 What is meditation? Is it to escape from the noise of the world? To have a silent mind, a quiet mind, a peaceful mind? And you practise systems, methods, to become aware, to keep your thoughts under control. You sit cross-legged and repeat some mantra. I am told that the etymological meaning of that word ‘mantra’ is ‘ponder over not-becoming’. 冥想是什么？是逃避俗世的喧嚣吗？是拥有一颗安宁、寂静、平和的心吗？你修习各种体系、各种方法，希望变得觉知，希望控制你的思想。你盘腿坐下，反复诵念某些曼陀罗。有人告诉我“曼陀罗”这个词在语源上的意思是“深入思考‘不成为’”。 That is one of the meanings. And it also means ‘absolve, put aside all self-centred activity’. That is the real, root meaning of mantra. But we repeat, repeat, repeat, and carry on with our self-interest, our egoistic ways, and so mantra has lost its meaning. 这是其中一个含义。它还意味着“消除、摒弃所有自我中心的行为”。这是曼陀罗真正的、根本的含义。但是我们反反复复地念念有词，同时继续着我们自私自利、自我中心的行为方式，所以曼陀罗失去了它原有的意义。 So what is meditation? Is meditation a conscious effort? We meditate consciously, practise in order to achieve something, to achieve a quiet mind, a sense of stillness of the brain. What is the difference between that meditator and the man who says, ‘I want money, so I will work for it’? What is the difference between the two? Both are seeking an achievement, aren’t they? 那么冥想是什么？冥想是一种有意识的努力吗？我们有意识地冥想、练习，以期实现什么，获得一颗安静的心、头脑的一种宁静感。冥想者和说“我想发财，所以我会为此努力工作”的人有什么不同吗？这两者有什么不同吗？两者都在寻求一种成就，不是吗？ One is called spiritual achievement, the other is called mundane achievement. But they are both in the line of achievement. So, to the speaker, that is not meditation at all. Any conscious, deliberate, active desire with its will is not meditation. 一个被称为精神成就，另一个被称为世俗成就，但它们都属于成就的范畴。所以在讲话者看来，这根本不是冥想。任何有意识的、刻意的、主动的愿望，连同它的意志力，都不是冥想。 So one has to ask: Is there a meditation that is not brought about by thought? Is there a meditation which you are not aware of? Any deliberate process of meditation is not meditation; that is so obvious. You can sit cross-legged for the rest of your life, meditate, breathe and do all that business, but you will not come anywhere near the other thing. Because all that is a deliberate action to achieve a result—the cause and the effect. But the effect becomes the cause. So it is a cycle you are caught in. 所以你必须问一问：并非由思想引发的冥想是否存在？有没有一种冥想是你没有觉察到的？任何刻意的冥想过程都不是冥想，这太显而易见了。你可以余生都盘腿坐着冥想、呼吸以及去做诸如此类的把戏，但你无论如何都不会靠近那另一个事物。因为那一切都是为了实现某个结果的刻意的行动——这里就有原因和结果。但结果会变成原因，所以那就成了你所陷入的循环。 So is there a meditation that is not put together by desire, by will, by effort? The speaker says there is. You don’t have to believe it. On the contrary, you must doubt it, question it as the speaker has questioned it, doubted it, torn it apart. 那么，有没有一种冥想不是由欲望、意志和努力带来的？讲话者说有，但你不必相信这个说法。恰恰相反，你必须质问这一点，怀疑这一点，因为讲话者质问过了，怀疑过了，彻底检验过了。 Is there a meditation that is not contrived, organized? To go into that, we must understand the brain which is conditioned, limited. And that brain is trying to comprehend the limitless, the immeasurable, the timeless—if there is such a thing as the timeless. 有没有一种冥想并不是虚构出来的、组织出来的？若要探究这一点，我们就必须了解深受制约的、局限的大脑。而那个大脑试图领悟无限的、不可衡量的、永恒的事物——如果存在永恒这回事的话。 And for that, it is important to understand sound. Sound and silence go together. You don’t understand sound, the depth of sound, but you have separated sound from silence. Sound is the word, sound is your heart beating. The universe—universe in the sense of the whole earth, all the heavens, the million stars, the whole sky—is filled with sound. 而正因为如此，所以说理解声音很重要。声音和寂静是并肩而行的。你不去理解声音，声音的深度，而是把声音和寂静分离了开来。声音就是词语，声音就是你的心跳。宇宙——宇宙是指整个地球、所有天体、万千星辰和整个天空——充满了声音。 Obviously. You don’t have to listen to scientists about it. And we have made that sound into something intolerable. So we want to have a brain that is quiet, peaceful. But when you listen to sound, the very listening is the silence. Silence and sound are not separate. 显然如此。你不必去听科学家对此说了什么。而我们把声音变成了某种无法忍受的东西，所以我们想拥有一颗寂静的、安宁的头脑。但是，当你聆听声音时，这种聆听本身就是寂静。寂静和声音是分不开的。 |
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