Be Patient and Let Enlightenment Take Care of Itself

 

Be Patient and Let Enlightenment Take Care of Itself

 

You just keep practicing in a natural state and try to feel what it is like for a bird to fold its wings and sit quietly listening to the Buddha lecturing on the scriptures.. Step by step, try to collect your restless thoughts, and then you will feel as if you have just waken up from a long dream. You have a faint feeling that you have gone through hardships, but inwardly, you are peaceful, happy, and sufficient.

 

When you have passed the darkest hours before dawn, you will see some light in the sky, and your meditation practice will enter into a marvelous phase. Observe carefully, and you will find that, all of sudden, all your thoughts stop and that a fresh feeling appears in your mind. Your mind becomes more and more peaceful, but sometimes that peacefulness is lost without noticing.

 

Bear in mind that this intermittent peacefulness is not emptiness or the true mind. Nevertheless, you already can feel some happiness and pliancy. It is like a ray of light in the dark night. With it, you know you are on the right path. As long as you move along the path, you will be bathed in the warm sunshine one day.

 

But that peaceful joy always disappears completely after it pops up, and you don’t know where to find it. Like Bodhidharma crossing the river on a reed, it disappears without a trace. Isn’t Bodhidharma a symbol of your true mind?

 

That you have missed your true mind for several times makes your mind dim and without any light. Dark clouds drift and gloomy waves surge, and there is no way to stop your deluded thoughts. In order to stop deluded thoughts and strengthen the inner luminous peacefulness, you must find your fundamental guru and have complete faith in whatever he says. Only in this way are you able to put down everything and go beyond the bondage of all kinds of names and forms. Only when you have get rid of name and form can you see your true mind, your mind of luminous emptiness, your original mind. Then, you are able to be the master of your mind and immune from the distraction of various names and forms.

 

But it is not easy to find your fundamental guru, because you may not be able to recognize him.

 

More often than not, those who are generally recognized are people who appear better than they really are; they wear kasaya but inwardly they are filled with greed and attachment. Bad money drives out good. This is a law in economics: bad money drives out good money and eventually there is only bad money on the market. Why is that? Suppose the gold content of a genuine coin is 100% while that of a false coin is 50%, then people will spend the false coins and leave the genuine ones at home. Consequently, false coins will be circulating on the market. I mean, genuine practitioners usually stay at home, leaving a huge market to swindlers. That is why there are so many swindlers on the market. It is the same in any age.

 

Even so, we still need to be clear that ultimate wisdom requires the shattering of all names and forms. The purpose of chanting the Diamond Sutra is to shatter all names and forms. Don’t worry about not being able to be enlightened – you may be enlightened while sweeping the ground.

 

There are thousands of ways to enlightenment, the so-called eighty-four thousand permutations of the Buddhist teaching, and each can lead you to enlightenment. For all the permutations aim at helping you attain concentration, without which you can’t possibly acquire wisdom. Once upon a time, Master Mazu Daoyi asked his sister-in-law to hang up an egg with a string and listen to it attentively. She was told that she would have to wait until the egg made a sound. She trusted Mazu deeply and listened to the egg every day. One day, the string snapped and the egg fell to the ground and cracked. Instantly, she was enlightened. Mazu’s sister-in-law hadn’t done any practice before, but she was enlightened at hearing the cracking of an egg. That shows what matters most is your mind, something spiritual.

 

You don’t have to care whether the luminous peacefulness is intermittent or whether that state is stable. Just keep an ordinary mind and wait. Don’t seek it deliberately and don’t be too nervous, for, in so doing, the luminous peacefulness will disappear sooner, or even worse, it may never appear again.

 

You just keep practicing in a natural state and try to feel what it is like for a bird to fold its wings and sit quietly listening to the Buddha lecturing on the scriptures.. Step by step, try to collect your restless thoughts, and then you will feel as if you have just waken up from a long dream. You have a faint feeling that you have gone through hardships, but inwardly, you are peaceful, happy, and sufficient.

