〖礼物〗

    我们应该观察身体里的身体。不管身体里有什么东西，去看看它吧！如果我们祗看外表，那是不清楚的。我们所看的头发、指甲等等，它们的漂亮迷惑了我们，所以佛陀教我们看看身体的内部——身体里的身体。身体里面有什么东西？仔细地看清楚！我们会看见里面有很多东西会使我们很惊讶，因为纵然这些东西在我们体内，我们却从来没有看过它们。无论走到哪里，我们都带著它们，可是却不认识它们。

    就像我们造访亲友的家，他们送我们礼物，我们接受后，把它放入袋中，却搁著没去打开来看里头是什么东西。最后，当我们打开它时却发现里头全都毒蛇！

    我们的身体也是如此。如果我们祗看身体的外表，就以为它很完美、很漂亮，我们忘了自己，忘了无常、苦、无我。如果我们观察这身体的内在，真的很恶心，里头根本没有一样美丽的东西。如果我们如实观照，不故意去美化它的话，我们将会发现那真是可悲和令人厌烦，接著就会生起厌离心。这种厌离的感觉并不是要我们仇视这个世间，而是我们的心逐渐清明，心能放下了。我们看清一切事物都是不实在、不可靠的。不管我们对它们怀有多大的希望，它们仍会无情地离去——无常的事物还是无常；不完美的事物还是不完美。

    所以佛陀说，当我们经验到色、声、香、味、触、法时，应该要远离它们。不管快乐或不快乐，其实都一样，所以放下它们吧！

Gift

We should investigate the body within the body. Whatever's in the body, go ahead and look at it. If we just see the outside, it's not clear. We see hair, nails, and so on and they are just pretty things that entice us. So the Buddha taught us to look at the inside of the body, to see the body within the body. What is the body? Look closely and see! We will see even though it is within us, we've never seen it. Wherever we go we carry it with us, but we still don't know it at all. It's as if we go and visit some relatives at their house and they give us a gift. We take it and put it in our bag and then leave without opening it to see what is inside. When at last we open it we find it is full of poisonous snakes! Our body is like that. If we just see the shell of it, we say it's fine and beautiful. We forget ourselves. We forget impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and not-self. If we look within this body, it's really repulsive. There's nothing beautiful in it. If we look according to reality, without trying to sugar things over, we'll see that it's really sad and wearisome. Dispassion will then arise. This feeling of disinterest does not come from feeling an aversion toward the world. It's simply our mind clearing up, our mind letting go. We see all things as not being substantial or dependable. However we want them to be, they just go their own way, regardless. Things that are unstable are unstable. Things that are not beautiful are not beautiful.
So the Buddha said that when we experience sights, sounds, tastes, smells, bodily feelings or mental states, we should let them go. Whether happiness or unhappiness, they're all the same. So let them go!