Resilience: Self-Care for Tough Times

by Shauna Shapiro

All of us can feel the impact of these uncertain and challenging times on our hearts and in our nervous systems. While there are parts of our current crisis that we cannot control, that doesn’t mean we’re powerless. When we’re up against change, uncertainty, and stress, resilience is the key to navigating life and emerging with more happiness and satisfaction.

We can cultivate resilience through the practices of mindfulness and compassion. This is the miracle of neuroplasticity — what you practice grows stronger. We can carve out pathways of greater clarity, courage, and compassion through practice.

The five steps below help us face difficult emotions, re-centre, and find calm. These steps don’t have to be done perfectly. Think direction, not destination. The key is practice.

MEDITATION

1. NAME IT TO TAME IT

It’s helpful to remember that our emotions are here for a reason. They often serve as a smoke alarm, letting us know about an impending fire. When we ignore or repress our emotions, it can lead to bigger problems.

Mindfulness teaches us a different way to manage difficult emotions — to acknowledge and name what we feel. This is called “name it to tame it.” Research shows that when we acknowledge and name our emotions it allows the body to physiologically calm down. Naming an emotion puts the brakes on your reactivity, down-regulates the nervous system, and allows you to see clearly.

2. WELCOME YOUR EMOTIONS

Emotions have a limited time span, typically lasting for only thirty to ninety seconds. They arise, do their dance, and pass away, just like waves in the ocean. When we remember that this painful feeling will not last forever, it becomes more manageable.

Through practise, we can learn to welcome all of our emotions with an attitude of kindness and curiosity. This involves becoming interested in the emotion and the felt experience in the body. For example, you may feel sadness as a tightening in your throat, or fear as a contraction in your belly. All emotions have a signature in the body.

3. BE KIND TO YOURSELF

Self-compassion is not our typical response when we’re facing a challenge, have made a mistake, or are in pain. All too often, instead of kindness, we judge, shame, and criticise ourselves. But self-judgement and shame aren’t helpful. They actually shut down the learning centres of the brain and inhibit our ability to heal, change, and grow.

The antidote is self-compassion, learning to bring kindness to our pain. The easiest way to practice it is to treat ourselves as we would treat a dear friend facing a similar situation. The willingness to face the pain in ourselves and in life takes great courage. As we practise self-compassion, we learn not only to grow from our own struggles and sorrows, but also to connect with the suffering of others.

4. RECOGNISE OUR COMMON HUMANITY

It’s natural to be feeling fearful and overwhelmed at this time. We’re not alone in our feelings. There are many others right now all over the world who are also frightened and overwhelmed. As we recognise our common humanity, our isolation begins to lessen, and we understand that we’re all in this together. It can be helpful to send compassion to both yourself and everyone else who is suffering.

5. PRACTICE, NOT PERFECT

The fifth step is to realise that you won’t do any of the first four steps perfectly. This isn’t about perfection. It’s about practice. Small changes lead to big shifts. In fact, one of the most important discoveries in brain science — neuroplasticity — shows that the brain has the ability to make new neural connections throughout life. This is a very hopeful message because it means that all of us have the capacity to change, heal, and grow. Perfection isn’t possible, but transformation is.

有缘说法令解脱，无缘合掌令欢喜。    

-- 六祖慧能大师

修行者要懂得将烦恼转为道用

普巴扎西仁波切

我们平常所作的一切修行，就是将所遇到的逆缘转为善用。在对治逆缘之上，小乘教法称之为断除，大乘教法称之为转变，密宗叫做运用。这是从三乘教法的角度当中讲解如何对治烦恼之方便。

现前我们都说自己是密宗行人，就应该要知道密宗的见解是如何运用烦恼并将其转为道用的。对次第根机者而言，对治烦恼的方便分为三个阶段：剖析调伏妄念，直视调伏妄念与安住调伏妄念。三者虽然方便不同，但是目的都是为了将逆缘转为善用。

具体何时运用剖析调伏妄念，直视调伏妄念和安住调伏妄念，则根据妄念起现程度的不同来树立不同的方便道。这也是我们一直以来都在传讲的教言。在运用过程当中，能够将各种方便圆满到何种程度则完全取决于自己是否懂得善巧运用。尤其现前我们已经得到了殊胜的教法，在实际修学过程当中，就应该要体现出密法的殊胜性。

例如修学过程当中出现昏沉掉举，就认为自己的修法不行。而一旦自己的昏沉掉举稍微少一点的时候，心情又很愉悦，觉得自己的见解有所提高。当你具有这样的见解，就充分地说明你运用烦恼并不是很圆满，修法也没有体现出密宗的特点。

无论是善还是恶，懂得将行道过程当中所遇到的一切逆缘转为善用，这才叫修行者。因为调伏没有好坏之分，有念的时候需要调伏，无念也需要调伏，一切时处都在调伏之中，这才叫将逆缘转为善用，也叫做烦恼转为道用。

In each meditation session, we gather knowledge about the mind through observation, questioning, and testing. We do this over and over until we gradually develop a meaningful understanding of our own mind.

-- 7th Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche

The Revolution of Tantra

by Ken Holmes

Opinions vary about how and when tantric Buddhism first appeared. Some believe it was first taught by Buddha Sakyamuni and then maintained by a few adepts as a secret teaching for almost a thousand years, until a broader public was ready and it became popular. Others see it as an aberration of the original teaching. There are convincing arguments for both cases but no definitive evidence for either. Here, we shall simply consider tantra as it is viewed by the proponents of its own living traditions, i.e. as the highest of the three levels of Buddhist teaching.

The general foundation for all Buddhism is a balance of ethical living, mastering the mind through meditation and acquiring the wisdom of egolessness. This wholesome combination is, in itself, enough to bring personal liberation from suffering. However, as it helps only the individual concerned, this foundation is known as the lesser (Hinayana) aspect of the teachings. One can go much further. By enlarging wisdom into a direct awareness of the illusoriness of all things (not just ego) and by awakening mind's unlimited potential for compassion, one can become a Buddha and help multitudes. This is the greater (Mahayana) aspect.

The Mahayana journey, however, is sometimes very long. Certain people can complete it with far greater speed through powerful techniques which rapidly awaken the mind to the primordial purity and perfection which is everywhere, but masked by illusion. These practices are known as tantra, which means a thread or fabric, since they unite one, in the moment, with the primordial thread which runs through all things: they integrate one with the wholeness which is the fabric of the universe. This is the indestructible (Vajrayana) aspect. Sometimes the Hinayana foundation is compared to a saucer, the Mahayana to a cup and the Vajrayana to the tea held in the cup.

In the life of an individual, these lesser, greater and indestructible stages of the teaching must fall into place, one after another in correct order. Some people apply the same notion to the progressive acceptance of the three stages in the collective consciousness of the Indian nation. One could, very broadly, consider the Hinayana teachings of the Buddha as dominating the first five centuries of Indian Buddhism, the Mahayana as coming into its own during the next seven hundred years and Vajrayana taking its rightful place in the remaining five centuries, during which Buddhism, as a living, growing faith, came to maturity.

According to the Kalachakra Tantra and the Good Age Sutra, one thousand and two Buddhas appear, during the lifespan of this world, to teach the universal truths. But Sakyamuni is the only one of them who teaches tantra. The others manifest during golden ages when the inhabitants of the world are virtuous, peaceful people of great merit - easy to teach. At such times, the outer environment is harmonious, with bountiful crops which are delicious, satisfying and nourishing. Sakyamuni, however, the fourth and most intrepid of these Buddhas, comes at a worse time than any other. The people of his degenerating world are in emotional turmoil and only the powerful psychological transformations of tantra can help some of them.

There are four main levels of tantra: Kriya, Carya, Yoga and Anuttarayoga. Kriya (action) tantra puts great emphasis on physical activities, such as rituals of purification. Carya (method) tantra strikes a balance between external activities and inner meditative stability. Yoga (union) tantra is almost entirely concerned with inner spiritual union. These first three are sometimes called, collectively, mantrayana — the way of mantra. Annutara Yoga (highest union) tantra stands somewhat apart. The most sublime tantra of all, and the most powerful spiritual alchemy, it can bring total enlightenment in one lifetime and, unlike the others, train one not only for this life's experience but also for death and the intermediate state between lives. It is sometimes called Vajrayana.

Sakyamuni is considered to have attained enlightenment in a celestial realm before appearing in this world as Prince Gautama, who graced the Earth for eighty years from around 624 - 544 BCE. This brief emanation or nirmanakaya was but one small facet of the jewel of his attainment. It served principally to establish the main body of his teachings, destined to endure for ten periods of five hundred years, i.e. well into the fifth millennium. Throughout these five millennia, bodhisattvas with exceedingly pure minds can be constantly in the presence of his sambhogakaya, which manifests as pure lands and many symbolic Buddha forms within their meditations.

Some of the tantra were given by the nirmanakaya facet of the Buddha during his time on Earth, to a mixed audience of human followers and celestial bodhisattvas, in various locations from as far north as Oddiyana and as far south as Dhanyakataka, where he taught the Wheel of Time (Kalachakra) tantra. After his passing, these lineages were perpetuated secretly in this world and more openly in non-Earthly realms. Other tantras started later, being given through the sambhogakaya, either directly to human beings or indirectly, via celestial bodhisattvas such as Ratnabhadra.

As the early Mahayana masters appeared, from the second century BCE to the fourth century CE, the mantrayana aspect of tantra became better known, but was nevertheless still primarily a secret, hermetic practice pursued in jungles and wildernesses by lone meditators. It was a way of devotion and direct spiritual action, as opposed to the great erudition and intellectuality that had developed in monasteries. It was not unknown, during this period, for great scholars, having mastered the Buddhist tenets and ensured their own disciples' education, to leave their established respectability in order to finish their days in the pursuit of highest truth through tantric meditation. Nevertheless, there was a great deal of suspicion of tantra among many Buddhists, since some of its tenets and practices seemed to fly directly in the face of the Buddha's teachings. Much of the confusion came from the fact that tantra used a secret 'twilight language' (sandhyabhasa) full of double meanings and paradoxes, designed to scare off the dilettante. This was not a new invention. Even the universally-accepted dhammapada says, in verse 294, that one should,

"... having killed mother and father and two Ksattriya kings, destroy a kingdom and all its inhabitants."

This does not sound very Buddhist until one understands the symbolism. The mother is egotism, the father is a selfish desire, the two kings are the prime misconceptions of a lasting identity and its opposite, total nihilism. The kingdom and its inhabitants are the ways one perceives subjective consciousness and objective reality, due to these false notions.

The various levels of tantra provide ways of mobilising thoughts, imagination, emotions, perception and consciousness so as to blow away the clouds of illusion and bring one into spiritual integrity. Through awakened, intelligent use of body, speech and mind in one's day-to-day dealings with life, anything and everything becomes a gateway to truth.

Rather than giving the people of ancient India a whole new religion to learn, their familiar acts and gestures could be taken and modified by tantra to make Buddhist sense. This meant that primitive rites, such as animal sacrifices, could be replaced by similar but imaginary rites, in which selfish delusions are pinned to the sacrificial altar (rather than some misfortune goat) and in which the deity receiving the offering is replaced by a representation of the primordial and selfless space of wisdom and compassion.

From the time of Asanga (fourth century), the higher yoga tantras started finding their way into some centres of learning. The following two centuries were marked by the rule of the Gupta kings and a general trend towards devotion rather than erudition throughout India. Tantra, on all its levels, began to establish itself in some monasteries, as a normal aspect of the Buddha's teaching.

It seems fairly clear now that Buddhist tantra preceded Hindu tantra and probably gave rise to it. There are several factors to be considered in reviewing the historical development of tantra. Prior to the Buddha, religion, based on the Vedas and the Upanishads, was the privileged domain of the three upper castes (the traivarnika or arya). The Brahmana priests jealously guarded their wisdom, much of which concerned prolonged, non-theistic reflection upon the nature of the soul (atman). In contrast to this, the Buddha had made it clear that his teachings were available to all, regardless of sex, caste or any other such factors. He severely criticised Vedic animal sacrifice and, dismissing useless speculation on personal identity, laid great emphasis on personal ethics as the way to each individual's liberation.

