不是為了快樂

The only view that truly works for a dharma practitioner is that there are no solutions to the sufferings of samsara and it cannot be fixed.

对佛法修持者唯一有用的见地是：痛苦没有解答，轮回亦无法修补。

It is vital to understand that however positive this worldly life, or even a small part of it, may appear to be, ultimately it will fail because absolutely nothing genuinely works in samsara.

Most of us tend to resent being confronted with the truth, and from resentment springs denial. The most obvious example is that we feel annoyed when we are forced to acknowledge the illusory nature of our lives and the reality of death. We also take exception to contemplating it, even though death is an irrefutable universal truth. Our habitual reaction is to pretend it will never happen—which is how we deal with most of the other inconvenient truths we find difficult to stomach.

Instead of becoming resentful, though, it is important for anyone who sincerely wishes to become a dharma practitioner to develop a willingness and openness to embrace the truth, because the dharma is the truth.

a spiritual path that involves absolutely no hardship at all simply does not exist.

毫不费力的心灵之道是不存在的

For a dharma practitioner, wealth is not gold, silver, or a healthy bank account; wealth is contentment—the feeling that you have enough and need nothing more.

对佛法修行者而言，“财富”不是金子、银子或银行存款，而是“知足”，是你认为自己已经足够、别无所求的那种感觉。

To listen to a stream of words is one thing, but fully to understand what we hear is something else entirely and depends wholly on how much merit we have accumulated.

In fact anyone can be a Buddhist practitioner, because whatever your situation in life and regardless of your lifestyle, there is nothing to stop you from also practicing Buddhadharma. And although most people are unable to do everything recommended in the teachings, adopting one or two activities or attitudes will make a big difference to your life. Therefore, does a person have to become a monk, a nun or a yogi in order to be a Buddhist? Absolutely not!

For example, we go to school to earn a qualification to get a job, not just to pay the bills but to strengthen our belief in the stability of our existence. We make friends, not because we are gregarious by nature but so we have someone to protect and comfort us when we feel insecure and lonely. We get engaged to make our relationship feel more solid than mere dating, then marry in the hope it will make us feel more secure. The icing on the cake is having children, because children will finally make our family feel permanent. In broader terms, we promote the concept of democracy as a method for achieving freedom. Yet in reality it is just another chain that shackles us to the disastrous decisions those we vote into power make in our names, decisions that not only undermine our country but wreak economic and environmental havoc on the rest of the world. These are the ways we bind ourselves to samsara.

Fundamentally, though, all emotions spring from one basic source, distraction.

On a more profound level, distraction is any of the emotional responses we are sidetracked by—for example, hope for praise and fear of blame, as well as its more subtle manifestations, like being spaced-out, distracted, lost in thought or worked up. The Solution:

Why, then, have I not incorporated the language of these other lineages, especially since we are always being encouraged to cultivate a nonsectarian attitude and perceive all traditions purely? To pick and choose amongst terms used by different lineages and mix them together in a kind of linguistic chow mein is about as far away from being “nonsectarian” as it’s possible to be—and it doesn’t help.

You will notice I have paraphrased most of the quotations included in this text. It’s a choice I made out of sheer laziness and over which I have since experienced the odd twinge of guilt. At the end of the day, though, the information we pass on to others can only ever be based on our own interpretation of what we have learnt. To me it therefore makes sense to paraphrase the great masters instead of struggling for months to translate them accurately, because however “good” the translations may be, they would only be correct from my point of view.

God Karma only knows why, but the modern world is completely obsessed with “gender issues.” So, I should warn you that you might find my use of gender offensive to your own ideas of “correctness,” political or otherwise. However, no conscious decision was made about whether “him” and “her” was more appropriate in each example.

It’s true that for those on the threshold of spiritual practise, to listen to and read dharma is extremely rewarding—and an activity that should not be entirely abandoned by more seasoned dharma practitioners—but words are abstractions that rely wholly on centuries-old assumptions, making the language we are forced to use obscure and vague. Ultimately, merely to hear and think about dharma is not enough; we must also practise it. So, hearing, contemplating and meditating on dharma are all vital to our spiritual path, with meditation lying at its very core.