 

           Is the peacefulness, happiness and sufficiency you feel now your true mind? Not yet. You have these feelings because you meditate diligently every day and the power of an enormous yearning has penetrated your soul. When your mind can no longer part from your fundamental guru (a spiritual mentor who lights up the lighthouse of your soul), you will feel your soul now has something to rely on. Furthermore, you will have a marvelous experience in which a lonely life is transformed into a blissful Pure Land, and you will become very happy.

 

Now, you will have seen the first glimmer of enlightenment. But that state is still unstable. Once it disappears, you will feel that your life has become meaningless, and you will be at a loss like a wandering ghost and be plunged into extreme emptiness and a sense of loss, as if you can’t go on living like that. In that state, it is easy for practitioners to think of renunciation, for they are so tired of the loneliness of life and the coldness of the ways of the world that they are eager to get rid of all worldly matters and focus on Buddhist practice. Lots of people become a monk o nun during this phase of their lives.

 

For those who can’t renounce the family, whatever they are doing, they always bear Buddhist practice in mind and place their master, buddha-lands, and benefiting the public above everything else in their mind. Admittedly, this is also obsession, but it is quite necessary at this stage. For if you are not obsessed with Buddhist practice and benefiting the public, you are not likely to achieve enlightenment in the future.

 

When you replace an obsession with Buddhist practice with all the other obsessions, you will find that everything, like a dream or an illusion, is impermanent. Whether good or bad, everything will pass and leave not a single trace.

 

For example, there was an accident in which a minibus fell off a viaduct thirty meters high and exploded. This occurred within thirty minutes. It really happened and it was horrible. However, to a person who is not affected by it or who has not heard of it, the accident doesn’t exist. Even for those who were involved in the accident, it won’t be long before it becomes a memory, which sooner or later will be forgotten completely. So, the incident is no different from a dream.

 

When you have had a true understanding of the dream-like nature of the world, you won’t feel confused any more, and you will understand the truth that everything – not only the sweetness of passionate love and the bitterness of disappointed love, but our whole life – will be over and, sooner or later, becomes something like a dream or an illusion.

 

However, understanding the principle does not mean that you can live by it. People know very well that stock prices will go down after going up and then go up again, but their emotions still fluctuate with that fluctuating line. In fact, whether it is stocks or life that we are talking about, you can’t understand the truth of life unless you, on the one hand, realize the empty nature of all things and, on the other, don’t deny their phenomenal existence. Only then will the luminous wisdom exert its enormous influence; only then will your life undergo a great change; and only then will you stop feeling confused by or painful for what is happening in the world.

 

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

 

顺其自然，等待觉悟

 

走过黎明前的黑暗，你会渐渐看见一点天光，你的修行会随之进入一个奇妙的阶段。仔细观察，你会发现念头突然断掉了，心里似乎出现了一种从未有过的感觉，心灵渐渐变得平静，可是有时候这种宁静忽然之间又不找不到了。

 

注意，这种时断时续的宁静，还不是空性，不是真心。但你已经可以感受到一点点快乐和轻安了。它就像暗夜中的一线光明。有了它，你就知道自己走对了路，只要继续沿着这条路往下走，总会沐浴在温暖阳光下的。

 

但是，那种宁静的快乐总在惊鸿一现后，又消失得无影无踪，你不知何处找寻。它就像达摩祖师，早已一苇渡江，不知踪影。这踏苇涉水的达摩，又何尝不是你的真心？

 

屡次与明静之心失之交臂，让你的内心如黯淡云水一般，不见光明。黯淡的云水涌动不断，妄念也是不能止息。想要止息妄念，牢固内心的明静，你就一定要找到真正的根本师，并且净信根本师的话，毫不怀疑。这样，你才能放下一切，超越各种名相的束缚。真正地破除了名相之后，你才能见到真心，见到自己的明空之心，本元之心。这样一来，你就能自主心灵，不受任何名相的干扰。

 

不过，想要找到真正的根本师，并不是一件容易的事情。因为，你未必分得出谁才能真正的善知识。

 

