..续本文上一页有关。在一些文本，它意指符合道德戒律的行为；有些文本则是指戒律本身；还有一些文本是指由遵守戒律所产生的美德。就「 sila」作为「戒律」或「原则」的意义而言，它呈显了道德训练的形式面向：作为「德行」的意义而言，代表了精神的提升；而作为「正当行为」的意义而言，则是生活中的美德展现。通常，「sila」被正式地定义为禁绝不善的言行。由于这项定义的重点放在外在行为，看起来似乎有些肤浅。然而，另一种解释却弥补了这个缺点，也显示「 sila」的意义比它给人的第一印象来得丰富。举例来说，阿毘达摩将「 sila」等同于三离心所 —正语、正业、正命，在将两者画上等号时，无疑也清楚说明了：藉由道德戒律所耕耘的，乃是心灵。因此，持戒不仅可以禁止不利于社会的行为，带来「公共」利益；另一方面，它也能为个人带来心灵净化的利益，指导我们所应该遵循的行为，让我们避免受到染污。
The English word “morality” and its derivatives suggest a sense of obligation and constraint quite foreign to the Buddhist conception of sila; this connotation probably enters from the theistic background to Western ethics. Buddhism, with its non-theistic framework, grounds its ethics, not on the notion of obedience, but on that of harmony. In fact, the commentaries explain the word sila by another word, samadhana, meaning “harmony” or “coordination.”
「morality」这个英文字及其衍生字，意味着某种义务或限制，对于佛教戒的概念来说，这是相当陌生的意涵。「 morality」的这种隐含意义，可能是在有神论的背景之下进入西方伦理学的。而佛教的架构是无神论，它以「和谐」 —而不以「服从」的概念 —作为其伦理学的基础。事实上，注释书中以另一个字来解释「戒」：samadhana，意即「和谐」或「协调」。
The observance of sila leads to harmony at several levels — social, psychological, kammic, and contemplative. At the social level the principles of sila help to establish harmonious interpersonal relations, welding the mass of differently constituted members of society with their own private interests and goals into a cohesive social order in which conflict, if not utterly eliminated, is at least reduced. At the psychological level sila brings harmony to the mind, protection from the inner split caused by guilt and remorse over moral transgressions. At the kammic level the observance of sila ensures harmony with the cosmic law of kamma, hence favorable results in the course of future movement through the round of repeated birth and death. And at the fourth level, the contemplative, sila helps establish the preliminary purification of mind to be completed, in a deeper and more thorough way, by the methodical development of serenity and insight.
遵守戒之后，可以在数种层次上达成和谐：社会上、心理上、业报上以及禅观上。在社会层次上，戒有助于建立和谐的人际关系，将一群从属于不同团体、各自具有私人利益与目标的乌合之众，整合在一个协同的社会秩序之下，其中的冲突若非完全被消弭，也至少能减少。在心理层次上，戒带来心灵和谐，让人免于因僭越道德的罪恶感及悔恨，造成内在分裂。在业报层次上，遵守戒，可以确保与「业」的宇宙法则维持和谐，因此，在未来的生死轮回中，将可以得到善果。在禅观的层次上，藉由循序渐进地培养平静与内观，戒以一种深刻而全面的方式协助我们完成初步的心灵净化。
When briefly defined, the factors of moral training are usually worded negatively, in terms of abstinence. But there is more to sila than refraining from what is wrong. Each principle embedded in the precepts, as we will see, actually has two aspects, both essential to the training as a whole. One is abstinence from the unwholesome, the other commitment to the wholesome; the former is called “avoidance” (varitta) and the latter “performance” (caritta). At the outset of training the Buddha stresses the aspect of avoidance. He does so, not because abstinence from the unwholesome is sufficient in itself, but to establish the steps of practice in proper sequence. The steps are set out in their natural order (more logical than temporal) in the famous dictum of the Dhammapada: “To abstain from all evil, to cultivate the good, and to purify one”s mind — this is the teaching of the Buddhas” (v. 183). The other two steps — cultivating the good and purifying the mind — also receive their due, but to ensure their success, a resolve to avoid the unwholesome is a necessity. Without such a resolve the attempt to develop wholesome qualities is bound to issue in a warped and stunted pattern of growth.
简单来说，道德训练的面向通常是以否定、禁止的词汇来表达，但戒的意涵却比「不做错的事」来得丰富许多。我们将会看到，在戒律中的每项原则实际上都有两个面向，而它们对于整体训练是同样重要的：一个是弃绝不善法；另一个是致力于善法。前者谓之「止持」(varitta)；后者谓之「作持」(caritta)。在刚开始修行时，佛陀强调的是「止持」的面向。他之所以如此教导，并非因为弃绝不善法本身便已足够，而是希望能藉此建立一套适切的修行次第。这些次第是依它们自然的呈显顺序排列的(比时间上的顺序排列更具逻辑性)，它们出现在有名的《法句经》中：「诸恶莫作，众善奉行，自净其意，是诸佛教。」除了诸恶莫作之外，其他的两个步骤 —众善奉行，自净其意 —也都有它们的重要性，但为了确保它们的成功，决志弃绝不善法是必须的。没有这样的决心，发展善的品质的…
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