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阿姜蘇美度:
我非常感謝有機會來聖城，感謝僧團與諸位法友，我在美國的時光過得很快樂。我走訪了親屬，看了在Spirit
Rock
的禪七，上星期到紅木谷的無畏寺，現在又到了萬佛聖城，明天就要回英國了。
我問過阿姜阿瑪拉這次的講題，開始他想的是「死亡、束縛和苦惱」，後來他意識到這是加州，就改為「生命，解脫與快樂。」這題目表達出了許多內容，提供了思考的線索。因為佛教主張開敞心胸，而非執著、相信、獻身投入於某種觀點；佛教的全部要點都在講覺悟。生命、解脫與快樂是三個值得思考的項目。我們到底該如何理解它們呢？它們都是很普通的詞，有時出現在建築物頂的標語中，甚至有人用來造成死亡、毀滅。我們人道眾生總是受傳統的束縛、約制；面對著各種態度
、觀點、來自社會環境的偏見，我們迷盲而受其奴役驅使。我們發現人類很會藉著諸如解脫、生活、快樂、自由、平等、社會公平等高尚名目，去施展凶殘的暴行。佛或基督的教導，被人借用來從事與聖賢本意相反的行徑。人類的心靈，一方面能想到這樣美好完善的理念；另一方面，實行時卻在生活中做出與其本意相違的行為。這種狀況真令人百思不解；我們想要以報復、殺人、屠殺的手段，去除邪惡的聲音：我們報復、辯護，想使傷害我們的人痛苦。所有這類的感情，都是我們人生經驗的一部份。同時，我們信奉「生活、解脫與快樂」的理想，認為世間應該是這樣的，這使我們非常矛盾。因為我們心中有著完美的理想，可以想像出的觀念又是最好的；公平、平等、公正、慈愛，沒有罪惡、缺陷、私心、是烏托邦式的理想；這些理念是可以想像的，但生命的現實卻並非如此。
佛關於「苦」的開示，針對這一問題，非常有意義：即使我們知道事情應該怎樣，可我們對實際情形常常十分麻木；實際情形就是我們所不得不經驗的生活，就是我們在非理想化的狀態下所經驗到的。一切都如我們意願構想出的頂峰片刻，實際上被我們經驗到的情形非常少。我曾有些內在瞬間的經驗，我稱之為「頂峰片刻」，那時一切都似乎恰恰好，完美無缺，
然而要維持這些頂峰是不可能的。所以佛向我們指出，說明事物的情形；他並不是要將有為法無盡的變化、組合描述出來，而是要將有為法的真實性指示出來；一切因緣的共同點就是變化、無常性。頂峰片刻是有的，是完美的，但它會變化；這種變化，是佛鼓勵我們去注意的一個對象，要以覺醒的心來面對這種變化性。有趣的是，在英文中，我們依人的意識來將生命與死亡對立起來；認為人的意識止息了，就是死亡。在英文中，我們只能將失去生命視為死亡和結束，而佛陀的教導卻指出，我們隨時都在死亡。死亡不僅是指身體死亡的那一刻，而是指一種境界，所謂「沒有注意力，沒有正念者，其境界為死。」他們雖稱之為活，實際上卻活在死亡的境界中；他們為有為法界所束縛，這怎麼算是活著呢？有為法界變化遷流，但沒有生命。我們束縛於物質、人的身體、我們的觀點、感情、習性，甚至於盲目地將自己繫縛於死亡。生的特性，就是以死亡為歸宿；那生命又是甚麼？要反省一下這個詞。
待續
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Ajahn Sumedho:
Thank you very much. I appreciate this opportunity to be
here at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, with the Sangha
and these friends of the Dharma. This time in the U.S. has
been a very pleasant one.
I've visited my relatives, the retreat at
Spirit Rock, spent last week at Abhayagiri in Redwood
Valley, then came here to the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas.
Tomorrow, I'm back to the UK.
I asked Ajahn Amaro to title this talk,
so he said that originally he had thought of "Death, Bondage
and Dukkha." Then he realized I that this was California, so
he changed it to "Life, Liberty and Happiness." That says a
lot right there. Like any title, it gives us clues to
reflect upon because Buddhist teaching is more about opening
the mind, not grasping, believing and committing yourself to
ideas. The whole point in Buddhist teaching is awakening.
Life, liberty and happiness are three subjects that are
worth considering. What do we really mean by these? These
are common enough words, sometimes slogans shouted on tops
of buildings and even used to cause death, destruction. The
human state is one where we tend to be bound to our
traditions: bondage; we are blinded, enslaved into
attitudes, opinions, views, prejudices that we acquire from
our social or cultural conditioning. We find that human
beings are quite capable of committing atrocious acts in the
name of exalting ideas such as liberty, life and happiness
and freedom, equality, social justice and fairness. Exalted
teachings such as the Buddha's or Jesus Christ's can be used
to perform acts that are contrary to the actual meanings of
these prophets or sages. Ever wonder why the human mind, the
psyche, can conceive of ideas so fine and so perfect, yet
while subscribing to these ideas, we nonetheless act out
their emotional opposites in our own lives. We seek revenge,
we want to kill, to destroy, and to get rid of the evil
voices; we want to make those who have hurt us suffer by
seeking revenge and being vindictive. We can all relate to
these kinds of emotions as part of our human experience. At
the same time, idealistically we subscribe to life, liberty
and happiness as how things should be. We get very confused
because we can conceive of ideals that are perfect in
themselves, creating ideas that are the very best, that are
fair, equal, just, merciful and where there's no crime or
foible or selfishness, utopian ideals. We can conceive of
possibilities, yet the reality of our lives is not that way.
This is where the Buddha's teaching on
suffering, or dukkha, is very significant. Even though we
know how things should be, many times we're quite blind to
the way things are-the way it is as we have to experience
life, as we experience the sensitive state that we find
ourselves in at this time-which is not ideal. Very seldom do
we experience real peak moments where everything is the way
we want it to be, or the way we think it should be. I've had
moments, inner momentary experiences, that I call peak
moments, where everything seems just right, everything's
just perfect. However, to sustain a peak is impossible.
Thus, the Buddha was pointing to the way things are, and
noting the way things are; it's not to tell you, to
endlessly describe the variations, the permutations of
conditioned phenomena, but to point to the actuality of
conditioned phenomena. A common factor of all conditions is
that they are changing: the law of impermanence. Peak
moments do exist. There is perfection, but it changes. That
change is a subject that the Buddha encouraged us to
notice-to notice change, to awaken the mind to this constant
change. It's interesting that in the English language we
oppose life with death in terms of human consciousness, with
death as the end of human consciousness. In our English
language we can only conceive of death as the absence of
life, as the ending of life, yet the reflective teachings of
the Lord Buddha point to the fact that we're dying all the
time. Death isn't just the ending of the death moment where
the body dies, but in such a state, there is a saying, "For
those who are heedless, those who are not mindful, then
death is their experience." While they're so-called alive,
they're actually living in a state of death. They're bound
to the conditioned realm, which is not alive. Isn't it? The
conditioned realm changes and moves, but it has no life to
it. We're bound to material objects or even the human body
as an identity, or to our thoughts, our ideas, our emotions,
our habits, so we actually bind ourselves to what's
deathbound. The very nature of birth is that death is the
result. Then what is life?
~ To be continued
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