The Chicken or the Egg?

　　鸡或鸡蛋

During his first visit to England, Achaan Chah spoke to many Buddhist groups. One evening after a talk he received a question from a dignified English lady who had spent many years studying the complex cybernetics of the mind according to the eighty-nine classes of consciousness in the Buddhist abhidharma psychology texts. Would he please explain certain of the more difficult aspects of this system of psychology to her so she could continue her study?

　　阿姜 查在他第一次访英国期间，曾与许多佛教团体演讲。有一天晚上，演讲後，有一位花了数年时间，根据阿昆达摩唯识学中，八十九种心法来研究复杂的心理活动的英籍女士，同他提出问题。他会向她解释唯识系统中较困难的层面，让她能继续她的研究吗?

Dharma teaches us to let go. But at first, we naturally cling to the principles of Dharma. The wise person takes these principles and uses them as tools to discover the essence of our life.

　　佛法教导我们要放下，但刚开始，我们很自然地会去执取佛法的义理。智者会撷取这些义理，然後拿它做利用的工具，来发现我们生命的根本。

Sensing how caught up she was in intellectual concepts rather than benefiting from practice in her own heart, Achaan Chah answered her quite directly, ''You, madam, are like one who keeps hens in her yard," he told her, "and goes around picking up the chicken droppings instead of the eggs."

　　阿姜 查意识到她是如何地执著於知识的概念，而不从自心的修行中得益，於是阿姜 查很直接地回答她：“这位女士，你就像一个在院子里养鸡的人，不捡鸡蛋，反倒四处去捡鸡屎。”