After his passing, the Mahayanists encouraged the use of prayer as a way of training the mind and giving spiritual succour to the meditator. This coincided with the appearance of the Bhagavad-Gita which was to radically alter Hinduism, by opening religion to non-aryan castes, giving it a more theistic slant and encouraging prayer and devotion (bhakti) as the way in which ordinary people could find salvation.

As we follow the trends in ancient and medieval India, the question of whether it was Buddhism or Hinduism which initiated these widespread tendencies to prayer, devotion, quasi-theistic rituals etc., becomes secondary. Much more interesting is the strikingly different way in which each faith uses them.

By the seventh century, tantra had become truly widespread, and was openly taught in great monastic universities such as Nalanda and Oddiyana. The great flowering of tantra came under the Pala dynasty (eighth - twelfth century), which actively fostered the development of Buddhism: especially mantrayana. The famous 'greatly-realised-ones' (mahasiddhas) appear at this time. Vikramasila monastic university gradually stole the limelight from Nalanda and both Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism spread widely in Asia. They took special root in Tibet, where they have persisted healthily until the Chinese annexation in the middle of the 20th century. Successive waves of Turko-Muslim invasions during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries destroyed first the great Buddhist centres of Kashmir, then burned down Nalanda and the monasteries of Bengal. By 1335, Islamic Turko-Afghans ruled all India. That unique land had fulfilled its destiny, seen by Buddha Sakyamuni when he first left the Tusita realm to come here. He had seen it to be a cultured land in which his teaching could be properly established, step by step, and from which it could spread out, when the time was ripe, to reach all ends of the world.

It was, without doubt, traumatic for the early Buddhists to first establish their faith and then see it giving way to a larger, more profound vision: a process that was to happen again and again as the fullness of the Buddha's message came to light. Such winds of change can be refreshing or threatening. In its face, one either entrenches one's views or accepts the new. Thus, various 'schools' of Buddhism emerged with the passage of history. Each new chapter was a miniature revolution and the coming of tantra was perhaps the greatest of all these revolutions.

Enlightenment is nothing other than the state beyond all obstacles, in the same way that from the peak of a very high mountain one always sees the sun. Enlightenment is not a paradise or some special place of happiness, but it is in fact the condition beyond all dualistic concepts, including those of happiness and suffering.

When all our obstacles have been overcome, and we find ourselves in a state of total presence, the wisdom of enlightenment manifests spontaneously without limits, just like the infinite rays of the sun. The clouds have dissolved, and the sun is finally free to shine once again.

-- Chögya Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche

日常生活中如何禅修

圣严法师

一、身心合一

身体在哪里，心就在哪里；身体在做什么，心就在做什么；手在做什么，脚在哪里，你的心就在哪里 —— 身心不可分离，身心一致。例如：

1．在厨房中烧水、挑水、拣菜、切菜、洗菜，心就放在动作上，心中不起其它念头。

2．如果在炒菜，手在动，心也要专心地在炒菜，头脑里没有其它的杂念。

3．如果喂小孩食物、饮料，则一心一意地只想到喂小孩牛乳等食品，而没有其它的念头。自己的头脑非常地清楚、轻松、愉快。

先计划知道要做什么，如果已经计划好的事情，在做的时候就不须用头脑想了，特别是在平常生活之中，有些是经常性的动作，譬如：漱口、刷牙、刮胡子、洗脸、穿衣服等动作，不知做过多少次了，就不必用脑思考。但是要思考的事就必须思考，若不须思考之事则不必用脑想了再做。

往往有些惯性的动作，不须加以思考，一般人就胡思乱想地想其它的事。其实根本不用乱想，只要很清楚地知道自己在做什么。比如：扫地时，一扫把一扫把地扫，而且扫得很清楚，洗碗筷、吃饭等都应如此。

但是，第一次做的动作或处理事情，或者是对动作及事情根本不熟悉，首先必须思考，然后再想一想怎么做。正在做的时候，如果不清楚时，还是要想。这样就不会动妄念，而且是一心一意地在做工作。例如：一位母亲剪了一株花拿在手上，思考着如何将花插在什么位置较适宜，然后再小心翼翼地插好，在此过程中就是心无二念，不是在打妄念。反之，如果对剪花、插花的动作太习惯，结果手上拿了花，心里却在想着：“小孩在那边做什么?嗯!奇怪呀!为什么他那么安静，到底他在干什么?咦!小孩在动了，他走路的声音为什么那么地响呢?”请问这是不是妄念呢?是妄念。所以做任何一件事，均应将心放在那件事情上，心为那件事在做，就是正念而非妄念。因此，要经常保持身体的动作和心的念头在合一的状态。

二、心口一致

譬如：我正在说话，一句接一句地讲给你们听，结果我脑中却又在想另外一件事，请问我是不是会语无伦次?当然会，因为口说心想，根本是两回事。如果正在讲这一句话，结果心里在想刚才讲的第一句、第二句话，这也就是在胡思乱想。

因此，说一句话就是这一句话，说什么事就是什么事，很清楚地知道自己在说什么；讲完一句，下一句话自然出来，不过在讲话以前，先考虑要说些什么，不是想讲什么就随便脱口而出，那就变成胡说八道，根本不知道自己在讲什么；或许也没什么话可讲，就是想用嘴巴不停地讲，这就是妄想，不是心口一致。

心口一致必然知道自己要讲什么，表达出来以后也是清清楚楚的。这是修行人对自己身体的动作、语言的行为，都了解得清清楚楚，如此就不会做错事、说错话了。

三、心眼一如

胡思乱想的人可从其眼神窥见，因为眼神飘忽不定，心中无主。不知看什么，表面上好象什么都看，事实上没有集中焦点的对象，更不明白自己的眼睛为什么要看，就是不知道将眼睛定在何处，只是脑中的思想不断地动，所以眼神也似幽浮般地飘动。因此之故，可从人的眼神中观察出此人是否思想集中、稳定。

在日常生活之中，要对自己的任何一个动作全部负责，也就是“一步一个坑”，脚踏实地，步步为营。走路步步为营，讲话也是步步为营，任何动作都该步步为营。不是杂乱无章，不是东一榔头西一锤，而是要身心合一、心口合一。

少一些妄想，加一点正念，则智能日增，可开慧眼。慧眼开了，必然是烦恼和困扰的消除。唯有心得稳定，才能减少烦恼。唯有练习身心合一、心口一致，则心中的烦恼必然日减。当外在的境界扰乱时，你只要注意自己心里在想什么?眼睛在看什么?耳朵在听什么?如此，注意观看、听闻等，烦恼就不存在，结果是该听的听到，该看的也看到。

比如：对方打来一拳，如果注意对方打出来的动作以及自己被打的感觉，那么心里就不会起烦恼。如果听到别人骂你，清清楚楚地听到声音在骂，也知道自己是被骂的人，这时心中没有烦恼。但是如果你心中起了波浪——我为什么被骂?他为什么打我?如此想的话，烦恼一定会展现出来，因为注意对方的缘故。反之，清清楚楚地注意自己的心念，则烦恼必定不存在。

When thoughts arise, recognise them clearly as your teacher. 

-- Gampopa

Is enlightenment off-limits to laypeople?

by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche

This question is very complicated doctrinally. My simplest comment is that first, this teacher’s comment is a generalisation. To state that a layperson lacks the proper causes and conditions to achieve realisation comes from a particular doctrinal view. There are different Buddhist doctrinal systems, paths, and traditions, and they have varying views on the attainment of enlightenment, or liberation from cyclic existence. There are Buddhist doctrines that state that a person cannot achieve full liberation if one does not maintain monastic vows and commitments. There are even doctrines that state that it is not possible to achieve liberation if one is in the form of a woman. And there are views that state that it is not possible to attain liberation in one lifetime.

The different points of view can be summarised in three basic approaches to enlightenment within the Buddhist teachings: sutra, tantra, and Dzogchen. Sutra emphasises renunciation as the path to liberation. Tantra emphasises transformation — not avoiding our emotions but engaging them through skilful means that transform confusion into wisdom. In Dzogchen, the five poisons are nakedly and directly engaged as the way to liberation. For the Dzogchen practitioner, afflictions, emotions, and pain become the ornament or way of exercising the dynamic energy of the enlightened mind. This is the tradition in which I study, practice, and teach.

According to the sutric path of renunciation, the vows of a monastic are necessary supports on this path. If you are a householder, it is difficult to renounce because you are immersed in child-rearing and commerce, and it is difficult to get rid of attachments. The monastic system is a beautiful and complete path for the one who enters it, but the path of renunciation is only one path.

According to the Dzogchen teachings, you can achieve full liberation in one lifetime regardless of whether you are male or female or live a lay or monastic lifestyle. Many realised masters and practitioners of the Dzogchen lineages were laypeople, both men and woman. Many have attained liberation from suffering through engaging wholeheartedly in the teachings of the Dzogchen lineages in the Bön and other Tibetan Buddhist schools. And many teachers and teachings exist that articulate a path to complete enlightenment for the layperson. These teachings have been successfully practised for thousands of years and are now available in the West. Here, they are followed by mothers and fathers, lawyers and waiters, actors and artists, all dedicated practitioners who are intent on enlightenment for the benefit of others.

Half of my life I have been a monk, and half I have lived as a lay practitioner. Having a wife and child and living an engaged family life has greatly enriched my spiritual path. Please do not lose heart on your path. I encourage you to connect to your sincere wish to be free of suffering and to live a life that benefits others. Continue looking for a teacher and teachings that will support you to accomplish this.

Generosity in which adverse factors have disappeared, endowed with wisdom that is non-conceptual, completely fulfils all wishes, and brings all beings to maturity at the three levels.

-- Maitreya

佛教的知識觀

印順導師

今天講說的，為「佛教對於知識的態度」。這問題，有關於佛教修行的方法論，及佛教徒對現世間的知識文明是取什麼態度。

知識究竟是好是壞？佛教徒依於佛法，應有一個公正的估價。時代青年，說今日人類社會在知識發達中有了進步，進步離不了知識。年老的，每說今日世界人心不古，越來越壞了，壞也離不了知識。這是一般常識的看法，並沒有觸到知識的本身。一般說：現在的科學發達，世界的文明進步，都是知識發達的好處。人類文明進步，既都是知識的好處，為什麼有人起來咒詛它？可見知識的本身定有問題。所以有以為知識愈高，人類痛苦愈深。對於知識，不僅老年與青年的看法每每不同，即古今中外人士，也都有好壞的不同看法。

一　一般文化界的看法

中國文明中的不同看法：中國人對知識的不同看法，從中國固有的文化思想中考察，可以略分為儒墨與老莊的兩大派。儒家與墨子的看法一樣——他們是推崇知識的。孔子說：「我非生而知之者，好古敏以求之者也。」即對固有的文化，發生了高度興趣，不斷地探求、深入。所以孔子成了一位「學不厭、教不倦」的大教育家。在他的心目中，知識是人類立身處事的根本，沒有知識，什麼都不成。唯有知，才能趨入「道」，故《大學》說：「知所先後，則近道矣。」知識是多麼重要！在儒家看，不但修身、齊家、治國、平天下需要知，而這一切還以知為本。如《大學》的八條目中，平天下，先要能治國，治國依於齊家，這樣推論到首先要從格物致知做起。知是極重要的，儒家一向重視它；我國固有文化學術，也大抵因儒家的好古而保存、傳授下來。墨子是從儒家中流出，發揚比儒家較樸實而實用的思想。他非常重視知識，因此，墨家的論理學極發達；同時，物理、數學等，在墨子的學說中，也有發揚，墨家還是精於器械製造的。從儒、墨的學說思想看，知道他們是崇尚知識的，這是中國古代正統文化對於知識的正面看法。

老、莊是崇尚自然的。老、莊的思想，主張反樸歸真。老子認為：世界上有聖人，就有虛偽的道德；有知識，就有欺詐，天下就要發生禍亂，人民遭受苦痛。所以他要「絕聖棄智」，若世間沒有聖者與智，人類在自然的生活中，得以享受安寧和平的幸福。老子的這套思想，到莊子更為明朗極端，更富於哲學內容。他寓言說：混沌——形容一個無知無識的，神看他可憐，每天給他開鑿一竅，七天之後，他七竅完備——對世間事物的認識發達了，可是也就死亡了。這意思是說：無知無識，充滿了生命，還能安逸的生活；知識一開，生命也就開始毀滅，不再能安逸的生存了。所以在莊子看來，知識是天下大亂、人民苦痛的根源，也就是死亡的根源。莊子又說到：有一農夫，以一木桶，到河裡提水灌溉禾苗，上下來去，極為艱苦。有人教以用水車取水，他卻說：用不得。因為以機巧取水，即有機心；有機心，便是一切災禍的來源。莊子又說到：找求「玄珠」——真理，極為不易。有力氣人求不到，聰明人不知化費了多少時間也沒找到；後來罔象——形容無名無形的，很快的就尋得了「玄珠」。這含意是說：聰明人以知識求道，道越求越遠。這都表示了知識的無益於大道、無益於人類。故老、莊的社會觀念，是反樸歸真，崇尚自然的原始社會的生活。

