Chapter VII. Meditation or Mental Culture: Bhāvanā
第七章 修習：心智的培育
The Buddha said: ”O bhikkhus, there are two kinds of illness. What are those two
Physical illness and mental illness. There seem to be people who enjoy freedom from physical illness even for a year or two… even for a hundred years or more. But, O bhikkhus, rare n this world are those who enjoy freedom from mental illness even for one moment, except those who are free from mental defilements” (i.e., except arahants). [1]
佛說：“比丘們！病有兩種。那兩種呢？肉體的病和心智的病。有人可以一年、兩年、甚至一百年、一百多年肉體都不生病。但是，比丘們啊！世間除了心無染著的人(就是說，除了阿羅漢以外〔注一〕，心智方面能有片刻不生病的的人，都是稀有難得的啊！”
The Buddha”s teaching, particularly his way of ”meditation”, aims at producing a state of perfect mental health, equilibrium and tranquility. It is unfortunate that hardly any other section of the Buddha” teaching is so much misunderstood as ”meditation”, both by Buddhists and non-Buddhists. The moment the word ”meditation” is mentioned, one thinks of an escape from the daily activities of life; assuming a particular posture, like a statue in some cave or cell in a monastery, in some remote place cut off from society; and musing on, or being absorbed in, some kind of mystic or mysterious thought or trance. True Buddhist ”meditation” does not mean this kind of escape at all. The Buddha”s teaching on this subject was so wrongly, or so little understood, that in later times the way of ”meditation” deteriorated and degenerated into a kind of ritual or ceremony almost technical in its routine. [2]
佛的教誨，尤其是他所教的修習方法，其目的在培養健康、均衡和甯靜的心理，使臻完美。不幸的是：佛教中幾乎沒有什麼法門，像“修習”那樣被教徒及非教徒所誤解。只要一提到“修習”，馬上就使人想到逃避日常生活，擺起某種姿勢，像石窟裏或寺院佛堂中的塑像一般，在遠離塵囂的處所，以從事某種秘密或神秘的冥想，或專住于神遊。真正佛教的修習，完全不是這種的逃避。佛在這一主題方面所教的內容，大大的被誤解或極少的被了解。以致到了後世，修習方法變質敗壞，竟成爲一種儀式，其手續繁雜幾乎成爲專門學問了。〔注二〕
Most people are interested in meditation or yoga in order to gain some spiritual or mystic powers like the ”third eye”, which others do not posses. There was some time ago a Buddhist nun in India who was trying to develop a power to see through her ears, while she was still in the possession of the ”power” of perfect eye-sight! This kind of idea is nothing but ”spiritual perversion”. It is always a question of desire, ”thirst” for power.
大多數的人對于修習(或稱瑜伽)有興趣，其目的乃在獲得若幹精神或秘密的力量，諸如爲旁人所無的“第叁只眼”等。若幹年前，就曾有一位印度佛教尼師，想練成以耳視物的神通。而當時她的視力極好，並未喪失。這種念頭無他，只是精神顛倒而已；所以仍然只是渴求權力的貪欲在作祟。
The word meditation is a very poor substitute for the original term bhāvanā, which means ”culture” or ”development”, i.e., mental culture or mental development. The Buddhist bhāvanā, properly speaking, is mental culture in the full sense of the term. It aims at cleansing the mind of impurities and disturbances, such as lustful desires, hatred, ill-will, indolence, worries and restlessness, skeptical doubts, and cultivating such qualities as concentration, awareness, intelligence, will, energy, the analytical faculty, confidence, joy, tranquility, leading finally to the attainment of highest wisdom which sees the nature of things as they are, and realize the Ultimate Truth, Nirvāna.
英文中所用以代表巴利原文 bhavana (修習)的 meditation (沈思、冥索)一詞，十分不妥。Bhavana 的意義是培育、發展，尤指心智的培育與發展。肯定點說，佛教中的修習，正是百分之百的心智培育的意思。它的目的，在滌蕩淫欲、憎恚、怠惰、焦慮、不安、疑惑等心智方面的騷亂不淨，一方面又培育集中的注意力、清明的心智、知識、意志力、精進力、分析力、自信、歡喜心、甯靜的心境等優良品性，以冀最後導致如實知見一切事物本性的最高智慧，而證入最後的真理、涅槃。
There are two forms of meditation. One is the development of mental concentration (samatha or samādhi), of one-pointedness of mind (cittekaggatā, Skt, cittaikāgratā), by various methods prescribed in the texts, leading up to the highest mystic states such as ”the Sphere of Nothingness” or ”the Sphere of Neither-Perception-nor-Non-Perception”. All these mystic states, according to the Buddha, are mind-created, mind-produced, conditioned (samkhata). [3] They have nothing to do with Reality, Truth, Nirvāna. This form of meditation existe…
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