宁静在说话（第四章：当下）

第四章：当下

The Now

 

On the surface it seems that the present moment is only one
of many, many moments. Each day of your life appears to consist of thousands of
moments where different things happen. Yet if you look more deeply, is there
not only one moment, ever? Is life ever not “this moment”?  

表面看来，“此时此刻”似乎仅是众多片刻中的一刻。你生命中的每一天看似由无数的片刻所构成，在其间许许多多不同的事情发生了，但如果你更深入看来，始终不是只有一个时刻吗？生命中何时不是“此时此刻”呢？

 

This one moment – Now – is the only thing you can never
escape from. The one constant factor in your life. No matter what happens, no
matter how much your life changes, one thing is certain: it’s always Now.  

此时此刻--当下--是你永远无法逃脱的唯一一刻。它是你生命中一个恒常不变的元素。不论发生任何事，不论你的人生如何改变，有件事是不变的：你面对的永远是当下。

 

Since there is no escape from the Now, why not welcome it,
become friendly with it?  

既然无法从当下逃脱，为何不张开双臂欢迎它，与它友善相处呢？

 

When you make friends with the present moment, you feel at
home no matter where you are. When you don't feel at home in the now, no matter
where you go, you will carry unease with you.  

当你与当下为友，无论你身处何方，都会感觉像回家般自在。如果你在当下无法感受到这样的自在，那无论你到哪里，都不会感到心安。

 

The present moment is as it is, always. Can you let it
be?  

现前这一刻永远都是如其实际情况，你能否顺其自然呢？

 

The division of life into past, present and future is
mind-made, and ultimately illusory. Past and future are thought forms, mental
abstractions. The past can only be remembered Now. What you remember is an
event that took place in the Now and you remember it Now. The future, when it
comes, is the Now. So the only thing that is real, the only thing there ever
is, is the Now.  

将人生切割成过去、现在与未来是心智的把戏，而这最终还是虚幻不实的。过去与未来是思维意念，是心智上的抽象概念。过去只能在当下被忆起。你所记起的种种是在过去的当下中发生的事情，只是在现在这个当下你记起了它。而未来，当它来临时，即是当下正在发生的事情。所以，唯一真实的，唯一真正存在的，即是当下正在发生的事情。

 

To have your attention in the Now is not a denial of what
is needed in your life. It is recognizing what is primary. Then you can deal
with what is secondary with great ease. It is not saying, “I’m not dealing with
things anymore because there is only the Now.” No. Find what is primary first,
and make the Now into your friend, not your enemy. Acknowledge it, honor it.
When the Now is the foundation

and primary focus of your life, then your life unfolds with
ease.

专注于当下，并不是全盘否认生命所需求的事物，而是要你认清什么是最重要的，然后在面对生命中次要的事物，便能怡然自得了。专注于当下，并非宣称：“唯有当下，所以我将不再理会其他世事。”绝非如此。专注于当下是指专注于当下正在发生的种种，然后找出当下最需要关注与处理的事，并与当下结为盟友而非敌人，接纳它、赞美它。一旦你的生命奠基于当下并聚焦其上，你的人生自然而然地就开展了。 

 

Putting away the dishes, drawing up a business strategy,
planning a trip–what is more important: the doing or the result that you want
to achieve through the doing? This moment or some future moment? 

收拾碗盘、草拟商业策略、策划旅行......，什么比较重要呢？是手上正在做的事情？还是你透过做这些事想达到的结果？是此时此刻？还是未来的某个时刻？

 

Do you treat this moment as if it were an obstacle to be
overcome? Do you feel you have a future moment to get to that is more
important? 

你是否将“此时此刻”视为一个得去克服的障碍？你是否觉得有个更重要的未来你得奔赴？

 

Almost everyone lives like this most of the time. Since the
future never arrives, except as the present, it is a dysfunctional way to live.
It generates a constant undercurrent of unease, tension, and discontent. It
does not honor life, which is Now and never not Now.  

几乎每个人大半辈子都这样活着，然而，未来永远不会到来，除非临至当下，所以如果一辈子这样活着，岂不是无法良好运作吗？活在未来会引发一股充满不安、紧张与不满的经常性暗流，这对生命并不尊重，因为生命就在当下，它从来没有不在当下。

 

Feel the aliveness within your body. That anchors you in
the Now.  

感受内在的蓬勃生机，将使你定锚于当下。

 

Ultimately you are not taking responsibility for life until
you take responsibility for this moment–Now. This is because Now is the only
place where life can be found.

除非你对“此时此刻”负责，否则你终究无法对生命负责。这是因为当下是你唯一可以发现生命的地方。

 

Taking responsibility for this moment means not to oppose
internally the “suchness” of Now, not to argue with what is. It means to be in
alignment with life. 

对此时此刻负责，意味着内心不要抗拒当下的“就是这样”，也不要与实际的状况争辩，而要与生命结为盟友。

 

The Now is as it is because it cannot be otherwise. What
Buddhists have always known, physicists now confirm: there are no isolated
things or events. Underneath the surface appearance, all things are
interconnected, are part of the totality of the cosmos that has brought about
the form that this moment takes. 

