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　　有些人以佛像为集中精神的目标，有些人关注在入出息念，面无论用什么方法，他肯定会发现禅定能令他获得轻松和宁静。禅定对其它方面的帮助也很多，如：身体健康、心理愉快。禅定在必要时，也能帮助我们控制自己的心念。

　　Man can do the highest service to the society by simply abstaining from evils. The cultured mind that is developed through meditation performs a most useful service to others. Meditation is not simply a waste of man”s valuable time. The advanced mind of a meditator can solve so many human problems and is very useful to enlighten others. Meditation is very useful to help a person live peacefully despite various disturbances that are so prevalent in this modern world. We cannot be expected to retire to a jungle or forest to live in ivory towers

　　”far from the madding crowd”. By practising right meditation we can have an abode for temporary oblivion. Meditation has the purpose of training a person to face, understand and conquer this very world in which we live. Meditation teaches us to adjust ourselves to bear with the numerous obstacles to life in the modern world.

　　人类能以谢绝恶行这种简单的方式为社会做出高度的贡献。通过禅定开展的文明心念，对服务他人是最有效的。禅定并不浪费时间，禅修者的精进心解决了很多困扰，同时也对启发他人有很大的帮助。纵使生活在烦恼多多的现代社会，禅定也有助于人获得宁静的生活。在这人口密集，充满烦恼的现代社会里，我们无法企望到树林、山野去过那种远离尘嚣的生活──象牙塔的生活，禅定不是逃避主义，它不一定要求要隐藏自己才能获得宁静，禅定讲求的是通过训练心识去面对、去了解、去战胜尘俗的生活。我们必须学习调整自己，来承受在这世界过禅定生活的种种障碍。

　　Some people practise meditation in order to satisfy their material desires; they want to further their material gains. They want to use meditation to get better jobs. They want to earn more money or to operate their business more efficiently. Perhaps they fail to understand that the aim of meditation is not to increase but to decrease desires. Materialistic motives are hardly suitable for proper meditation, the goal of which lies beyond worldly affairs. One should meditate to try to attain something that even money cannot buy or bring.

　　If you practice meditation, you can learn to behave like a gentleman even though you are disturbed by others. Through meditation you can learn how to relax the body and to calm the mind; you can learn to be tranquil and happy within.

　　Just as an engine gets overheated and damaged when it is run for a prolonged period and requires cooling down to overcome this, so also the mind gets overtaxed when we subject it to a sustained degree of mental effort and it is only through meditation that relaxation or cooling can be achieved. Meditation strengthens the mind to control human emotion when it is disturbed by negative thoughts and feelings such as jealousy, anger, pride and envy.

　　有些人修禅是为了满足物质欲望，利用禅定获得工作或赚取更多的金钱。他们不了解禅定的意义，禅定不是为了增长，而是为了减少欲望，物欲的动机不适合于禅定。禅定的目的是超越世间的，追求那些非金钱能够买到的，或他人不能提供的精神领域。在修禅时受到他人骚扰，要以绅士的风度，冷静的面对他。透过修禅你将学会如何放松自己和使自己的内心安宁，你将获得宁静和愉快的内在。在修禅时，你会否定某些思想和感觉，如：嫉妒、嗔恚、傲慢、和羡慕等等，从而学到如何控制自己的心识。

　　If you practise meditation, you can learn to make the proper decision when you are at a cross-roads in life and are at a loss as to which way to turn. These qualities cannot be purchased from anywhere. No amount of money or property can buy these qualities, yet you attain them through meditation. And finally the ultimate object of Buddhist meditation is to eradicate all defilements from the mind and to attain the final goal--Nibbana.

　　如果你修学禅定，你将学会如何在迷失方向的十字路口，做出适当的决定。如果你修学禅定，你将会发展自己的涵养，涵养不是金钱能够买到的。佛教徒修学禅定的目的，是从心中涤除所有的污秽，从而达到终极的目标──涅槃。

　　Nowadays, however, the practice of meditation has been abused by people. They want immediate and quick results, just as they expect quick returns for everything they do in daily life. In Buddhism, as is the case with other eastern cultures, patience is a most important quality. The mind must be brought under control in slow degrees and one should not try to reach for the higher states without proper training. We have heard of over-enthusiastic young men and women literally going out of their minds because they adopted the wrong attitudes towards meditation. Meditation is a gentle way of conquering the defilements which pollute the mind. If people want ”success” or ”achievement” to boast to others that they have attained this or that level of meditation, they are abusing the method of mental culture. One must be trained in morality and one must clearly understand that to be successful in the discipline of meditation worldly achievement must not be equated with spiritual development. Ideally, it is good to work under an experienced teacher who will help his student to develop along the right path. But above all one must never be in a hurry to achieve too much too quickly.

　　今天，禅定已被人们滥用，他们想即刻获得成就，有如在他们日常生活中所得到的一样。在佛教和其它东方文化一致认为耐心是修学禅定的最重要因素。我们必须按步就班的控制我们自己的心识，我们不应该要求不通过专心训练，就想达到最高的境界，我们理解到某些人对禅定抱着错误的观念。禅定是以一种温驯的方式来克服我们心灵的烦恼。如果修禅是为了炫耀我们的成就，就是在滥用禅定。修学禅定必须以道德为基础，并清楚的了解禅定必须在有经验老师的指点下，才能在正道有所发展。总的来说，我们修学禅定，不能渴求在短期内获得最大利益。

《现代生活的本质 Nature of Modern Life》全文阅读结束。