..續本文上一頁ar different, but, in reality, they are the same things.

　　人們一生中，所汲汲追求的是什麼呢？沒有別的，就是欲望。有的人就追求領導欲，有的財欲，有的色欲。其他的人呢，追求名譽、認同、和利益等等。看似不同，但事實上，是一樣的。

　　Many people are afraid to stop running. They are afraid to look inside and face themselves, so they create activities of all kinds to keep themselves busy. People think that a good life should be cramped with lots of action, thrills, and material things. But that is actually falling far away from the Path.

　　許多人對停止向外馳求，感覺害怕；他們害怕反觀內在、面對自己。所以他們找各種的事情讓自己忙碌。人們認爲一個好的人生，就是由很多的行爲活動、刺激的事情、和物質所緊緊的圈著。但實際上，那卻是遠遠與道相背。

　　I”ll use an example. I used to be a personnel officer and there was another personnel officer called Eve. Being personnel officers, we get to know more about the employees than most others. As the weekends approached, Eve would walk to every employee asking them what they planned to do on the weekends. This kind of casual conversation would start as early as Wednesday, and was actually stealing company”s productive time. Then, after the weekend was over, Eve would again go around talking to the staff about what they did on the weekend, and this would carry on from Monday to Tuesday. Again wasting time on idle conversation.

　　舉個例子：我曾經在人事部門工作，室裏另一位同事叫依芙，我們同爲人事部的主管。因此我們必須比其他人更了解所有的職員。當周末近了，依芙會去問每一位職員，周末計劃要做什麼？這種閑談，從早早的禮拜叁就開始，而實際上是暫用了公司的生産時間。然後在周末結束之後，依芙又再一次各處找員工談，聊他們周末都做些什麼？這又從禮拜一持續到禮拜二，再一次浪費時間于無意義的對話中。

　　I overheard lots of this kind of conversation and came to the conclusion that most people find their lives empty and meaningless, and so they create lots of activities just to "kill time". They dare not sit still because it is too scary to face the emptiness inside; they are afraid of themselves and of the reality of their life.

　　這種交談，我也已經做的太多了。結論是，大部分的人，覺得他們的生活是空虛而無意義。因此他們找來很多的活動，「殺時間」。他們不敢靜靜的坐下來，因爲空虛的內在，是令人恐懼，而不願意面對的。他們害怕自己，也害怕生命的事實。

　　Eve very often would talk of things that she and her family did, just to justify to themselves that they lived satisfactorily. People acquire material things to feel they have lived well; look for fun and thrills; look for lots of action, and so on. In doing so, they are only feeding their six sense organs, and this goes on and on. When they cannot physically find satisfaction, they take drugs to imagine it. The grasping gets stronger. Greed for all these ways to satisfy the sense organs grows stronger day by day. At the same time, hatred and disenchantment with things, people, and events also grows every minute.

　　依芙常常會談些她與家人做的事情，來證明他們活得很滿意。人們覺得擁有了物質就是活得好；找樂子和找刺激，要求于大量活動等等。這樣做，只是喂飽了他們的六根門頭，而這會不停的繼續下去。當他們不滿足時，他們就用藥物來滿足幻想。在獲取的欲望越強烈時，滿足六根的貪欲也就會一天比一天熾盛。同時，對人、事、物的瞋恨和乏味，也分秒地隨之增加。

　　Is life meant only for pursuing these meaningless things

　　 No! Our sole purpose on earth is to wake up from this dream we are in. This is a dream because we have forgotten about the past. The things we do today will become just a dream tomorrow - sometines a vague dream and sometimes even forgotten. We can”t foresee the future. We can”t make the present stay. We don”t even have a grasp on any of these things. There is nothing in this world that is ultimately ours.

　　人生的意義，只在追求這些無意義的事情嗎？當然不是！我們在這個世界上唯一的目的，是從我們所在的夢中醒來。這是一場夢，因爲過去的，我們已經忘了。我們今天所做的事，也將變成明日的一場夢；有時變得模糊，有時甚或遺忘。我們無法預測未來，也無法留住現在，我們甚至不能片刻擁有這一切。在這個世界上，沒有一樣東西永遠是我們的。

　　Even our body doesn”t belong to us. If it really belonged to you then you would be able to control it, to make it the way you want. As we grow older each day, our eyes turn bad, our hearing turns bad, our teeth fall out. We may put on reading glasses, wear hearing aids, or use dentures,but then, that is depending on external resources,i.e. external conditions. None of these belong to us.

　　就連我們的身體也不屬于我們。假如身體真屬于你的，那你應該能控製它，並且能隨心所欲。隨著一天天老去，我們的眼睛壞了，耳朵聾了，牙也掉了。你或許可以帶上眼鏡、助聽器、或假牙；但是這些都是靠著外面的來源，外在的條件，沒有一樣是屬于我們的。

　　If this body really belonged to us, then we should be able to tell it not to get sick or the head not to ache. But we have no control over this body of ours. The body is just made up of the four elements; earth, water, heat, and air. The body is not real. So, It is not worth our entire life doing crazy things, running in all directions for those temporary pleasures. If we drop all those attachments, wake up from the dream, and take control of our life, then we will have put some meaning into our life. The highest purpose of this life is to wake up from this dream, and stop all future dreams.

　　假如這個身體真正屬于我們的，那麼我們應該可以叫它不生病，或不頭痛。但是我們無法操縱我們的身體。這身體只是地水火風的四大假合，不是真的。所以盡其一生，去做瘋狂的事，四處找短暫的歡樂，這是不值得的。如果我們放下這一切的執著，從夢中醒來，自主我們的生活，那麼我們的生命才有意義。而此生最高的目的，就是從這個夢中覺醒，更不再作夢。

　　Our long-term purpose should be to earnestly cultivate, and stop creating bad karma so that we don”t need to seek external help. Look within, the potential Buddha is within you.

　　我們長遠的目標，應是精進修行，和不再造惡業；這樣，我們就不需要尋求外在的幫忙了。反觀自照，未來佛就在你內裏。

《人生•一場夢 Life - A Dream》全文閱讀結束。