從儒、墨與老、莊的兩種思想去看，那麼說今日社會由於知識而文明進步，與由於知的發展而人心不古，這種對立的不同觀點，原是中國古已有之的。

西方文明中的不同看法：現有的西方宗教，主要是起自希伯來民族。起先是猶太教；後來耶穌革新而成基督教；後來又經過馬丁路得的宗教改革，分成固有的天主教與新的耶穌教。回教，又是受過這幾種宗教思想而蛻化出來的。今日的西方宗教家，他們像也在提倡教育、研究科學等，實際上，希伯來式一神宗教的根本思想，是知識的反對者。不信，請讀《舊約．創世記》。據說：他們的神造了一男一女兩個人。起初，他們是混沌無知，無知識，他們卻生活在極樂的樂園裡。他們住處，有兩株樹：一是生命樹，一是分別善惡樹，樹上都結滿了果實。神對他們說：分別樹上的果子不可吃。但他們受了魔的誘惑，忘掉了神的吩咐，竟吃下了分別果。不吃果時，他們的知識未開，生活過得很好。一食了果子，眼目明亮了，頓時對世間起了分別，發覺自己沒穿衣服，便知羞恥。晚上神來時，他們怕羞恥而躲在樹下，神非常生氣說：你們該死！照中國儒家及佛教看，人類的知羞恥是一種向上向善的表現，佛經稱此為人與禽獸的區別點，而希伯來的神卻認為這是罪惡，應該死亡。因此，神趕走了他們，人生從此便失去樂園，便有了死亡，人間便充滿了苦痛。這與中國老、莊的思想相近，不過老、莊是反樸歸真、崇尚自然；而西方宗教的思想，一切皆歸於信順神，依神的指導而生活。《舊約》中又說到：人類多起來，想建築塔以紀功。神說他們都與神那樣有分別善惡的能力，如讓他們團結而發展起來，太危險了。於是使他們分散，使他們的語言彼此不同。所以神教不但是人類知識的咒詛者，還是人類團結以及工業等文明發達的反對者。希伯來宗教重在教人因信仰而得救，不重於智的開發。《新約》說：「你不要研究撒旦深奧之理。」在進向真理的過程中，這是推崇信仰而抹煞知識價值的代表者。在他們認為：人類的自由知識，是死亡、苦痛一切不幸的根源。

希臘，是西方哲學的發源地，在西方文明中，這是主要的一面。哲學的意義，是愛智。愛智，是對知識的思慕愛好，因為愛好而不斷地探求。哲學，起初包含一切學問的統一，所以哲學即等於一切知識的鑽求。被看作哲學之祖的蘇格拉底說：知就是德；有了知識，才會向上向善而邁進於德性的開展。這分明是推崇知識的一流，與希伯來宗教的根本思想不同。過去，希伯來宗教發達後，希臘哲學便慢慢衰落下去，造成中世的黑暗時代。那時的哲學與論理學，都被用於論證上帝的有無；當時的哲學與論理學，被譏為宗教的奴隸。其後文藝復興，也就是希臘哲學自由思考的復活；連一神的宗教，也不得不多少革新，容納一些民主與自由的成分。然而近代的西方文明，宗教信仰與知識之間，始終沒有做到協調的地步。

印度文明中的不同看法：印度的正統文化，是婆羅門教。婆羅門極重視知識，他們所依的經典，叫《吠陀》，吠陀即是明的意思。在古來印度的社會文化，幾乎一切都包含在吠陀裡。到佛教時代，總括為五明，明即是學問；一切學問，皆是宗教徒應該學習探求的。因此，印度宗教信仰而重視理智；宗教即哲學，哲學即宗教。如佛教中，佛稱覺者；證得菩提，菩提就是覺。此外如明、智、見、觀、勝解等名詞，到處都是，表示了重智的特徵。因為重智，故印度宗教的信仰裡，充滿了知識。這一點，顯然與西方宗教的精神不同。

在佛出世前一、二百年間，印度有反抗婆羅門教的沙門團崛起。沙門團雖也注重知識，但與婆羅門教的看法多少不同，在哲學的思考中，露出知識不能確見真理的意思。有一名刪惹耶毘羅胝子的，如問起有無後世，他反問你覺得怎樣？若對方說後世是有的，他也跟著對方的意思說後世有；若對方說後世是沒有的，他也跟著說沒有。總之，你怎麼說，他就怎麼說。他不反對你說有、說沒有，但他自己卻不說是有、是沒有。佛教喻此派為鰻論，不易捕捉他的真意；也有稱之為不知主義。舍利弗尊者，最初即依這一派思想學習。問他的老師：究竟得到真理沒有？他沒有具體的說什麼，而說：我也不知道得與不得。在哲學上，有他的地位與價值，即看透了知識本身的缺陷、不能表達真理。

佛教，有著沙門文明的內容，而又含攝了婆羅門重智的傳統。因此，佛教是更能認透知識之性質與價值的。在這三大文明中，雖略舉為例，也可看出對知識都有正反的兩面。但由於民族、文化的不同，輕視知識的學派，目的並不全同。中國重人事，齊家治國平天下，所以儒、墨主用世，而老、莊主張反樸、歸真、任性、自然，憧憬於自然的社會生活。印度重哲學的宗教，所以沙門團的不知主義等，都是以知識為不足表彰真理，而大家傾向無分別的體驗生活。西方的哲學與宗教，為完全不同的兩個系統，希伯來宗教的輕視知識，著重於敬虔的信仰生活。我想附帶的說到中國佛教的一面。

佛教傳來中國，發展為有力的禪宗，但也有兩大派：一、「知之一字眾妙之門」；二、「知之一字眾禍之門」。這是對於知的兩個相反態度。禪宗下的荷澤派，有圭峰大師，他說「知之一字，眾妙之門」；此知雖與一般的妄識不相同，而到底是對知的極高讚美。後來禪宗下的南嶽派批評他，把「眾妙之門」的「妙」字，改成「禍」字，這是對知的不同看法。不但妄識不對，有一真知在，也還是有所著的；妄待真起，所以知為眾禍之門。被稱為正統派的禪宗——南嶽、青原門下，不重經教而高揚不立文字的特色，只要行者死心塌地參究去就好，至於教理、文字，甚至看作禪悟的大障礙。可是在圭峰大師，即主張教禪一致。這豈不是佛教禪宗二派，對知的看法不同？

從上面看，知識本身定有問題。若知識是絕對好，你想還會有人反對嗎？知識的反對者都極聰明，可見知識本身一定有毛病在。若知識是絕對要不得，你想還會有人推崇？難道由知識而來的文明燦爛，真是可咒詛的嗎？知識是有它的價值與好處的。佛教徒對知識的看法究竟如何？應該根據正確的佛法來說明它。

二　佛教的知識觀

一、知識的缺點：可從四方面說。(一)、知識的片面性：知識是片面的，是一點一滴的。不但宇宙人生的最高真理，知識不能充分去把握；就是現象的事物繁多，人類對它們的了解，也是從一點一滴的聚合而來。識，在佛法中，是了別的意思。了是明了，別是區別。宇宙本好像混沌一團，由我們的區別它、分別它的彼此不同，而逐漸了解它。所以，知識的本身，逃不過片面與點滴的限制。如粉筆：眼看它，是白色的、長圓形的；手觸它，是堅硬的、粗澀的；敲之有聲，嗅之有粉氣；甚至看到工人怎樣的把它做成。粉筆的性質、形相、作用，都經過我們五根所發識的實際體察，又經意識的綜合而明了。我們對粉筆的知識，不是一下就來，而是從多方面一點一滴的聚合，然後才了解粉筆的全面。粉筆如是，世間的一切知識無不皆然。因為知識是片面的，一點一滴得來的，所以看到外面，不一定就看到裡面；知道這樣，不一定知道那樣。部分的還不知道，這不必說；就是都知道了，也每每顧此失彼、重此輕彼，所以佛教稱此為「擔板漢」。能完全徹底了解一切事物的表裡始終，這不是常人的知識所能做到的。如教育界每說教育萬能，教育才能挽救國家民族的頹運；工業界卻說：工業的建樹，才是救民生、建國家的基礎。乃至軍事、政治、法律家等，大抵重視自己這一套，各執其是。強調自己所重視、所了解的片面知識，還有無數的重要知識被他輕視，甚至一筆勾消，這怎能作為世界人類全面而整體的計劃？彼此間的顧此失彼、重此輕彼，引起相互間的摩擦、鬥爭，弄得愈來愈不對，也就難怪老、莊等反對知識了。寓言說：如蛇頭與蛇尾相諍，蛇頭說：你尾巴小，只享受而什麼都不做，每天靠我養活你。蛇尾說：你只知道吃，沒有我怎能走路？諍論的結果，互不合作。於是蛇頭不吃，蛇尾繞在樹上。幾天之後，大家都完了。這便是只知自己的一部分有用，而不知相互存在的關係、內在相依的聯絡關係。資本家輕視勞工的功績，而勞工仇視資本家，也只是這種毛病，弄到勞資不能合作。世間人的知識，由於知識自身的片面性、點滴性，所以不但不能把握最高真理，就是事物相互關係性，也每每忽略而錯誤，只以自己所重的片面知識，拿來作為一切知識的基礎，衡量一切。這怎麼行？這是知識本身缺點之一。

(二)、知識的相對性：知識的本身，是片面的、點滴的總合，故常忽略整體而偏執部分，而且也是相對的。知識的相對性，可從知識的兩方面說。知識的活動與表達，不外乎內心的思想與外表的語文。若離開了思想、語文，即不能成為知識。知識的特性，是遮他顯自的，如見紅色，即不是白色等。沒有光明，即不知黑暗；有虛假，才能顯示真實，這即是知識本身的相對性，佛法稱此為「二」。二是一切認識的形態，沒有它，就沒有認識作用的可能。如大海波浪，若每個浪的大小動態都是一樣，你僅能了解是浪，而無法表示那一波浪，使人明了為那一浪。因此，非有突起的大浪，不能顯出旁邊的小浪。沒有大小高低的形態作比較，你能說出什麼呢？故知識，必須在相對的形態與作用中表現出某事某物來。所以識的字義，就是區別。如說有，便區別了無；有與無，在人類的認識中是相對的區別才能明了。因知識的本身是相對的，所以它不能了達絕待的、一切而無外的究竟真理。再從心識來說，知識有能知、所知，能知是心識，所知是認識的對象，當心識了知對象時，卻不能知認識的自身——心不自知。縱然自知心念的生滅動態，這還是後念知前念，決不是同時在一念中具有能所的認識，否則能所就混淆不分。因此，知識只能知道相對的世間，不能知道絕對的境地。佛法說：對相待而說絕待，絕待還成相待。又如這是一邊、那是一邊，於此兩邊間，說名為中。然而說到中，中是對邊說的，離中無邊，離邊無中，邊與中是相對的。可見我們的思想、語文所論說的中道、絕對，也早就不是絕對與中道了。口說與心想的知識，永遠觸不著絕對、中道的邊緣，這不能不說是知識的缺憾。

