〖椰子壳〗

    欲是染著的，但首先我们必须有欲才能开始修行“道”。假设你到市场去买椰子，提著它们回来时，路上，有人问你：“你为什么要买这些椰子呢？”

    “买来吃啊！”

    “你连壳也吃吗？”

    “当然不！”

    “我不相信。如果你不打算吃壳，又为什么要买椰子呢？”

    好，你怎么说？你要怎样回答这个问题？

    我们是靠著欲望起修的，如果我们没有欲望，我们就不会去修行。你知道吗？！这样思惟可以产生智慧。例如：那些椰子，你要连壳子也一起吃下去吗？当然不！那又为什么要椰子壳呢？因为椰子壳的用途是将椰子给包起来，吃了过后，再将壳给扔掉，就没问题了。

    我们的修行也是如此。我们不是要吃壳，只不过现在还不是丢掉壳的时候。我们先将它们收藏起来，就如我们依靠欲望修行一样，修行便是如此。如果有人硬要说我们连椰子壳也吃，那是他们的事，与我们无关，只要我们清楚自己在做什么就够了。

Coconut Shells

Desire is a defilement. But we must first have desire in order to start practicing the Way. Suppose you went to buy coconuts at the market and while carrying them back home someone asked: "Why did you buy those coconuts?" "I bought them to eat," you reply. "Are you going to eat the shells, too?" "Of course not!" "I don't believe you," he insists. "If you're not going to eat the shells, then why did you buy them?" Well, what do you say? How are you going to answer that question?

We practice with desire to begin with. If we didn't have desire, we wouldn't practice. Contemplating in this way can give rise to wisdom, you know. For example, those coconuts: Are you going to eat the shells as well? Of course not. Then why do you take them? They're useful for wrapping the coconuts in. If after eating the coconuts you throw the shells away, there is no problem. Our practice is the same. We keep desire first, just like we do with the coconut shells, for it's still not time to "throw" it away. This is how the practice is. If somebody wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, that's their business. We know what we're doing.