诸位坐在禅堂里，表面上在打禅七，可是心里是在打妄想。这个妄想，忽然而天，忽然而地，忽然而饿鬼，忽然而畜生。这种种的妄想，都离不开贪瞋痴。说是勤修戒定慧，可是不修戒定慧；说是息灭贪瞋痴，可是不息贪瞋痴，就是这样奇怪。不但一生一世是这样，而且生生世世都是这样，所以在六道轮回中，头出头没永不停止。做狗的时候，觉得是第一；做猫的时候，也觉得是第一；总而言之，无论做什么众生，总觉得自己是第一。为什么？因为有无明的 执著。如果真心修道，努力参禅，就能解脱轮回之苦，证得涅盘之乐。

Those of you in the meditation hall appear to be taking part in a Chan Session, but your minds are engaging in idle thinking. Your idle thoughts take you suddenly into the heavens and suddenly back to earth. Suddenly you are ghosts, then suddenly you become animals. You produce a profusion of idle thoughts, yet none of them go beyond greed, hatred, and stupidity. You claim to be diligently cultivating precepts, concentration, and wisdom, but in fact you are not cultivating precepts, concentration, and wisdom! You claim to be eliminating greed, hatred, and stupidity, yet you are not eliminating them. That's how strange it is! Not only are you this way in the present life, you are this way in life after life. That's why you rise and sink ceaselessly in the six paths of rebirth. Reincarnated as a dog, we feel we are number one. Reborn as a cat, we also feel we are number one. In general, no matter what type of creature we become, we always consider ourselves to be number one. Why is this? Because we have attachments that arise from our ignorance. If we use a true mind to cultivate the Way and work hard at Chan meditation, then we will be able to liberate ourselves from the suffering of reincarnation and realize the bliss of Nirvana.

有的人修行不认真，随梆唱影，在禅堂里混光阴。人家坐我也坐，人家行我也行，人家怎样我就怎样，把生死的问题，抛到九霄云外，一点也不认为重要，不肯真正用功，不肯决心修道，又不肯把妄想打死。坐在那里，打一个妄想又一个妄想，没有停止的时候，一天打了八万四千个妄想，还觉得不够。妄想、妄想！被妄想搞得心乱如麻，神魂颠倒，真是太可怜了！

Some people don't take their cultivation seriously, but just follow along with the crowd and waste all their time at the retreat. This is their attitude: "I just sit when the others sit, and walk when they walk. I just do what everyone else does." Such people take the matter of birth and death and simply throw it out beyond cloud nine. They don't take it at all seriously. These people are neither willing to really apply themselves, nor to dedicate themselves to cultivation. They are unwilling to beat their idle thoughts to death. They simply sit here, endlessly entertaining one idle thought after another. In a single day they may bring up eighty-four thousand idle thoughts, yet they still aren't satisfied. Idle thinking! Idle thinking! They let these idle thoughts tie their mind into knots and turn their spirits upside-down. How pathetic!

那么要怎样才能不打妄想？别无二法，就是参话头。话头虽然也是妄想，可是它能令你的精神集中，不向外驰求。这是以毒攻毒的办法，用一个妄想来控制多个妄想，将一个妄想参来参去，就没有妄想。到了没有妄想的境界，便是开悟的时机，这时候，或一言、或一行、或一举、或一动，都是开悟的钥匙。

How then, can you be free of these idle thoughts? There is no other method: simply investigate your meditation topic. Although the meditation topic is also a idle thought, it can still bring your energy to a concentrated focus and prevent it from running outside. It is the method of "fighting fire with fire"; thus we use one idle thought to counter and control many idle thoughts. When one idle thought is investigated from front to back, one will no longer have idle thoughts. When one reaches the stage of having no idle thoughts, there is a chance for enlightenment to occur. At that time, a single word, a single act, a single gesture, or a single motion can serve as the key that opens the lock to your enlightenment.