Treat What Lay Immediately Ahead Properly

Treat What Lay Immediately Ahead Properly

Always treat what lay immediately ahead properly, even if it is a trivial matter. Do your best and then let it go. We should learn to face our lives with this attitude, because life is made up of innumerous present moments. Whether you want it or not, or whether you want more or less, if you don’t spend each present moment in a sensible way, you will not have a bright future.

In daily life or in religious practice, all your behavior is like thrusting a sword into water – once the sword is lifted up from the water, nothing is left on it. At some moment, perhaps, some transient traces are left, for example, the pain you feel after being beaten by somebody. But the pain will pass; you won’t feel you are humiliated or have suffered loss, nor will you think of hitting him back. Being detached from the traces is equal to leaving no traces.

The same goes for religious practice. The compliments, slanders, verbal abuse, and profits that the world has brought you may affect you externally and sometimes may affect your mind. However, don’t cling to any of them. It is like a sword penetrating water and nothing should be left on it. When someone praises you, return it with a laugh and don’t be proud. When someone curses you, do the same and don’t get upset. Only if you are able to do this are you a genuine practitioner.

Some people may mistake that attitude for unfeelingness. In fact, the unfeelingness they talk about is likely to be a kind of moral neutrality or only emptiness, rather than a result of genuine practice. To be simply “unfeeling” is not enough. A practitioner must enter into the state of non-attachment and non-detachment with full consciousness – void yet clear.

The purpose of religious practice is to obtain a sort of wisdom which is clear and vivid, which transcends binary opposition, and which is without the discriminating mind. Applying that wisdom to daily life is genuine religious practice. If a person is content with knowing the truth and doesn’t apply it, he isn’t a practitioner in the true sense. For to practice is to modify your behavior. No behavior, no practice.

Always treat what lay immediately ahead properly, even if it is a trivial matter. Do your best and then let it go. Will I succeed? What if I fail? Don’t bother about questions like these. Enjoy what you are doing at the present moment. Even if you are suffering now, enjoy it, savor it, observe it, and draw wisdom and power from it. We should face our lives with this attitude, because life is made up of innumerous present moments. Whether you want it or not, or whether you want more or less, if you don’t spend each present moment in a sensible way, you will not have a bright future.

When Shakyamuni Buddha lived in the world, he went through lots of hardships. But he kept his peaceful smile all the time. His smile embodied the greatest wisdom and truth. We should follow the Buddha’s example and adjust our mind at any time. Remember, don’t rely on the future. You might say, I will study hard in the future, I will work hard in the future, etc., etc. It is not right. Just stably abide in the present moment and do what you say. Never count on the future.

Some people are busy running a business. Whey they are advised to spend more time on his family. They would say, “I have no time for this right now. When my business progresses steadily in the future, I will take my family for a tour aboard.” They don’t realize that sometimes life ends when one cannot catch one’s breath. There are not so many futures. How can you be so sure that there is future for you or for another one? That is why we constantly stress on “cherishing the present moment” and ”instant solicitude.”

Please excuse me if I talk about death all the time. And please don’t think of it as a threat or something ominous. A lot of people have seen the truth through death; besides, it is something unavoidable for anyone. Only when you accept the fact that one can’t live forever can you treat every moment of your life wisely.

A person should live at the present moment and pay no attention to the future. Therefore, always focus on the present: what I am doing now, how I feel now, is it happy, peaceful, or serene?

Always bear this in mind: what breaks your inner peace is desire, not something external. It is desire that wants to conquer the world, achieve some goal, and catch the attention of others. Therefore, desire won’t bring peace and serenity to your mind; it can only bring you more and more defilements.

Someone made an analogy between an ordinary man and a millionaire. The former can be very happy to find a 100-yuan note on the street, while the latter pays no attention to it because he desires something larger in amount and size. It shows the reason why desire brings people more and more defilements is that it can never be satisfied.

Knowing this is a gain in the wisdom about the ways of the world. When you acquire that wisdom, you will find that all phenomena in the world are essentially similar, because they all belong to emptiness: the good is impermanent and so is the evil; the beautiful is impermanent and so is the ugly.

Once you see the similarity of all things in the world, you free yourself from binary opposition and enter into the stage of single-taste yoga, which is the third of the four stages in mind yoga. If you can reach this stage, it shows you have been doing great in your practice.

