印证心灵真谛——佛教的“厌离”与“清净”
[作者] 坦尼沙罗尊者
[中译]良稹
Affirming the Truths of the HeartThe Buddhist Teachings on Samvega & Pasadaby Ven. Thanissaro Bhikkhu
We rarely think of Buddhism as an emotional religion. Early Buddhism in particular is often depicted as centered more in the upper left quadrant of the head than in the heart. But if you look closely at the tradition, you”ll find that from the very beginning it has been fueled by a deeply felt emotional core.
我们很少把佛教看成一门感性宗教，尤其早期佛教常被形容为，其重点在脑左前部，非在于心 。不过，你若仔细审视这个传统，会发现其原动力从一开始便以深切的感性为核心。
Think back for a moment on the story of the young Prince Siddhartha and his first encounters with aging, illness, death, and a wandering contemplative. It”s one of the most accessible chapters in the Buddhist tradition, largely because of the direct, true-to-the-heart quality of the young prince”s emotions. He saw aging, illness, and death as an absolute terror, and pinned all his hopes on the contemplative forest life as his only escape. As Asvaghosa, the great Buddhist poet, depicts the story, the young prince had no lack of friends and family members who tried to talk him out of those perceptions, and Asvaghosa was wise enough to show their life-affirming advice in a very appealing light. Still, the prince realized that if he were to give in to their advice, he would be betraying his heart. Only by remaining true to his honest emotions was he able to embark on the path that led away from the ordinary values of his society and toward an unsurpassed Awakening into the Deathless.
让我们回想一下年轻的悉达多王子初次面对老、病、死、与丛林游方者的故事。它之成为佛教传统中最广为人知的章节之一，主要在于体现了年轻王子内心情感的直接与真切。他视老、病、死为怖畏之极，寄一切希望于丛林梵行这条唯一的解脱之道。据佛教大诗人马鸣对这个故事的叙述，王子身边试劝他放弃己见的亲友不乏其众，作者足有智慧地把世俗人生观描绘得引人入胜。尽管如此，王子意识到，屈服于劝解等于背叛自己的真心。惟有继续诚实地面对这些真切情感，他才得以踏上远离世俗价值、超越生死的觉悟之路。
This is hardly a life-affirming story in the ordinary sense of the term, but it does affirm something more important than life: the truth of the heart when it aspires to a happiness absolutely pure. The power of this aspiration depends on two emotions, called in Pali samvega and pasada. Very few of us have heard of them, but they”re the emotions most basic to the Buddhist tradition. Not only did they inspire the young prince in his quest for Awakening, but even after he became the Buddha he advised his followers to cultivate them on a daily basis. In fact, the way he handled these emotions is so distinctive that it may be one of the most important contributions his teachings have to offer to our culture today.
这个故事以一般意义而言，很难说是对入世人生观的肯定，然而它却肯定了比生存更重要的一件事: 心灵渴求一种绝对纯净的幸福真谛。这股渴求之力以两种情绪为基础，巴利文称为厌离(samvega)与清净(pasada)。虽然我们当中鲜有闻者，它们却是佛教传统中最基本的两种情绪，不仅激励著年轻的王子对觉醒的求索，在他证悟之后，也鼓励弟子们常长此心。实际上，他处理这些情绪的方式如此独特，对于当今文化来说，是可资采纳的最重要的贡献之一。
Samvega was what the young Prince Siddhartha felt on his first exposure to aging, illness, and death. It”s a hard word to translate because it covers such a complex range — at least three clusters of feelings at once: the oppressive sense of shock, dismay, and alienation that come with realizing the futility and meaninglessness of life as it”s normally lived; a chastening sense of our own complacency and foolishness in having let ourselves live so blindly; and an anxious sense of urgency in trying to find a way out of the meaningless cycle. This is a cluster of feelings we”ve all experienced at one time or another in the process of growing up, but I don”t know of a single English term that adequately covers all three. It would be useful to have such a term, and maybe that”s reason enough for simply adopting the word samvega into our language.
厌离感(samvega)是年轻的悉达多王子初次面对老、病、死之时所生的感受。这个词很难英译，其内涵复杂，至少并摄了三类感受: 意识到世俗生活的徒劳与空虚而生起的震惊、气馁与疏离的压抑感; 对自耽自满、愚痴盲目地生活至今的自责感; 寻求脱离无谓轮回之道的急迫感。这些感受，我们在成长过程的某个时刻都曾经历过，但我不认为有哪个英语词汇可以同时贴切地表达这三种含义。有这样一个词很实用，也许足以把它直接吸收过来，纳入我们的语汇中。
But more than p…
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