..续本文上一页 got the ten thousand baht, one suddenly wants to get a hundred thousand baht. No sooner has one got the hundred thousand baht, it”s a mil Going after something intelligently is not craving: then one is not a peta; one is simply doing lion baht that one wants, or a hundred million. It is a case of chasing and never catching. One has all the symptoms of chronic hunger. One further resembles a hungry ghost in having a stomach as big as a mountain and a mouth as small as a needle”s eye. The intake is never sufficient for the hunger, so one is all the time a peta. The peta”s direct opposite is the person who, on getting ten satang *, is content with getting just the ten satang, or on getting twenty satang is content with twenty. But don”t get the idea that being easily satisfied like this means one falls into decline and stops looking for things. Intelligence tells one what has to be done, and one goes about doing it the right way. In this way, one is filled to satisfaction every time one goes after something. One enjoys the seeking and then is satisfied. This is how to live without being a peta, that is, without being chronically hungry. Going after something with craving constitutes being a peta. what has to be done.
因此，希求灭苦的“欲”不是烦恼贪染。别把“欲”说成爱欲或贪染而误导别人，爱欲或贪染必定是来自愚痴的“欲”；甚至求证涅槃的“欲”，如果是由于愚痴——疯狂盲目地追求，而全然无知地修习内观，就是烦恼贪染，这无知将导致痛苦，因为它充满执著。反之，如果有人想证涅槃，他如实观照苦和灭苦之道，且正确、直接、认真地学习内观，这种想证涅槃的“欲”就不是烦恼贪染，也不是苦。所以，“欲”不全然是烦恼贪染，全看它源自何处，如果源于无明或烦恼，那追求无厌的现象就会像长期饥饿，这样处在长期饥饿的状态，我们称它为化生的饿鬼。
Thus, a wish such as the wish to extinguish suffering is not craving. Don”t go telling people the wrong thing, spreading the word that mere wishing is craving or greed. To be craving or greed it must be a wish stemming from stupidity. The wish to attain nibbāna is a craving, if pursued with foolishness, infatuation, and pride. Going for lessons in insight meditation without knowing what it is all about is craving and greed; it is ignorance that leads to suffering because it is full of grasping and clinging. However, if a person wishes to attain nibbāna, after clearly and intelligently perceiving suffering and the means whereby it can be extinguished, and in this frame of mind steadily and earnestly learns about insight meditation in the right way, then such a wish to attain nibbāna is not craving, and it is not suffering. So wishing is not necessarily always craving. It all depends on where it has its origin. If it stems from ignorance or the defilements, the symptoms will be similar to those of chronic hunger — that chasing without ever catching. We speak of this chronically hungry condition as spontaneous rebirth as a hungry ghost (peta).
最后的恶道是阿修罗。首先解释“阿修罗”(asura)这个词：“修罗”(sura)意思是“勇敢”，“阿”(a)意思是“不”，“阿修罗”的意思即是“不勇敢”或“胆怯懦弱”。请大家注意：人一旦没来由地胆怯，就化生为阿修罗。例如惧怕无害的小蜥蜴、千足虫或蚯蚓，是不应该的，是一种痛苦；若人常有不必要的恐惧，或忧虑过多而生恐惧，就生为阿修罗。
每个人都怕死，但我们会恐惧死亡是由于自己把真实情况以十万倍、百万倍夸大而成的，这种恐惧一直折磨人。人正因为害怕坠地狱，而成为阿修罗；于是就真的每天坠四恶道，日复一日、月复一月、年复一年。如果我们现在行为正当，不坠入这种四恶道，我们就能确保死后不会坠入刻画在寺院墙上的四恶道。
The last Woeful State is the realm of the asuras (cowardly demons). First to explain the word asura: sura means “brave”, a means “not”, thus asura means “not brave” or “cowardly”. Take it that whenever one is cowardly without reason, one has been spontaneously reborn an asura. Being afraid of harmless little lizards, millipedes, or earthworms is unjustified fear and a form of suffering. To be afraid unnecessarily, or to be afraid of something as a result of pondering too much on it, is to be reborn as an asura. We all fear death, but our fear is made a hundred or a thousand times greater by our own exaggeration of the danger. Fear torments a person all the time. He is afraid of falling into hell and in so doing becomes an asura. Thus he is actually falling into the Four Woeful States every day, day after day, month after month, ye…
《怎样才能称为抵达‘涅槃流’？ What is it to attain the Stream of Nibbāna
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