Awakening Lies in Corresponding

 

 

Awakening Lies in Corresponding

 

That’s where the superiority of the soul yoga is manifested. It tells you to push asides all those petty things and start directly with the mind-nature. It shows you distinctly what life and enlightenment really are and it enables you to be enlightened and happy at the present moment. All phenomena are illusionary manifestations of the own-nature, so don’t be attached to them. The moment you hold this view, you are liberated – “the (correct) view is liberation.”

 

Joy and pain are the same in essence – both are illusionary dreams – but people tend to approach the truth through experiencing pain, such as the death of close family members or friends, the ups and downs in business, and terminal disease. Nevertheless, I would like to congratulate you, because, once you arrive at the gate of enlightenment with a ticket in your hand, whether it is joy or pain, what you are going to see is ever bright, peaceful and unconditionally happy.

 

Why is it so? Because a heavy blow awakens you to the impermanence of the world and of life. You find that life and the world are a huge illusion, a big lie, without substance and that nothing can last. How you want to get hold of something and make it eternal, but you can’t make it. Once you reconcile yourself to that fact, you gain equanimity and are no longer obsessed with anything in your life, for you have seen the very truth of it all.

 

Can you catch the wind? No matter how hard you try, it slips through your fingers. And it is the same with time. Among the ancient emperors, some who craved for a long life had taken drastic measures to try to stop time but they died nevertheless. What they had possessed during their lifetime eventually fell into the hands of other people. Even those so-called funeral objects they couldn’t carry away. So, what’s all the strife and slaughter for? Even the planet we live on now, which we call the “world,” is a mere speck of dust in a boundless universe, and sooner or later it will collapse, like everything else, and vanish into nothingness. The apparently existent world is actually a big lie; all is as illusionary and impermanent as a dream. The eternity in our mind doesn’t exist, either. How ridiculous it will be if someone is obsessed with things in his dreams?

 

All the perceptions and sensations that arise in Buddhist practice are, likewise, illusionary. If someone tells you that some buddha or bodhisattva has spoken to him, don’t take it too seriously. All manifestations are the reflection of one’s own nature; without one’s mind there is no appearance. All buddhas are tutors who can guide you to see the ultimate truth. They exist to assist you in recognizing your own nature and achieve the nature of emptiness. If you consider a buddha to be a marvelous, permanent being outside of the mind-nature, you are mistaken and non-Buddhist. For the genuine Buddhist wisdom lies in the fact that “All things are in a state of incessant change, and all conditioned phenomena lack a self.”

 

There are practitioners who have practiced for several decades, but they haven’t touched upon the essence of Buddhist practice and are still full of desires. For example, the Geshe who poisoned Master Milarepa, though he was well versed in Buddhist classics, failed to reap any benefit from them. Why is it so? Because they focus not on wisdom and mind-nature, but on illusionary, impermanent things and manifestations, and pursue illusions that they mistake for eternal existence. In the end, they become more and more attached and ignorant.

 

That’s where the superiority of the soul yoga is manifested. It tells you to push asides all those petty things and start directly with the mind-nature. It shows you distinctly what life and enlightenment really are and it enables you to be enlightened and happy at the present moment. It shows you what real liberation is. Real liberation is not aspiring after the Buddha-fruit outside one’s mind; an enlightened mind is the Buddha-fruit. All phenomena are illusionary manifestations of the own-nature. These manifestations return to the own-nature, to the emptiness, so don’t be attached to these dream-like and illusory things. Everything will eventually return to emptiness, and the essence of all manifestations is emptiness. The moment you hold this view, you are liberated – “the correct view is liberation.”

 

Only when you have dispelled the haze before your eyes, seen through the illusionary nature of the world, and felt no attachment to the world, will there appear a profound function, that is, the marvelous function of the true mind. It is the time when we should start our practice in life and cultivate our minds through experiences.

