..续本文上一页on you. Then you have the right attitude for letting go of these things, abandoning them freely without looking back. This effort, this attitude, this movement of mind that inclines to giving up, is what will lead you into deep meditation. Even during the beginning stages of this meditation, see if you can generate the energy of renunciation, the willingness to give things away, and little by little the letting go will occur. As you give things away in your mind you will feel much lighter, unburdened and free. In the way of meditation, this abandoning of things occurs in stages, step by step.
我们禅修不是要发展出一颗积聚事物、抓持事物的心，我们是要发展出一颗愿意放下事物、愿意放下负担的心。在非禅修期间，我们须要肩负很多责任，就像带著很多重甸甸的手提箱一样，但在禅修时，这么多的行李是不必要的，所以，看看你在禅修时能把多少行李卸下。你把这些东西视为加诸你身上、把你压著的重物负担。这样，你便会有正确的态度来放下所有这些东西，大方爽快地舍弃，头也不回。这种精进努力、这种态度、这种转变，在一颗趣向离执的心中，将会引发出深层的禅定。即使在这种禅法的起步阶段，也请看看你能否生起引发舍离的精力，即那种放弃事物的意愿。这样，放下的意愿便会逐点儿地生起。当你在心内把东西放弃，你便会感到轻快得多、感到轻松自在。在修禅定的方法中，这种对事物的舍离会逐阶段地、逐步地生起。
You may go through the initial stages quickly if you wish, but be very careful if you do so. Sometimes, when you pass through the initial steps too quickly, you find the preparatory work has not been completed. It is like trying to build a town house on a very weak and rushed foundation. The structure goes up very quickly, but it comes down very quickly as well! So you are wise to spend a lot of time on the foundations, and on the ”first storeys” as well, making the groundwork well done, strong and firm. Then when you proceed to the higher storeys, the bliss states of meditation, they too are stable and firm.
若你喜欢，你可以快速完成起始阶段，但若这样做，务必要很小心。有些时候，当你太快通过起始步骤，你会发觉准备功夫还未完成。这就好像在一个很不稳固、很马虎的地基上建造大厦一样，楼宇很快建起，但亦会很快倒塌！因此，花多些时间於地基和第一层楼上，使基础工作做得牢固、坚稳、扎实，这才是明智的做法。然後，当你达到较高的层次时，禅定的妙乐状态亦会稳固扎实。
In the way that I teach meditation, I like to begin at the very simple stage of giving up the baggage of past and future. Sometimes you may think that this is such an easy thing to do, that it is too basic. However, if you give it your full effort, not running ahead to the higher stages of meditation until you have properly reached the first goal of sustained attention on the present moment, then you will find later on that you have established a very strong foundation on which to build the higher stages.
我教导禅修的方式，是喜欢从很简单的阶段开始，先要抛弃过去和未来这些包袱。有些时候，也许你会认为这有何难，太初阶了。可是，假如你肯全力以赴，不匆忙跃上较高的阶层，直至你真正达到第一目标，能把注意力保持在当下，这样，你随後便会发觉到，你已建立起一个十分坚稳的根基，可在其上建立更高的阶层。
Abandoning the past means not even thinking about your work, your family, your commitments, your responsibilities, your history, the good or bad times you had as a child .." you abandon all past experiences by showing no interest in them at all. You become someone who has no history during the time that you meditate. You do not even think about where you are from, where you were born, who your parents were or what your upbringing was like. All of that history is renounced in meditation. In this way, everyone here on the retreat becomes equal, just a meditator. It becomes unimportant how many years you have been meditating, whether you are an old hand or a beginner. If you abandon all that history then we are all equal and free. We are freeing ourselves of some of these concerns, perceptions and thoughts that limit us and which stop us from developing the peace born of letting go. So every ”part” of your history you finally let go of, even the history of what has happened to you so far in this retreat, even the memory of what happened to you just a moment ago! In this way, you carry no burden from the past into the present. Whatever has just happened, you are no longer interested in it and you let it go. You do not allow the past to reverberate in your mind.
抛弃过去的意思是，连你的工作、家庭、承担、责任、前尘往事、儿时的甘苦片段等等，也不去想，对所有过去的经历完全不感兴趣、全部抛弃掉，你於禅修时变成一个没有过去的人，甚至不去想你从何处来、生於何处、谁是你父母，或你的教养如何，所有这些过去经历在禅修时都要抛弃。这样，每一个参…
《正定初阶 The Basic Method of Meditation》全文未完，请进入下页继续阅读…