..续本文上一页nt powers shaping your experience of the world are the intentional thoughts, words, and deeds you choose in the present moment. This means that you are not insignificant. Every time you take a choice — at home, at work, at play — you are exercising your power in the on-going fashioning of the world. At the same time, this principle allows you to measure yourself in terms that are entirely under your control: your intentional actions in the present moment. In other words, they don”t force you to measure yourself in terms of your looks, strength, brains, financial prowess, or any other criteria that depend less on your present karma than they do on karma from the past. Also, they don”t play on feelings of guilt or force you to bemoan your past lapses. Instead, they focus your attention on the ever-present possibility of living up to your standards in the here and now. If you are living with people who observe the precepts, you find that your dealings with them are not a cause for mistrust or fear. They regard your desire for happiness as akin to theirs. Their worth as inpiduals does not depend on situations in which there have to be winners and losers. When they talk about developing loving-kindness and mindfulness in their meditation, you see it reflected in their actions. In this way the precepts foster not only healthy inpiduals, but also a healthy society — a society in which the self-respect and mutual respect are not at odds. 合乎人性: 戒律即对持戒者，也对受其行为影响者来说，都是合乎人性的。你若持 守戒律，就等于是遵奉业力原则。根据业力原则，在影响你如何体验世界的力量当中，最重要的是你在当下选择的动机的 思考、言语、身行。这意味着你并非是无可作为的。每作一次选择——在家、在职、游戏时——你都在世界的持续造作当中行使着你的力量。同时，这项原则允许你，从完全由你掌控——即你 的当下动机——的角度，衡量自己。换句话说，业力原则并不迫使你从相貌、气力、脑力、商业才干等等更多地依赖你的旧业而不是现业 的角度衡量自己。再者，戒律不刺激负疚感，也不逼着你痛悔旧时失误，而是令你把注意力放在即刻当下一直存在着的圆满持戒的可能性上。如果你与持戒者共同生活，就会发现同这些人交往，不会是引生不信任或恐惧的因缘。他们把你对幸福的欲求视为己出。他们的个人价值不依赖于那些必须分出输赢的场合。当他们谈论在禅修中发展慈心和念住时，你发现这也体现在他们的行为上。以这种方式，戒律滋养的不仅仅是健康的个体，而且也滋养着一个健康的社会——一个自尊与互敬并行不悖的社会。

　　Worthy of respect: When you adopt a set of standards, it is important to know whose standards they are and to see where those standards come from, for in effect you are joining their group, looking for their approval, and accepting their criteria for right and wrong. In this case, you couldn”t ask for a better group to join: the Buddha and his noble disciples. The five precepts are called "standards appealing to the noble ones." From what the texts tell us of the noble ones, they are not people who accept standards simply on the basis of popularity. They have put their lives on the line to see what leads to true happiness, and have seen for themselves, for example, that all lying is pathological, and that any sex outside of a stable, committed relationship is unsafe at any speed. Other people may not respect you for living by the five precepts, but noble ones do, and their respect is worth more than that of anyone else in the world. 值得敬重: 当你采纳一套准则时，了解它们由什么人制定、看清其出处，是十分重要的，因为在效果上，等于你是在加入那些人的团体，寻求他们的赞许，接受他们的对错标准。在这里，没有比佛陀和圣弟子的团体更值得加入的了。五戒被称为“圣者赞许的准则”。根据经典对圣者的描述，他们不是那种因为某种准则普遍流行便予以接纳信受的人。为了觅得真乐之道，他们投注了自己的生命。并且，对于一切妄语都是病态，稳定、负责的性关系之外的性事俱不安稳等等诸如此类的例子他们已经亲眼见过。别人对你持守五戒也许不以为然，但圣者们必然会敬重此事。他们的敬重较之世上任何人的敬重，价值更高。

　　Now, many people find it cold comfort to join such an abstract group, especially when they have not yet met any noble ones in person. It”s hard to be good-hearted and generous when the society immediately around you openly laughs at those qualities and values such things as sexual prowess or predatory business skills instead. This is where Buddhist communities can come in. It would be very useful if Buddhist groups would openly part ways with the prevailing amoral tenor of our culture and let it be known in a kindly way that they value goodheartedness and restraint among their members. In doing so, they would provide a healthy environment for the full-scale adoption of the Buddha”s course of therapy: the practice of concentration and discernment in a life of virtuous action. Where we have such environments, we find that meditation needs no myth or make-believe to support it, because it is based on the reality of a well-lived life. You can look at the standards by which you live, and then breathe in and out comfortably — not as a flower or a mountain, but as a full-fledged, responsible human being. For that”s what you are. 诚然，不少人觉得加入这么一个抽象的团体，得到的慰勉温暖不足，特别是当他们还没有亲自遇到一位圣者时。在周遭社会公然讪笑善心、布施等素养，推崇性能力和商业霸略的情形下，维持自己的善心和布施确不容易。佛教诸团体的价值正在于此。如果它能够公开地与环境中的不良主调分道而行，善意地肯定对本团体成员的善心和自律的珍视，那将是十分有益的。这样做，他们将为全面采纳佛陀的疗程——那就是，在行为守戒的生活之中，修习定力与明辨——提供了健康的环境。哪里有这样的环境，我们就会发现，禅修不需要神话或假想的辅助，因为它扎根于正善而活的现实。你可以看一看自己奉行的标准，接下来舒适地修练呼气、吸气——不是像一朵花或一座山那样[1]，而是像一个成熟、负责的人那样。因为你就是那样的人。

　　[1]译注: 此处意指持戒者无需前文所述的种种辅助手段,而是藉观想自身的戒德,升起喜乐满足,修出入息念。

《戒律的疗愈力》全文阅读结束。