萬佛聖城南傳禅七期間阿摩羅比丘
開示
Talk by Ven. Ajahn Amaro
Sanghapala Vipassana Retreat at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas
一九九二年七月一日 July 1, 1991
國際譯經學院記錄 Translated by Theresa Kung
早期的佛教徒似有這種與世隔絕、自我解脫的傾向，使得佛教日趨貧乏，蒙上一層否定與虛無的色彩。後來印度的佛教界出現了一股反抗的力量，爲佛教注入了新生命，突破陳舊自閉的心態，趨向慈悲爲懷，廣度衆生的北傳大乘佛教，而且日後更不斷成長並發揚光大。
我曾對自己說：「縱然我必須輪回億萬次，只要在這億萬生中，我能夠幫助到一個人，那麼這億萬生就沒有白過。」如此類的思想，不斷在心中湧出，我突然間感覺到難以形容的喜悅及解脫，億萬生的痛苦輪回只爲了幫助一個人，聽起來似乎是不值得的，但卻使我從自私的監牢中解放出來，而得到無上的喜樂。
在修行大乘佛教時，無論是如何的慈悲喜舍，如果修行的階段僅止于「我奉獻出我的生命來拯救其他有情」，只要仍然有人我的分別，終會遭遇障礙，而感到孤立而了無意義。因此，我們要用禅定的方法來使自己融人利他的境界。佛許多的教導都是以「無我」 「空」爲中心，但若是無我了，誰是將愛心散布到世界的人？誰是那個傳播慈愛的人？又還有誰是那個接受者呢？可見有某種層次的覺悟和存在是超越人我分別的，如果我們不能超越這種分別，那麼無論有多麼崇高的理想，終究不是圓滿的。
佛指示我們不要嘗試對覺者下定義，因爲我們所能思考的任何定義都是相對的、不完整的。無論是在南、北傳的經典中，佛都告訴我們，最終的處事態度是不執著，真正對真理的覺悟，常住于覺中，而不是采取任何思考形式或理想化的立場。這方是我們的皈依。皈依佛，本身即是覺。所以任何與我們身體、感覺、性格、年齡、國籍、煩惱、才能等有關的都只是一些附屬于有爲世界的特質，都是有起落生滅的。修行的目的即是要常住于對這些事物的覺之中。
但是若想在率性而爲的生活中去證空，即是說你必須明了追求欲望所隨之而來的沮喪與失望亦是空。這些都是相對的：你不能只沈湎于逸樂而不顧及它的反面。就像抓住一個輪子，快樂的時候轉上來，但輪子終有轉向下的時候。我不是要貶低任何人，但根據我自己多次的經驗而言，在高處時是無心放手的，或縱然想放手也不能。我們看到許多的佛教徒偏向對某種傳統的外表形式的認同，小乘佛教在過去幾世紀以來，陷入了心胸狹窄、獨善其身、對生命否定的虛無主義，以及與之俱來的空虛感中。大乘佛教則流于空泛的理想主義，缺乏實質，好似個冠冕堂皇的道具。大乘經典中充滿了非常具啓發性的上妙經文，但大乘佛教卻往往止于理想。許多人也不遵照實行：他們的行爲所表現的是心胸狹窄、自私和迷信。至于金剛乘則執著于神通，傾向放縱並過份講究繁文缛節。由此可見，光是將自己與某一團體相提並論是不夠的。
我們要知道，我們的存在和生命中的各個階段都與一切衆生息息相關。縱然我們或許可以認知並體驗到純淨的智慧，處于無時、空、自我的覺地，從這個層次來觀察生命，但其他衆生並不一定也能有同樣的見地。佛教的修行就是一條將我們所有不同程度的存在，都連結在一起的道路。
(Continued from August 1992 Issue 267)
This is probably why the Mahayana school gained such strength in India because it seems that the Buddhism of early centuries did drift very much toward isolationism and the Sangha practicing in a very elitist way built around salvation for oneself with no real concern for others. This brought a sterility and negativity, a nihilism into the teaching, and so as a revolt against that the more expansive, benevolent, generous and open-hearted teaching gained enormous strength in the early centuries. And after the Buddha”s time, what is now called the Mahayana, or Northern tradition, sprang up from that. It was a breaking out from the limited, narrow-minded view.
Once, I started saying to myself, "Well, I don”t care whether I feel even a moment of happiness for myself in this life; I don”t care if I have to be reborn ten thousand million times. If I can do one kind act for one person in a thousand million lifetimes, then all that time will not have been wasted." Thoughts like this began to come up spontaneously in my mind, and I suddenly felt an incredible joy and happiness and a feeling of relief, which is kind of strange if you think about ten thousand million lifetimes of ineffective activity and complete pain and boredom. This could be a pretty strange deal. But the result was a vibrant joy and delight. It was the breaking out of the prison of self-concern.
Even in Mahayana Buddhism which is outgoing, geared very much toward altruism, generosity, compassion, developing a spiritual life for the sake of all beings, still if our practice stops at the state of, me giving my life to help all others, even if this is highly developed, at the end of it there”s still ME and YOU--me who is helping all sentient beings. Even in that respect, even though there can be a lot of joy, you still find this barrier, a sense of isolation or meaninglessness. There”s a separation there. So, it is important to use the meditation practice to practice to not just absorb into altruistic thoughts and feelings, because, if you notice, a lot of the Buddha”s teachings revolve around selflessness, around emptiness, like the teachings on Anatta, on No-Self. If there is no self who is it who”s going to be radiating kindness over the entire world
If there”s no self, then who is sending Metta and who is there to send it to
One then sees that there is a level…
《萬佛聖城南傳禅七期間阿摩羅比丘 Sanghapala Vipassana Retreat at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas》全文未完，請進入下頁繼續閱讀…