(４０)接下来，关于“神通”(iddhi)的问题是：
“我们要对神通关心到什么程度？”
40) Next, concerning what are called iddhis (psychic powers) the question is,
40) “How far should we take interest in these things called iddhis
”
首先，我们该谈谈iddhi本身。iddhi 这个字的意思是“能力”。它原本是日常用字。被引用于具有某种能力，可促成事物圆满完成的东西，任何东西只要具有促进事物圆满成功的力量，就称为iddhi。
后来它的意思被引申，包括以神奇的、不可思议的方式成就某事，最后我们发现iddhi的用法变成专指心灵现象。iddhi一旦演变成心灵现象，就具有孳生和改善的特性，使它远比任何物质更神通广大。
iddhi就像省力的器具，现在我们有牵引拖车，能在短时间内修筑许多马路，这也称为iddhi，但这是物质的奇迹。在这里我们所谈论的iddhi则与心有关，是心灵的，而非物质的。
FIRST OF ALL, we shall say something about the iddhis themselves. The word iddhi means “power”. It was originally an everyday word, a household term applied to things with the ability to promote success in perfectly normal ways. Anything with the ability to promote success was called an iddhi. The meaning was then extended to cover success in marvellous, miraculous ways, until we come across the sort of iddhis that are exclusively mental phenomena. Because they are mental, they have productive and beneficial properties that render them far more marvellous and wide-ranging than anything physical. They are like our labour-saving devices. Nowadays we have tractors that can build roads and so on. These too would have been called iddhis. But these are physical marvels. The iddhis we are concerned with here have to do with the mind; they are mental, not physical.
神通专家能训练自己的心，具备以下的能力：使人经验他要他们感觉的；使人亲眼看到他要他们看的；使人清晰的听到他要他们听的；使人闻到他要他们闻的；使人经验尝的感觉就好像真正用舌头品尝一般；使人仿佛亲由皮肤去感觉软、硬和其他触觉。除了这些之外，还可再扩展——使人心里不由自主地感到恐惧、爱和任何心灵状态。
An exponent of iddhis (psychic powers) has trained his mind to such a degree that he can cause other people to experience whatever sensations he wishes to have them feel. He can cause others to see things with their own eyes just as he wishes them to see, to hear clearly and distinctly such sounds as he wishes them to hear, to smell just as he wishes them to smell, to experience taste sensations as if really experiencing them with the tongue, and to feel as if through the skin softness, hardness, and other such tactile stimuli. The process can then be extended until the demonstrator is able to cause the other person to experience fear, love or any mental state without realizing why.
神通真是有用了！太妙了！因为它能使人经验他要他们感觉的。但是这种心灵现象并不能制造物质，换句话说，超自然力量无法变现任何实用的物质，它不可能变现比丘的茅蓬、殿堂、饭菜，而让他的生活没问题，这种事不可能发生。这些眼、耳、鼻、舌、身、意所经验和出现的现象，也只有在显神通时存在，过后它们就消失了。所以，神通无法建茅蓬、盖殿堂，而必须由家护法建造供养，例如祇园精舍(Jetavana)和迦兰陀竹园(Veluvana)就是居士建来供养佛陀的。佛陀也有几次因为饥荒没有食物，必须吃乾马麦，而且一天只有一把[译注一]。这启示我们物质和心灵是两个不同的领域，而二种都可能显神通。
The iddhis are thus extremely useful and quite wonderful.But this kind of mental phenomenon does not produce physical things. The psychic powers are incapable of creating real physical things of any practical value. They alone can”t create bhikkhu”s huts, temples, rice, fish, or food, so that one might live without any problems. This sort of thing can”t happen. The objects appear to exist or are experienced as existing in eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, or mind for only as long as the iddhi is being demonstrated. There after they disappear. So the iddhis are not capable of building a hut or a temple by themselves. There definitely has to be a lay supporter to build and offer it. For instance, Jetavana and Veluvana had to be built and offered to the Buddha. And several times the Buddha went without food because of famine and had to eat rice set out as horse feed, and only a handful of it a day.This serves to remind us that the physical and mental are two distinct and different realms. It is possible to demonstrate iddhis of both types.
佛陀没有否认心灵的神通，但他极力反对显这类神通，因为它们只不过是幻象罢了，所以他禁止比丘们显神通，自己也戒除显神通。在巴利经典中，我们并没有发现佛陀显神通的记载，而有关佛陀显神通的记载，都出现在论书和后期的典籍中，虽然我们不必去判断它们是真是假，但这些记载的真实性实在令人怀疑。
The Buddha did not deny mental iddhis, but he strongly disapproved of demonstrating them because they are mere illusions. He the…
《我们要对神通关心到什么程度？How far should we take interest in these things called iddhis
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