印證心靈真谛——佛教的“厭離”與“清淨”

　　[作者] 坦尼沙羅尊者

　　[中譯]良稹

　　Affirming the Truths of the HeartThe Buddhist Teachings on Samvega & Pasadaby Ven. Thanissaro Bhikkhu

　　We rarely think of Buddhism as an emotional religion. Early Buddhism in particular is often depicted as centered more in the upper left quadrant of the head than in the heart. But if you look closely at the tradition, you”ll find that from the very beginning it has been fueled by a deeply felt emotional core.

　　我們很少把佛教看成一門感性宗教，尤其早期佛教常被形容爲，其重點在腦左前部，非在于心 。不過，你若仔細審視這個傳統，會發現其原動力從一開始便以深切的感性爲核心。

　　Think back for a moment on the story of the young Prince Siddhartha and his first encounters with aging, illness, death, and a wandering contemplative. It”s one of the most accessible chapters in the Buddhist tradition, largely because of the direct, true-to-the-heart quality of the young prince”s emotions. He saw aging, illness, and death as an absolute terror, and pinned all his hopes on the contemplative forest life as his only escape. As Asvaghosa, the great Buddhist poet, depicts the story, the young prince had no lack of friends and family members who tried to talk him out of those perceptions, and Asvaghosa was wise enough to show their life-affirming advice in a very appealing light. Still, the prince realized that if he were to give in to their advice, he would be betraying his heart. Only by remaining true to his honest emotions was he able to embark on the path that led away from the ordinary values of his society and toward an unsurpassed Awakening into the Deathless.

　　讓我們回想一下年輕的悉達多王子初次面對老、病、死、與叢林遊方者的故事。它之成爲佛教傳統中最廣爲人知的章節之一，主要在于體現了年輕王子內心情感的直接與真切。他視老、病、死爲怖畏之極，寄一切希望于叢林梵行這條唯一的解脫之道。據佛教大詩人馬鳴對這個故事的敘述，王子身邊試勸他放棄己見的親友不乏其衆，作者足有智慧地把世俗人生觀描繪得引人入勝。盡管如此，王子意識到，屈服于勸解等于背叛自己的真心。惟有繼續誠實地面對這些真切情感，他才得以踏上遠離世俗價值、超越生死的覺悟之路。

　　This is hardly a life-affirming story in the ordinary sense of the term, but it does affirm something more important than life: the truth of the heart when it aspires to a happiness absolutely pure. The power of this aspiration depends on two emotions, called in Pali samvega and pasada. Very few of us have heard of them, but they”re the emotions most basic to the Buddhist tradition. Not only did they inspire the young prince in his quest for Awakening, but even after he became the Buddha he advised his followers to cultivate them on a daily basis. In fact, the way he handled these emotions is so distinctive that it may be one of the most important contributions his teachings have to offer to our culture today.

　　這個故事以一般意義而言，很難說是對入世人生觀的肯定，然而它卻肯定了比生存更重要的一件事: 心靈渴求一種絕對純淨的幸福真谛。這股渴求之力以兩種情緒爲基礎，巴利文稱爲厭離(samvega)與清淨(pasada)。雖然我們當中鮮有聞者，它們卻是佛教傳統中最基本的兩種情緒，不僅激勵著年輕的王子對覺醒的求索，在他證悟之後，也鼓勵弟子們常長此心。實際上，他處理這些情緒的方式如此獨特，對于當今文化來說，是可資采納的最重要的貢獻之一。

　　Samvega was what the young Prince Siddhartha felt on his first exposure to aging, illness, and death. It”s a hard word to translate because it covers such a complex range — at least three clusters of feelings at once: the oppressive sense of shock, dismay, and alienation that come with realizing the futility and meaninglessness of life as it”s normally lived; a chastening sense of our own complacency and foolishness in having let ourselves live so blindly; and an anxious sense of urgency in trying to find a way out of the meaningless cycle. This is a cluster of feelings we”ve all experienced at one time or another in the process of growing up, but I don”t know of a single English term that adequately covers all three. It would be useful to have such a term, and maybe that”s reason enough for simply adopting the word samvega into our language.

　　厭離感(samvega)是年輕的悉達多王子初次面對老、病、死之時所生的感受。這個詞很難英譯，其內涵複雜，至少並攝了叁類感受: 意識到世俗生活的徒勞與空虛而生起的震驚、氣餒與疏離的壓抑感; 對自耽自滿、愚癡盲目地生活至今的自責感; 尋求脫離無謂輪回之道的急迫感。這些感受，我們在成長過程的某個時刻都曾經曆過，但我不認爲有哪個英語詞彙可以同時貼切地表達這叁種含義。有這樣一個詞很實用，也許足以把它直接吸收過來，納入我們的語彙中。

　　But more than p…

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