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六元素

[作者]坦尼沙羅尊者
[中譯]良稹
Six Properties
by Ven. Thanissaro Bhikkhu

原文版權所有 ©  2003 坦尼沙羅比丘。免費發行。本文允許在任何媒體再版、重排、重印、印發。然而，作者希望任何再版與分發以對公衆免費與無限制的形式進行，譯文與轉載也要求表明作者原衷。

中譯版權所有 ©  2009 良稹，http://www.theravadacn.org ， 流通條件如上。轉載時請包括本站連接，并登載本版權聲明。

英語中，形容從身內感受身的詞彙極其稀缺。我們有麻刺感，我們有沉重感。我們有蟻爬皮膚之感，胃中蝶動之感^[1]。詞彙不那麼多，也沒有真正的系統性。正是在這方面，佛陀有關元素[界，屬性]的教導就十分有益了。它爲身內的覺受——也就是從身內體驗身的感覺——提供了一個系統的分類方法，同時使你領悟到對那些覺受可以如何應用。這套教導還使你明見，你的當下輸入，在如何塑造你對身的體驗上，起著多大的作用，同時也爲你提供了一個直達、親歷的方法，利用當下的那種輸入，達到[元素的]平衡，使身體成爲易於定居之處。

經典上共列出六種元素^[2]：地、水、風、火、空間、意識。聽起來像是中世紀化學。不過，我們最好把這些元素看成是從身內對身之諸覺受的歸類法。地即是沉重、堅硬感；水則是清涼感；火當然是暖熱感；風是來回的動感；空間是空性感；意識是覺知所有這一切的那個元素。

The theory behind these properties is that they get provoked. In other words, as they get emphasized, as some incident strengthens them or kicks them into action, they get stronger. On the external level, natural events occur when the external properties get provoked. Floods come from the provocation of the water property; huge fires or intense heat, from the provocation of the fire property; huge winds, from the provocation of the wind property. Interestingly, the texts also attribute earthquakes to the wind property. This means that wind refers not only to the wind in the air, but also to the motion down in the earth. Apparently earth was the only property that wasn’t provokable, on the external level at least, but it would move when the wind property got into the act.

元素理論認爲，諸種元素是可以被激發的。換句話說，隨著它們被倚重，隨著某些事件把它們壯大或者把它們猛然發動，它們就強大起來。外在層次上，當外元素被激發時，就會發生自然界的事件。水災來自水元素的激發。大火或強熱，來自火元素的激發。狂風來自風元素的激發。有意思的是，經典上把地震也歸因於風元素。這就意味著，風不僅指空中的風動，也指地內的動態。地似乎是唯一不可激發的元素，至少在外在層次，不過當風元素參與時，它也會移動。

Whatever we may think of these concepts as ways of describing external events, they’re a very useful way of looking at internal events, at the experience of the body as sensed from within. Classically, the internal properties are used to explain disease. Giddiness or lightheadedness is a sign of too much wind property, a sign that the wind property has been provoked. With fever, of course, the fire property has been provoked. A feeling of lethargy or heaviness in your limbs is a sign of too much earth property.

不管我們對這些概念作爲外在事件的描述方式有什麼想法，它們對觀察內在事件，觀察從內部體驗到的身感來說，是十分有用的。在古代，內元素被用來解釋病理。頭暈眼花是風偏重的癥象，是風元素被激發的癥象。發燒當然是火元素的激發。四肢無力或沉重，則是地元素偏勝的癥象。

These are things you can play with in your meditation. That’s where the teaching really becomes useful, because it allows you to see how the way you focus on the body has an impact on how you perceive the body, how you actually sense the body. We think of sensations as being primary, the raw material, the basic building blocks of experience, but there are conscious decisions being made that precede the sensations. Look at the teaching on dependent origination. Sankhara, or “fabrication” is way down there, prior to the sensations you feel in terms of form, feeling, and so forth.