当下是什么状况就是什么状况，因为它不可能是其他状况。佛弟子对此早有领悟，如今物理学家也一一证实：宇宙万物间，没有独立存在的事或物。表相之下，万事万物互有关连，同属宇宙整体的一部分，而正是从这宇宙里缘生出此刻所显现的所有形体物相。

 

When you say “yes” to what is, you become aligned with the
power and intelligence of Life itself. Only then can you become an agent for
positive change in the world.  

当你对事情的实际状况俯首称“是”时，你将与本智及生命本身的力量结为盟友。唯有如此，世界才能透过你，朝向正面改变。

 

A simple but radical spiritual practice is to accept
whatever arises in the Now – within and without.  

一种简单但根本的灵修练习方法，就是从内到外全然接纳当下所生起的一切。

 

When your attention moves into the Now, there is an
alertness. It is as if you were waking up from a dream, the dream of thought,
the dream of past and future. Such clarity, such simplicity. No room for
problem making. Just this moment as it is.  

当你把专注力移转到当下，警觉就会出现。就像从一场梦中醒来，一场思绪之梦，一场过去与未来的梦。它是如此地清晰，如此地单纯，问题没有可存身的空间，唯有此刻，如其本是。

 

The moment you enter the Now with your attention, you
realize that life is sacred. There is a sacredness to everything you perceive
when you are present. The more you live in the Now, the more you sense the
simple yet profound joy of Being and the sacredness of all life.  

当你将专注带入当下的那一刻，你将了解生命是神圣的。当你临于当下，你所感知的一切都将是圣洁纯净的。你越能活在当下，便越能感受到单纯却深刻的“本体的喜悦”，以及所有生命的圣洁。

 

Most people confuse the Now with what happens in the Now,
but that’s not what it is. The Now is deeper than what happens in it. It is the
space in which it happens. 

大多数人们分不清“当下”与“在当下里所发生的事”，此两者并不相同。“当下”是事情发生的空间，它要比其中“发生的事情”更深、更广。

 

So do not confuse the content of this moment with the Now.
The Now is deeper than any content that arises in it.  

所以，不要将“此刻发生了什么”与“当下”有所混淆，“当下”要比在其中发生的任何内容都更深、更广。

 

When you step into the Now, you step out of the content of
your mind. The incessant stream of thinking slows down. Thoughts don’t absorb
all your attention anymore, don’t draw you in totally. Gaps arise in between
thoughts–spaciousness, stillness. You begin to realize how much vaster and
deeper you are than your thoughts.  

当你进入了当下，你便跨出了心智世界，奔流不息的思绪之流慢了下来。念头不再占据你全部的注意，不再全然地吸引着你。念头与念头之间的空隙出现了--无垠宽广、寂然静止。你开始了解--你，远比你的思绪更为浩瀚与深刻。

 

Thoughts, emotions, sense perceptions, and whatever you
experience make up the content of your life. “My life” is what you derive your
sense of self from, and “my life” is content, or so you believe. 

思维、情绪、感官觉受，以及任何你所经历体验的，构成了你的生命的内容。“我的生命”是自我感的来源，而你所谓的“我的生命”就是生活中的这些内容，或者你相信是如此。

 

You continuously overlook the most obvious fact: your
innermost sense of I Am has nothing to do with what happens in your life,
nothing to do with content. That sense of I Am is one with the Now. It always
remains the same. In childhood and old age, in health or sickness, in success
or failure, the I Am – the space of Now – remains unchanged at its deepest
level. It usually gets confused with content, and so you experience I Am or the
Now only faintly and indirectly, through the content of your life. In other
words: your sense of Being becomes obscured by circumstances, your stream of
thinking, and the many things of this world. The Now becomes obscured by time.

你一直忽略一件显而易见的事实：你内心深处的“我本是”，与你生命中所“发生”的事情，与你所谓的生命内容，丝毫无关。“我本是”与当下是合一的，它始终不变，幼年如此，老年亦然，无论健康或生病、成功或失败，“我本是”--当下的觉性空间，在最深层的意义上，它从来没改变过。人们常以为生命的内容就是“我本是” ，而透过生命的内容，你也只能隐约、间接地体验到“我本是”或“当下”。换句话说：你的本体感因为受到如思维之流或俗事等各种情况的遮蔽，而变得朦胧不清。“当下”也因为有了过去与未来的时间概念，而变得隐晦不明。

And so you forget your rootedness in Being, your divine
reality, and lose yourself in the world. Confusion, anger, depression,
violence, and conflict arise when humans forget who they are. 

因此，你遗忘了你是根植于本体的，遗忘了你原有的神性，以致在这人世间迷失了自己。当人们遗忘了自己是谁，混乱、愤怒、沮丧、暴力与冲突便营运而生。

 

Yet how easy it is to remember the truth and thus return
home:

然而，忆起真理，回归本性是多么容易：

 

I am not my thoughts, emotions, sense perceptions, and
experiences. I am not the content of my life. I am Life. I am the space in
which all things happen. I am consciousness. I am the Now. I Am.  

我不是我的想法、情绪、感觉或种种经验，我也不是我的生命内容，我就是生命。我就是万事万物发生的所在空间，我就是那觉识，我就是当下，我本是。