(４０)接下來，關于“神通”(iddhi)的問題是：
“我們要對神通關心到什麼程度？”
40) Next, concerning what are called iddhis (psychic powers) the question is,
40) “How far should we take interest in these things called iddhis
”
首先，我們該談談iddhi本身。iddhi 這個字的意思是“能力”。它原本是日常用字。被引用于具有某種能力，可促成事物圓滿完成的東西，任何東西只要具有促進事物圓滿成功的力量，就稱爲iddhi。
後來它的意思被引申，包括以神奇的、不可思議的方式成就某事，最後我們發現iddhi的用法變成專指心靈現象。iddhi一旦演變成心靈現象，就具有孳生和改善的特性，使它遠比任何物質更神通廣大。
iddhi就像省力的器具，現在我們有牽引拖車，能在短時間內修築許多馬路，這也稱爲iddhi，但這是物質的奇迹。在這裏我們所談論的iddhi則與心有關，是心靈的，而非物質的。
FIRST OF ALL, we shall say something about the iddhis themselves. The word iddhi means “power”. It was originally an everyday word, a household term applied to things with the ability to promote success in perfectly normal ways. Anything with the ability to promote success was called an iddhi. The meaning was then extended to cover success in marvellous, miraculous ways, until we come across the sort of iddhis that are exclusively mental phenomena. Because they are mental, they have productive and beneficial properties that render them far more marvellous and wide-ranging than anything physical. They are like our labour-saving devices. Nowadays we have tractors that can build roads and so on. These too would have been called iddhis. But these are physical marvels. The iddhis we are concerned with here have to do with the mind; they are mental, not physical.
神通專家能訓練自己的心，具備以下的能力：使人經驗他要他們感覺的；使人親眼看到他要他們看的；使人清晰的聽到他要他們聽的；使人聞到他要他們聞的；使人經驗嘗的感覺就好像真正用舌頭品嘗一般；使人仿佛親由皮膚去感覺軟、硬和其他觸覺。除了這些之外，還可再擴展——使人心裏不由自主地感到恐懼、愛和任何心靈狀態。
An exponent of iddhis (psychic powers) has trained his mind to such a degree that he can cause other people to experience whatever sensations he wishes to have them feel. He can cause others to see things with their own eyes just as he wishes them to see, to hear clearly and distinctly such sounds as he wishes them to hear, to smell just as he wishes them to smell, to experience taste sensations as if really experiencing them with the tongue, and to feel as if through the skin softness, hardness, and other such tactile stimuli. The process can then be extended until the demonstrator is able to cause the other person to experience fear, love or any mental state without realizing why.
神通真是有用了！太妙了！因爲它能使人經驗他要他們感覺的。但是這種心靈現象並不能製造物質，換句話說，超自然力量無法變現任何實用的物質，它不可能變現比丘的茅蓬、殿堂、飯菜，而讓他的生活沒問題，這種事不可能發生。這些眼、耳、鼻、舌、身、意所經驗和出現的現象，也只有在顯神通時存在，過後它們就消失了。所以，神通無法建茅蓬、蓋殿堂，而必須由家護法建造供養，例如祇園精舍(Jetavana)和迦蘭陀竹園(Veluvana)就是居士建來供養佛陀的。佛陀也有幾次因爲饑荒沒有食物，必須吃乾馬麥，而且一天只有一把[譯注一]。這啓示我們物質和心靈是兩個不同的領域，而二種都可能顯神通。
The iddhis are thus extremely useful and quite wonderful.But this kind of mental phenomenon does not produce physical things. The psychic powers are incapable of creating real physical things of any practical value. They alone can”t create bhikkhu”s huts, temples, rice, fish, or food, so that one might live without any problems. This sort of thing can”t happen. The objects appear to exist or are experienced as existing in eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, or mind for only as long as the iddhi is being demonstrated. There after they disappear. So the iddhis are not capable of building a hut or a temple by themselves. There definitely has to be a lay supporter to build and offer it. For instance, Jetavana and Veluvana had to be built and offered to the Buddha. And several times the Buddha went without food because of famine and had to eat rice set out as horse feed, and only a handful of it a day.This serves to remind us that the physical and mental are two distinct and different realms. It is possible to demonstrate iddhis of both types.
佛陀沒有否認心靈的神通，但他極力反對顯這類神通，因爲它們只不過是幻象罷了，所以他禁止比丘們顯神通，自己也戒除顯神通。在巴利經典中，我們並沒有發現佛陀顯神通的記載，而有關佛陀顯神通的記載，都出現在論書和後期的典籍中，雖然我們不必去判斷它們是真是假，但這些記載的真實性實在令人懷疑。
The Buddha did not deny mental iddhis, but he strongly disapproved of demonstrating them because they are mere illusions. He the…
《我們要對神通關心到什麼程度？How far should we take interest in these things called iddhis
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