Who Is Sick?

　　是谁病了？

Late in the spring of 1979, Achaan Chah visited the Insight Meditation Center in Barre, Massachusetts. He taught there for ten days and each afternoon would go for a walk around the grounds. Seeing all the students out on the lawns doing slow walking meditation, he remarked that the meditation center looked like a mental hospital for the diseases of the worldly mind. All afternoon as he wandered past students, he would call out to them, "Get well soon. I hope you get well soon."

　　一九七九年春季末，阿姜 查访问在麻塞诸塞州的巴瑞市的一座禅修中心，他在那里教导了十天，每天下午他都会到广场四周走走。看著学生们在草坪上缓慢的经行，他便说这禅坐中心看起来好像一间一般心理疾病的精袖病院。整个下午，在他经过学生时，他都大声地向学生喊道：“早日康复，我祝你们能早日康复。”

Because people react differently, we must pick suitable practices. Body practices are especially suitable for persons with excessive lust or for forest monks.

　　因为每个人反应都不同，所以我们必须撷取适合自己的修行方法。观身的修行方法特别适合淫欲重的人，或森林僧所使用。

In the body meditations, look at the body. See its parts, its real constituents. Start with the head, hair, body hair, nails, teeth, skin, see it everywhere. Separate them from the other body parts. Mentally peel off the skin, and see the inside. Do you want it? Seeing the true nature of the body can cut off the first three fetters:

　　观身的禅修法是去观照身体──观察它的每一个部位，及它的构成元素(蕴)。从头开始，到头发、毛发、指甲、牙齿、皮肤……等等，观照每一个部位。观想把皮剥下来，看看身体的里面，你会想要吗？看见身体的本质之後，便能去掉最初的三种障碍：

Own-body view, sense of self. We will see that it is neither us nor ours, that nothing in this world is ours.

　　一、身见和我见──我们会了解，这个身体并不是我们，也不是我们的。这世上没有任何事物是我们的。

Skeptical doubt. Knowing things as they are  puts an end to doubt.

　　二、疑──了知事物的本然，疑便消失了。

Attachment to a path based on rites and ritual. While still in doubt, we may think, "Perhaps this way is not so good." But once we see clearly what the body is-that it, like all things, is impermanent, unsatisfactory, and empty of self-this uncertainty is cleared up.

　　三、戒禁取──当我们还有疑惑时，会想：“这方法或许不好。”不过，一旦我们了解身体的本然──也就是，一切事物都是无我的，这样必能消除疑惑。

When meditating on the body, you need not contemplate all its thirty-two parts. If you concentrate on one and see it as it is-impermanent, unsatisfactory, empty, unclean-you will see that your body and the bodies of others are like this. If there are thirty-two ice cubes, you need only touch one to know the coldness of all.

 　　观身时，并不须要一一观照身体所有的三十二部份。如果你专注於一部份，而且能彻见它的本然──无常、苦、空、不净──你就会了解到你的身体与他人的身体都是一样的。如果有三十二块冰块，你只要摸到一块就知道所有的冰块的冷度。

When we develop the meditation on the impurity of the body, we are also developing the meditation on death. Indeed, when we develop one of the Dharmas, we develop them all. If we understand the fact of our own death, we can become very sensitive to all life in the world. We will naturally avoid wrongdoing and want to spend our days wisely, feeling a common bond with all beings.

　　当我们在增长观身的不净时，同时也是在观死亡。事实上，我们增长一法，也是在增长所有的法。如果我们了解自己死亡的真相，便会对世上所有的生命都非常敏感。从此，我们自然会去避免造恶，也会想要明智地生活，并感受到与众生合为一体的感觉。