 

You ask your mind with lots of questions in life but it doesn’t necessarily answer you. Then you want to pursue the substance of the mind but you find you can’t find it. You want to find the real self, but it doesn’t exist, either, and it is merely an illusion of the mind; it is made up of knowledge, experience, criteria, etc., and is impermanent.

 

Then you begin to put your enlightenment into practice in daily life. Practice it hard, and you will treat those around you better and better. You begin to show filial respect to your parents, you no longer quarrel with your spouse at the slightest provocation, and you are no longer calculating in your work. When your life changes, you feel physically what you have comprehended in theory, and gradually you find no obstruction in things in life. Then, your pursuit of enlightenment is slowly manifested in your daily life.

 

Faith shines upon you like a bright moon over your mind, and every peck of dust in the air becomes your root guru, who is in your life all the time, and your mind is filled with peaceful joy. Gradually, you enter into a realm as boundless as great voidness, and you have perceptions akin to those of the sky yoga of Great Perfection. Your eyes no longer fix on a small patch of sky, your horizons are being constantly broadened, and at last you are associated with your soul’s beacon, your root guru. 

 

Among the practice methods, the supreme one is association with your root guru. The most important thing in realizing this association is faith. To some extent, faith represents a practitioner’s capacity. Only those with great capacity have great faith. The real hindrance of karma is what hinders faith from arising in you. I had a metaphor for this: A practitioner fills his mind with urine with five poisons and regard it as priceless nectar. His root guru asks him to dump it, but he is reluctant to do so; therefore, it is hard for his root guru to pour wisdom and compassion into his mind. Even if a small amount manages to get in, it will soon be polluted by five poisons and urine.

 

“Urine with five poisons” refers to knowledge, experience, preconceptions, criteria by which to measure things, and so on, which we have accumulated for many years. If you refuse to let go of your knowledge and preconceptions, you can’t avoid measuring what your root guru has taught you with such things, with the result that your faith is undermined.  

 

Only when you have pure faith in your root guru, dump the urine in the cup of your mind, and clean up the cup, can the wisdom of your root guru enter your mind. Only then will there be genuine association.

 

Notice

 

Translated by non-professional volunteers, there would be some inaccuracies in the translation. You are welcome to offer us some advice for emendation. Please feel free to contact us.We also look forward to you joining our voluntary translation team.

 

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第二辑：跟焦躁的心说再见

 

觉醒在于相应

 

心灵瑜伽的殊胜之处就在这里，它会告诉你不要去管太多别的东西，直接从心性入手。它能清楚地让你知道什么是生命和觉悟的本质，让你明白于当下，快乐于当下。一切都是自性的幻化，不要执著。你拥有这个见地的同时就解脱了，这就是“见即解脱”。

 

喜悦跟痛苦的本质一样，都是虚幻的梦境，但人们往往更容易通过体验痛苦而接近真理。例如亲友的死亡，生意的大起大落，身患绝症等等。不过，即便如此，我还是要祝福你，因为，不管你拿着什么样的门票来到“觉悟”门前，是喜还是悲，你面对的，都是光明、宁静和无条件的快乐。

 

为什么？因为巨大的打击让你明白了世界的无常，生命的无常，你发现世界和人生都是巨大的梦幻，巨大的谎言，它们没有实质，没有什么能够永恒。你多么想留住一些东西，想让它永恒，但你办不到。当你接受这一点的时候，反而坦然了，对生命中的一切都不再执著了，因为你明白了它们的真相。

 

你能抓住风吗？无论你怎样用力，它总能从指缝中溜走。时间也是一样。古代君王中有些贪恋生命的，用过一些极端的手法想把时间留住，但最终他们还是死去了。他们生前所拥有的一切，都变成了别人的东西，就连那些所谓的陪葬物，他们也无法带走。从前的所有纷争和杀戮，又有什么意义？就连我们生存的这个星球，以及我们称之为“世界”者，也不过是茫茫宇宙中一个微尘般的存在，它迟早会跟其他东西一样崩坏，最终消失于无际。那个表面实在的世界，其实是个巨大的谎言，一切都变幻无常，跟梦境没有任何区别。我们心目中的永恒，也并不存在。如果有人执著于梦境中的东西，那是多么滑稽的事情？

