..續本文上一頁e is no longer straight. You”ve worn it down too much in one spot. There are a lot of things you have to watch out for, simply in the act of sharpening a blade. But if you have that skill in your repertoire, then when the time comes to meditate, it”s easier to relate to what you”re doing: that same kind of consistency, that same evenness of pressure, the continual mindfulness and alertness that are needed to maintain the proper pressure. 佛陀給修定賦予的形象，常常把它比作諸種技能。技能的培養需要時間，他是在教導那些已經花時間學會許多有用技能的人。在泰國，人們仍然用沙石磨刀。怎樣在磨刀時不損壞它，是一門需要學習的技能。如果你失去耐心，一味圖快，就會破壞刀鋒的銳利和平直。因此你必須相當地靜止。心必須靜止。磨刃時你還必須維持那股恰到好處的壓力。起初像是什麼也沒有發生，然而慢慢地，刀刃就會越來越鋒利。你施壓的穩定，是保證刀刃不在某個地方缺刻的原因——所謂缺刻就是某處太銳利，另一處又不夠銳利。你把某處磨過了頭，造成卷口。單單磨刀的動作，就有許多需要注意的地方。不過，如果你的庫存當中有那個技能，等到禅定時，就容易對應自己正在做的事，聯想到那個技能: 同樣的持恒、同樣的均勻施壓、維持適當的壓度所必要的那種連續的念住和警醒。

　　Another skill sometimes used as an analogy is that of a hunter. A hunter has to be very quiet so as not to scare the animals off, and at the same time very alert so as not to miss when a particular animal comes by. In the same way, we as meditators have to be careful not to slip off in either direction: into too much stillness or too much mental activity. You have to find the proper balance. I was once talking to an anthropologist who said that of all the skills in primitive societies that anthropologists try to lean, the hardest is hunting. It requires the strongest concentration, the most sensitivity. So here we”re not hunting animals, but we”re hunting concentration, which is even more subtle and requires even more stillness and alertness. 另一個有時用來比喻修定的技能是狩獵。獵人必須極其靜止，才不會把動物嚇跑，同時又必須極其警覺，才不會在某個獵物近前時，把它放過。同樣地，我們作爲禅修者，必須極其仔細，不朝兩個方向滑陷: 一個是過度的寂止，一個是過度的心動。你必須找到適當的平衡。有一次，我同一位人類學家交談，他說，人類學家們嘗試學習的原始社會所有技能當中，難度最高的是狩獵。它需要的定力和敏感度最高。因此我們在這裏，不是獵獸，我們是在獵定，它更加精細，要求更高的寂止和警醒。

　　Sometimes we in the West think that we come to the Dhamma with an advantage: We”ve got so much education, we”re so well-read. But we have a major disadvantage in that we lack the patience and consistency that come with mastering a skill. So keep that in mind as you”re meditating, when you find yourself getting impatient for results. You have to be watchful and consistent. You need that sense of being bathed by the breath, being open to the breathing sensations in all parts of the body down to every little pore of your skin. Then you learn the sensitivity that”s required, the consistency that”s required, to maintain that. That way the sense of fullness can grow and grow and grow until it becomes really gratifying, really satisfying, to give your concentration the kind of strength, the sense of refreshment, the sense of nourishment it needs in order to keep going. 有時候，我們西方人以爲自己是帶著優勢來學法的: 我們受過這麼多教育，我們如此博覽。不過，我們有一大劣勢，那就是缺乏伴隨的一門技能的掌握而帶來的耐心與恒心。因此，你修禅定，發現自己爲求果報失去耐心時，要記得這一點。你需要那股浴于氣中的感覺，那股對全身各處乃至每個皮膚細孔的氣感開通的感覺。那時你就學會了必要的敏感、必要的持恒。那樣，充沛感才會增長、增長、增長，直到它變得極其享受，極其滿足，給你的定賦予繼續下去所需要的那股力量、那股清新感、那股滋養感。

　　Ajaan Fuang once said that without this sense of fullness, refreshment, or rapture, your meditation gets dry. You need this lubricant to keep things smooth and running: the sense of well-being and refreshment, the immediate visceral pleasure of being in a concentrated state. 阿姜放曾經說，沒有這股充沛、清新、或者說喜樂感，你的禅定就會變得枯燥。你需要這付潤滑劑——也就是那股安適、清新之感，那股住于定境的直接、切身的恬愉感——才能保持禅修的平穩與進行。

　　At the same time, it heals all our mental wounds: any sense of tiredness, of being stressed-out, mistreated, abused. It”s like medicine for these mental wounds. Now, medicine often takes time to work, especially soothing and reconstituting medicine. Think of the creams you put on chapped skin. The skin isn”t immediately cured when you first rub on the cream. It takes time. The skin has to be exposed to the cream for long periods of time to allow the cream to do its work. The same with concentration. It”s a treatment that takes time. Your nervous sys…

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