许多时候，人们普遍看好的，反而是一些虚有其表的人，是一些披着袈裟但内心充满贪念执著的人。这跟劣币驱走良币是一个道理。经济学上有这样一个规律：假币驱除良币，最后市场上只流行假币。为什么呢？假如真币含金量是百分之百，而假币是百分之五十，那么人们就把真币收藏在家里，把假币花出去，这样的话，市场上就会流行假币。也就是说，一般真正的修行人都呆在家里，那么这个巨大的市场就空出来了，一些骗子就趁机招摇撞骗，这就是市场上为什么流行骗子的原因，任何一个时代都是这样。

 

虽然如此，我们还是要明白，究竟的智慧要破除所有的名相。诵《金刚经》的目的，就是要破除所有的名相。不要怕觉悟不了，扫地都可以觉悟。

 

觉悟的路有成千上万条，被称为八万四千法门，任何一条路都可以让你觉悟。因为，所有法门都是帮你定心的，心定就能生慧，心定不了就不能生慧。当初，马祖让嫂子在绳子上拴一个鸡蛋，静静地听，并且告诉她，什么时候鸡蛋发出声音就行了。她很相信马祖的话，就天天听，忽然有一天，绳子断了，鸡蛋掉在地上“啪”地打碎了，她就刹那间开悟了。马祖的嫂子没有修什么法，光听鸡蛋就能开悟，所以说最重要的还是心，精神的东西。

 

你不要管那明静是不是断断续续的，状态是不是稳定，只管保持平常心，等待它的出现，不要刻意追求，不要过于紧张，因为这样反而会加速明静的消失，甚至导致求之不得。

 

你就在这种自然而然的状态中，整天修行，细细品味息羽听经的那种觉受，慢慢把纷飞飘摇的心收回来。心收回来之后，你会像大梦初醒一样，隐约觉得自己吃了苦，但心里非常的安宁、快乐、充实。

 

这时的安宁、快乐、充实是真心吗？还不是。之所以你会产生这种觉受，是因为你整天修行，一种巨大的向往已经渗入你的灵魂。当你心中离不开根本师（点亮你灵魂灯塔的心灵导师、灵魂导师）的时候，你就会觉得灵魂有了依怙，进而拥有一种能让寂寞人生变成极乐净土的神奇体验，你就会变得非常快乐。

 

这时你已经见到了觉悟的曙光，但这种感觉仍然不稳定。它一旦消失，你就会觉得生命失去了意义，像无主孤魂般不知所措，陷入极端的空虚与失落当中，好像日子都过不下去了。在这种状态下，人们很容易产生出离心，因为他们厌倦了人生的冷寂，红尘的孤独，很想摆脱所有的凡尘琐事，专心修行。许多人就是在这时出家的。

 

那些无法摆脱的人，不管在做什么事，心里也不会放下修行，仍然会将师父、佛国、利众放在心中最重要的位置，时时牵挂。这也是一种执著，但这时的执著是必需的。假如你这时不执著于修行利众，就不会有后来的觉悟。

 

当你以一种对修行的牵挂代替了其他所有牵挂的时候，就会发现周遭的一切都如梦如幻，不会永恒，无论好坏，都会过去，留不下任何痕迹。

 

比如，有一次发生了一桩车祸，一辆面包车从三十米的高架桥上坠落，爆炸，前后不超过半小时。它确实发生了，而且非常可怕，但是对于没受到波及也没听说此事的人而言，它并不存在。即使对那些亲历此事的人来说，过不了多久，它也会变成记忆，这记忆很快就会被遗忘消解，所以它跟一场梦没有任何区别。

 

当你真正体会到红尘如梦后，就不会再有迷惑，你也就明白了一种真理：万事万物，不只热恋的甜蜜和失恋的痛苦，包括我们的整个人生，都会过去，迟早会变成一种如梦如幻的东西。

 

但是你在理上明白，不等于在事上也能明白，就像人们明知股票升完会降，降了又会升，却还是会为那条上下波动的曲线而大喜大悲。其实，股票也罢，人生也罢，当你真正明白万事万物虚无缥缈的本质，又不否认它们现象性的存在时，你才真正明白了生命的真谛。这时，智慧光明才能发挥它巨大的作用，你的人生才会有大的改变，你才不会为眼前的一切感到迷惑与痛苦。

 

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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