戒律的疗愈力
[作者]坦尼沙罗尊者
[中译]良稹
The Healing Power of the Precepts
by Ven. Thanissaro Bhikkhu
The Buddha was like a doctor, treating the spiritual ills of the human race. The path of practice he taught was like a course of therapy for suffering hearts and minds. This way of understanding the Buddha and his teachings dates back to the earliest texts, and yet is also very current. Buddhist meditation practice is often advertised as a form of healing, and quite a few psychotherapists now recommend that their patients try meditation as part of their treatment. 佛陀好比是一位对治人类精神疾症的医者。他教导的修行之道，好比是治愈心意之苦的疗程。对佛陀及教说的此番解意，可上溯至最早的经典，却又相当地应时。佛教禅修常常被人们宣传为疗愈之道，如今颇有几位心理诊疗师建议病人尝试禅修，以之为疗法的一部分。
Experience has shown, though, that meditation on its own cannot provide a total therapy. It requires outside support. Modern meditators in particular have been so wounded by mass civilization that they lack the resilience, persistence and self-esteem needed before concentration and insight practices can be genuinely therapeutic.Many teachers, noticing this problem, have decided that the Buddhist path is insufficient for our particular needs. To make up for this insufficiency they have experimented with ways of supplementing meditation practice, combining it with such things as myth, poetry, psychotherapy, social activism, sweat lodges, mourning rituals, and even drumming. The problem, though, may not be that there is anything lacking in the Buddhist path, but that we simply haven”t been following the Buddha”s full course of therapy. 然而经验表明，禅修本身，是不足以成为一套完整疗法的。尤其是，现代禅修者受大众文明的创伤之深，以至于缺乏必要的坚韧、精进与自尊，达不到真正有疗愈性的止观境界。不少禅修导师注意到这个问题，于是断定，佛教禅修之道不足以满足我们的特定需要。为了弥补这项不足，他们尝试了种种辅助形式，添加了神话、诗歌、心理疗法、社会活动、[印第安人的]发汗屋、哀悼仪轨、乃至鼓艺等形式，把它们与禅修结合在一起。然而，问题未必出在佛教之道有什么缺陷，而是我们还没有完全贯彻佛陀的整套疗法。
The Buddha”s path consisted not only of mindfulness, concentration, and insight practices, but also of virtue, beginning with the five precepts. In fact, the precepts constitute the first step in the path. There is a modern tendency to dismiss the five precepts as Sunday-school rules bound to old cultural norms that no longer apply to our modern society, but this misses the role that the Buddha intended for them: They are part of a course of therapy for wounded minds. In particular, they are aimed at curing two ailments that underlie low self-esteem: regret and denial. 佛陀的修行道不仅包括了念、定、内明的修练，还包括以五戒为起点的持戒。实际上，戒德构成了行道的初阶。现代人往往把五戒当作[基督教]主日校规加以排斥，认为这些戒律来自已不适应我们的现代社会的旧式传统规范。然而，这种说法忽视了佛陀制定戒律的本意: 戒律是受伤心灵的对治疗程的一部分，特别是针对自卑心理的两种病根——悔恨与否认。
When our actions don”t measure up to certain standards of behavior, we either (1) regret the actions or (2) engage in one of two kinds of denial, either (a) denying that our actions did in fact happen or (b) denying that the standards of measurement are really valid. These reactions are like wounds in the mind. Regret is an open wound, tender to the touch, while denial is like hardened, twisted scar tissue around a tender spot. When the mind is wounded in these ways, it can”t settle down comfortably in the present, for it finds itself resting on raw, exposed flesh or calcified knots. Even when it”s forced to stay in the present, it”s there only in a tensed, contorted and partial way, and so the insights it gains tend to be contorted and partial as well. Only if the mind is free of wounds and scars can it be expected to settle down comfortably and freely in the present, and to give rise to undistorted discernment. 当我们的行为未能达到某些操行标准时，我们或者为之悔恨，或者作两种形式之一的否认，一是否认该行为确实发生，二是否认该标准的有效性。这些反应，就像是心的诸种伤创。悔恨的伤创是开放性的，一碰就痛; 否认的伤创则好比是某个痛点周围的痂疥，硬化扭曲。心以这些形式受创之后，就难以安住当下，因为它发现自己停歇之处，不是生疼外露的血肉，就是钙化坚硬的纠结。即使强迫它住在当下，它也只能以一种紧张、扭曲、片面的方式呆在那里，那么它得到的洞见，往往也是扭曲、片面的。心只有去除了伤创疤痕时，才能够指望它舒适、安适地住于当下，升起真如明辨。
This is where the five precepts come in: They are designed to heal these wounds and scars. …
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