這些東西是你在禪定中可以操作一番的。這套教說正是在此處真正顯其有用，因爲它讓你看見，你怎樣專注身體，會直接影響你怎樣辨識身體，以及你怎樣實際地覺受到身體。我們以爲覺受是原生的，是未加工的材料，是體驗的基本構件，然而，先於這些覺受，你已經在作種種有意識的決定了。看一看十二因緣的教導。 Sankhāra——造作，早早先於你在色、受等方面的覺知，已經在那裏了^[3]。

So how are you going to fabricate the body? If there are feelings of tension in the body, sometimes that’s a sign of too much earth property, so you can think of the breath. This is one of the reasons we start with the breath. It’s the property that’s most easily manipulated—classicallyit’s called the kaya-sankhara, the factor that fashions the body. It’s also the property that most directly works through tension. Wherever there’s a sense of tension, focus on it and see if you can get a sense of gentle, healing motion going through it. The potential for motion is there, simply that the perception contributing to the tension has blocked it. So you can consciously decide that you’re going to perceive motion there. Give it a chance to happen, and the potential for motion, the potential for movement through that part of the nervous system, will get strengthened, will get aroused—which may be a better way of translating the word that I just translated as “provoked.” The breath-potential gets aroused. When your awareness of the breath is aroused or heightened, it can move through that sense of blockage.

因此，你打算怎樣造作身？如果身內有緊綳感，有時那是地元素偏勝的征象，因此你可以觀想氣。這是我們禪修從觀氣[風，呼吸]出發的原因之一。它是最容易操縱的那個元素——經典上，它叫做 kāya-sankhāra——身造作[身行]，塑造身體的因素^[4]。它也是最直接地消解張力的元素。哪裏有緊綳感，你就定在那裏，看是否能夠使一種溫和的、修復性的動性［氣］穿過它。動性[氣］的潛勢是在那裏的，只不過促成緊綳感的那個辨識把它給堵住了。因此，你可以有意識地決定，你打算在那裏辨識動性[氣]。給它一個發生的機會，那麼動性［氣］的潛勢，穿過那部分經絡系統的移動的潛勢，將會被強化，將會被喚起 [aroused]——比起我剛才用的“激發” [provoked]，這個譯法可能更好。氣的潛勢被喚起。當你對氣的覺知被喚起或者說提昇時，它就可以穿透那股堵塞感。

When you’re feeling giddy or manic, you can think of the earth property to settle things down. If there’s just too much frenetic energy in the body, you can think of your bones being made of iron, of your hands and feet weighing a ton. Wherever you have a sense of solidity in the body, focus on that and try to magnify it. You find that your choice of the image you’re using, your purpose in choosing it, will really affect the way you start sensing that part of the body. Then you can take that sensation and spread it out, connecting it with other sensations of solidity in the body. The potential for solidity is always there.

當你感到暈眩或狂躁時，可以觀想地元素，使那些感覺平靜下來。如果體內有太多躁亂的能量，你可以觀想自己的骨胳由鐵質構成，你的手腳有千斤重。凡是體內有堅硬感的地方，要專注那裏，試著把它放大。你會發現，你所用的形象，你選擇那個形象的目的，真的影響你怎樣開始感受到那個部位。接著，你可以把那個感受，傳播開去，與體內其它地方的堅硬感連接起來。堅硬性的潛勢，一直是在那裏的。

When you’re feeling depressed and weighed down, think of lighter sensations, of the breath giving a lift to the different parts of the body. When you’re hot, think of the water property. Focus on whatever sensations in the body are cooler than the others. Really keep your focus right there, and think “water, water” or “cool, cool.” You’ll find that other cool sensations in the body will appear to your awareness. The potential for them was waiting, simply that they needed the element of present intention to highlight them.

當你感覺抑鬱、重壓時，可以觀想比較輕的覺受，可以觀想氣把身體各個部分提昇一下。你感到熱的時候，可以觀想水元素。專注凡是體內比較清涼的地方。要把注意力真正定在那裏，一邊想“水，水”，或者“涼，涼”。你將發現體內的清涼感會對你的覺知顯現出來。它們的潛勢伺伏著，只是需要那個當下動機的成分把它們彰顯出來。

When you’re feeling cold, focus in on warmth. There will be some part of the body that’s warmer than the others, so focus in on it. Think of the warmth staying there and spreading to other parts of the body where other warm sensations will get aroused.

當你感覺寒冷時，就專注暖熱。身體一定有某個部位比其它部位更暖，因此就專注那裏。觀想那個熱性待在那裏，並且傳播到身體的其它部位，那裏的熱感將會給喚起。

You can do this at any stage in the concentration, although it’s most effective when the breath is still. At that point the body feels like a cloud of mist, little points of sensation, and each little sensation has the potential to be any one of these four properties. When your sense of the body is reduced to what the French would call pointillism, it’s a lot easier, simply with a thought, to emphasize either the heaviness or the lightness, the movement, the warmth or the coolness of those sensations, the sensation-potentials you’ve got there. This way you accomplish two things at once. On the one hand you balance out the body. Whenever one type of sensation feels too oppressive, you can think of the opposing sensation to balance it out. On the other, you start seeing the role of present intention in your awareness, in your experience of the present moment in a very visceral way.

