環境的重要 Importance of the environment

環境的重要  Importance of the environment

環境對一個人一生的影響力，應該不用我去多做分析，但環境影響的層面也包含古代人，更直接的是環境也是促發思想的一隻無形手，催生思想的大地母親，下面來做一段分析。

心生一切，這個思想，在佛學也佔據一定的份量，其實說起來，有一段時間我也蠻喜歡由'心'去產生一切的感覺，很多事只用'心"去看待外面的一切，因為這樣什麼事看起來都比較不麻煩，受挫折的時候，用心安慰一下自己，既方便又省事，因為不用跟別人求救，也不用準備什麼東西？提供自己受挫折的時候需要的補及！很多時候'用心'的想法去打點一切包括修學，確定是有用的。

有用當然不會覺得不對勁，便一直只_用心_去對待外面的世界，一段時間以後，發覺自己變得只喜歡美的事物，看到不如意的場景，會自動轉想法，認為那些跟自己不相干，自己只是過客，總之！不喜歡有障礙的，人，事，物，擺在眼前。

更進一步的很討厭身體，因為心是可以用飛越的速度在前進，而身體笨重到不行，常常覺得身體拖累了心的速度，身體果真像很多人講的是臭皮囊，是障礙物。

Importance of the environment

Environmental influence in one’s life shouldn’t need more analysis. Environment not only affects the people in the olden era but the more direct effect is that it facilitates thinking and reasoning invisibly of people nowadays. It’s like the Mother Earth of thoughts driven, here are some analyses below. 

The ideology of ‘All things are resulted from the mind ’ is crucial in Buddhism. Actually, I once enjoyed the feeling and found comfort in letting my mind to set for everything. It seems less troublesome when you only use mind to treat other things. It was convenient and effortless to comfort myself with mind when having frustration as I neither need to ask help from others nor get prepared of anything (supplements we might need when having setbacks) in advance. Most of the time, it’s workable to handle everything with mind, including Practice.

Since this method is workable, I didn’t see anything wrong with it. Therefore, I kept treating everything other than me with ‘mind’. After a short period of time, I found myself only like beautiful things and will change mind when seeing unpleasant things. Just keep in mind that I am only a transient passenger and have nothing to do with those unpleasant things. In conclusion, as long as you face any obstacles related to people, things and affairs, you will try to change your mind. To discuss it further, I hated my body. The reason for that is because your mind can move forward at a flying speed, however your body feels so heavy that you might feel that the body dragged down the speed of mind. It is true like many people said, the body is an obstacle, so called stinking skin-bag.

 

後來我開始害怕心，因為它已經不讓我接觸外面，當我的神經系統回報它的感覺時，心無動於衷，它不想理會神經系統說，我會痛，也不要神經系統說，我餓了，"心" 想整個操控身體，但身體需要很多其他的東西，不是心可以給的，一種嚴重缺乏的逼迫感催促，我回了頭去接受其他感官傳給我的感覺，清楚的看到心只是身體裡的一份子，雖然不能少了它，但也不能任由它掌控全身，而對其他的感官無動於衷。

會把自己搞到極端的不安，是因為接受提倡"心"這個說法的學說說 : 一切由心造。心獨處於人體外，不是一般人可以理解的，人體裡的那顆心是假的，外面那顆看不見的心才是真的，聽起來很神秘又具備誘惑力，讓人很想去看看什麼叫做真的心? 什麼樣的心可以製造世界 ?

Later on, I started to fear my mind because it kept me from interacting with the outside world. It was indifferent to my feelings and ignored the pain or hunger reporting from my nervous system. The “mind” tried to take control of the body. But there were so many things that the body needs, yet the mind fails to satisfy. A desperate sense of lacking pushed me back to accept the feelings which other sense organs give me. And I clearly affirmed that the mind, though indispensable, was only a part of the body. I couldn’t neglect all the other sense organs and let the mind control the entire body. Accepting the theory ‘All things are created by the mind alone.’ made me extremely nervous. It is hard for ordinary people to realize how the mind can stand alone outside the body. The statement ‘The heart in my body is fake, only the invisible mind outside is real.’ sounds mysterious and alluring. It makes people wanted to find out what’s the real mind and what kind of mind can create the whole world?

