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今天下午我的講題是「量子物理學」，今晚我不會再講「量子物理學」這個主題，大家放心；我要講的是：「在當前這個時代中，如何過有價值的生活」。
我們在座各位所生活居住的世界，為科技和娛樂所充滿，為不斷地叩擊著我們心靈感官的資訊所充滿，所以今晚的講題就是「怎樣迴光返照以探究萬象之根源，而不為感官塵境所蒙蔽。」這必須得要去修行；不論出家在家人，在任何情形之下，特別在現在這個時代，唯一能扭轉情勢的方法就是精進修行。
我們要解決這些基本問題，第一步就要使心安寧，去體驗那身心安寧的境界。每天必需要練習安寧下來，當然這不限於修禪；雖然禪修時心會專注，也會安寧。這裡說的安寧是要求你抓住每一個機會來修習的。
在南傳佛教有「七覺支」——覺悟的七個要素，這是修行的基礎，我想在這兒很快地復習一下。「當獨處時」，各位注意這裡已有靜的意思了。佛陀曾經說過當獨處時，要思維所讀的經典；也就是說思維八正道與佛所說過的各種法。
第二個要素，我們不但要回想教義，還要思維教義；並不是簡單地回憶起八正道與各種教法就算了，而是要去研究、分別、思維。
第三個要素，就是精進，要打起精神用功修行。在這一階段，修行人會經歷一種沉浸於快樂之中的境界；這種快樂的境界，不屬於六根之快感，而是內在的，與外界環境無關。這種快樂，並不是由享受而得來的，不依靠六根任何的外緣，不同於「我喜歡這個，不喜歡那個；因為得到了我喜歡的，我就很高興。」佛教導的這種快樂完全是自足的，完全不依靠其他條件，甚至可以說，這是種不依外在條件的，持久的快樂。
下一要素是輕安。這境界是指你的心非常非常靜，非常非常安詳。接下來一步，修行人可以入定。佛所說的定乃是依以上所談各要素所產生的。修行人有三摩地，或稱定境。
第七覺支就是「捨」。一切萬法沒有多少分別，都是平等的。修行人完全安住於平等心中。佛所教授的「念、擇法、精進、喜、輕安、定、捨」，都是人類的自然境界而已。
所以在座的各位同修，如果你們不是常常處在這種喜的境界；如果不是常常這麼精進；如果不是常常處在這種輕安的境界；如果不是常常處在這種定的境界；如果不是常常處在這種捨的境界，那我想問問你們各位一個問題：為什麼不處在那樣的境界中呢？因為我相信在座各位大多數是佛教徒，都知道佛的教導。這問題的答案很簡單：因為我們心裏有慾望，有執著。
其實，在目前世界上可以說我們每一人的生命都處在一個非常危險的境地。我們對於內心的安寧與生活意義的探索，也同樣處在一個非常危險的時代。
為什麼說是很危險的時代呢？因為在這個時代，一天到晚我們為無數的資訊所糾纏、淹沒。這些資訊的內容並非雜亂無章的，而是由人精心設計成的廣告、符號、圖案；是花了幾十億元錢，針對人類最弱之點而做出的有創造性的計謀，來吸引我們的。
我祖父母幾年前才往生，他們活到九十七歲。我相信各位的祖父母若生活在鄉下，情形也會差不多。他們那時六根所對的境界是風、雨、水、土地，當然他們也有苦的地方，不過你要明白，那跟我們現在的苦不一樣。人類將智慧與創造力投注於以精心構思的形式，來吸引眾人心神的事業，還是最近才有的事。因此我今晚想跟各位說的是：修道，在現在跟以前不一樣了。現在我們修行不僅僅是要開悟；如果不修道的話，我們就連清醒的頭腦都無法保持住的。
我們周遭的環境實在是太富於刺激性了。舉個例子，剛才我們坐車從中央研究院到清華大學來時，聽到人說臺灣有八十四個電視臺，旁邊的人說：「不對。現在有九十二個了！」你看，一天之內已經增加了好幾個電視臺。為什麼需要九十二個電視臺呢？因為任何一個電視臺的節目都可能不夠刺激；為了找到夠刺激的節目，你必須要找遍九十二個電視臺。現在我們有相互連通的電腦、通訊網路等等，我們都用這些來互通訊息，來娛樂自己；我們已經是這些訊息的俘虜了！這些訊息刺激我們，鼓勵我們不斷地去追求更多、更多……。各國經濟發展的動力是甚麼？就是追求這數量不斷增長的刺激，來麻醉自己。
這些與日俱增的刺激，發生在人的大腦神經上，其效果很像海洛英麻醉品的作用。當我們習慣於這大量的刺激後，一旦斷絕時反而覺得煩躁不安，似乎失去了甚麼；只有當擁有這、擁有那時，這感覺才獲舒緩。
人人都會覺得急躁、不耐煩，可卻不去尋找不安的原因，反而去向外面尋求——看電視、聽收音機、打電話，似乎這樣做就可克服了急躁、不耐煩感，其實只是掩蓋而已。第二天、下一週、明年，你或許就不得不求助於更多的娛樂來掩蓋這感覺。
我們社會一旦陷入了這個容量與日俱增的刺激感官系統後，就會完全迷失於其中，找不到出路，因為我們對自己與他人的價值觀已被這一系統污染了。放眼當今世界上每一個城市，你就會看到這一種疾病正在向全世界蔓延；我們也正深受其害。為什麼我們工作這樣努力？因為這樣我們就能擁有大一點的房子，新一點的車子，能送兒子到好一點的大學等等。細察一下這個過程，它是沒有盡頭的；這是一個不斷自我滋養再生的循環，其中包括了每個人、每個家庭、一切一切，並漸漸地將整個社會吞噬其中。
這時侯，我們若要保持清醒，要保持內心平衡，就必須要修心。我們必須要通過修行來迴光反照，來培養內心的安寧、安樂，不依賴任何外在環境，這才是我們生存的關鍵所在。如果這間房子裡的人能保持安靜一個小時，或二個小時，心裏就會吵鬧得很厲害。即使處在一個非常安靜的屋子裡，過去幾天或幾週內心一切的感受都會呈現出來。所以要真正得到內心的安寧，必須要花一番功夫才行。佛陀教授了我們許多的法門。慈悲就是同體大悲；不僅瞭解自己的欲望需要，還要瞭解別人的欲望需要，努力去幫助別人。這當然需要我們為慈悲而忘我；行慈悲而忘我時，我們的心也會隨之而安寧。
大家都知道這涉及道德；道德跟自己內心的清淨，其關係是絕對密切的。所以五戒中的每一條戒都跟我們的清淨心有關係。舉個例子：我們如果打了一次妄語，那一刻我們就不能自然自在地生活；這不誠實留在我們的記憶中，成為心中的負擔。我們如果從未打妄語，我們就可以永遠自然自在地生活；這自然自在就是成就清淨心的一個要素。
其他條戒的作用也差不多，目的都在節制欲望，保留內心的某些品質……（錄音帶中斷），所以我們身居美國，很希望臺灣各位同胞能夠領導我們從事這個運動。因為你們的社會人民與這些道德觀念的修行相距不遠。我們身居在遙遠的美國加州，方才我所講的一切一切的現象，我們美國的社會都陷入得很深。我們很希望你們能夠帶領我們，在這科技快速發展的時代，來找到那平衡的修行與清淨，與我剛才所談到的生活方式；如果你們能夠平衡自己的生活，也就能給我們作出一個好榜樣。
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This afternoon I spoke about Quantum Physics, and I won't do that now, so you don't have to worry. What I want to talk about is, how we live a quality life in the modern world. All of us live in a world that's filled with technology, filled with entertainment, filled with sense data that's constantly bombarding our minds and bombarding our senses.
