..续本文上一页秒多次的变化、生起与流逝之中。一种心理状态相对同质的连续性——比如忧郁癥——可能会持续数秒甚至数分钟，但那种情绪流是由意识的不连续脉沖构成——中间每一个脉沖是有限持续的。人类心灵中没有什么是静态的，尽管习惯可以在生命历程中深深扎根。
A second discrepancy between appearances and reality is that certain mental states, such as joy and elation, may appear to be intrinsically satisfying, but upon more careful examination are found to be misleading. No mental state that arises from moment to moment in dependence upon sensory or intellectual stimuli is inherently satisfying. Every aff ective state is experienced as pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral only in relation to a complex of attitudes and desires. When these affective states of mind are passively observed from the wider perspective of the space of awareness, without identifying with them, they have no absolute, independent attributes of either pleasure or pain.
表象与现实之间的第二种差异在于，特定的心理状态比如快乐与得意可能产生于内在的满足，但基于更多细致的检验发现这是误导的。依赖感官或理智刺激的及时反馈生起的心理状态并非本来就是令人满意的。每一种情感状态只是经历涉及态度与欲求复合体的愉悦、不快或中性。当这些心智的情感状态是从对意识空间的广阔觉知而来的被动观测，而不认同它们，那么它们就失去了或愉快或痛苦的绝对的、独立的属性特征。
A third disparity between mental appearances and reality pertains to the fact that thoughts, emotions, and other mental phenomena seem to have an inherent personal quality. When strong identification with these processes occurs, one may feel that one”s very identity has become fused with them, and momentarily have the sense “I am angry, “ or “I am elated.” But with some skill in observing the contents of the mind, one fi nds that thoughts and mental images arise by themselves, with no voluntary intervention or control by a separate agent or self. Psychophysiological causes and conditions come together to generate these mental events, but there is no evidence that a separate “I” is among those causal infl uences. To be sure, some thoughts and desires do appear to be under the control of an autonomous self, but as expertise is gained in this practice, this illusion fades away, and everything that arises in the mind is seen to be a natural event, dependent upon impersonal causes and conditions, like everything else in nature.
意识显现与现实的第三个区别是有关这样的事实：思考，情绪或者其他精神现象似乎拥有一个内在个人素质。当这些过程特征明显发生时，人们就会感觉到自己已与这些精神现象融于一体，暂时会感到“我很高兴”、“我很开心”。但是通过某些技巧来观察意识的内容，人们会发现思考和意识的显现是它们自己产生的，并没有单独的一个代理或者自我来有意识地干预或者控制。心理生理原因和条件聚合，就会产生这些精神事件，但没有证据说明有一个单独的“我”存在这些随机的影响中。确切地说，一些思考与欲求确实似乎在一个隐藏的“我”的控制之下，但在这领域的专业知识判断，这样的错觉会最终消失。任何从意识中产生的东西被认为和自然界中的其他事物一样是一个自然事件，取决于非人为的原因和条件。
As noted previously, all usual kinds of experience, both sensory and introspective, are structured by memories, language, beliefs, and expectations, which cause us to assimilate even novel experiences, whether we want to or not. One of the names for the meditative practice I am describing here is “settling the mind in its natural state,” which implies a radical deconstruction of the ways we habitually classify, evaluate, and interpret experience. The Buddhist hypothesis in this regard is that it is possible to so profoundly settle the mind that virtually all thoughts and other mental constructs eventually become dormant. The result is not a trancelike, vegetative, or comatose state. On the contrary, it is a luminous, discerningly intelligent awareness in which the physical senses are withdrawn and the normal activities of the mind have subsided.17
正如前面所说，各种常有的体验(感官的或者内省的)都是由记忆、语言、信仰、和期望构成，其导致我们不管愿不愿意都会吸收更新奇的体验。对于我这里描述的冥想训练，其中有一个说法叫做“使意识处于其自然的状态”。其含义是指对我们通常归类、评价和理解的经历进行激烈的分解。对此，佛教认为让意识所产生的思考或者其他意识活动最终处于休眠状态是有可能的。其结果不是一种恍惚、呆板或者昏沉的状态。相反，它是一种澄明、能分辨的智力觉知，在这样的状态中，身体的感觉已经隐没了，意识的正常活动也隐没。
The culmination of this meditative process is the experience of the substrate consciousness (ālaya-vij.āna), which is characterized by three essential traits: bliss, luminosity, and nonconceptuality. The quality of bliss does not arise in response to any sensory stimulus, for the physical senses are dormant, as if one were deep asleep. No…
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