..續本文上一頁ion, of course, she hadn”t died. She was still alive. But she had learned an important lesson, that when things get really bad in the body you can always go to space. Even though it”s not Awakening, and it”s not the unconditioned, still it”s a lot better than being immersed in turmoil along with the properties in the body.

　　 她出定時，當然沒有死去。她還活者。不過她學到了重要的一課，當身內的情形實在糟糕時，總是可以去空間。即使它不是覺醒，它不是非緣起，它仍然強過住于身元素，沈浸在混亂之中。

　　So the properties provide a useful way of looking at the potentials in the present moment. They also make it easier to get to that sense of awareness itself that you read about so much in the writings of the Thai Ajaas. Once you”re with infinite space, drop the perception of “space” and see what”s left. There will just be a perception of knowing, knowing, knowing, which takes its place. You don”t　have to ask, “Knowing what

　　” There”s just awareness, awareness, or knowing, knowing.

　　 因此，諸元素提供了一個觀察潛勢的有用方式。它們還使我們更容易達到泰國導師們的文字當中如此頻繁提到的那個獨立的覺知。一旦你住于無限空間後，你可以放開“空間”的辨識，看看剩下什麼。那時只會有一種知，知，知的辨識。你不必問“知什麼？”只有覺，覺，或者說知，知。

　　Once you”ve got everything pided up into properties like this, you”ve got the raw materials for gaining insight. The terms of analysis may initially seem strange, but once you get a visceral sense of what they”re referring to, you”ll find them extremely useful. They not only give the mind a good place to settle down in the stillness of concentration, but they also help you gain insight into the way perception shapes your experience of the body, shapes your perception of what”s going on here in the present moment, seeing how fabricated it all is. You”ve got potentials coming in from past kamma, but you”ve also got the element of present choice, which becomes extremely clear when you analyze things in this way.

　　 一旦你達到以這種方式把一切歸分爲諸元素時，你就有了證得洞見的原材料。這些分析詞彙可能最初看起來怪異，不過，一旦你切身領會到它們指的是什麼，你將發現它們極其地有用。它們不僅給心一個定止下來的好地方，而且還幫助你洞見辨識如何塑造身感，如何塑造你對當下正在發生之事，使你懂得所有這些何以都是造作的。你有來自舊業的潛勢，但你也有當下選擇的成分，那種選擇在你用這個方式分析時，就極其明顯起來。

　　When I first went to stay with Ajaan Fuang, he had me memorize Ajaan Lee”s Divine Mantra: six passages dealing with the different properties. For a long time it seemed very foreign to me until one night I was chanting the passage on the property of consciousness and Irealized that it was referring to the awareness that”s right here. This awareness. Right here. When this realization hit, it was as if a huge iceberg in my heart suddenly melted. I wasn”t dealing with some outside, foreign frame of thinking; instead, it was something extremely direct, immediate, right here and now. That was when I began to get a sense of why Ajaan Fuang had asked me to memorize the chant, why he wanted all of his students to think about their present experience in terms of the properties.

　　 我最初去跟阿姜放修習時，他要我把阿姜李的《神聖咒文》[7]背下來：那是關于各種元素的六個段落。有很長一段時間，它對我來說似乎毫不相關，直到有一個晚上，在持誦意識元素那一段時，我意識到它指的是就在此處的覺知。就是這個覺知。就在此處。意識到這點時，仿佛我心裏的一塊巨大的冰山突然融化了。我在持誦的不是什麼外在、無關的思維框架；反之，它是某種極其直接、緊接、就在此地此刻的東西。那時候，我才開始懂得爲什麼阿姜放要我背誦這段誦文，爲什麼他要他的所有弟子都從元素的角度思考他們的體驗。

　　So keep this mode of analysis in mind. Try to get some sense of it as you put it to use, and you”ll find that it”s extremely useful in the practice. As with all of the Buddha”s teachings, the importance of the teaching is what you do with it, and what it does for you in helping to gain insight into how stress and suffering are created in the present moment—and how you don”t have to create them, if you pay attention, if you work at these skills.

　　 因此，把這個分析模式記在心裏。在應用它時，試著領悟它，你將發現它對修持極其有用。一如佛陀的全部教說，它的重要性在于你用它做什麼，它在獲得苦的洞見方面能幫助你做什麼——也就是怎樣幫助你看見，苦在當下是如何被造作起來的，你又如何不需要造作它，假若你用心觀察，假若你修練這些技能。

　　(根據2003年3月某日開示錄音整理，本文來自坦尼沙羅尊者開示集《禅定》)

　　中譯注:

　　[1]胃中蝶動: butterflies in the stomach，習語，尤指因懼怕而神經緊張，胃有微動欲嘔之感。

　　[2]人的六元素的分析: 見中部MN140。

　　[3]十二因緣: 據自說經Ud1:3: 『......以無明爲緣［先決條件］，來造作[行]。以造作爲緣，來意識。以意識爲緣，來名色。以名色爲緣，來六處［六種感官媒介］。以六處爲緣，來接觸。以接觸爲緣，來感受。以感受爲緣，來渴求。以渴求爲緣，來執取／維持。以執取／維持，來有。以有爲緣，來生。以生爲緣，則老，病，死，憂、哀、痛、悲、慘來運作。這就是這若大一堆苦迫的因緣。』此處是說，造作排在第二，早于意識、名色、感受等。

　　[4]身造作: 據中部MN44:『出入息屬于身，縛于身，故稱出入息爲身造作[身行] 。尋想與評估[尋與伺] 之後口發言語，故稱尋想與評估爲語造作[語行] 。辨識與感受[想與受] 屬于心，縛于心，故稱辨識與感受爲心造作[心行] 。』

　　[5]pointillism: 西洋美術後印象派的點彩法，利用原色獨立小點的不同分布構造出各種色調的印象，觀者眼和心的辨識會把色點混合起來看成各種色調。例圖見網絡維基百科同名詞條: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointillism

　　[6]不專注體形的潛勢: 據尊者對筆者的解釋，這是指只把它們當成點，不把點連成線，也就是，不添加『體形』的辨識。

　　[7]阿姜李的《神聖咒文》: 阿姜李在引言中說，寫這本書的目的是：『作爲修法者的一個淨化途徑，因爲此處給出的誦文會給背誦者帶來利益，因其與存在于我們每個人之中的事件直接相關。平常，我們一旦出生，便都住于六元素之中。這些元素是被我們自己的業，善業惡業，帶到一起的，既然如此，這些元素對住于其中的人們，可能帶來大量的困難，就像一個孩童可能給父母不停地造成麻煩一樣。因此重複此誦，就好比滋養和訓練孩童，使他健康成熟；當小孩健康成熟時，父母就可以休息、放松了。重複此誦，就好比用一首美好的歌曲 Buddhaguṇa――憶念佛陀的功德——來滋養孩童，引它入睡 ......Buddhaguṇa――佛陀功德――的力量，可以對每個人的諸元素施加影響，淨化它們，給它們賦予 kāya-siddhi――身成就[身悉地]，就好比一切物質元素相互之間每秒鍾都在施加引力一樣......』

《六元素》全文閱讀結束。