So our topic tonight is how we turn our minds around to look inwards to the source rather than being caught up in the sense data. This requires practice. Whether you're a layperson or a left-home person, the only possibility of turning the situation around in any time, but particularly in the modern world, is through rigorous practice.
The first step for any of us to try to solve those basic problems is to find our mind where it's silent, to experience the silence of the mind, the silence of the body. Every day we have to practice being quiet. This isn't just meditation, although meditation is certainly the concentration of the mind and includes this silence. But this silence is something that needs to be practiced at every opportunity that we get.
In the Theravada tradition there's a list of seven factors of enlightenment. These seven factors are the basis of cultivation, and I'll go over them quickly. The Buddha said that first of all, "when secluded..." and you'll notice that the Buddha's first two words already talk about being quiet. "When secluded, he or she recollects to themselves the readings about the doctrine," in other words, the Eightfold Path and the various doctrines that the Buddha taught.
The second factor is that not only does the person recollect, but also reflects and investigates the doctrine. So it's not a matter of simply calling up the Eightfold Path or the various doctrines of the Buddha, but also investigating, discriminating, reflecting on them.
The third factor that the Buddha taught was that you need to have energy. You need to bring up your
qi and have energy in this endeavor. At this point, the person should go through the experience of having immense nonsensual joy, a sort of self-contained joy that's not dependent upon anything outside. Now this is isn't the joy of enjoyment. This kind of joy is not dependent upon sense data. It's not, "I like this; I don't like that. And since I'm getting what I like, I enjoy it." This joy that the Buddha's teaching here is totally self-contained, totally not dependent upon anything else. And we could even say that it's a sort of sustainable joy based on nothing outside.
This led to the next factor, which is tranquility. At this point the Buddha taught that the mind becomes extremely tranquil and very, very quiet.
At this point the person can concentrate. The concentration that the Buddha was teaching was a concentration that came about as a result of all these factors that we've talked about so far. So at this point a person could have samadhi, or concentration.
At this point the person reaches the seventh factor, which is equanimity—the equality of everything. Nothing is more or less;, everything becomes totally equal, and the person becomes totally at peace in his equanimity.
