停止你的妄想吧！

　　Stop Your Idle Thoughts!

　　怎樣才能不打妄想？別無二法，就是參話頭。

　　How can you be free of these idle thoughts

　　There is no other method: simply investigate your meditation topic.

　　諸位坐在禅堂裏，表面上在打禅七，可是心裏是在打妄想。這個妄想，忽然而天，忽然而地，忽然而餓鬼，忽然而畜生。這種種的妄想，都離不開貪瞋癡。說是勤修戒定慧，可是不修戒定慧；說是息滅貪瞋癡，可是不息貪瞋癡，就是這樣奇怪。不但一生一世是這樣，而且生生世世都是這樣，所以在六道輪回中，頭出頭沒永不停止。做狗的時候，覺得是第一；做貓的時候，也覺得是第一；總而言之，無論做什麼衆生，總覺得自己是第一。爲什麼？因爲有無明的執著。如果真心修道，努力參禅，就能解脫輪回之苦，證得涅槃之樂。

　　Those of you in the meditation hall appear to be taking part in a Chan Session, but your minds are engaging in idle thinking. Your idle thoughts take you suddenly into the heavens and suddenly back to earth. Suddenly you are ghosts, then suddenly you become animals. You produce a profusion of idle thoughts, yet none of them go beyond greed, hatred, and stupidity. You claim to be diligently cultivating precepts, concentration, and wisdom, but in fact you are not cultivating precepts, concentration, and wisdom! You claim to be eliminating greed, hatred, and stupidity, yet you are not eliminating them. That”s how strange it is! Not only are you this way in the present life, you are this way in life after life. That”s why you rise and sink ceaselessly in the six paths of rebirth. Reincarnated as a dog, we feel we are number one. Reborn as a cat, we also feel we are number one. In general, no matter what type of creature we become, we always consider ourselves to be number one. Why is this

　　 Because we have attachments that arise from our ignorance. If we use a true mind to cultivate the Way and work hard at Chan meditation, then we will be able to liberate ourselves from the suffering of reincarnation and realize the bliss of Nirvana.

　　有的人修行不認真，隨梆唱影，在禅堂裏混光陰。人家坐我也坐，人家行我也行，人家怎樣我就怎樣，把生死的問題，抛到九霄雲外，一點也不認爲重要，不肯真正用功，不肯決心修道，又不肯把妄想打死。坐在那裏，打一個妄想又一個妄想，沒有停止的時候，一天打了八萬四千個妄想，還覺得不夠。妄想、妄想！被妄想搞得心亂如麻，神魂顛倒，真是太可憐了！

　　Some people don”t take their cultivation seriously, but just follow along with the crowd and waste all their time at the retreat. This is their attitude: "I just sit when the others sit, and walk when they walk. I just do what everyone else does." Such people take the matter of birth and death and simply throw it out beyond cloud nine. They don”t take it at all seriously. These people are neither willing to really apply themselves, nor to dedicate themselves to cultivation. They are unwilling to beat their idle thoughts to death. They simply sit here, endlessly entertaining one idle thought after another. In a single day they may bring up eighty-four thousand idle thoughts, yet they still aren”t satisfied. Idle thinking! Idle thinking! They let these idle thoughts tie their mind into knots and turn their spirits upside-down. How pathetic!

　　那麼要怎樣才能不打妄想？別無二法，就是參話頭。話頭雖然也是妄想，可是它能令你的精神集中，不向外馳求。這是以毒攻毒的辦法，用一個妄想來控製多個妄想，將一個妄想參來參去，就沒有妄想。到了沒有妄想的境界，便是開悟的時機，這時候，或一言、或一行、或一舉、或一動，都是開悟的鑰匙。

　　How then, can you be free of these idle thoughts

　　 There is no other method: simply investigate your meditation topic. Although the meditation topic is also a idle thought, it can still bring your energy to a concentrated focus and prevent it from running outside. It is the method of "fighting fire with fire"; thus we use one idle thought to counter and control many idle thoughts. When one idle thought is investigated from front to back, one will no longer have idle thoughts. When one reaches the stage of having no idle thoughts, there is a chance for enlightenment to occur. At that time, a single word, a single act, a single gesture, or a single motion can serve as the key that opens the lock to your enlightenment.