..续本文上一页时间来评论刚刚发生了甚么事。心念思想通常都是对刚刚发生的事情的想法，例如「那很好啊」、「那真恶心呀」、「那是甚么？」这些评论都是有关刚刚出现过的经验。当你在用心观记标名 (noting)，为刚刚出现过的经验作出评论，那你便不是在注意著刚刚到来的经验，你是在招呼旧客人，忽略了此时到来的新访客！
You may imagine your mind to be a host at a party, meeting the guests as they come in the door. If one guest comes in and you meet them and start talking to them about this that or the other, then you are not doing your duty of paying attention to the next guest that comes in the door. Because a guest comes in the door every moment, all you can do is to greet one and then immediately go on to greet the next one. You cannot afford to engage in even the shortest conversation with any guest, since this would mean you would miss the one coming in next. In meditation, all experiences come through the door of our senses into the mind one by one in succession. If you greet one experience with mindfulness and then get into conversation with your guest, then you will miss the next experience following right behind.
你可想像你的心是一个派对的主人，在门边恭候宾客到来。如果有位宾客来到，你款待他，开始跟他攀谈这些那些，那么你便没有尽本分来欢迎新来到门前的客人了。由於每个刹那都有宾客来到门前，你所能做的便是迎接了一位，然後立即迎接下一位。即使是跟客人作最短暂的交谈，你也赔不上，因为这即表示你将会忽略到来的下一位。在禅修方面，所有经验都是一个接一个经我们的感官之门进入我们心内，假如你以念住来迎接一个经验，然後跟这位客人攀谈，那你便会忽略了紧随在後的下一个经验。
When you are perfectly in the moment with every experience, with every guest that comes in your mind, then you just do not have the space for inner speech. You cannot chatter to yourself because you are completely taken up with mindfully greeting everything just as it arrives in your mind. This is refined present moment awareness to the level that it becomes silent awareness of the present in every moment.
当每一个经验到来你都是完全留守在当下，迎接著每一位来到你心内的客人，那你便不会有空来作内部讲话，你不能和自己唠叨，因为你正专心以念住来迎接每一个刚刚来到心内的对象而不能抽身，这便是精炼了的当下觉知，在每个刹那中都有的当下的默然觉知。
You discover, on developing that degree of inner silence, that this is like giving up another great burden. It is as if you have been carrying a big heavy. rucksack on your back for forty or fifty years continuously, and during that time you have wearily trudged through many, many miles. Now you have had the courage and found the wisdom to take that rucksack off and put it on the ground for a while. One feels so immensely relieved, so light, so free, because one is now not burdened with that heavy rucksack of inner chatter.
在发展这种层次的内部静默时，你发现到就像放下另一个大负担一样，这就好像一直背负著一个庞大沉重的背囊四十或五十年，期间疲惫地走了很多里路，而现在却有勇气也找到智慧来卸下它，把它搁在地下一会儿。你感到多么的宽慰、多么的轻松、多么的自在，因为你现在不是被那重甸甸的内部唠叨背囊所重压著。
_Another useful method of developing silent awareness is to recognize the space between thoughts, between periods of inner chatter. Please attend closely with sharp mindfulness when one thought ends and before another thought begins-There! That is silent awareness! It may be only momentary at first, but as you recognize that fleeting silence you become accustomed to it, and as you become accustomed to it then the silence lasts longer. You begin to enjoy the silence, once you have found it at last, and that is why it grows. But remember silence is shy. If silence hears you talking about her, she vanishes immediately!
发展默然觉知的另一个有用的方法便是观出思想与思想之间的空间、在每一段内部唠叨之间的空间。如果你以敏锐的念住紧密地注意著，当一个心念思想完结，在另一个心念思想开始之前——瞧！那就是默然觉知了！它最初可能只是刹那间的，但随著你认识到那种一闪而过的静默，你会习惯它；当你习惯了它，它便会持续久些。当你最终发现到静默，你便会开始享受那种静默，这就是它会生长的原因。但要记住，静默很害羞，如果静默听到你在谈论她，她便会立刻消失！
It would be marvelous for each one of us if we could abandon the inner speech and abide in silent awareness of the present moment long enough to realize how delightful it is. Silence is so much more productive of wisdom and clarity than thinking. When you realize how much more enjoyable and valuable it is to be silent within, then silence becomes more attractive and important to you. The Inner Silence becomes what the mind inclines towards. The mind seeks out silence constantly, to the point where it only thinks if it really has to, only if there i…
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