The Buddha taught that this self-possession, the discrimination of principle, the
qi or energy, the joy, tranquility, concentration, and equanimity were all just natural states of human beings, just the natural state of being human.
The question is, for those here who aren't constantly in joy and have immense energy and total tranquility all the time and very good concentration all the time and equanimity all the time, why aren't we in that state?
Of course, most people here in the room are Buddhist, and so we do know what the Buddha taught. The reason we are not in that state is simply because of the desire and attachment that we have.
Actually, in the modern world, all of us in this room are in a very dangerous situation in terms of our personal lives. Each one of us lives at a very dangerous time in terms of finding our own peace of mind and our own meaning in life.
Why do I say we live in a very dangerous time? Because we live in a time where we are being bombarded at an incredible rate by not just random sense data, but by advertising and by symbols and images that have been carefully thought out and carefully developed through using billions of dollars of resources and incredible creativity to hit just those points of attraction that a human being has.
My grandparents, who died at 97 some years ago, basically lived their life on a farm, as many of your grandparents and even parents did if they lived in a rural area. What they met as sense data was the rain and the wind and the water and the soil. There were sufferings that people had, but the difference that you have to understand is that, until very recently, the creativity and intelligence of human beings psychologically had not been put to work to attract your mind in very carefully orchestrated and developed methods.
I would make the statement tonight that cultivation is no longer a question of simply cultivating to get enlightened. At this point in time, cultivation is a matter of: If you don't cultivate, you can't stay sane.
The nature of the world that surrounds us is that there's so much stimulation. For example, on the bus coming over someone mentioned that in Taiwan there are 84 television stations, but we were told, no, there are 92 now. So, in the course of the day there have been many more stations added. Why are there 92 television stations? It's because there may not be something that stimulates them on any one of them, so you have to go through all 92 of them to find something that will stimulate you.
Now we have interactive computers and Internet and so forth. We have all this interactive communication and interactive entertainment, and we all have to understand that as we get caught up in this constant stimulation, that we need more and more and more. What's driving the economic system of every country is the need for ever-increasing amounts of stimulation to keep this "drug" going.
This increase of data and stimulation operates on the neurons of the human mind in a way very similar to heroine or cocaine or any other drug. As the body gets used to that amount of stimulation, if you take it away, the person feels bored, anxious; they're missing something; if only they could have this, if only they could get that, it would solve their problem. Everyone begins to feel a little bit anxious and a little bit bored, and rather than looking to find where that boredom and anxiety begin, they simply turn something on. They turn on a television; they turn on a radio; they call somebody up. And it seems that the anxiety and boredom are overcome, but in fact they are just masked, and you just need more entertainment the next day, the next week, the next year.
Once society gets caught up in this machine, this sense data input system, as it increases and increases its volume and information, we all just become completely lost in this. We can't see our way out, because our value systems and how we see ourselves and each other begins to be caught up in this system.
If you look at every city in the world right now, you can't see this disease that's sweeping across the world and that we're all being caught up in. Why are we working so hard? Because we might get a little bigger house, a little better car, send the kids to a little different school, and so forth. If you begin to look at this system, it never ends. There's no end to this system. It feeds upon itself in an endless circle, including everybody, everybody's family, and every context, and slowly feeds the entire society into it.
At this point in time, cultivation of the mind is essential for our sanity, for us to maintain any kind of balance within the situation that we find ourselves. All of us have to, in our own practice, turn back into our minds, and develop that quiet, that silence, that happiness, that joy, that lies at the core of our existence and isn't dependent upon anything outside.
It turns out that if each of us in this room goes to be silent for an hour or two, the mind continues to scream inside. We can put ourselves in a very quiet place, but the mind continues to come back at us with all the things we've collected within the past days or weeks. So it turns out that this silence for each of us is really going to take some practice to get back to.
The Buddha gave us many methods to quiet the mind. Compassion—helping other people, looking empathetically not just at what our own desires and needs are, but at what other people need and want and trying to help them— obviously takes us out of ourselves for whatever time we engage in that compassion. Being out of our own desires for that period of time has the effect of quieting the mind.
Of course, we all know that this is the issue of virtue. The connection between the quiet mind and virtue is absolute. For instance, the five precepts: Each of the five precepts has something to do with the quiet and clear mind. If we tell a lie, we have to remember that lie. Therefore, we can't spontaneously live in the moment. We have to retain this collection of dishonesties that we're carrying in our mind. If we have never told a lie, we can always be spontaneous, and that spontaneity is a major factor of the quiet mind.
The other precepts operate in much the same way— controlling desire and not altering the mind in some kind of way. [Something missing between tapes] Basically, we in America are hoping that you in Taiwan can give us leadership in this. You as a society and a people are very close to this virtue, to this practice. We out in America, out in California, are pretty far away and the society that we live in is very much caught up in all the things that I've been talking about. We very much hope that each of you can provide leadership to us as to how our lives can be lived in a way that balances this practice, quiet, and all that I've talked about, within a modern society that's quickly developing technology and so forth. If you could help find that balance in your own life, you could help us all to see how to do that.
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