It can be said that the intrinsic wisdom hidden deeply in one’s mind far surpasses the knowledge he has acquired. For example, when a writer is inspired, he may produce a masterpiece that can’t possibly be written even with the best techniques and the widest knowledge. When inspired, he becomes the outlet of Nature, that is, the outlet of his intrinsic wisdom. In that state, he actually has got rid of the self and all his thoughts; he is immersed in a strong sensation, and he is in a state in which he and Nature are one and the same, in which his memories of life flow into words.

When a person is merged with Nature, he enters into a state of non–self, which is traditionally called unity of heaven and Man. If a person is unable to enter into this sate during the process of writing, if he still remembers he is a student or writer, or if he has even set a goal for his article, he can’t produce something great. What he writes can only represent his status, knowledge, skills and experience.

What some writers fail to do is detach themselves from external appearances. When a person is quite experienced in writing, he needs to detach himself from external appearances. If he has done that, he will be a master writer. Observe your work carefully, and you will find that what you write after you are occasionally detached is very likely to be a masterpiece, because it is a spontaneous overflow, a product of your soul flying freely through words. On the other hand, if you are attached to your status and your writing ability, you can only write with an unspontaneous mind and thus your work will remain on the present level.

Compare a piece of writing that is written spontaneously with one that is written deliberately, and you will find that they are on totally different levels. The motive of the latter is usefulness, that of the former, love. What I mean by usefulness is something out of a utilitarian purpose, which is deliberate. Love, on the other hand, is anything but affected or forced. A mother’s love for her child is embodied in everything she says and does; it is totally free from affectation and unspontaneousness. Cast aside all your demands on and your ambition about what you are writing, and it will flow out naturally.

That’s to say, if a writer wants to write a masterpiece, he has to enter into a state of emptiness or wisdom before he starts to write. Besides, he should not think about what to write and how to write it; rather, he should observe what he is writing with enlightening illumination. In this way, he is likely to produce good works.

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第三辑：与灵性好好相处

永远要把眼前的事情做好

永远要把眼前的事情做好，哪怕只是一些小事，尽力而为之后就不要执著它。要学会用这样一种心态面对生活。因为所谓的人生，就是由无数个当下组成的，无论你想与不想，想多还是想少，不过好每个当下，就没有好的未来。

无论做事还是修行，你所有的行为都要像剑刺过水面一般，一旦把剑提出水面，就再无法留下任何痕迹。也许某个瞬间仍然会留下一些现象性的痕迹，比如被人打了一下觉得疼，但疼了也就算了，你不会觉得自己受了屈辱、吃了亏，更不会惦记着什么时候能回敬他。不执著于那些痕迹，就等于没有留下痕迹。

修行中也是这样。世界对你的赞美、诋毁、辱骂、利益等各种行为，虽然能在外现上对你构成影响，也能给你的心带来一刹那的感觉，但不要去执著它，就像利剑刺穿水面一样，别让它留下任何痕迹。如果有人夸你，哈哈一笑，不要得意；骂了你，也哈哈一笑，不要沮丧。能做到这一点，才是真正的修行。

有人可能会把这个道理误解为没心没肺。要知道，一般意义上的没心没肺可能是一种无记和顽空，不是真正的修行。单纯变得没心没肺是不够的，还必须明明白白地进入那种无执无舍的状态，空寂但明了。

修行修的是明明朗朗、超越二元对立、没有任何分别心的一种智慧，能把这种智慧运用到日常生活中，才是真正的修行。如果说一个人光明白这种真理，而不去运用，就不叫真正意义上的修行，因为修行即是修正你的行为。没有行为，就没有所谓的修行。

所以说，永远要把眼前的事情做好，哪怕只是一些小事，尽力而为之后就不要执著它。我会成功吗，万一不成功怎么办？这些都不要去想，非常快乐地享受当下的劳动和工作，甚至连苦难都要享受它、体会它、观察它，从中汲取智慧和力量。要学会用这样一种心态面对生活。因为所谓的人生，就是由无数个当下组成的，无论你想与不想，想多还是想少，不过好每个当下，就没有好的未来。

