..續本文上一頁sintegration, in turn, reveals the truth about the citta, the truth about Dhamma. Only avijja keeps this truth hidden from view.

　　無明—心似乎擁有一切功德：它光明，它無畏，它無比的自足，而且它能知的品質好像是無限的。但是，雖然它知道一切可以想象到的事物，這個能知的特性不知道它自己，這是真正無明的根本無知。一旦這能知的特性回過來看自己，無明就崩潰。這崩潰的發生，顯露出心的實相、法的實相。過去是無明把這實相隱藏起來不讓看到。

　　Meditators who are not truly adept in the area of wisdom will have difficulty finding their way out of avijja, because avijja in general and genuine avijja are two very different things. The nature of avijja in general combines all the different aspects of delusion, both external and internal, into a single mental defilement. It”s comparable to a tree, which is a combination of leaves, twigs, branches and a trunk. Genuine avijja, on the other hand, is like a tree that is felled and stripped of all its branches. That is to say, through persistent effort, wisdom cuts away at avijja”s “outgrowing” activities one at a time so that it gradually loses its exuberant tendencies and converges into a single spot—the citta. At this point, avijja no longer has the group of henchmen that it commanded when it was fully in charge. At this spot we find the genuine avijja.

　　還未真正純熟于智慧領域的禅者，要脫離無明會有困難，因爲一般的無明和真正無明完全不一樣。一般無明的本性是一切虛妄的不同層面，包括外在和內在的，綜合成一個心理染汙。我們用樹來比擬的話，它是葉子、嫩枝、枝幹和樹幹的綜合。另一方面，真正無明就像一棵被放倒、所有的枝幹都被砍掉的樹。也就是說，經過不斷的努力，智慧一次切除掉一個無明的外在枝末活動，使它逐漸失去繁茂，被迫彙集到一個點——心。這時，無明不再擁有它全盛時期供使喚的那夥黨羽。在這點我們發現真正無明。

　　The offshoots of avijja are many and varied. All other mental defilements are merely its twigs and branches. By concentrating on the offshoots, we tend to overlook the root cause. Because of this, when we actually reach the real avijja, we are confused and don”t recognize it. It”s like a vine that sprouts up in one place and then creeps along the ground to who knows where. It just goes creeping on and climbing up, with more and more offshoots that grow longer and more entangled. We must grab hold of the vine and keep following it back to its source until we reach the main stem. That”s where we will find the roots. When we pull out the roots, the whole plant dies.

　　無明的枝幹有多種多樣，一切其他的心理染汙只是它的嫩枝和分枝。我們傾向于專注于枝幹，忽略根源。因此，當實際到達真正無明時，我們會混淆並認不出它。它就像一棵藤蔓，從一處長出來，沿著地面四處生長。它不斷往各處蔓延並向上攀爬，越來越多分支，長得越多越糾纏不清。我們必須緊抓著那藤蔓並往根部的方向跟隨它去，直到最後找獲主幹，在這裏我們會找到根。把根部拔出來，整棵植物就會死亡。

　　*中譯者按：本篇文章翻譯過程中曾參考網絡上流傳，由Anicata翻譯的〈滅苦之道〉一文。

《PART 1 - 這總結了心的觀察 THIS CONCLUDES THE INVESTIGATION》全文閱讀結束。