 

修行中产生的所有觉受也是一样，它们都是幻象。如果有人神神道道地说：这个佛跟他说了话，那个菩萨跟他说了话，那都是不究竟的。所有的显现，都是自性的反映，离心无相。所有的佛都是能指导你认识究竟真理的导师，他们的存在，是为了让你明白，让你发现自性，证得空性。如果你觉得这个“佛”是离开心性的一种永恒不变的真实神奇，你也就错了，变成外道了。因为，真正的佛家智慧，是信奉“诸行无常、诸法无我”的。

 

有些人修了几十年，却接触不到修行的根本，到最后心中还是充满贪欲。比如给密勒日巴尊者下毒的那位佛学博士，他虽然学了许多经典，却无法真正受用。为什么呢？因为他们不在智慧和心性上入手，反而在虚幻无常的东西上、在外现上着手，错把幻象当成永恒存在的东西去追求，结果变得越来越执著，越来越无知。

 

心灵瑜伽的殊胜之处就在这里，它会告诉你不要去管太多别的东西，直接从心性入手。它能清楚地让你知道什么是生命和觉悟的本质，让你明白于当下，快乐于当下。它会让你明白什么是真正的解脱。真正的解脱，就是不要求什么心外的佛果，觉悟的心便是佛果。一切都是自性的幻化。这种幻化归于自性，归于空性，都是些如梦如幻的东西，不要执著。因为一切都终究会归于空性，各种显现的本质都是空性。你拥有这个见地的同时就解脱了，这就是“见即解脱”。

 

只有在你驱走了挡在眼前的云霾，看穿了世间的虚幻，对红尘再没有任何牵挂的时候，才会出现一种机用，也就是真心的妙用。这时候，我们要从生活中开始修行，要借事炼心。

 

你用许多生活中的问题叩问自己的心，但它不一定会回答你，于是你想要追寻“心”的实体，又发现你也找不到它。你想找到真正的自我，但“我”也是不存在的，“我”仅仅是心头的一种幻觉，由知识、经验和标准等各种东西组合而成，也是虚幻无常的。

 

这时候，你就会把明白的道理运用在生活之中，在事上用功，你对身边的人就会越来越好：你开始孝敬父母，不再动不动就跟爱人吵架，也不再为了工作上的事情斤斤计较。当你的生活发生变化时，你就体悟了之前在理上悟到的那个东西，渐渐能做到事上无碍了。这时候，你对觉悟的那种追求、对明白的那种求索，也就慢慢在日常生活中体现出来了。

 

信念就像心头的月亮一样照耀着你，空气中的每一粒灰尘也变成了你的根本师，时时出现在你的生命当中，你的内心充满了宁静的快乐。你渐渐有了一种像太虚一样无垠的境界，有了一种类似于大圆满的天空瑜伽那样的觉受。你的眼前不再是咫尺天空，你的视野也变得越来越宽广，你终于开始和你灵魂的灯塔——你的根本师相应了。

 

在所有修行的法门中，最殊胜的方法就是和自己的根本师相应。而要实现相应，最重要的，是信心。从某种意义上说，信心是根器的标志。大根器者，才有大信心。而真正的业障，便是妨碍你生起信心的东西。我曾有个比喻，有人心中盛满了自己的五毒尿液，他以为那是无上的甘露，根本师要他倒，他舍不得倒，根本师的智慧和慈悲就很难装进他的心里，即使加进去一点儿，也很快被五毒和尿液污染了。

 

“五毒尿液”就是每个人积累了多年的知识、经验、成见和衡量事物的标准等等，假如你不肯放下自己的知识和成见，就难免用这些东西来衡量根本师教给你的一切，从而影响你的信心。

 

只有你净信根本师，倒去自己心灵之杯中的尿液，再把那心灵之杯清洗干净，根本师的智慧才可能进入，这时，才会有真正的相应。

 

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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