 

而我實修的結果在上面1;2篇已有了說明，當一個人不能突破精神體，肉體時，心有多麼高的境界, 已然不重要! (佛學的產生，首先攸關的問題，便是生，老，病，死，離開肉體也就是人能修學的範圍，再高明的法門也徒然) 然而講心的學說也數不清，修學者有沒想過，在古代一切都匱乏的年代裡，用"心"去想像一切應該是當時很重要的事，外面貧瘠時，再少了心的運作，日子會過不下去，但也有人能突破環境的限制，去做思辨，那是佛陀，龍樹菩薩，那為什麼思辨的內容不受觀眾喜歡。舉個例子；1.行善真好，心馬上感受到溫暖。2.一個講究內容的人說 : 行善很好，但行善有真善，有偽善，有已經在傷害別人不自知，還以為在行善。我想大家一定是選1，因為簡單又溫暖，2的內容多，想法也太費腦力。就這樣佛學裡的思辨內容成了冷門科系，乏人問津。

The results of my virtual practice have been illustrated in the first and second paragraphs mentioned above. When a person can’t make a breakthrough both mentally and physically, it is not so important to know how high the state of mind will be! (Buddhism was produced to tackle the premier concern of birth, aging, illness and death. Any advanced Practice method that goes beyond human’s capability is futile.) However, there are numerous theories talking about the mind. Have practitioners ever thought of the fact that it may be important to imagine everything with mind in the olden days when everything was scarce. When the external world was poor, life can be difficult without the operation of mind. However, there are still people who could break through the restriction of environment and to think and distinguish, such as Buddha and Nagarjuna (Nagarjuna Bodhisattva). Then why the content of thinking and distinguishing is not accepted by viewers? For instance, there are two scenarios: firstly, it’s great to have virtuous deeds and your mind can feel the warmth instantly. Secondly, to a person who cares about the content might say: virtuous deed is good, however, there are true virtuous deeds and fake ones. You might be hurting someone unconsciously and still thinking that you are making virtuous act. I believe most people will choose the first scenario as it is straight forward and warm. Second scenario involved too many contents and squanders too much mental capacities. This makes the thinking and reasoning content in Buddhism becomes a neglected branch. No one is interested.  

 

其實我喜歡有思辨內容的佛學，因為經過自己的實際修學，思辨，發覺單獨一個"心"的存在，很不可靠，但心的內容再加入其他感官條件後，就大大的不一樣，當一件事情在發生的時候，處理的方法如果可以全身都用上，那事情被解決的程度至少60%，而一件事情只能用"心"去解決的時候，應該10%就已經不錯了，要再加分時，一定要借助別人，因為心不會工作。

 還有一種說法，打坐的時候，念頭一直出現，一般都說不要理會，讓它一直過去，我通常不這樣教人，我會說一定要去理它(念頭)，不理它怎麼知道自己在想些什麼 ? 念頭是自己的想法，它不是過客，我通過對念頭的了解看到我自己，進而改善個人的缺失，而前幾篇的文章裡，也提起過打坐是在安靜的環境裡，想法，念頭都是突顯的，這些安靜環境下的培訓，也要試驗一下自己，能不能在動態的環境裡幫助自己 ?

到底自己是站立在哪個環境? 而自己能左右環境多少? 還是都受到環境影響? 一點一滴累積在修學者心裡。

半寄

I like Buddhism with thinking and reasoning content. Through the virtual practice, thinking and reasoning, you will notice that the mind can’t exist alone. However, it makes a big difference by adding all the other sense organs with the content of the mind. For example, a problem may be solved at least 60% with all your body and resources, while mere planning in your mind can only solve no more than 10% of the problem. To solve more, the mind needs aid from others because it can’t take action.

There’s another view, when sitting in meditation, neglect the thoughts emerge into your mind constantly and let them pass on and on automatically. I usually do not recommend the idea like that. I will propose definitely need to take notice of the thoughts. You won’t understand your thoughts if ignoring. Thoughts are your own thinking, not the transient passenger. I usually understand myself and thus improve self deficiencies through comprehending my thoughts. As mentioned earlier, the quiet environment in meditation highlights our views and thoughts. These are all about training in a quiet environment. We also need to test ourselves if we can still observe our thoughts and elevate ourselves in the dynamic environment.

Try to figure out the following questions. What kind of environment am I staying? To what extent can I affect the environment? Or am I always affected by the environment? It will accumulate in the practitioner’s mind bit by bit.

 Master Ban Ji
 Translated by Grace Tsai
 Proofread by Sophiea Kuo