(三)、知識的名義性：人類的思想、語文，都是名字。名字是心想所構畫的假名——符號，並不就是物體的自身。如心裡想火、口裡說火，火是名字，若名字代表了真實，想火，火應燒心；說火，火應燒口。事實上，心想口說，並沒有受到火的燒灼，可見名字並不就是那物體的實相。但人類從來說慣了，便生起錯覺，一聽到火，一想到火的名字，甚至聽到上帝，聽到龜毛、兔角，都好像有此一物，好像就是那個東西。有人覺得名字是假立的，但假名確表達真實的意義，義是名字所表示的。有人說到、想到某一名字，就覺得確實表示某一意義。其實一個名字中，含有的意義很多。如說書，不但代表書本、書籍，同時，寫字也叫書。關於一名多義，我們翻開字典，就可看出。反過來，一義中也含有多種名稱，如房子，可以叫屋、宅、樓、閣……，這不是一義多名嗎？一名多義、一義多名，完全要依上下文及習慣而詮定的，並非某名即是某義、某義便是某名，這就是說明了名與義沒有決定不變性。因為名義的不決定，故隨說一名、一義，每成諍論，若能心平氣和的相互研究，也許會知道名字儘管不同，而意義卻可能相同；反之，雖然使用同一個名字，但不妨有多種解釋。在這裡，我們了解到：知識是建立在名義上的。名與義，是依人類的習慣使用而形成的。如小學生寫字，少了一筆，我們就說他寫錯了；然而古代的名書法家，每因他少了一筆，我們就照著他寫，覺得可以這樣寫。知識不離名義性，所以有不決定、相對、流動、變化的特性。人類的知識，每為名義的習慣使用而互相紛諍，糾纏不了。宇宙和人生，都是眾緣所成的，如幻如化，沒有決定的實體。因此，世間的名義知識，表示它而不能直顯它的絕待性——真理。這是知識的本性如是，對於絕對真實，是無法把握的。

(四)、知識的錯亂性：知識的錯亂性很大，如一杯水，把筆插下去，即見筆形曲折；或見天上雲動，以為月行；或眺望馬路，見前面越遠越小，但這些雖都是知識上的錯亂，還容易改正。而知識的根本錯亂，卻習非成是，難於糾正了。如宇宙萬物的流動變化，息息不居，哲學與科學能推證為變化，但常人即不能了解其中的變化。如講臺平穩不動的放著，然依科學說，桌子的內在，實是時刻在不斷地衝激流動，只是繼續保持平衡而已。講臺面是平整的，若以放大鏡一照，即刻現出了高低不平的現象。但不平整與不息的動，在常人的認識裡，連科學與哲學家都在內，如直觀對象，也不能了解。今天看如是，明天看也還如是，因此對桌子生起了一種不變的實在感，這就是知識的根本錯誤。他不但不知外物的流動變化，即連自身的變化也不覺知。如老人，是由孩子的慢慢轉變而壯、而老。明明孩子與壯年、壯年與老年有很大的變化，但他卻不承認，以為現在的我與過去的我還是一樣，這是不能理解世間的諸行無常義。有時雖聽懂了無常的名義，但在諸法的事相上不見無常變化，因此每在無常變化中又執實執常，這即是由於知識的根本錯亂而來。佛法說：「常」是眾生知識的顛倒錯覺。的確，在眾生的觀念中，世間諸法是常實的，這不是顛倒錯亂嗎？

我們觀察桌子，知是木料與人工等關係所成。科學說人是由九十幾種原素的集合，佛說人是六大假合。人與物體，都是多種因素的複合體，世間那有絕對的獨立物體？因此，諸法皆是緣起關係的存在顯現，就是極小的電子，科學也還說是複合體。但一般人就不能體會緣起的關係性，特別當自己在做事時，很少見到我與他人的關係，無意中總把自己看成一獨立的個體。個體，在佛法中稱為「一」。自己獨存，稱為「我」。一與我，是眾生知識中的根本錯誤，在緣起關係的決定下，世間沒有絕對的獨立個體，沒有真實獨存的我與一。而一切眾生，從無始來，即有我的獨一觀念，這又不能不說是知識的錯誤。知識對我與世間的緣起事物，尚有如此倒亂錯覺，更深更妙的真理，自不能體會。

知識中既包含了許多錯誤，以知識來說明事物，怎能恰合真理，沒有顛倒與種種流弊產生？如人有時為了一個名詞的認識不同，而起諍論；有時把虛假當為真實，把真實看作虛假，這都是常有而難免的錯亂。唯識說：外境唯識所現，不像常人所見為客觀外在的。中觀說：一切法無自性，不像常人所見為實有的。這都是表示了：一般知識有著根本的錯亂性。

還有，有人把知識看為人類痛苦的根源。我們仔細想，這話也有他的道理。因為人類的私欲，由於知識的我見錯亂，一直與知識不相分離。混沌愚癡的人，知識未開，欲望也低，得少為足。等到知識高了，欲望也就大起來，物質、金錢、名位不能滿足他的私欲，因而諍論。欲望跟著知識而擴大發展，知識即成了人類苦痛的根源，難怪有人要咒詛知識。然而，知識最低下的眾生，也還是有他的錯亂，有他的私欲。所以知識低、欲望低，並非是理想的，並非是問題的解決。

一般的知識，離不了私欲。知識大，私欲也就隨著知識而擴大。知識低的，他的欲望也低，如只想做一家之主，佔有家的一切，支配一切；可是知識高的，發展他的無窮私欲，他希望佔有一國，或做整個人類世界的支配者、控制者。各人都有私欲與知識，人類在私欲與知識的不斷發展中，世界成了鬥諍的沙場。最顯著的例子，如山地人民的知識低，生活淡泊清苦，但他們的欲望少，多少好一點，即能暫告滿足；而都市中的人民知識高，他們就是住的洋房、坐的汽車……，還是感到不滿足。這就難怪老、莊要討厭知識了。

二、知識的長處：知識有錯誤的一面，然而也有好的一面。現在即以佛法的立場說明知識的好處。(一)、以分別識成利生事：現世間的衣、食、住、交通……，都因知識的發達而有了長足的進步。今天農家的耕種，也進步到機械代替人工，比起從前來，真不知好得多少倍。從前人去臺北，艱苦的跑上兩三天；現在搭飛快車，只消一小時零幾分，坐飛機當然更快。這都是從知識的發達中來，你能說知識發達不好嗎？所以人類的日常生活，在知識發達中，得到許多便利、改善。現在農工居住的屋子，比五千年前的王宮——茅茨土階，有時還好些。古時的道路不寧，土匪眾多，若人民要輸運財物，就得請保鏢的；現在以火車、輪船運貨，絕少匪類的搶奪危險，顯然比從前好多，這能說不是知識文明的好處嗎？世間的利用厚生，非知識不成。

大乘法說：初學菩薩向上向善的正行，即由分別知識的引導——由知識分別，知善知惡，了解世間的因果事相，知善而深信善法的價值，於是不斷地努力向善，這才能趣向證悟的聖境，得平等無戲論的根本智。不但初學的，菩薩在自覺的聖境中雖遠離了分別妄識，但菩薩行的特點在利他，故從平等的根本智中又起後得的分別智，此即通達事物、度生的方便智。從菩薩的修行、證悟、利他的一切事業中看，佛法始終重視知識。佛法把知識看為：是自利證悟的前導，利他妙行的方便。離去了知識，即不能成就自利與利他的事業，這是佛法重視知識而說明了知識的崇高價值。

佛經說：周利槃陀伽根性暗鈍，教他讀經，他記得前一句即忘掉後一句。但佛陀是慈悲的，始終慢慢教他，誘發他學習，他在佛陀的慈悲教授策勵下，終於證得了阿羅漢果。雖證聖果，但不會說法，請他開示，他只會說「人生無常，是苦」，此外只有現神通了。他的話錯嗎？當然不錯，但他缺乏知識，故證悟了也不會說法。佛弟子中的舍利弗就不同了，他未出家前，即通達吠陀經典；出家證悟真理後，他為眾說法，在一個義理上，能滔滔不絕地講七天七夜，還沒有講完。佛讚嘆他「智慧第一」、「善入法界」。又如近代的印光大師，他是老實念佛的淨宗大德，為無數的信眾所崇敬。然老實念佛的不止他一人，何以其他人不能發生廣大的教化力量？還是因為印光大師不但切實履踐，而又有對儒學及佛教的深廣知識啊。知識是菩薩攝化眾生的要門，故《瑜伽師地論》說：「菩薩求法，當於五明處求。」從這些事實看，即知佛教對知識是多麼重視了！分別識是能成利生大用的。

(二)、以分別識成深信解：佛教與希伯來的宗教不同。希伯來宗教厭惡知識，重於感情的信仰；佛教卻說「有信無智長愚癡」，這肯定了無知的信仰會造成愚妄的行為，不是合理的正信。所以佛教的正信，要透過知識的考察，以知識為信仰的基點，解得分明，信得懇切，這才是合理的正信。如對佛法的正確知解愈高愈深，信仰也就愈深愈堅。沒有經過知識的信仰，好像很虔誠，其實是非常浮淺。例如害病，祈求神賜予健康；病真的好了，於是信神。然如再有病痛，求神無靈，他的信仰便要動搖了。所以佛教主張從深解中起信仰，確信透過知識的信仰才是深固的。這一點，與希伯來宗教——理智與信仰衝突，完全不同。中山先生也說有思想而後有信仰，這與佛教的從正解而成堅信，是一致的。佛教說信仰的最高度，即與智慧融合一體。可見知與信不但沒有衝突，而且是從互相助成而能達成統一的。有了高度的智慧，才有更深刻堅固的信願，這是說明信仰建築在理解的基礎中。理解不能不說是知識的力能，這是知識的又一長處。

(三)、以分別識成無分別智：世間的知識，雖有缺陷而不能證知絕對真理，但如能根治錯亂而引向更高度，即成通達真性的出世間無分別智。有人以為世間的分別妄識不能契見真實，反而是證悟的大障礙，所以一味訶毀分別識。不知道在沒有證得聖智前，如不以世間分別識分別善惡、觀察真妄，即無從修行。誰能直下從無分別處著手呢？不解不行，怎能證得解脫？所以太虛大師在《大乘宗地圖釋》中肯定的說：佛法大小宗學，無不從分別意識處下手，以此為修行的關鍵。若一味厭患分別識（事實上，這些人是誤會佛說的「無分別」了），不用分別識為方便，不但學佛者無從信解修習，佛（出世間後得智）也就沒有化世的妙用了。某些人似乎一向厭惡分別的知識，而不知人類的明了意識為人類的特勝，而為人所以能學佛、成佛的要點。如貓、犬、蟲、魚，牠們也是有心識的，但牠們的分別意識極弱、極簡略，不能善了名言。牠們的分別識既弱，私欲也不太強，分別識如為悟證的障礙，牠們比我們少得多、簡單得多，就該比人易悟真理了。但事實不然，佛只說人類易成佛道。因人的意識分別力，比天還強，也唯有強勝的分別力，才能分別善惡真妄，才能痛下決心依法觀行，才能契悟絕待的真性。所以佛法不否認知識本身的缺點，但認為若捨棄了它的缺點，把握它的長處，即是證悟解脫的正因。

有人認為：分別識不能契真，如再以分別識修觀，豈不分別愈多，與真理愈遠？這是不懂緣起相對性的機械論法！豈不見：如一木，再以一木相摩擦，似乎木積越多，而實則兩木相摩，即有火生；火一生起，木也就燒燬了。又如青草，如多多堆積起來，就會生熱而迅速朽腐下去。所以學佛而以分別識不斷地觀察，乃至於定中觀察，正觀諸行無常、諸法無我、法法空寂，即能契悟諸法的空寂相。在契證平等空寂中，有相的分別識也即泯絕而不起了。故佛教的破除虛妄分別識，決不是一味厭絕它，反而是以它作為引生出世間的平等聖智的前方便。這所以修習方便中，止以外有觀，定以外有慧。經中常說：如以小楔出大楔一樣（還有如雹墮草，草死雹消；以藥治病，病癒藥廢之喻），沒有小楔，深陷在管中的大楔即無法取出。等到大楔取出，小楔也就自然落下了。學佛以分別識觀破分別，證入無分別聖智，分別也即斷捨了，就與此理相同。

佛教重無分別的智證，但也重視知識，與印度宗教中專重瑜伽、禪定的學派，精神大有差別，所以佛法的特點在觀慧。佛法認為：知識雖不能表詮真理，但它有引向真理的作用。如有人問：從精舍去新竹公園，向那裡去？我們就告訴他，從此向北，轉幾個彎等。他依著指示的方向一直走去，自可達到公園。直觀公園的本身，雖無所謂南北，也無所謂彎曲，但我們從此去公園，確有它決定的方向與曲折。如不信所說，以為公園自身並無南北、彎曲，我們相信，他就永不能到達新竹公園。分別識而為無分別智的方便，是佛法確認的道理，所以在證入以前，有信解行。

