Suffering

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“The natural state of the mind is neither happiness nor unhappiness. Only when feeling enters the mind, then happiness or unhappiness is born. If we have mindfulness, then we know pleasant feeling as pleasant feeling, and unpleasant feeling as unpleasant feeling. The mind knows but doesn’t pick anything up. In this way, happiness comes but it doesn’t reach us, unhappiness comes but it doesn’t reach us. This is to separate the feeling from the mind. We can compare it to oil and water in a bottle. They don’t combine. Even if you try to mix them, the oil remains oil and the water remains water, because they are of different density.

心靈的自然狀態是既非快樂亦非不快樂。只有當心靈為情緒所侵，快樂或不快樂才會產生。如果我們能保持專心，我們就明白快樂只是快樂，不快樂只是不快樂 ── 心如明鏡，不為所動。在此狀態中，快樂可以來訪，卻打擾不了我們; 不快樂可以來訪，也打擾不了我們。把情緒與心靈分開，就有如讓油和水共裝一瓶而不相溶 ── 即使你企圖讓它們相溶，油仍然是油，水永遠是水，它們的密度根本不同。

Once we separate unhappiness from the mind, does that mean there is no suffering, that we don’t experience it? Yes, we still experience it, we know the state of suffering, but we don’t cling to that feeling or carry it around.”

一旦我們把情緒與心靈分開，我們是否就體驗不到痛苦呢? No，我們仍然體驗得到，仍能明瞭痛苦的狀態，只是我們不再糾纏其中。

“Whenever we feel that we are definitely right, so much so that we refuse to open up to anything or anybody else, right there we are wrong. It becomes wrong view. When suffering arises, where does it arise from? It arises from wrong view. If it was right view it wouldn’t cause suffering.”

每當我們自我感覺完全正確，乃至拒絕任何其他情況時，我們的確信便成了錯覺妄念。當痛苦生發時，它源自何處? 正是源自錯覺妄念。倘若是正念的話，它就不會造成痛苦。

“The real foundation of the teaching is to see the self as being empty. But people come to study the Dharma to increase their self-view, so that they don’t have to experience suffering or difficulty anymore. They want everything to be cozy. But if there is still a self, how can there be no suffering?”

佛學的基礎在於認識到色我即空。人們學習佛法卻通常只是為了強化自我，以便逃避痛苦或困難 ── 他們只想讓一切變得舒適愜意。但仍有執我之心，又何能沒有痛苦?

“People have suffering in one place, so they go somewhere else. When suffering arises there, they run off again. They think they’re running away from suffering, but they’re not. Suffering goes with them. They carry suffering around without knowing it. If we don’t know suffering, then we can’t know the cause of suffering. If we don’t know the cause of suffering, then we can’t know the cessation of suffering. There’s no way we can escape it.”

人們在一個地方感到痛苦，因此跑到別處去。然後在新地方又感到痛苦，於是他們又跑到另一個地方。他們想要逃離痛苦，但痛苦如影隨形。他們隨身攜帶著痛苦而不自知。如果你不了解痛苦，你就不理解痛苦的根源。如果不理解痛苦的根源，就無法終止痛苦。光靠逃跑是解決不了問題的。

“To define Buddhism without a lot of words and phrases, we can simply say: Don’t cling or hold on to anything. Harmonize with actuality, with things as they are.”

如果不用太多字句來解釋佛教的話，我們可以簡單地說: 別執著任何事情; 接受現實，跟它和平共處。

“If you look for the Dharma, you will find that it has nothing to do with the forests, the mountains, or the caves – it exists in the heart. The language of the Dharma isn’t English or Thai or Sanskrit. It has its own language, which is the same for all people – the language of experience. There is a great difference between concepts and direct experience. Whoever puts a finger into a glass of hot water will have the same experience of hot, but it is called by many words in different languages. Similarly, whoever looks deeply into the heart will have the same experience, no matter what his or her nationality or culture or language.”

佛法不在深山老林或古窟洞穴; 佛法在我們自心本性中。佛法的語言既不是英文，也不是泰語或梵文。佛法有自己的語言，人人能懂的語言 ── 為人共同的體驗。切身體驗和人為概念是有很大區別的。把手指伸進過熱水中的人們，對熱的體驗都是相同的，盡管講不同語言的人對熱的稱謂各不相同。深入反省過自心的人也會有相同的體驗，無論他們是何種國籍、文化，或語言。

“The forest is peaceful, why aren’t you? You hold on to things too firmly. Let nature teach you. Hear the bird’s song then let go.”

為何你不能如那片謐林一般平靜? 因為你對事物太執著了。跟大自然學習吧，聽聽鳥叫蟲鳴，然後將一切放下。

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~ Ajahn Chah (阿姜查) ~

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