舍我

Banishing the Self

接待了一个钟头，与来自各地的各色人等进行了各种主题的交流。但令人遗憾的是，几乎所有的话题都离不开一个“我”字。我的烦恼、我的家庭、我的修行、我的上师、我想解脱、我要成就……林林总总，都是这些话题。

I spent an hour’s time receiving visitors from various places and of different backgrounds. Many topics were touched upon but regrettably, almost all of them revolved around the single item of “I”—my problems, my family, my spiritual training, my teacher, my desire for liberation, my wish for accomplishment…. In short, that’s all there is.

为什么跳不出这个“我”呢？无始以来，为了这个字，我们付出了太多的代价。“我”，如同一条无形的绢索，使人们生活在自我的禁锢与陶醉之中，因患得患失而始终不得自在。

Why can’t we escape from control of the “I”? From time without beginning, we have paid dearly for this singular “I.” It’s like an invisible lasso that binds us in self-confinement and intoxication; it makes us worry about personal gains and losses and never allows us a moment’s rest.

《入中论》云：“最初说我而执我，次言我所则着法，如水车转无自在……”

In Entering the Middle Way (Madhyamakavatara) it says:

Initially fixating on this so-called I as an existing self,
‘Mine’ gives rise to grasping.
Helpless beings, driven as an irrigation wheel….

众生因无明习气，将四大聚合假立之我妄执为有，从而产生我执及我所执，由执起惑，因惑造业，以至于流转轮回，无有了期。

Driven by habits from ignorance, sentient beings mistakenly take the composite “I” of the four elements as truly existing and arouse the attachment of “I” and “mine.” Grasping leads to afflictions, and afflictions to misdeeds, resulting in samsaric cycling with no end.

当“我”在头脑中占了上风的时候，仔细剖析一下“我”的本来面目，如果能通达一切身心，皆为虚妄，芝麻许之实性，也了不可得。既然身心皆无，何来因外境而生烦恼的道理，自然会逐渐减少我执。依此修习，终将断尽我与我所执，烦恼也必将随之而烟消云散。

If “I” is getting the better of you, you should analyze its true face meticulously. You will see that both the physical body and the mind are illusory; they don’t have the tiniest bit of reality and are ineffable. Now that neither the body nor the mind truly exists, how on earth can troubled emotion arise from external influences? Meditating in this way, self-attachment will by itself diminish gradually. In the end, we will be able to eradicate completely the grasping to self and others and all afflictive emotions will vanish accordingly.

我们正行走在通往解脱彼岸的航线上，不要因为“我”的暗礁而使修行的航船抛下沉重的铁锚。

We are now sailing in the vast ocean toward liberation. Beware the submerged rock of “I,” lest we are forced to cast the heavy anchor and stall our ship of spiritual journey.

壬午年六月二十七日　
2002年8月5日　

27th of June, Year of RenWu
August 5, 2002