三　現代知識應有之反省

從上面看，知識有缺憾錯誤的一面，也有優越良好的一面。知識若向錯誤的一面發展，會造成人類的無邊苦痛；若著重道德與真理而去發展知識，亦能引生人類的無邊幸福。知識的本身有好有壞，而不是決定好、決定壞，既不是「妙門」，也不是「禍根」，問題看我們對它的運用如何！近代的知識進步，人類受到嚴重的威脅與苦痛，大家應有深切反省的必要。我在菲律賓時，知道西洋神教徒在宣傳世界末日的快要臨到：現在原子彈的爆炸力，比過去擲於廣島原子彈的威力，要大多少倍了，而現在氫氣彈的威力，比原子彈的破壞力更大；還有死光等武器，比氫氣彈的威力更可怕。這些，不都是近代文明的結果嗎？所以人類世界即將接近毀滅的末日了。他們的目的，如為了宣傳、為了誘惑愚人入教，不妨原諒他們；如認為事實，站在佛法的立場看，絕難同意。我們知道：人類從有史以來，兇惡的武器即不斷地出現。可是你有，不久我也有了，誰也不能純以武器征服誰。或者雙方勢力相等，雖有兇惡的武器而不敢用，如毒氣。或者一種武器出現，有極大的破壞力，但隨時又有防禦它甚至克制它的武器產生。所以以新武器的威力，憂慮人類毀滅，宣傳世界末日，全是一篇鬼話！真正的問題，是科學發明的原子等，不使用於和平利人，卻以此為殺人或控制世界的武器，這才予人類以恐怖威脅的無限苦痛！問題在人類自己，對知識的偏向與運用不當，這才發展知識而反被知識所威脅傷害。

近代知識文明的迅速發展，是難得的！但知識發展的路向，有兩種偏向，造成畸形的病態的發展。一、精神知識趕不上物質知識：近代的知識發展，先是從物質界發展起，不斷地向外追求物質的知識，以物質為對象而考察、研究、實驗、利用，因此而忽略了精神。由於起初是重於自然界中天文、地理、物理的知識，慢慢造成了物質的文明。以此偏向物理的方法，去研究生物等——生理學以及心理學，也處處覺到心理受到物理的、生理的限制與決定。他們就是研究心理，也是把內在的心識看成了外在的東西（物化）一樣去考察。所以研究動物心理、兒童心理、成人心理、變態心理、群眾心理等等，都著重在受到物理因素、生理刺激反應，以及受到環境、風俗、群眾的影響。近代的知識，不但物質界的知識是物化的，心靈界的知識也是物化的。以此去研究心理，心理便成為物質的屬品了。真正有情的生命活動，心理活動不但從外界去觀察、從生理刺激反應等去了解，更應從自身去觀察、分析，體驗人類內心的自覺活動。心理的無限複雜、無限深奧，決不是現代科學知識向外探求所能徹底了解的。佛法對有情心理的體認，是著重於自身的反省、觀察與體驗。佛法的定慧，換句話說，即以自心去把握自心，審細地透視自心，這是一種自覺自證的實際體驗。唯有這樣，才能覺察到心理活動的自覺性、主動性，內心的無限複雜，心性的究極奧秘。若把心識活動當作外在的東西去研究，人便看成機械了。近代的某些統治者，即把人看為機械一樣的利用，這才缺乏人性、沒有同情，只是盡量發展個己的私欲，利用迫害奴役的一切技巧，以妄想達成控制整個的人類世界。這種錯誤暴虐的行為，是從知識偏向發展所引起的嚴重危險。

二、道德趕不上知識：知識的錯亂性，與私欲不相離，所以知識的發展，最易引起個人自私欲的擴展。然世界的知識，本來也不離向上向善的德性，知識發達而能促成人與人間和平共存、富裕康樂，即應重視道德的發達，至少要做到道德與知識並駕齊驅，使知識受道德的影響，受人類德性的領導，巧為利用，不致由於私欲的過分發展而損害大眾的和樂。可是近代知識文明的發展，偏向於物質，無形中受著唯物思想的支配，在自然界中，在物理、化學、生物學中，是不能發見道德因素的。道德原是人類文化的精神世界的產物，因此西方的物質知識愈文明，人類道德便被輕視、懷疑而日漸低落，固有的宗教道德也趨於沒落。到現在，西方的神教，也盡是利用物質的財物作為傳教的工具了。以此而宣傳宗教，實表示了神教的走向沒落。故人類道德在功利、現實、物欲泛濫的今天，不堪回首；西方的部分人士，也要唱出「道德重整」的口號了。站在佛法的立場看，人類知識的發展，應盡量約束自我的私欲，使知識服從真理與道德的指導，趨於道德的世界、真理的境域。若能服從真理、尊重道德，即能防止人類私欲的泛濫，使損人利己的私欲化為自利利他的法欲。這樣，知識愈文明，人類所受的實益愈大，也即更接近於道德的、真理的境地。可是近代知識文明，偏向了功利、物質的一面，忽視了精神的宗教、道德，故人類知識的發展反成了知識的奴隸。縱我而我愈不自由（我是自在自由義），制物而反為物所控制，這才面臨無邊的苦痛與毀滅的威脅。有些科學家、政治家，患著原子武器的恐懼病，其實真正可怕的，並不是這些。

近代世局混亂，多少善良人民被關進了鐵幕，處於鐵幕鬥爭的世界中，人人變成了仇敵，變成了囚犯。據鐵幕透露出來的消息說：人民正普遍的陷於心理變態——虐殺狂、神經病。在仇恨、鬥爭、殘酷的世界裡，人民還有正常而和樂的心情嗎？想毀滅別人，必為自己所毀滅。在自由世界裡，據報載：今日美國的精神病，也與日俱增，每月約增加一萬人，這是多麼可怕的報道。人性的瘋狂化、憂苦的加增，正說明了現代世界的混亂與苦痛。這並非是原子彈、死光，而是知識畸形發展的結果。故現代的知識文明——西方為主的文明，應有徹底反省，從人類自身的德性求開展，皈向佛法，依於佛法，精進地修學。初步，以道德克制情欲的泛濫；深一步，修學定慧，開發自己的無邊寶藏，發揚佛陀的慈悲精神，以指導人類的文明。人類能反省自己，克止私欲、體察自心，使知識與道德、物質與精神的知識並進，合而為一，這才是我們所想望的人類世界新的知識文明。

There is no place or time when darkness directly covers the sun and there is no darkness anywhere when the sun is shining. Similarly, there is no need to mention the extent to which the instructions for training in the awakening mind … eliminate the darkness of the mind.

-- Namkapel

Motivation

by Khensur Jampa Tegchok Rinpoche

The Buddha said that when we meet to teach, listen to or discuss the Dharma it is very important that we have the best possible motivation for doing so. Whether what we do is good or bad depends almost entirely on our reason for doing it — in other words, our motivation. And while this is true in general, it is especially important to have the purest possible motivation when teaching or listening to the particular thought transformation practise we are discussing here. From the side of both teacher and student, a virtuous motivation is critical, otherwise they risk putting much effort into something that has no chance of a positive result.

It is extremely negative if the teacher is teaching to enhance his or her reputation, win new followers, receive many offerings or become highly venerated or the student is listening with competitive thoughts or to gain fame, a good reputation, wealth or a big following. The great Indian practitioner and scholar Atisha said that anything done merely for this life is not a Dharma practice. Moreover, while the motivations to avoid rebirth in the three lower realms or achieve complete personal liberation from cyclic existence are not negative, they are still not the best.

When your motivation for giving or listening to teachings, meditating, helping others and so forth is simply to avoid rebirth in the lower realms it is called small scope motivation. When it is longer term and greater than that and aimed at complete liberation from the whole of cyclic existence it is called middle scope motivation.

When your motivation is even greater than that and aimed at benefiting every single sentient being and if, in order to do that, you are determined to achieve the state of full enlightenment — which is completely free of all faults and has all good qualities fully developed to their highest potential — it is the supreme motivation and called that of the great scope. When this is your motivation, every activity in which you engage — giving, listening to or meditating on teachings and so forth —  becomes a practice of the great scope and is the best and highest kind of practice you can possibly do.

What about practices associated with deities such as Medicine Buddha, Tara or Saraswati? For example, certain Medicine Buddha practices can help you overcome obstacles and illness and have a long life. Are such practices considered spiritual? It depends on your motivation.

If you genuinely feel that a long life will help you be of greater benefit to others and with that kind of attitude engage in practices for overcoming obstacles, ill health and so forth, they will definitely be spiritual because you will not be doing them merely for this life.

Engaging in such practices after you have recognised that you possess the many characteristics and supportive conditions needed for engaging in meaningful and powerful spiritual practice in this life is completely different from simply doing them for worldly purposes. A life completely free from adverse conditions that prevent such practice provides exceptional opportunities. Therefore, not only should you engage in practices that allow you to keep your life conducive to Dharma practice but you should also abandon any urge to waste it and, instead, feel compelled to use your life to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of others.

In fact, the kind of life we presently have is so exceptional that even the gods, who appear to have extraordinarily good fortune, actually have nothing like the good fortune that we do because they have no opportunity to practice Dharma.

Therefore, we should use this opportunity to pursue enlightenment for the sake of others because not only is it the very best way of using our life, it’s also because all beings are basically the same as us in wanting happiness and not wanting suffering.

We all want the greatest, longest lasting and best possible happiness; we utterly dislike suffering, problems and even the slightest difficulty. That we abhor even one or two problems let alone many shows that we all want happiness and freedom from suffering, and the best way of getting what we want and avoiding that which we don’t is the practice of Dharma.

We might think that even though it’s important to practice Dharma, it’s not essential to do so just yet because we can always do it in future lives. However, that’s a very mistaken way to think because our present human life has exceptional opportunities and attributes. There are eighteen advantages to this human life — the eight freedoms and the ten richnesses — and a life like this is very difficult to find.

The perfect human rebirth is difficult to find because its causes are very difficult to create. Furthermore, it combines many different characteristics, attributes and qualities that very rarely come together and therefore there’s no certainty that we’ll be able to enjoy this kind of opportunity again in future. Certain things almost never happen and this human life is even more difficult to acquire than those. Therefore we should definitely practise Dharma in this very life.

We might also think, “Yes, I should practice Dharma in this life but not right now — maybe next month, next year or some other time in future.” This, too, is a big mistake because there’s no guarantee that we’ll be around that long. Our lifespan is not fixed. If we could be sure of living for, say, a hundred years, it might be reasonable to put things off for a while, but in fact our time of death is totally unfixed. We have no idea at all when we’ll die. Therefore we should resolve to practice immediately.

As long as we’re ignorant of such things it’s quite understandable that we don’t feel responsible for our future but once we do know, it’s vital that we start making our life meaningful. As the Buddha taught, we are our own protector; the responsibility is ours. Nobody else can practice for us. We have to practice and take responsibility for ourselves, especially for our future lives. It’s the same as when we’re ill — the doctor makes the diagnosis and prescribes the appropriate medicine but it’s our responsibility to actually follow the advice given and take the medicine prescribed. Nobody else can do it for us.

Over the centuries many practitioners from all four major traditions of Tibetan Buddhism have attained enlightenment in a single lifetime but it’s not easy to do. It takes hard work and great intelligence. Therefore we should expect it to take many lifetimes for us to do so. But if we devote our lives to developing qualities such as love and compassion and avoid actions that harm ourselves and others as much as we possibly can there’s reason to hope that in our next life we’ll be able to continue from where we left off. In this way, over a series of lives, we’ll gradually progress to Buddhahood.

The Buddha said that all he could do was to teach the path to liberation and enlightenment and that it was then up to us whether or not we reached those states. To do so, therefore, we have to follow his advice and live according to his teachings. There’s no other way. He said, “I can’t pour my wisdom and compassion into your mind, wash away your negativities or remove your suffering by hand, like pulling out a thorn. All I can do is to explain what you have to do to achieve the freedom from suffering, realisations and qualities that I did.”

Therefore, please generate the highest motivation for studying these teachings by thinking, “I must help all sentient beings as much as I possibly can. In order to do so, I must attain enlightenment. Then I will definitely be able to benefit others in the highest possible way.”

Even if you don’t have an extensive understanding of Buddhism, if you generate that kind of motivation you will ensure that your time is not wasted, and as you discover and read more about the Dharma, your understanding will gradually increase.

