..续本文上一页f-centredness. So we ought to start taking an interest in non-attachment right this very minute, each of us at the level most appropriate for us. If you fail in an examination there is no need to weep. Determine to start again and do your best. If you pass an examination you should not become carried away; you should realize that this is the normal way of things. This will then mean that there has arisen some understanding of non-grasping and non- clinging.

　　当应考时，你应该忘记自己。好好注意！开始答题时，你应该忘记自己，忘记“我”将通过考试或考不及格。考试前，你可以预想如何按照计划进行以通过考试；但只要你一开始写，就必须忘记那一切，只有专注(定)分析问题找出答案，空掉通过或失败的“我”、“我所有”，心就会立刻轻快清净，快速记起、思考敏捷，所以专注(定)应考会得到好成绩。应考时，若应用“空心”或“不执著”的方法 ，你会得到好成绩。

　　When you are sitting for an examination, you should forget about yourself. Take good note of this! When starting to write an examination answer, you should forget about being yourself. Forget about the “me” who is being examined and who will pass or fail. You may think beforehand of how to go about passing the examination and plan accordingly, but as soon as you start to write, you must forget all that. Leave only concentration, which will pierce through the questions and seek out the answers. A mind free of any “me” or “mine” who will pass or fail immediately comes up agile and clean. It remembers immediately and thinks keenly. So sitting for an examination with proper concentration will produce good results. This is how to apply cit waang (a mind free of the self- illusion), or Buddhist non-grasping and non-clinging, when sitting for examinations. In this way you will get good results.

　　不知利用这技巧的人常会担忧失败，他们太紧张而无法回忆学过的内容，无法写出正确而有条理的答案，结果他们彻底失败。

　　另一种人被“我是卓越的，我必定会通过”的想法冲昏了头，被这种执著冲昏头的学生也必定考不好，因为他缺乏“空心”。

　　有“空心”的人，内心没有“我”、“我所有”介入，所以不会恐慌或过度自信，只有维持专注(定)——自然的力量，完全忘记“自我”而能顺利通过考试。就“不执著”、“空心”的成果而言，这是初步的、最基本的例子。

　　Those who don”t know how to make use of this technique always feel anxious about failing. They become so nervous that they are unable to call to mind what they have learned. They can not write accurate and orderly answers. Consequently they fail thoroughly. Others become carried away by the idea that “I am brilliant, I am certain to pass.” A student carried away by this sort of grasping and clinging is also bound to do poorly, because he lacks cit waang. On the other hand, for the “person” with cit waang there is no “me” or “mine” involved, so he cannot become panicky or over-confident. There remains only concentration, which is a natural power. Entirely forgetting about self, he can pass well. This is an elementary, most basic example of the effect of non-attachment and of cit waang.

　　现在愚蠢和迷惑的人一听到寺院讲堂提到“空”(sunnata)这个字，就解释成“虚空”或“什么都没有”，那是某些团体唯物论的观点所作的错误诠释。佛陀所说的“空”是：我们执著为永久实体或“自我”的一切都不存在，虽然，每件事物都仍完整地存在着，如果我们执著，就苦；如果不执著，就不苦了。

　　世间是“空”的，因为没有什么可以被执取，我们必须以无执无著的心应对这“空”的世界。如果我们想要些什么，须以无执无著的心追求，这样我们会得到想要的东西，而不会使它成为痛苦的来源。

　　Now a stupid and deluded person, as soon as he hears the word su..ata mentioned in temple lecture halls, translates it as “utter emptiness or nothingness”. That is the materialistic interpretation and is how certain groups of people understand it. The su..ata of the Buddha means absence of anything that we should grasp at and cling to as being an abiding entity or self, although physically everything is there in its entirety. If we cling, there is dukkha; if we do not cling, there is freedom from dukkha. The world is described as empty because there is nothing whatsoever that we might have a right to grasp at. We must cope with this empty world with a mind that does not cling. If we want something, we must go after it with a mind free from grasping, so that we get the desired object without it becoming a source of suffering.

　　光是误解“空”这个字，就是大迷信(戒禁取结)，它不但会中断人的思考，而且是抵达涅槃流的大障碍。所以让我们正确地、彻底地了解“空”义和其他佛陀所用的字，因为没有任何东西可被当成“自我”，所以他说世间是“空”。佛陀曾回答莫伽(Mogha)国王的问题说：“时常观察世间为“空”，时常观察世间所包含的一切为“空”。”观一切为“空”，心会自动放下执著，而不再生起贪、瞋、痴，若能成功地止息贪、瞋、痴，就能成为阿罗汉，如果未成功，必须继续尝试，虽然仍是一般凡夫，将只剩下一点点痛苦。只要有“空心”，就不会产生痛苦，虽然失去正念时又会痛苦，但如果我们能好好守护心，持续地增长、扩充内心的“空”，就能体悟涅槃流，进入佛教的核心。

　　Misunderstanding the word “empty”, just this one single word, is a great superstition (sīlappata-parāmāsa) and constitutes a major obstacle to people attaining the Stream of Nibbāna. So let us understand the word “empty”, and all other words used by the Buddha, properly and completely. He described the world as empty because there is nothing in it which can be taken as a self or ego. He answered King Mogha”s question by saying, “Always regard the world as something empty. Always look on this world with all that it contains as something empty.” Viewing it as empty, the mind automatically becomes free of grasping and clinging. There can not arise lust, hatred, and delusion. To succeed in doing this is to be an arahant. If one has not succeeded in doing it, one has to keep on trying; though still an ordinary worldling, one will have less suffering. No suffering arises as long as there is cit waang. Whenever one becomes carried away and lapses, there is suffering again. If we keep good watch, producing emptiness (of self-idea) more and more often and lastingly, we come to penetrate to the core of Buddhism, and come to know the Stream of Nibbāna.

　　[译注一]一百沙丹(satang)等于一铢。

　　* 100 satang equal 1 baht.

《怎样才能称为抵达‘涅槃流’？ What is it to attain the Stream of Nibbāna

　　》全文阅读结束。