..续本文上一页ion, of course, she hadn”t died. She was still alive. But she had learned an important lesson, that when things get really bad in the body you can always go to space. Even though it”s not Awakening, and it”s not the unconditioned, still it”s a lot better than being immersed in turmoil along with the properties in the body.

　　 她出定时，当然没有死去。她还活者。不过她学到了重要的一课，当身内的情形实在糟糕时，总是可以去空间。即使它不是觉醒，它不是非缘起，它仍然强过住于身元素，沉浸在混乱之中。

　　So the properties provide a useful way of looking at the potentials in the present moment. They also make it easier to get to that sense of awareness itself that you read about so much in the writings of the Thai Ajaas. Once you”re with infinite space, drop the perception of “space” and see what”s left. There will just be a perception of knowing, knowing, knowing, which takes its place. You don”t　have to ask, “Knowing what

　　” There”s just awareness, awareness, or knowing, knowing.

　　 因此，诸元素提供了一个观察潜势的有用方式。它们还使我们更容易达到泰国导师们的文字当中如此频繁提到的那个独立的觉知。一旦你住于无限空间后，你可以放开“空间”的辨识，看看剩下什么。那时只会有一种知，知，知的辨识。你不必问“知什么？”只有觉，觉，或者说知，知。

　　Once you”ve got everything pided up into properties like this, you”ve got the raw materials for gaining insight. The terms of analysis may initially seem strange, but once you get a visceral sense of what they”re referring to, you”ll find them extremely useful. They not only give the mind a good place to settle down in the stillness of concentration, but they also help you gain insight into the way perception shapes your experience of the body, shapes your perception of what”s going on here in the present moment, seeing how fabricated it all is. You”ve got potentials coming in from past kamma, but you”ve also got the element of present choice, which becomes extremely clear when you analyze things in this way.

　　 一旦你达到以这种方式把一切归分为诸元素时，你就有了证得洞见的原材料。这些分析词汇可能最初看起来怪异，不过，一旦你切身领会到它们指的是什么，你将发现它们极其地有用。它们不仅给心一个定止下来的好地方，而且还帮助你洞见辨识如何塑造身感，如何塑造你对当下正在发生之事，使你懂得所有这些何以都是造作的。你有来自旧业的潜势，但你也有当下选择的成分，那种选择在你用这个方式分析时，就极其明显起来。

　　When I first went to stay with Ajaan Fuang, he had me memorize Ajaan Lee”s Divine Mantra: six passages dealing with the different properties. For a long time it seemed very foreign to me until one night I was chanting the passage on the property of consciousness and Irealized that it was referring to the awareness that”s right here. This awareness. Right here. When this realization hit, it was as if a huge iceberg in my heart suddenly melted. I wasn”t dealing with some outside, foreign frame of thinking; instead, it was something extremely direct, immediate, right here and now. That was when I began to get a sense of why Ajaan Fuang had asked me to memorize the chant, why he wanted all of his students to think about their present experience in terms of the properties.

　　 我最初去跟阿姜放修习时，他要我把阿姜李的《神圣咒文》[7]背下来：那是关于各种元素的六个段落。有很长一段时间，它对我来说似乎毫不相关，直到有一个晚上，在持诵意识元素那一段时，我意识到它指的是就在此处的觉知。就是这个觉知。就在此处。意识到这点时，仿佛我心里的一块巨大的冰山突然融化了。我在持诵的不是什么外在、无关的思维框架；反之，它是某种极其直接、紧接、就在此地此刻的东西。那时候，我才开始懂得为什么阿姜放要我背诵这段诵文，为什么他要他的所有弟子都从元素的角度思考他们的体验。

　　So keep this mode of analysis in mind. Try to get some sense of it as you put it to use, and you”ll find that it”s extremely useful in the practice. As with all of the Buddha”s teachings, the importance of the teaching is what you do with it, and what it does for you in helping to gain insight into how stress and suffering are created in the present moment—and how you don”t have to create them, if you pay attention, if you work at these skills.

　　 因此，把这个分析模式记在心里。在应用它时，试着领悟它，你将发现它对修持极其有用。一如佛陀的全部教说，它的重要性在于你用它做什么，它在获得苦的洞见方面能帮助你做什么——也就是怎样帮助你看见，苦在当下是如何被造作起来的，你又如何不需要造作它，假若你用心观察，假若你修练这些技能。

　　(根据2003年3月某日开示录音整理，本文来自坦尼沙罗尊者开示集《禅定》)

　　中译注:

　　[1]胃中蝶动: butterflies in the stomach，习语，尤指因惧怕而神经紧张，胃有微动欲呕之感。

　　[2]人的六元素的分析: 见中部MN140。

　　[3]十二因缘: 据自说经Ud1:3: 『......以无明为缘［先决条件］，来造作[行]。以造作为缘，来意识。以意识为缘，来名色。以名色为缘，来六处［六种感官媒介］。以六处为缘，来接触。以接触为缘，来感受。以感受为缘，来渴求。以渴求为缘，来执取／维持。以执取／维持，来有。以有为缘，来生。以生为缘，则老，病，死，忧、哀、痛、悲、惨来运作。这就是这若大一堆苦迫的因缘。』此处是说，造作排在第二，早于意识、名色、感受等。

　　[4]身造作: 据中部MN44:『出入息属于身，缚于身，故称出入息为身造作[身行] 。寻想与评估[寻与伺] 之后口发言语，故称寻想与评估为语造作[语行] 。辨识与感受[想与受] 属于心，缚于心，故称辨识与感受为心造作[心行] 。』

　　[5]pointillism: 西洋美术后印象派的点彩法，利用原色独立小点的不同分布构造出各种色调的印象，观者眼和心的辨识会把色点混合起来看成各种色调。例图见网络维基百科同名词条: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointillism

　　[6]不专注体形的潜势: 据尊者对笔者的解释，这是指只把它们当成点，不把点连成线，也就是，不添加『体形』的辨识。

　　[7]阿姜李的《神圣咒文》: 阿姜李在引言中说，写这本书的目的是：『作为修法者的一个净化途径，因为此处给出的诵文会给背诵者带来利益，因其与存在于我们每个人之中的事件直接相关。平常，我们一旦出生，便都住于六元素之中。这些元素是被我们自己的业，善业恶业，带到一起的，既然如此，这些元素对住于其中的人们，可能带来大量的困难，就像一个孩童可能给父母不停地造成麻烦一样。因此重复此诵，就好比滋养和训练孩童，使他健康成熟；当小孩健康成熟时，父母就可以休息、放松了。重复此诵，就好比用一首美好的歌曲 Buddhaguṇa――忆念佛陀的功德——来滋养孩童，引它入睡 ......Buddhaguṇa――佛陀功德――的力量，可以对每个人的诸元素施加影响，净化它们，给它们赋予 kāya-siddhi――身成就[身悉地]，就好比一切物质元素相互之间每秒钟都在施加引力一样......』

《六元素》全文阅读结束。