〖一瓶药〗

    我们可以将修行比喻为一瓶医生留给病人的药。瓶上写了详细的说明，指示病人如何服药，但是，如果这位病人只是阅读瓶上的说明，无论读上数百回，都将困死在这儿，永远得不到药物的治疗。在他死亡之前，还会怀恨地埋怨医生无能，以及那些药物并没有治好他。他会认为医生是个江湖郎中，或说那些药物毫无作用，殊不知他只是花时间在检查瓶子以及阅读瓶上的说明书，却没有听从医生的叮咛而服药。不管怎么样，如果这位病人听从了医生的劝嘱，照著药方按时服药，他便能够痊愈。

    医生开药方是为了除去生理上的疾病；佛陀的教法则是治疗心理疾病的药方，使心回复到自然健康的状态。因此，佛陀可称是一位治疗心理疾病的医生，而我们每一个人毫无例外的都有心理的疾病。当你看到这些疾病时，难道不会合理地去寻求佛法做为依靠，就如同拿药治疗你看书的病一般吗？

Bottle of Medicine

We can compare practice to a patient who does not take the medicine that his doctor has left for him. Although detailed instructions have been written on the bottle, all the patient does is read them and doesn't actually take the medicine. And before he dies, he may complain bitterly that the doctor wasn't any good; that the medicine didn't cure him. He may think that the doctor was a fake or that the medicine was worthless, yet he had only spent his time examining the bottle and reading its instructions instead of actually taking the medicine. If he had followed the doctor's advice, however, and taken the medicine regularly as prescribed, he would have recovered.

Doctors prescribe medicine to eliminate diseases from the body. The teachings of the Buddha are prescribed to cure diseases of the mind and to bring it back to its natural healthy state. So the Buddha can be considered to be a doctor who prescribes cures for the illnesses of the mind, which are found in each one of us without exception. When you see these illnesses of the mind, does it not make sense to look to the Dhamma as support, as medicine to cure your illnesses?