释迦牟尼佛住世的时候经历了无数的磨难，但他一直安详地微笑着。他的微笑中，蕴含着最伟大的智慧与真理。我们要参照佛陀的精神，随时调整心态，记住不要寄希望于将来。比如将来好好学习，将来好好工作，将来如何如何。这是错误的。要安住于当下，坐言起行，永远不要寄希望于将来。

有的人忙于创业，别人劝他多关心一下家人，他说：“我现在没这个心思，等将来我的事业稳定了，再跟他们去国外旅游。”但是他不知道，有时候人一口气提不上来，生命也就结束了，哪有那么多“将来”。你怎么知道自己或者别人就一定有将来？我们不断说“珍惜当下”、“当下关怀”，就是这个道理。

不要怪我一直提到死亡，也不要觉得它是一种恐吓或不吉利的说法。很多人就是通过死亡看到真理的，这也是每个人都无法避免的事情。只有真正接受了自我不会永恒，你才有可能过好每一个当下。

人要活在当下，不去管将来，所以就要永远注意现在。现在我在做什么，我的心现在怎么样，是不是快乐，是不是平静，是不是安详。

永远记住，打破内心之宁静的是欲望，而不是外界的某个东西。想征服世界是欲望，想达成某种目标是欲望，想得到别人的关注也是欲望。所有欲望都不会给你的心灵带来清凉，它们只会让你越来越烦恼。

有人做过这样一个比喻，普通老百姓捡到一百元钱，就会很开心，但是大富翁不在乎这一百元，他贪求更多更大的东西。可见，欲望之所以会让人越来越烦恼，就是因为欲壑难填。

对这个道理的明白，也是一种处世的智慧。当你拥有了这种智慧之后，就会发现，世界上的诸种显现本质都是相似的，因为它们都归于空性：好的是无常的；恶的是无常的；美的是无常的；丑的也是无常的。

当你明白世间万物的相似性之后，就没有了二元对立，进入了所谓的一味瑜伽。一味瑜伽是心灵瑜伽中四个瑜伽中的第三个，如果能修到这一步，就说明你的修行已经非常好了。

有时候，潜藏在一个人心灵深处那种本有的智慧，远远超过他所学的知识。比如说一个写作的人，当他找到感觉之后写出来的文章，绝不是他用技巧和知识所能写出来的东西。找到感觉的时候，他就是“大自然”的出口，他本有的智慧也找到了出口。在那种状况下，他其实已经放下了自我及所有的念头，而是沉浸在一种浓浓的感觉中，进入一种和“大自然”融为一体的状态，让生命的记忆尽情在文章中流淌。

和大自然融为一体，人在这时候会达到一种无我的境界，中国传统称它为“天人合一”。假如他在写作的过程中还不能达到无我境界，时刻记得自己是学生或文字工作者，甚至为这篇文章设定了一个目标时，他就写不好东西了，他写出来的东西仅能代表自己的身份、知识、技巧与经验。

有些人写作时正好缺少一种所谓的“破相”。文章写到一定程度时一定要破相，破了相之后你就是大师。观察自己的作品，你就会发现，偶尔破相之后的文字可能会是精品。因为那是一种自然的流露，是灵魂在文字中自由飞翔后的产物。但是如果你执著于自己的身份，执著于自己的写作水准，那么就只能用机心来写作，而你的文章就仅能达到自己已有的水准。

当你拿一篇自由流露的文章和刻意写出来的文章作比较时，就会发现它们完全是两种不同的境界。后者的写作是因为“用”，而前者却是因为“爱”。所谓的“用”，就是一种功利性的目的，它是刻意的。但“爱”没有一丝半点的刻意，就像一个母亲对孩子的爱，是渗透在她的一言一行之中的，毫无虚饰，也毫无机心。去除你对文章的所有要求和企图心，那时就是自由流淌出来的作品。

所以说要想写出大师级的作品，就必须在写作之前进入一种空性或智慧的状态，并且不要想应该怎么写，也别去想要写的内容，而是用那份警觉观照你写的东西，那样的话才可能写出好作品。

声明：本文系文化志愿者试译，非专业人才翻译，错误定然不少，如出现疏漏及错误，敬请读者见谅。如有任何翻译上的建议及修正意见，欢迎及时与我们取得联系，我们会加以校对、修改，并希望有专业才能的朋友也能加入我们志愿者群体中来。

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