我要坐到昏沉与睡眠消失，就算它再生起，我还是不会让步！」这是佛陀所谓改变自己态度的意思，这样的决心为克服第五魔军作好准备。
If, on the other hand, one states decisively, “I’ll sit through this sloth and torpor, and if it recurs I still won't give in to it,” this is what the Buddha meant by changing one's attitude. Such determination sets the stage for overcoming the Fifth Army of Māra.
另一个改变态度的时机是，当禅修变得相当容易且顺利，达到了你能够掌握跟随腹部起伏的程度，和不须很精进便能观察得好时；很自然的，心就会松懈、休息，很淡然地观照腹部的活动。由于这精进的放松，昏沉睡眠便容易潜入。若真如此，你应该试着加强正念，更仔细地注意腹部的起伏，否则就应增加禅修的目标。
Another occasion to change one’s attitude is when meditation practice becomes quite easy and smooth. There comes a point where you have more or less mastered following the rise and fall of the abdomen, and not much effort is needed to observe it well. It is quite natural to relax, sit back and watch the movement very coolly. Due to this relaxation of effort, sloth and torpor easily creep in. If this happens, you should either try to deepen your mindfulness, looking more carefully into the rise and fall, or else increase the number of objects of meditation.
增加更多禅修目标，有个特别技巧，它比纯粹观照腹部更需精进，因此它有重振活力的效果。在心中使用的标记是：「起、伏、坐、触。」当观照「坐姿」时，将正念转移到整个身体坐着的姿势；观照「接触」时，则将焦点放在一个或多个小区域，约硬币大小的接触点，臀部是适合这么做的地方。
There is a specific technique for adding more objects. It requires greater effort than simply watching the abdomen, and thus it has a revivifying effect. The mental labels to use are, "rising, falling, sitting, touching." When you note "sitting," you shift your awareness to the sensations of the entire body in the sitting posture. Noting "touching," you focus on the touch sensations at one or more small areas, about the size of a quarter. The buttocks are convenient.
在观照「接触」的期间，你必须一再的返回所选定的同一区域，即使你无法经常在那里觉察到感觉。昏沉愈严重，你就应增加更多的接触点，最多到六个左右。触点的观照结束后，将注意力回归到腹部，并重复开始这一系列的观照。这禅修策略的改变，可以是相当的有效，但不是绝对有效的。
During this "touching" note you should always return to the same chosen areas, even if you cannot always find sensations there. The heavier the state of sloth, the more touch points you should include, up to a maximum of six or so. When you have run through the course of touch points, return attention to your abdomen and repeat the series of notes from the beginning. This change of strategy can be quite effective; but it is not infallible.
第二个对治昏沉的方法，是去省思你所记得的或已默记在心，能激励自己的经文，试着去推测经文的最深含义。也许你曾在夜里醒着，躺在床上深思某些事件的含义；若真如此，你就了解——佛陀所说昏沉睡眠第二个对治法的功能。
The second antidote to drowsiness is to reflect on inspiring passages you remember or have learned by heart, trying to fathom their deepest meanings. Perhaps you have lain awake at night pondering the meaning of some event. If so, you understand the function of the Buddha's second antidote to sloth and torpor.
在阿毗达磨中，当思想是以其成分做分析时，其中一个成分即是寻（vitakka）心所或瞄准。这心所具有开启并使心清新的能力，是对治昏沉与睡眠的特效药。
In Buddhist psychology, when thinking is analyzed in terms of its components, one component is the mental factor of vitakka, or aim. This mental factor has the capacity to open and refresh the mind, and is the specific antidote to sloth and torpor.
第三个对付昏沉与睡眠的策略，是大声念诵上述的经文。如果你是在集体中禅修，不言而喻的，为了自己的利益，你只能以足够让自己听得到的声量吟诵。
The third strategy for dealing with sloth is to recite those same passages aloud. If you are meditating in a group, it goes without saying that you should recite only loud enough for your own benefit.
你的心若仍未振作起来，就得诉诸较激烈的方法。拉拉你的耳朵或摩擦你的双手、手臂、两腿与脸部。这样能刺激循环，让你有点精神。
Resort to more drastic measures if your mind still has not perked up. Pull on your ears; rub your hands, arms, legs and face. This stimulates the circulation and so freshens you up a bit.
假如睡意仍持续，那么就念念分明地起身，去洗洗脸。你也可点眼药水，来使自己重新提起精神。若这个策略失败，建议你去看明亮的目标，如月亮或灯泡，这应该可以使你的心明亮起来。心的清澈即是一种光，有了它，你可以重新尝试清晰地自始至终观察腹部的起伏。
If drowsiness persists, get up mindfully and wash your face. You could put in some eye-drops to refresh yourself. If this strategy fails, you are advised to look at a lighted object, such as the moon or an electric bulb; this should lighten up your mind. Clarity of mind is a kind of light. With it, you can make a renewed attempt to look clearly at the rising and falling from beginning to end.
如果这些技巧都不奏效，那么，你应该试着正念轻快地行禅。最后，一个优雅的投降将是就寝。如果昏沉与睡眠持续很长一段时间，可能是因为便秘。若是如此，就要考虑温和地通便措施。
If none of these techniques work, then you should try some brisk walking meditation with mindfulness. Finally, a graceful surrender would be to go to bed. If sloth and torpor are persistent over a long period, constipation could be responsible; if this is the case, consider measures to gently clear the bowels.
未完待续ing……