Just as the previous Sugatas gave birth to an Awakening Mind, and just as they successively dwelt in the Bodhisattva practices; likewise for the sake of all that lives do I give birth to an Awakening Mind, and likewise shall I too successively follow the practices.

-- Shantideva

怎樣使佛法和生活、工作相結合

夢參老和尚

我們為什麼要學佛，學佛之後對我們又有什麼好處？要如何才能把佛法和我們的生活與工作結合起來？若我們能把所學到的佛法，應用到自己的生活，這樣學佛才有意義。現在跟大家講“怎樣能夠使佛法和你的生活、工作結合在一起”。

發菩提心、行菩薩道

佛法最了義的就是發菩提心、行菩薩道、證菩提果的過程，在家學佛工作忙，事情也多，要怎樣發菩提心？行菩薩道？證菩提果？如何把佛法跟你的工作及生活結合在一起來修行。在日常生活當中，我們會遇到很多的人、接觸很多的事，遇到人該怎麼處理？遇到事時，又該怎麼處理？我想跟大家談談這個問題。

首先要知道佛的涵義。“佛”，印度話叫“佛陀耶”，譯成中文就是知覺的覺，覺悟的覺，就是覺悟；再淺顯一點說，就是明白，你要是明白了，就是佛；要是不明白、糊裡糊塗的，就是眾生。學佛就是學覺悟、學明白的方法，用這個方法能使我們明白，使我們覺悟，我們就把這些方法運用到自己的生活和工作上，至於要怎麼來運用方法呢？

悲心與出離心

發了菩提心之後，第一、要有出離心，要怎樣生起出離心呢？就是要認識這個世界，認識你當前所生活的環境，若是認識了當前所生活的環境，你就不會受環境的迷惑和傷害；能夠隨順這個環境，使這個環境中生存的一切事、一切物、一切人，都能夠愉快安定，你就是行菩薩道了。

這次我們在醫院演講，這所醫院裡所有的醫生、護士、勤務人員都是在行菩薩道，這就是菩提心中的大悲心，要能對一切人慈悲，醫生對待病人要付出大悲心，這個大悲心裡頭就要有智慧，沒有智，大悲心就生不起來。這個大悲心是“愛見大悲”。當你看見那些失去工作能力，甚至失去生活能力的人，如病人、斷氣的人或植物人，你總能想到他們的痛苦。如果你能設身處地的用佛教導的方法去愛護他們，幫助他們，使他們能認識痛苦是怎麼來的，這樣這個工作與環境，對行菩薩道、發菩提心的人而言，是一個特別好的環境，能夠這樣想，你對這個工作就能有耐心。特別是學佛的人，這就是你行菩薩道最具體的，最現實的一個環境。

要發菩提心，首先要具足出離心，這個世界沒有一樣事情是快樂的，因為不快樂，你就不會貪戀。面對世間所有的事物，不會爭名也不會奪利，不會去貪戀；因為你生起了更大的慈悲心，對你的患者就能愛護得更好一點，為了希望他能減少痛苦，就盡你的力量幫助他，這樣你的大悲心就生起來了。

但是發大悲心要有智慧，必須觀照。因為我們都是凡夫，我們的耐心是有限度的，有一種煩惱特別重的患者，經常會罵醫生、罵護士；還有植物人，你們如何愛護這些失去知覺的患者？這真正得要具足大悲心。你要隨時發願，願他們能夠恢復知覺，我們發願是一回事，他們能否得到是一回事。這是走你自己的菩提道，發了這個心，這個心就是明白的心。

菩提路與方便道

上面講過，“佛就是菩提，就是覺悟”，菩提也翻成覺悟。你要自己明白，也讓一切眾生都明白；但是從你發心走入菩提道，一直到達成就佛果，是很艱難的，路途非常長，不只是我們這個地球上所說的十萬裡、百萬裡。我們知道，念阿彌陀佛要往生極樂世界，到極樂世界要經過十萬億佛土，一個佛土有三千大千世界這麼大！地球只是小千世界當中的一個小洲，所以這條菩提道，路很長。你走這條道路，也有很多種，有智慧的人，就有方便善巧，方便道就多了。譬如護士在照顧病人時，要想種種方法減少病人的痛苦，手術、麻醉……等都是方便道，有了方便道才能減輕病人的痛苦。

學佛也一樣，行菩提道，也有好多條道路通向菩提果，佛所教導我們的，要經常思惟，現在我們生存的現實生活及周圍環境，都是苦的，這個世界本身就是苦，而且是在這裡頭忍受苦。為什麼要忍受呢？這叫業不由己！不想忍受也不行！在忍受苦的當中，我們還要找出各種形式的快樂！一般人認為是快樂的事，但從佛學的道理來講並不快樂，這就是一種苦的因，將來要受苦的果，如果你在這不快樂之中能產生一種快樂──求你的心安，心裡的快樂，這就是佛所說的方便道。

智慧與觀照

要怎樣離苦？怎樣得樂？在受苦或生病或受災難等，種種不如意的時候，你要觀苦，知道苦是無常的，這樣你就能用智慧的力量去克服它。因為你知道這是無常，它不會常在你身上壓迫，這樣苦就會很快消失了。

假使沒智慧，又沒大悲心，就無法忍受這些苦，反而把你的苦轉嫁他人。就像搶劫犯或強暴犯，他們只想得到自身的快樂，若因缺錢而去行搶，那是苦上加苦，解決不了問題！如果人人都能學這種明白的方法，就不會自討苦吃，不會苦上加苦。

至於要怎麼樣才能減少痛苦呢？要觀想。觀想我們所受的都是苦，不受，可以不受嗎？可以。要怎樣才能達到不受的境界呢？不去貪求！少一點欲望！這需要觀想，知道自己所處的環境，就應當安心的付出自己所應付出的，得到自己所應得到的，不要另外去攀求，也不要占別人的便宜。遇到有人對我不好，侮辱我或罵我、輕賤或奪我的利益，損害我，我們應當忍他、讓他。佛教導我們要忍，而這個忍並不表示我們卑賤，忍也不表示我們沒跟他奮斗的能力，這種忍是一種智慧，讓他是成就他，不讓他再去造業，這裡頭就要有智慧。學習這種智慧時，你要先認識一切事物都是無常，並不是用貪嗔癡得到的就能保得住。保不住的，你知道無常，一切都是假的，人的壽命才多少年？最後不是什麼也沒有了。

所以在醫院裡看得最清楚，你認識到了，就不會被迷惑，這樣能使你的出離心更堅強，大悲心更堅固，智慧心更增長。但是這裡頭還有很多方便的道路，你想走這條道路，如何能忍下去呢？這必須得學，看看我們四周的那些榜樣，那些有智慧的人是怎麼做的，這些道友並不一定是出家人，有的學佛很多年，看他們怎麼做，怎麼付出，就向他們學習，照他們的樣子做。我們最大的榜樣是佛，因為他才是最究竟明白的人，我們照著他的話去實踐，不會錯的！這就是從發菩提心到證菩提果的方便道。

慈、悲、喜、捨

大悲心也是方便道的一種。我們經常說“慈悲喜捨”，“慈”就是想辦法讓別人快樂，讓別人離苦，讓別人歡喜。佛想了很多的辦法，教你怎樣離苦，離開苦你就得到樂，你對別人慈悲，照樣是對自己慈悲。首先，你不煩惱，如果你經常笑臉迎人，對誰都不煩惱，誰惹你了，你也不煩惱總是歡喜心。如果你看到一位向你瞪眼的人，你的心情會如何？看到人家恭恭敬敬的，歡歡喜喜的對你，你的心情又如何呢？

“喜”就是歡喜，就是你對人內心永遠保持歡喜，這就很難了。任何憂愁或煩惱的事，你知道這都是假的，是一種現象，會損害你的慈悲心和智慧心，這就要觀照了。通過觀照，就能看得破，知道一切事物是無常的，就能忍受，就不會去爭不去計較，能看破這個就不容易了。明白了還得放下，不要去執著，這樣才能生起歡喜心。看破了，放下了，才能捨。若你能盡量發揮佛教我們的方法──“慈悲喜捨”四無量心，你就能受用無窮。

問題是，一聽到“捨”大家可能慌；給別人幾個錢、捨點衣物，是最基本的捨。我說的“捨”不是這個，而是捨去你的知見，當你看問題時，不要以為自己所說的都是對，聽聽別人的聲音，這也叫“捨”。

捨自己財物，得量力而為，有些人捨完了，就生煩惱，這是自不量力，不要過分，因為你還沒有達到那個程度。至於捨身或捨自己的家庭或眷屬，那就更不容易了。就拿出家人來說，不管男女，發心落發的那一念，及至真正落發都是“捨”，這捨不容易啊！

“一念嗔心起，百萬障門開”，一念嗔恨心，一發脾氣，丟身家性命的例子多得很！嗔心一起一百萬個障門都開！由此可見這一念嗔恨心多可怕啊！因此你要捨，為什麼“慈悲喜捨”的“捨”放到最後？就是因為捨不容易，特別是捨自己的身體或看法。人的主觀意見通常是很深的，以為自己都是對的。我說這話不是說，看到別人不對也不爭，而是需看因緣，得有方便善巧。有了方便智慧，就能適當的幫助，讓別人能接受；不適當的幫助，徒增他人煩惱。有些人自己信佛之後，看到所有的人都想幫助他脫離生死輪回，勸他信佛。不要熱心過頭了，如果他沒這種因緣，你怎麼度也度不了。因緣得遇合，先得有那個因，這樣你想幫助他的緣才能成就；如果他根本沒有那個因，就算信佛了，你又怎樣去幫助他，使他更進一步呢。

一般人開始信佛的目的是，希望佛能幫他解決困難，菩薩能救度他，要是精進沒退墮，佛菩薩就幫他發財；生病了，因為有佛菩薩的幫助，病苦就沒有了，那是他未明佛法的意思。為什麼有人求了，卻沒得到福報？過去沒做過有福報的事，今生想要有福報、想發財、想得富貴，怎麼可能呢？不可能的！你得先從這些方法學起，等你真正明白了，不必外求，就在於你自己的心，這點大家要特別注意！我們信佛之後，恐怕都是向外求，藉著外來幫助，最後還得明白你自己的心即是佛。

是心是佛、是心作佛

“是心是佛，是心作佛。”這句話必須經過幾道解釋，才能使你相信自己的心。現在我們的心是妄心，不是真正佛的心。我們要先發菩提心，再行菩薩道，直到證得究竟，也就是證得自己的心。所以要有信心，既然信你的心，就用你的心來對治你的煩惱，對治那些痛苦、危險與惡難。自己能夠救度自己，解救自己，當我們還沒有達到這個程度時，最初就是信佛，佛是已經修行成就，已經究竟明白他的心！因此我們要向他學，學一切的菩薩，怎樣能使這個心快一點明白，使我們不糊塗。

從這個意義上來講，一開始我就跟大家說過，學佛要跟你的日常生活結合起來，譬如家庭主婦，在家得做飯、做菜給全家人吃，這是不是行菩薩道？是不是菩提心呢？如果你認為只是做飯、做菜，圍著鍋台轉，那就不是菩提心，而是迷惑；如果你認為這是行菩薩道，你要照顧周圍的眾生，讓他們吃了你做的飯，都能明白，能發心，能沒三災八難等痛苦；吃了你做的飯能發菩提心，漸漸行方便道，行菩薩道，漸漸能成佛；這樣，你做飯就不只是做飯，而是供養眾生，乃至使眾生都能得度。

再說醫生治病，治病能去掉身上的痛苦，這是物質上的，隨便你怎麼治，到老他一定得死，不論任何人都一定得死，這點是肯定的！你把這病治好了，只能減少他當時的一點痛苦而已，你不能讓他不死，死是既定的，你應當怎麼幫助他，發心讓他恢復原來的自信，消滅他一些妄想煩惱和障礙呢？心病就得用明白的法，去對治他的糊塗病；身病要用藥物，但沒有藥物能把病完全治好，只能多延續時間而已，不論你的勢力有多大、財產有多少，你想呆在這個世界上不死亡，是不可能的。但人人都有這種迷惑，就是不相信另外有一種方法，能夠使你明白，能夠永遠不死，這不是肉體而是心靈。

