
2009/03/29 Sun, cloudy/raining, indoor 21.0°C, 《大圓滿》英文版:becoming awareness of our own condition
《Dzogchen: The Self-perfected State》Part One 的第一章 The Individual: Body, Voice and Mind 我已經看完了,蠻好看的。一開始就說教法應該要落實到日常生活,而不是用來逃避現實或心靈慰藉,後兩者都是宗教的功用,但大圓滿實修是要不離世間,這師父很早就點明了,南開諾布仁波切也說:「But the teachings are based on the principle of our actual human condition.」(p. 23)
The Dzogchen teachings are neither a philosophy, nor a religious doctrine, nor a cultural tradition. Understanding the message of the teachings means discovering one's own true condition, stripped 除去 of all the self-deceptions 欺騙 and falsifications 曲解 which the mind creates. The very meaning of the Tibetan term Dzogchen, "Great Perfection," refers to the true primordial state of every individual and not to any transcendent 超越經驗的 reality.(Dzogchen: The Self-perfected State, pp. 23-24)
接著講到我覺得是本章最精華的觀念,就是關於慈悲的真實解釋。南開諾布仁波切說,許多心靈修行途徑都有一些關於慈悲或利益他人的基礎規範或準則,以大乘佛教傳統來講,慈悲更是修行的基礎,伴隨對萬法空性的瞭解。
Sometimes, however, compassion can become something constructed and provisional, because we don't understand the real principle of it. A genuine, not artificial, compassion, can only arise after we have discovered our own condition.
The only source of every kind of benefit for others is awareness of our own condition. When we know how to help ourselves and how to work with our situation we can really benefit others, and our feeling of compassion will arise spontaneously, without the need for us to hold ourselves to the rules of behavior of any given religious doctrine. (Dzogchen: The Self-perfected State, p. 24)
有沒有講得很清楚?這樣我們這些知識份子對慈悲感到很被迫的心態就解除了,不然我們老愛問:為什麼要對那些爛人慈悲呢?然後標準答案是每一位眾生前世都當過我們的父母,也實在很難生起這種感覺,我們明明活在這個生世,對前世丈夫都沒感覺了,哪會想到無數生世的父母?
上段重點的關鍵字是:becoming awareness of our own condition,什麼意思呢?「It means oberving ourselves, discovering who we are, who we believe we are, and what our attitude is towards others and to life.」(p. 24)而最主要的目的,不是要作個多偉大的人或多慈悲的人,「To be able to help both ourselves and others we need to overcome all the limits in which we are enclosed. This is the true function of the teachings.」(p. 24)
南開諾布仁波切在篇末舉了個例子說明克服限制這件事,他說就像出聲的嬰兒是豪無限制概念的,但從父母懷中學會語言開始,就是不可以這不可以那,以確保一個安全但也受限制的活動規範,慢慢進入學加以社會化的訓練後,今後一生就活在一個人類社會約定好的架構內行禮如儀。譬如籠中的雛鳥雖然生有翅膀,但生於鳥籠的牠們完全喪失探索籠外天空的意圖,翅膀可以在有限的空間飛飛,而大圓滿教法就是在教導我們外面天空的世界是沒有邊界與限制的,除非我們準備好了也逐漸習慣天空,不然我們也不會在天空久留。這是我自己的闡釋啦。即便在籠中讀說天空有多好,也是不明白教法的真義。南開諾布仁波切舉一位西方人到西藏為例:
Perhaps he will receive an important initiation 灌頂 and will be stuck by the special atmosphere, by the spiritual "vibration," but will not understand its meaning. Attracted by the idea of an exotic mysticism he may stay for a few months in the monastery, absorbing a few aspects of Tibetan culture and religious customs. When he returns to the West he is convinced that he has understood Buddhism and feels different from those who around him. (Dzogchen: The Self-perfected State, p. 26)
早年我也會陶醉在宗教的彷彿神聖的氛圍中,特別是以能量感知的振動來形容確有其事,基本上也只是受那樣的概念所吸引,對於天主教義如何落實於我的日常生活既不關心也不求理解。許多對佛教的所謂修行者似乎也是如此。南開諾布仁波切說一提到他在講授大圓滿,西藏人便會將他貼上標籤是寧瑪派,但對他致力於復興西藏本土宗教苯教時,又會對他貼上標籤為本教徒。他說:「But Dzogchen is not a school or sect, or a religious system. It is simply a state of knowledge which maters have transmitted beyond any limits of sect or monastic tradition. 」(p. 28)
The true value of the teachings is beyond all the superstructures people create, and to discover if the teachings are really a living thing for us we just need to observe to what extent we have freed ourselves from all the factors that condition us. Sometimes we might believe we have understood the teachings, and that we know how to apply them, but in practice we still remain conditioned by attitudes and doctrinal principles that are far from true knowledge of our own actual condition. (Dzogchen: The Self-perfected State, p. 28)
跟竹慶本樂仁波切所說相同,大圓滿的上師所做的是藥傳遞知識的狀態給我們(transmit a state of knowledge),目的是要喚醒弟子、打開個人的意識成為本初狀態(The aim of the master is to awaken the student, opening that individual's consciousness to the primordial state)(p. 28)。