Why Meditate?

by Bhante Henepola Gunaratana in Shambhala Sun, 9-2002.

为什么要禅修？   

梁国雄居士译

     Meditation is not easy. It takes time and it takes energy. It also takes grit, determination, and discipline. It requires a host of personal qualities that we normally regard as unpleasant and like to avoid whenever possible. We can sum up all of these qualities in the American word gumption. Meditation takes gumption. It is certainly a great deal easier just to sit back and watch television. So why bother? Why waste all that time and energy when you could be out enjoying yourself? Why? Because you are human. Just because of the simple fact that you are human, you find yourself heir to an inherent unsatisfactoriness in life that simply will not go away. You can suppress it from your awareness for a time, you can distract yourself for hours on end, but it always comes back, and usually when you least expect it.

     禅修并不容易，它需要时间与精力，更需要胆量、不肯认输的勇气、决心与自律、训练与修养等要素。它要求许多个人难以做得到的特质，而那些特质又是人人常会找机会逃避的。我们可用【Gumption】这一美国字来概括那些特质，它的内涵包括【才智、应变力和进取心等可令人成功的质素】。靠坐着椅子里观看电视，肯定地说，比禅修轻易千万倍。那么，干嘛要自找麻烦？干嘛要浪费时间与精力去禅修，放弃眼前垂手可得的享受？为什么？因为你是人，就因为你是人这简单事实，你发觉自己必须承受生命中内在的、挥之不去的、固有的不适意与不完美，你可以暂时压止住它【生命中固有的不适意与不完美】，或令自己分散注意力，在一段或短或长的时间里，使自己意识不到它，可是，它永远会走回来的，而且，它再出现时，往往是在你最意想不到的时候！

     The Dhammapada, an ancient Buddhist text, says: "What you are now is the result of what you were. What you will be tomorrow will be the result of what you are now. The consequences of an evil mind will follow you like the cart follows the ox that pulls it. The consequences of a purified mind will follow you like your own shadow. No one can do more for you than your own purified mind - no parent, no relative, no friend, no one. A well-disciplined mind brings happiness." Meditation is the cleansing crucible fire that works slowly but surely, through understanding.

     法句经，一部原始佛经有言：「你现在的经历是你过去所作所为的结果，你将来的经历是你现在所作所为的结果。行恶之心所带来的恶果，就像牛车的轮紧跟着拉它的牛一样。行善之心所带来的善果，也会如影随形地跟随着你的。没有人比自己的心能带给自己更多的福乐！你的父母不能，你的亲属、朋友也不能，没有任何人可以！只有自己降服了、净化了自己的心，才可以给自己带来福乐。」禅修就像清净内心的炼火，它会缓慢而且稳健地运作，令心领悟真谛、通达诸法实相。