這個“心靈”就是上面所講的──真正的般若心。當你有智慧時，任何事都明白，都能知道前因後果的一切過程。我們今生所受的，有智慧的人就會觀現在我受的，就是過去自己所做的。明白之後，看一切事、一切物，一切人，你會感覺到一切平等平等，沒有不平等的，自己做的自己受，有什麼不平等的呢？我們心裡不平，為什麼壞人還能那麼享受？而某人對人不錯，布施行善，但他一生卻坎坷，這是因為我們沒有智慧，不知道他過去多生以前做過什麼，我們只是看到眼前這個樣子。當你有智慧、明白了，你就知道原來這都是他過去生自己做的，現在他所受的是應該的，這樣就叫平等。佛教所說的“平等”就是這樣的說法，在因果律方面講平等，自作自受的平等，這也就是菩提心行菩提道的一種方式。

師父引進門、修行靠個人

我介紹了很多跑道，但路要你們自己去走！就好像不論你從那個方向，都可以來到“榮民總醫院”一樣，不一定要走同一條道路，這就是一種觀。並不是說這種觀適合某人做，某人修一日就能成就；某人修就不能成就，不能成就的是因為他過去生沒學過，或不是這個根機，那就換一個跑道，學另一種方法。

修行，有很多種方法。有念佛、持咒、誦經、打坐、習褝觀……，選擇一種適合自己和自己相應的去做，但不論是那一種，都不要離開現實，不要離開我們的生活與工作。不論你作什麼工作，在你的工作本位上，把佛所教導的方法，把你所學到的佛法，運用在工作上，你會得到很好的效果。做任何事要專心一致的注意在這件事情上，不要這樣做做、那樣做做，手裡做著這個，想的卻是另一個，這樣你的心不住，不住就是妄想心非常重。當你念經就住在念經上，學佛時就住在學佛上，當你護理病人時，就去護理病人，這就叫念住。

不論做什麼，你的念頭就住在上面，這樣事情就會做得很好。這個“住”的念頭，是從佛那裡學來的，這麼做你就會得到一定的效果，這就叫“專心一致”。學佛如是，參褝也如是。坐褝時先把身調好，身調好，再調呼吸，呼吸調好再調心，這樣才能靜下來，才能漸漸的入。念經時也一樣，讀誦大乘經典時，一句一句的念，清楚明白的念，不要嘴念著經，心想到別處，妄想紛飛，這樣就不能契入，也不會進入。

當你看護病人時，一心一意看護病人，心住在看護上，若你是佛教徒，就用佛教的觀點，把念經的功德回向他，減輕病人的痛苦。有沒有人不專心呢？還是有的，那一行那一業都有，尤其是出家人要是都能專心上面所說的，早就成道業了，我說的這個方式，就是把佛所教導的道理，運用在一切時，一切處，這就跟你的生活結合起來，在生活當中，你既不厭煩生活，也不貪戀生活。

上面講的“出離心”是厭煩，厭煩是不貪戀六親眷屬及世間這麼多的眾生。並不是我要走要出離了，他們干我什麼事，我管不著，這就不是菩薩心了，大家能體會得到嗎？

除此，我們要有愛心，但是這個“愛”不是一般的愛，而是“大愛”。“愛”是慈悲心的一種，要如何發揮平等的精神，對一切人都如是。如果看到相貌長得很莊嚴的，就對他特別客氣；看起來丑陋又髒又臭的，從你眼前經過，你就嫌他氣味多，躲他遠一點，這就不是平等心，學佛的人不應該有這種的心。我講“平等心”、“愛心”、“慈悲心”，這都牽連到“出離心”，念念想出離，念念度眾生，念念對這個世間不貪戀，念念捨去這個世界。大家都知道“家家觀世音菩薩”，在極樂世界不是很好嗎？觀世音菩薩怎麼會跑到娑婆世界來？他本來是男相，為什麼會現女相呢？這就是他大慈大悲，示現女相度眾生更方便一些！觀世音菩薩的出離心具足成就了，他知道眾生還沒有出離心，所以就到這個世界來勸眾生，不要再貪戀這個世界，要認識這個世界是苦，在這個世界找享受是沒有的，一切受都是苦，你要“觀受是苦”。

剛才講的心是“真心”，現在大家用的心是妄心，是妄想。念念在變，念念不住。我剛才講“念住”，就是要把這個妄心止住，我們的妄心是念念不住的，所以心無常。

“觀心無常”是說我們的妄心，妄心不是住，不是常，它的變化太大了。一個人從早晨睜開眼睛，到晚上睡覺，一天之中多少念頭生起？自己都不知道，也弄不清楚！除非有定力的修道者，才能夠住，否則我們都隨著環境轉！外面的環境變，你也跟著變，所以要“觀心無常常”。

“觀法無我”，“法”是指一切有形有相的，包括我們的身體在內。我說這個法是“有法”不是“無法”。“法”就是環境，各式各樣客觀的事物，不要把“我”擺進去，沒有“我”。

我們也承認“一切法無我”，但是就是不能悟入，不能領會，為什麼說我們承認呢？我們說“我的眼睛，我的鼻子，我的耳朵”或“我的，我的，我的”，全是“我的”啊！並不是“我”，“我的”並不等同於是“我”，所以說這個身體是我，這是整體的我，但這是因緣和合的，你不得不承認，“我的眼睛”不是“我”，沒有眼睛成了瞎子，“我”還是存在，聾子沒有了耳朵，只是聽不見而已，那是“我的”耳朵聾了並不是“我”聾了。整個身體，“我的”心、“我的”眼睛，不論那一部份都是“我的”，每個人說話都是這樣，為什麼呢？如果耳朵、眼睛不是“我”，這身體不是“我”，沒有了這些，“我”在那裡呢？因為這就是“無我”，根本就沒有“我”，“我”是怎麼來的？是一切法因緣和合而緣起的，這個不是真實的，當緣散滅了，“我”沒有了，如是觀一切無我，“我”還貪什麼！“我”還執著什麼?

這樣能使你看破一點，幫助你看的破、放的下。

In this present life, you can experience your enlightened essence, and if you do that, you can, before passing away, attain the perfectly and fully awakened state of a Buddha.

-- Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche

What Is Enlightenment?

by Joan Sutherland

At the very heart of Buddhism is the promise of enlightenment. It’s the bright flame illuminat­ing the dharma, and the rich variety of practices developed in the traditions that make up Bud­dhism are all in some essential way in the service of that promise. For millennia, in response to the struggles and sorrows of life on this planet, and in honour of the breathtaking beauty of life on this planet, people have passed this flame from hand to hand, encouraging one another to take part in the agonisingly slow but impossibly tender awakening of our world as a whole.

In the West, the idea of enlightenment has got­ten a little bruised, in part because the intensity of our longings has made us so vulnerable to disappointment. Some of us don’t believe in it anymore, or think it’s the province of only a few special people. Some of us have misunderstood it as a self-actualisation project, and so have missed its power not just to improve but to transform. What happens when we let our projections about enlightenment fall away? Can we find the place where wisdom born of generations of experience meets us where we, each of us, actually live? And could we risk-taking on a day-to-day practice of enlightenment?

Here is the story passed on with the flame: Enlightenment is our true nature and our home, but the complexities of human life cause us to forget. That forgetting feels like exile, and we make elaborate structures of habit, conviction, and strategy to defend against its desolation. But this condition isn’t hopeless; it’s possible to dis­mantle those structures so we can return from an exile that was always illusory to a home that was always right under our feet.

For many of us, there is something that pushes us and something that pulls us. We’re pushed by our own pain and the pain we see in the world around us; we’re pulled by intimations that there’s something larger and more true than our ordinary self-oriented ways of experiencing life. Here’s a tradition that says, Yes, we understand that, and there are ways to make those intima­tions not simply a matter of random chance but readily and consistently present. It’s possible to make ourselves available, in all the hours of our days, to the grace we so long to be touched by, and to spread that grace to the world around us.

So we should pause to talk a little about what we’re talking about. The term “enlightenment” is used to translate a variety of words in various Asian languages that, while closely related, aren’t exactly identical. Most fundamentally, enlightenment refers to the Pali and Sanskrit word bodhi, which is more literally “awakening.”

“Enlightenment” has an absolute quality about it, as though it describes a steady-state, something not subject to time and space or the vagaries of human life. We imagine that once over that threshold, there’s no going back. In Buddhist terms, the way things really are is enlightenment, and our experience of the way things really are is also (the same) enlightenment. It is the vast and awe-inspiring nature of the universe itself, and it is the way each of us thinks, feels, and acts when we’re aware of and participating in that vast enlightenment manifesting as us. It’s not transcendent of our ordinary way of being; it’s more like we’ve been living in two dimensions, and now there are three. Strawberries still taste like strawberries and harsh words are still harsh, but now we’re aware of how everything interper­meates everything else, and that even the most difficult things are lit from within by the same undivided light.

For one woman, this revelation began with what she called the dark side of the moon, when she saw the light in the most broken places inside us, the places from which we’re capable of caus­ing great harm; as someone in a helping profes­sion dealing with the effects of that harm, she found this painful to accept. Then the bright side of the moon appeared, illuminating the great joys of her life. Finally she saw that it was “all moon,” with nothing left out, a realization both shattering and healing.

This experience of nothing being left out applies to ourselves as well. A thousand years ago, a Japanese woman wrote:

Watching the moon

at dawn,

solitary, mid-sky,

I knew myself completely:

no part left out.

—Izumi Shikibu

The sense of exile falls away as we experience how everything interpermeates everything else. Great Ancestor Ma of China assured his students that “for countless aeons not a single being has fallen out of the deep meditation of the universe.” The self that once seemed so inevitable and so separate becomes fluid, able to participate in the constant flow of circumstances.

In contrast to enlightenment, awakening feels more like an unfolding process, which might explain why over time the ways of referring to it differentiated and proliferated: liberation, seeing one’s true nature, being purified and perfected, attaining the Way, opening the wisdom eye, undergoing the Great Death, and becoming intimate, to name just a few. There’s a sense of a path of awakening we’re walking from first breath to last, and probably before and after that, too. It has stages and aspects, sudden leaps forward and devastating stumbles. While what we awaken to is the same for all of us, how we awaken and express that awakening in our lives is endlessly idiosyncratic and gives the world its texture and delight.

Which isn’t to say that enlightenment and awakening are different things; they’re just different ways of looking at the same thing. The poet Anna Akhmatova spoke of the wave that rises in us to meet the great wave of fate coming toward us. Perhaps enlightenment is that which comes toward us, a previously unimaginable grace, while awakening is that which arises inside us, to prepare for and meet the grace. In that moment of meeting, we know the two waves as rising from the same ocean.

Enlightenment is trans-personal. For Western­ers especially, it’s important to keep remembering that awakening is something different from the projects of self-improvement and self-actualisation we’re used to; it’s not about being a better self but about discovering our true self, which is another thing entirely. One of the puzzlements of the Way is that some people can seem to have substantial, even operatic, openings and still behave like jerks. This is important because it speaks to the nature of awakening: having an enlightening revelation isn’t the same thing as being enlightened; we have to let the revelation stain and dye us completely, in the exact midst of our everyday lives. We have to let life teach us how to embody the revelation.

Post-revelation, some people may believe that awakening is about them, when in fact it’s the least about-you thing that’s ever happened. And it’s simultaneously the truest thing about you that’s ever happened. Discovering how both these things could be so, and their implications for the way we live our lives, are what the paths of awakening are for.

Because it’s trans-personal, enlightenment isn’t something that can be obtained, like the ultimate killer app. Neither can it be attained, like a skill or an understanding to be harnessed to the purposes of the self. In some Buddhist traditions, enlightenment is seen as a kind of fundamental property of the universe, a vast unifying principle that appears in an almost infinite variety of forms. Enlightenment is autonomous, existing before there were humans, or anything else, to experience it.

Nagarjuna, the great Indian philosopher of the second and third centuries, expressed it this way:

When buddhas don’t appear

And their followers are gone,

The wisdom of awakening

Bursts forth by itself.

—from Verses from the Center,

translated by Stephen Batchelor

This view of enlightenment was personified in Prajnaparamita, mother of buddhas, who holds the universe’s awakening, regardless of whether there are buddhas or Buddhist teachings in a particular era. We could play with the thought that this has some relationship to the contemporary theory that consciousness, or its ancestor proto-consciousness, was from the beginning a fundamental feature of the universe, existing at the subatomic level and eventually emerging into matter as the universe became more complex.

