調入氣中
[作者]坦尼沙羅尊者
[中譯]良稹
Tuning-in to the Breath
by Ven. Thanissaro Bhikkhu
When I first went to stay with Ajaan Fuang, one of the questions I asked him was, “What do you need to believe in order to meditate
” He answered that there was only one thing: the principle of kamma. Now when we hear the word “kamma,” we usually think, “kamma-and-rebirth,” but he meant specifically the principle of action: that what you do shapes your experience. 我跟隨阿姜放之初，曾經問過的一個問題是:“爲了禅定，需要信什麼
”他回答，信一件事: 業的原則。不過我們聽見“業”這個詞，常常想到的是“業與輪回”，他所特指的卻是行動的原則，即: 行爲塑造體驗。
If you”re convinced of this, you can do the meditation because, after all, the meditation is a doing. You”re not just sitting here, biding your time, waiting for the accident of Awakening to happen. Even in very still states of meditation, there”s an activity going on. Even the act of “being the knowing” is still a doing. It”s a fabrication, a sankhara. In one of the suttas, the Buddha says that all the different khandhas, all the different aggregates that make up experience as a whole, have to get shaped into aggregates by the process of fabrication. In other words, there”s a potential for a form, a potential for a feeling, potential for perception, fabrication, consciousness; and the act of fabricating is what turns these potentials into actual aggregates. 如果你確信這一點，就可以作禅定，因爲畢竟，禅定是一種作爲。你並非僅是坐在這裏守候時光，等待覺醒的偶發突現。即使在極其寂止的禅定境界之中，仍然有一種動作進行著。即使“成爲覺知”的動作，仍然是一種作。它是一種造作，一種行[sankhara]。在一篇經文當中，佛陀說， 構成整個體驗的所有蘊，所有聚集體[khandhas]，必須被造作的過程塑造成諸蘊。換句話說，有一種色的潛在可能性，一種受的潛在可能性，有想、行、識的潛在可能性。正是造作的動作，把這些潛在可能性轉爲實際的諸蘊。
It sounds abstract, but it”s a very important lesson for the meditation even from the very beginning. You sit here in the body—and of course, that”s a fabrication right there: the idea that you”re sitting in the body—but given all the many different things you could focus on right now, there”s the possibility of choice. This possibility of choice is where kamma comes in. You can choose any of the sensations that are coming into your awareness. It”s as if there were a buzz in all the different parts of the body. There”s a potential for pain here, a potential for pleasure over there. All these different sensations are presenting themselves to you for you to do something about them, and you have the choice as to which ones you”ll notice. 聽起來抽象，但它對禅定來說，甚至從一開始，就是極其重要的一課。你在這裏， 坐于身內——當然，那裏就有一個造作: 你坐在身內的這個想法——不過，既然有許多東西你現在可以專注，那就有選擇的可能性。這個選擇的可能性，正是業力因果發生作用的地方。你可以選擇來到你覺知範圍內的任何覺受。就仿佛體內所有不同的部位都在滋滋作聲。這裏有痛的潛勢，那裏有樂的潛勢。所有這些不同的覺受都把自己放在你面前，讓你對它們做點什麼，你將會注意其中的那些，是有選擇的。
Doctors have done studies showing that pain isn”t just a physical phenomenon. It isn”t totally a given. There are so many different messages coming into your brain right now that you can”t possibly process them all, so you choose to focus on just some of them. And the mind has a tendency to focus on pain because it”s usually a warning signal. But we don”t have to focus there. In other words, there can be a slight discomfort in a part of the body, and you can focus on it and make it more and more intense, more and more of an issue. That”s one thing you can do right now, but—even if you may not realize it—you have the choice of whether or not to do that. You can choose not to make it more intense. You can choose even to ignore it entirely. Many times we have habitual ways of relating to sensations, and they”re so habitual and so consistent that we think there”s no choice at all. “This is the way things have to be,” we think, but they don”t. 醫生們做過一些研究顯示，痛不僅僅是一種身體現象。它不完全是先決的。當下來到你的大腦中的訊息如此之多，你不可能全部處理，因此你選擇只專注其中的一部分。心有專注痛感的傾向，是因爲通常它是一種預警訊號。不過，我們並不是非得專注那裏。換句話說，可能在身體的某處略微有點不舒適，你可以盯著它，使不舒適感越來越激烈，越來越成問題。那是你當下可以做的一件事，然而——即使你或者沒有意識到——做與不做，你是有選擇的。你可以選擇不令它更激烈。你甚至可以選擇徹底漠視它。很多時候，我們對覺受有一些習慣性的反應，它們如此習慣化，如此常規化，我們以爲不存在選擇。“事情只能這樣，”我們這麼想，然而，它們並非如此。
Tha…
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