..續本文上一頁f-centredness. So we ought to start taking an interest in non-attachment right this very minute, each of us at the level most appropriate for us. If you fail in an examination there is no need to weep. Determine to start again and do your best. If you pass an examination you should not become carried away; you should realize that this is the normal way of things. This will then mean that there has arisen some understanding of non-grasping and non- clinging.

　　當應考時，你應該忘記自己。好好注意！開始答題時，你應該忘記自己，忘記“我”將通過考試或考不及格。考試前，你可以預想如何按照計劃進行以通過考試；但只要你一開始寫，就必須忘記那一切，只有專注(定)分析問題找出答案，空掉通過或失敗的“我”、“我所有”，心就會立刻輕快清淨，快速記起、思考敏捷，所以專注(定)應考會得到好成績。應考時，若應用“空心”或“不執著”的方法 ，你會得到好成績。

　　When you are sitting for an examination, you should forget about yourself. Take good note of this! When starting to write an examination answer, you should forget about being yourself. Forget about the “me” who is being examined and who will pass or fail. You may think beforehand of how to go about passing the examination and plan accordingly, but as soon as you start to write, you must forget all that. Leave only concentration, which will pierce through the questions and seek out the answers. A mind free of any “me” or “mine” who will pass or fail immediately comes up agile and clean. It remembers immediately and thinks keenly. So sitting for an examination with proper concentration will produce good results. This is how to apply cit waang (a mind free of the self- illusion), or Buddhist non-grasping and non-clinging, when sitting for examinations. In this way you will get good results.

　　不知利用這技巧的人常會擔憂失敗，他們太緊張而無法回憶學過的內容，無法寫出正確而有條理的答案，結果他們徹底失敗。

　　另一種人被“我是卓越的，我必定會通過”的想法沖昏了頭，被這種執著沖昏頭的學生也必定考不好，因爲他缺乏“空心”。

　　有“空心”的人，內心沒有“我”、“我所有”介入，所以不會恐慌或過度自信，只有維持專注(定)——自然的力量，完全忘記“自我”而能順利通過考試。就“不執著”、“空心”的成果而言，這是初步的、最基本的例子。

　　Those who don”t know how to make use of this technique always feel anxious about failing. They become so nervous that they are unable to call to mind what they have learned. They can not write accurate and orderly answers. Consequently they fail thoroughly. Others become carried away by the idea that “I am brilliant, I am certain to pass.” A student carried away by this sort of grasping and clinging is also bound to do poorly, because he lacks cit waang. On the other hand, for the “person” with cit waang there is no “me” or “mine” involved, so he cannot become panicky or over-confident. There remains only concentration, which is a natural power. Entirely forgetting about self, he can pass well. This is an elementary, most basic example of the effect of non-attachment and of cit waang.

　　現在愚蠢和迷惑的人一聽到寺院講堂提到“空”(sunnata)這個字，就解釋成“虛空”或“什麼都沒有”，那是某些團體唯物論的觀點所作的錯誤诠釋。佛陀所說的“空”是：我們執著爲永久實體或“自我”的一切都不存在，雖然，每件事物都仍完整地存在著，如果我們執著，就苦；如果不執著，就不苦了。

　　世間是“空”的，因爲沒有什麼可以被執取，我們必須以無執無著的心應對這“空”的世界。如果我們想要些什麼，須以無執無著的心追求，這樣我們會得到想要的東西，而不會使它成爲痛苦的來源。

　　Now a stupid and deluded person, as soon as he hears the word su..ata mentioned in temple lecture halls, translates it as “utter emptiness or nothingness”. That is the materialistic interpretation and is how certain groups of people understand it. The su..ata of the Buddha means absence of anything that we should grasp at and cling to as being an abiding entity or self, although physically everything is there in its entirety. If we cling, there is dukkha; if we do not cling, there is freedom from dukkha. The world is described as empty because there is nothing whatsoever that we might have a right to grasp at. We must cope with this empty world with a mind that does not cling. If we want something, we must go after it with a mind free from grasping, so that we get the desired object without it becoming a source of suffering.

　　光是誤解“空”這個字，就是大迷信(戒禁取結)，它不但會中斷人的思考，而且是抵達涅槃流的大障礙。所以讓我們正確地、徹底地了解“空”義和其他佛陀所用的字，因爲沒有任何東西可被當成“自我”，所以他說世間是“空”。佛陀曾回答莫伽(Mogha)國王的問題說：“時常觀察世間爲“空”，時常觀察世間所包含的一切爲“空”。”觀一切爲“空”，心會自動放下執著，而不再生起貪、瞋、癡，若能成功地止息貪、瞋、癡，就能成爲阿羅漢，如果未成功，必須繼續嘗試，雖然仍是一般凡夫，將只剩下一點點痛苦。只要有“空心”，就不會産生痛苦，雖然失去正念時又會痛苦，但如果我們能好好守護心，持續地增長、擴充內心的“空”，就能體悟涅槃流，進入佛教的核心。

　　Misunderstanding the word “empty”, just this one single word, is a great superstition (sīlappata-parāmāsa) and constitutes a major obstacle to people attaining the Stream of Nibbāna. So let us understand the word “empty”, and all other words used by the Buddha, properly and completely. He described the world as empty because there is nothing in it which can be taken as a self or ego. He answered King Mogha”s question by saying, “Always regard the world as something empty. Always look on this world with all that it contains as something empty.” Viewing it as empty, the mind automatically becomes free of grasping and clinging. There can not arise lust, hatred, and delusion. To succeed in doing this is to be an arahant. If one has not succeeded in doing it, one has to keep on trying; though still an ordinary worldling, one will have less suffering. No suffering arises as long as there is cit waang. Whenever one becomes carried away and lapses, there is suffering again. If we keep good watch, producing emptiness (of self-idea) more and more often and lastingly, we come to penetrate to the core of Buddhism, and come to know the Stream of Nibbāna.

　　[譯注一]一百沙丹(satang)等于一铢。

　　* 100 satang equal 1 baht.

《怎樣才能稱爲抵達‘涅槃流’？ What is it to attain the Stream of Nibbāna

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