From this perspective, the process of awakening is less a matter of actualisation and more a matter of “truing,” of becoming aware of the way things already are. Rather than developing an enhanced and therefore more solidified self, we dissolve into something that existed before we did. We become aware of our continuity with enlightenment, which is none other than the universe itself.

This has been called our original face, what we “look” like when we step back into the moment before the world of our thoughts and feelings comes into existence. While Westerners generally speak of having a dream, in some South Asian cultures you’re seen by a dream. It’s a bit like that: We become aware that the universe has always seen us in our truest form, and now we’re aware of what that is.

Trying to describe all this is pretty much a fool’s errand, which is why people have always enlisted poems and paintings and offers of cups of tea as invitations to see the original face of something before our judgements and opinions about it kick in. Rilke once said with appreciation that Cezanne painted not “I like this” but “Here it is.” The enlightening revelation is “Here it is” writ large and complete, but it happens by way of the most commonplace moments. In the old stories it was the tok of a stone hitting bam­boo or the sudden appearance of cherry blossoms across a ravine; today it might be hearing an ad on the radio or seeing a crumpled beer can on a forest path. “There is another world,” Paul Eluard said, “and it is inside this one.” The key to seeing that other world seems to be letting something, anything, speak to us without inter­rupting it with our habits of exile.

The Chinese have an image for how enlightening revelation is inextricable from the things of this earth: one heart-mind with two gates. The first gate opens to the vastness, while the second opens toward compassionate engagement with the world. We walk through the second gate when we dedicate our lives to concern for others.

The arc of awakening that leads toward this kind of life is made up of path, revelation, and embodiment. Things tend to go generally in that progression, but these are all aspects of one thing, and they weave in and out of each other. I mentioned that we can imagine enlightenment as an absolute threshold, and this is true in the sense that we can’t believe in our delusions as we did before; they’re no longer capable of binding us to their limited view of reality. But they still arise, because it’s part of the nature of the human heart-mind to generate them. The difference is that we see them for what they are, and can even feel a warm compassion for them.

The teachings speak of a single enlightened thought as being the whole of enlightenment, and a single deluded thought as the whole of delusion. This acknowledges that we’re capable of both, but however seductive the desire to sort our thoughts into separate piles of enlightenment and delusion and then choose one over the other, that isn’t the offer. Instead, it’s to get underneath the self-centred, operational realm of sorting and choosing and to sink back into the place from which all thoughts arise — sometimes appearing as distorted thoughts, sometimes as clarifying ones. It’s a truer place to rest, and a humbler one.

We still have bodies that break down in all sorts of amazing ways. We still face injustice and conflict. Awakening isn’t a waiver from the shared circumstances of human life. But it does radically transform how we experience them. We are no longer beleaguered exiles but now people at home even in the most difficult times, searching for ways to respond that encourage the bursting forth of the enlightenment that is present always and everywhere.

There’s a story about Tolstoy that speaks to this fundamental shift from self-centredness to all-centredness, when we see the self as infinitely large, taking in all others. Tolstoy and Chekhov were on a walk in the spring woods when they encountered a horse. Tolstoy began to describe how the horse would experience the clouds, trees, smell of wet earth, flowers, sun. Chekhov exclaimed that Tolstoy must have been a horse in a previous life to know in such detail what the horse would feel. Tolstoy laughed and said, “No, but the day I came across my own inside, I came across everybody’s inside.”

A great deal has been said about walking the path of awakening, including practices that show us our habits of exile and how our allegiance can turn away from them toward more spacious and generous lives. So I’ll just mention one thing that relates to taking on a day-to-day practice of enlightenment. Especially early on, most of us still have a lot of self-centeredness, by which I mean belief in the absolute reality of the self and the primacy of its concerns and reactions. One of the bemusing results is that here we are, hoping for an event which by its nature is unprecedented, and we think we know best about how to make it happen. We try to exert control over the process, and we believe we can find our way to enlightenment through acts of will.

There is mad discipline and insane persistence on this path, but they’re in the service of some­thing more fruitful than certainty, control, and will. They’re in the service of availability. What­ever happens, you have to just keep showing up. Sit the meditation, attend the retreat, absorb the teachings, face the fear, feel the sorrow, endure the boredom, stay open to the disturbing and also the knee-bucklingly beautiful.

When revelation begins to walk toward you, have the courtesy to walk out to meet it. You know the tricks of distraction you play on yourself, so stay alert to them, but don’t allow hyper-vigilance to blind you to the moments when the world comes to call you home. There’s an old story about a man who vowed to meditate until Krishna appeared to him. Moved by his commitment, Krishna walked up behind the man and put his hand on his shoulder. Without turning around, the man cried, “Go away! I’m waiting for Krishna!”

Just keep showing up, no matter what, with an open mind and a whole heart. Allow your allegiance to be turned from the habits of exile to the promise of home, naturally. Make yourself unconditionally available, and trust that enlightenment will find you.

The metaphors we use can powerfully shape what we imagine awakening to be. My own Zen tradition has lots of descriptions, like wielding the sword and penetrating the mystery, that we’d be forgiven for confusing with exercises of will. Enlightenment is likened to a lightning bolt or a sudden flash of sparks, something instantaneous and bright. But what happens when we listen to other voices with very different ways of describing the same thing? Here is Qiyuan Xinggang, a seventeenth-century Chinese nun, being questioned by her teacher:

When Qiyuan Xinggang awakened, her teacher asked her, “What was it like as you gestated the spiritual embryo?” She replied, “It solidified, deep and solitary.” “When you gave birth, what was that like?” “Being stripped completely naked.” “What about when you met the Ancestor?” “I met the Ancestor face to face.”

In these spare quiet words is a sense of enlightenment growing in the dark, both autonomous and contained within us — something not in our control but asking our full attention. And then we’re stripped of everything we’ve depended on, including self-will, so we can meet the real with nothing intervening. This evocation of awakening as a kind of pregnancy that allows us to “become intimate” is something many people, women and men alike, recognise from their own experience.

Still, the language of light and illumination is everywhere. “Mind is not mind,” the Perfe­tion of Wisdom Sutra says. “The nature of mind is clear light.” In moments of revelation, what are the qualities of light that are so powerful? There’s the sense that everything is unified and equal in this radiance. At the same time, each thing is so particular and so alive in the way it’s lit from within; we feel the almost-overwhelming sentience of all things. And we become aware of what is expressed through us, inseparable from the light itself: awe, gratitude, humility, and a suddenly bottomless love.

Yet we’re not enlightened because we experience this light; the light is a way we experience the empty aspect of reality, which is all-pervasive, unconditioned, eternal, and undivided. Once, during a retreat, a woman lay down for a nap in a cottage at the end of a remote road. She awoke to a life-changing awareness of the light reaching everywhere, never blinking and never failing to hold even the smallest particle of existence.

Buddhism is nondualistic, so this isn’t light as opposed to darkness but something that includes both. The Taoist idea of the Great Mysterious as the dark source of everything was incorporated into the dharma as images such as branches of light streaming from the dark, where the dark is the undifferentiated unity and the light is the manifest world. Without these balancing metaphors, we run into the atom bomb problem, in which pure radiance can tip to something blinding and annihilating. We might find a lovely antidote in the purple-golden light illuminating the landscape that the Japanese koan master Hakuin evoked.

After the Buddha’s own revelation in the dark of night, he had a time of doubt, when he wondered how he’d ever be able to communicate what he’d come to understand. It was only when his companions requested that he teach them that he stepped out from under the tree. This is the question of embodiment each of us faces: if the nature of the revelation is universal, the way each individual expresses it is particular. We won’t all become age-defining teachers of the dharma, but in our family, community, work, and creative lives we learn to live our enlightenment, each in our own way. However, it’s not as though our awakening ends with revelation and then we figure out what to do with it; it’s actually through embodiment that enlightenment completes itself in us.

This is one of the great mysteries of the Way — that enlightenment not only illuminates ordinary life but submits to its discipline. We have to give ourselves to the daylit world to learn how to turn revelation into matter — and in this way, our awakening continues. As with practice, this can’t be accomplished by an act of self-will, which is why the Mahayana tradition offers the bodhisat­tva vow instead. The vow is usually described as the commitment to delay one’s own departure from the wheel of birth and death in order to remain in the world, working toward the awakening of all. It’s natural to see this as the most noble of sacrifices, but it’s also a description of what has to happen for enlightenment to complete itself. We don’t see the world as it is and then withdraw from it; we see the world as it is so we can most truly live as part of it. Our freedom isn’t from the world; it’s in the world.

In some Mahayana traditions, the luminous totality of the universe, called the dharmakaya, fulfils a vow that all things should come into existence and grow toward awakening. The bod­hisattva vow harmonises in microcosm with the dharmakaya’s macrocosmic vow: we will continue to exist, and we will dedicate ourselves to awakening so that we might help everything that exists awaken, too. To take this vow is to allow ourselves to be pulled to that place where our enlightenment is continuous with the universe’s — our vow continuous with the dharmakaya’s vow — so that there is no rub between our intention and its.

And so we enter a phase of awakening that we might, perhaps surprisingly, call endarkenment. Awakening is a marriage of wisdom and compassion, and each has an aspect that is enlightening and one that is endarkening. The enlightening aspect of wisdom is a growing clarity of insight that puts doubts to rest and creates confidence. It’s about what we come to understand. The endarkening aspect of wisdom is our profound acceptance of the great mystery at the heart of things, which we can never understand in our ordinary ways but can rest in and be nourished by. This is sometimes called not-knowing mind.

The enlightening aspect of compassion includes our bright commitment to everyone’s freedom from suffering. The endarkening aspect of compassion is our willingness to have our hearts broken by the world, so our hearts remain open and undefensive. As we endarken, we see that we are not only continuous with the lumi­nous nature of the universe but also continuous with the great broken heart of the world; we share a tenderness that is both poignant beauty and wound.

It’s as though revelation happens at the speed of electrical impulses in the brain, while embodi­ment happens at the speed of the heart, which is a slow-beating muscle. The Sutra that Vimala­kirti Spoke contains a long dialogue between Manjushri, the bodhisattva of wisdom, and Vimalakirti, a greatly awakened householder. In some ways, Manjushri speaks for the mind and Vimalakirti for the heart. Vimalakirti is ill, and he says that he’s sick because the whole world is sick. The Chinese term for nonduality is “not two,” and Vimalakirti rests on his couch in deep not-twoness with the world. Manjushri, wielding his sword of insight and clarity, asks Vimalakirti how the illness can be extinguished; from Man­jushri’s perspective, this is a problem to be fixed as quickly as possible. Vimalakirti responds with a long and detailed talk on how the human heart can be healed with time. His is a perspective from deep within embodied life, valuing its greatest challenges as exactly what the bodhisattva needs to give birth to herself.

The Sutra that Vimalakirti Spoke also contains a lovely passage naming the individual bodhi­sattvas in a large assembly. There’s Unblinking Bodhisattva, Wonderful Arm Bodhisattva, Jewel Hand Bodhisattva, Lion Mind Bodhisattva, Root of Joy Bodhisattva, Delights in the Real Bodhisattva, and, one of my favourites, Universal Maintenance Bodhisattva. The deep meaning of this list is that each of us must discover the particular bodhisattva we are; there isn’t a single template for our spiritual lives. Otherwise how could there be a Viewing Equality Bodhisattva, a Viewing Inequality Bodhisattva, and a Viewing Equality and Inequality Bodhisattva?

In the day-to-day practice of enlightenment, sometimes we’re also going to be the Kinda Get­ting It Bodhisattva, Had Just About Enough Bodhisattva, Flying by the Seat of Her Pants Bodhisattva, and a hundred others, too. After all, if enlightenment is the way things really are, it’s already here, in large ways and small. We can see it in our companions in this amazing shared project of awakening, as the particular enlightenment of each person becomes apparent: insight­ful, heartfelt, or brave; wise about people or about working with material objects; brilliant in language or paint or song; unaware of how much she already understands, growing in confidence, resting in not knowing; becoming a person he never could have imagined — even if, in that most poignantly human way, someone isn’t completely aware of their own enlightenment yet. And all of it in service to our common awakening — becom­ing more attentive to the complexities of human life, more encouraging of its kindnesses, each of us in our turn helping pass the bright flame from warm hand to warm hand.