Often, traditional Buddhist books attempted to explain the concept of Śūnyatā and Nidānas by using the composition of the human body as an analogy. They might say something like "Human body requires air and food and water, so it cannot exist alone, therefore, its survival is depended on its Nidānas . Also, human body is a composition of many parts, such as fingers, legs...etc, it's nature is therefore Śūnyatā . " None of this is incorrect, but when it comes to human nature, there is not a lot of discussion, other than that human nature needs to conquered, or that human nature is Buddha nature that is obscured.
在傳統佛教書籍裡頭，常常用人體的組合來解釋「空」跟「因緣」。 他們可能說『人需要空氣、食物和水才能生存，所以人不能單獨存在，人體是「因緣」所生。』 或『人體是許多東西組合而成的，如手指，腿... ...等，因此它的性質是 「空」。』 這些說法都不是不正確。 但這些書提到人性，只有兩種說法：人性也是「空」需要被除掉，或者人性的本質是「佛性」。
However, I felt that this is an unsatisfactory explanation of human nature and I would like to propose another point of view for contemplation.
不過，我認為這不是一個令人滿意的解釋，在這裡想提出另一個小小的看法。
Human nature is a composition of human emotions. There are positive emotions, like happiness, joy and compassion. There are negative ones like greed, anger and ignorance. At any moment, what we felt is the result of tug of wars between these competing emotions. These emotions can be triggered by our senses: what we see or what we hear, or by our memories. Our behavior and expression are further manifestation of these emotions.
人性，是情緒所組成的。 有好的情緒，像幸福，快樂和同情；也有負面的，如貪，瞋和痴。 無時無刻，我們所感受到的是這些情緒競爭的結果。 這些情緒是被我們的感官所觸發：凡是我們所看到、聽到或記憶的都算。 更進一步的，我們用行為來表達這些情緒。
Each of these emotions have different maturity level. Previously, we discussed that emotions like greed should not be treated as binary; either we are greedy or we are not. Greed actually manifests itself in a spectrum, from "no desire" to "desire for survival" to "desire for better living condition" to "greedy". We like to use age or maturity as an analogy for this spectrum. When "greed" is young, it cannot be satisfied easily, so it is quick to throw temper tantrums and wants everything in or out of the sight. As "greed" matures, it is better able to distinguish between "needs" and "wants", and it is also able to understand the concept of "affordability". As "greed" advances in ages, it eventually dies.
每個情緒都有不一樣的年齡。 之前，我們討論過「貪」不應該被極端化，「有貪」 或「沒有貪」。 「貪」實際上有很多點，從「沒有慾望」到「生存的慾望」甚至到「更好生活的慾望」直到「貪」。 我們用年齡或成熟度來比喻這些不一樣的點。 當「貪」是不成熟或年輕的，它不能很容易得到滿足，所以很會發脾氣。 當「貪」比較成熟了，便能開始分辨「需要」和「慾望」，也會了解有沒有能力來得到所欲的。 「貪」最後也會死亡的。
However, unlike our physical bodies, where the individual components, such as hand and feet, all grow at the similar rate as our chronological age, emotions do not. One emotion might be more mature than another, and this can be easily be observed among people. Some people might have insatiable needs for material possessions (greedy about things), but have no regard for what they eat (not greedy about taste.). So we can say that this type of person has an immature "thing-greed" and a mature "taste-greed."
身體的成長，如手和腳，都跟我們的實際年齡是一樣的速度。 但情緒不一樣。 一個情緒可能比另一種更成熟，也可能和實際年齡沒有關係，這是很容易觀察到的。 有些人可能對物質有永不滿足的需求（物慾的貪)，但在吃的方面，一點都沒有要求（沒有口慾的貪)。 所以這類型的人有不成熟的「物慾」，卻有成熟的「口慾」。
Mature emotions will not cause us much problem, it is the immature emotions that are our weaknesses. These immature emotions are the "poisons" that made it hard for us to proceed on the path to enlightenment. So when we talk abut "understand yourself", we meant understand your immature emotions. When we talk about "eliminating weaknesses", we are talking about maturing these immature emotions. This is Practice.
成熟的情緒不會造成問題，但不成熟的情緒，是我們的弱點。 這些不成熟的情緒，就是佛經所說的「毒」，讓我們無法進步。 所以，當我們說「瞭解自己」，就是要去知道哪些是不成熟的情緒；當我們說「消除弱點」，都是要成長這些不成熟的情緒。 這就是修行。
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