比赛

On Competition

世间的人们总喜欢参与各种各样的比赛，从国家的经济繁荣、政治稳定，到体坛的世界杯、奥运会，再到个人的荣辱得失，无论是扭转乾坤的大事，还是鸡毛蒜皮的小事，都习惯性地与对方较劲。虽然没有真枪实炮，却处处弥漫着硝烟的气息。名义上是比赛，实质与战争无异。

Humans love to compete. In all kinds of activities––from national economics and prosperity, government stability, sports such as the World Cup or the Olympics, to personal honor or disgrace, gain or lose––we like to find out who is better. It doesn’t matter if the competition concerns radical transformation or the most trivial matter; people just habitually plunge into it. In all these contests, no real ammunition or artillery is used, yet the smoke of gunpowder is pervasive in all; they are real wars masqueraded as competitions in name.

为业力所牵的人们，整日为竞争而奔波，不但搞得自己疲惫不堪，而且常常因此而将目标定得遥不可及，预定的目标难以企及，从而陷入一种难以自拔的痛苦当中。当看到周围的人升迁、发财、出国,甚至买一件衣服，都会生起难以名状的失落感，并千方百计超过对方以满足自己的攀比心理。引发经济犯罪率不断上升，增加社会不安定因素。实在是得不偿失。

Driven by the force of karma, many people are propelled into competitive activities all day long. Engrossed until total exhaustion, they cannot disengage themselves from suffering and the worry that they will never reach their unrealistic goals. Whenever they see others around them making money, getting promoted, taking foreign trips, or even buying a new outfit, they are seized with an indefinable sense of loss. To satiate the thirst of feeling superior, they will try every possible way to get the better of their opponents, resulting inevitably in the rise of economic crime. By adding more destabilization factors to society, they are doing more harm than good.

最近听一位去拉萨朝圣的人讲，在桑耶附近的亚玛龙，有一位叫雷工的修行人，他已念了一亿莲师心咒，他告诉去看他的人说，这里山青水美，山洞里冬暖夏凉、山泉清澈甘甜、吃糌粑也能品出甘露的味道。真是无忧无虑、悠闲自在。想起那些忙忙碌碌的世间人，为五斗米而折腰，整日劳作却烦恼增盛，真是可怜。

A person who came back from his pilgrimage to Lhasa told me recently about a practitioner by the name of Lei Gong who has recited the Vajra Guru mantra for a hundred million times. Lei Gong told his visitors that his cave is in Yamalong near Samye. Surrounded by mountains and limpid streams, it is warm in the winter and cool in the summer. A sparkling mountain spring provides him with a sweet drink and ordinary tsampa tastes like ambrosia to him. His life is calm and unfettered, free from attachment and worries. In comparison, worldly people are always running around and will compromise integrity for scanty material gains. Their hard work all day long brings nothing but many more negative emotions. How miserable they are indeed!

其实，一些名相上的修行人也喜欢观看和参与比赛，承受比赛所带来的痛苦，却不喜欢独自修行的快乐。常常奔波于一些表面的所谓善法，内心却为名利所诱而躁动不安。

In fact, practitioners with a pretense also like to watch or participate in competitions. They willingly bear the anxiety coming from contest but cannot appreciate the happiness of practicing in solitude. They are always rushing about tending to superficial virtuous activities, but their minds are restless from being tempted by power and money.

作为修行人，我能否也像雷工一样，舍弃世间名利，安住法乐。任世界万千变幻，永葆一颗如如不动的心呢？

As a Dharma practitioner, can I be just like Lei Gong––renouncing worldly fame and wealth, and abiding only in the bliss derived from Dharma? Will I always be able to stay calm and unwavering in this ever-changing world?

壬午年四月二十五日　
2002年6月5日　　

25th of April, Year of RenWu
June 5, 2002