你可以在定的任何階段這樣做，不過在氣寂止時最有效。那時候，身感像一團霧，一團細小的覺點，每個小覺知都有成爲這四種元素之任一的潛勢。當你的身感還原到法語所說的 pointillism——“點彩”時^[5]，要想只用一個意念，來強化諸身感之中的重性或者輕性，動性或者暖性、涼性，做起來就容易多了，那些覺受潛勢你那裏已經存在著。這樣你同時成就了兩件事。一方面，你平衡了身體。任何時候，你覺得某一種覺受過於壓抑，你可以觀想對立的那個覺受，使之平衡。另一方面，你在以一種極其切身的方式體驗當下的過程中，開始看見當下的動機在你的覺知中的作用。

When things grow very still and balanced in terms of these four properties, with this mist of potential sensations that can go in any direction（any kind of sensation?）, you can also focus on the space between the points. Realize that the space is boundless. It goes through the body and out in all directions. Just think that: “infinite space.” Stay with the sensation of infinite space that comes along with the perception. The potential for it is always there; it’s simply that the perception arouses it. It’s a very pleasant state to get in. Things seem a lot less solid, a lot less oppressive. You don’t feel so trapped in the body.

當這四元素達到極其寂止、平衡，存在這股可以朝任一[身感的]方向轉化的覺受潛勢之霧時，你也可以專注那些點之間的空間。你要意識到，那個空間是無邊界的。它穿過身體，朝向各個方向。你就觀想：“無限空間。” 定在隨著那個辨識而來的無限空間感中。該潛勢是一直在那裏的；只不過那個辨識把它喚起了。進入這個狀態裏是極其愉悅的。那裏似乎堅硬感弱了許多，壓抑感弱了許多。被困在身內的感覺也不那麼強了。

Ajaan Fuang once had a student, an old woman, who started practicing meditation with him when he was getting ready to leave Wat Asokaram. After he left, she had to practice on her own for quite a while. One evening, when she was sitting in meditation with the group in the meditation hall, a voice came to her and said, “You’re going to die tonight.” She was a little taken aback, but then she reminded herself, “Well, if I’m going to die, the best way is to die meditating.” So she just sat there and watched to see what would happen as the body dies, to see what it would be like. There was an actual sensation of the body beginning to fall apart. “All of the various properties were going their separate ways,” she said, “like a house on fire. There was no place in the body where you could focus your awareness and have any sense of comfort at all.” So for a moment she felt lost, but then she remembered, “Well, there’s the space property.” So she focused in on the space property, and all that sense of the house on fire suddenly disappeared. There was a very strong sense of infinite space. There was always the potential to go back to the body. (This is something you’ll notice when you’re at this point in your meditation: There are the spots that could provide a potential for the form of the body but you chose not to focus on them. Instead you focus on the sense of space in between and all around. There’s a sense of boundlessness that goes with it.

阿姜放過去有個弟子，是一位老婦人，前來開始跟他學修禪定時，他正在准備離開阿育王寺。等他離開後，很長時間裏她不得不自己修練。有天晚上，她在禪堂與大家共修時，有一個聲音來對她說，“今晚你會死。” 她有點喫驚，不過，她接著提醒自己，“ 好吧，如果要死，最好是死在禪定當中。”於是她就坐在那裏，觀察身體死去時發生什麼。真有一種身體開始破散的感覺。“各種元素都各自分開，走自己的路，”她說，“就像一座著火的房子。身內沒有一處可以讓覺知安定下來，得到舒適感。”於是，有一陣子，她不知所措，不過接著她想起來：“噢，還有空間元素。”於是她就定入了空間元素，所有那些房子著火的感覺突然消失了。有一股極其強烈的無限空間感。回到身體的可能性總是存在的。（你的禪定達到這個程度時將會注意到這一點：有些部位可以提供體形的潛勢，不過你選擇不專注那裏^[6]。而是專注它們相互之間和四周的那個空間感。伴隨著它的是一股無邊無界之感。）

When she came out of meditation, of course, she hadn’t died. She was still alive. But she had learned an important lesson, that when things get really bad in the body you can always go to space. Even though it’s not Awakening, and it’s not the unconditioned, still it’s a lot better than being immersed in turmoil along with the properties in the body.

她出定時，當然沒有死去。她還活者。不過她學到了重要的一課，當身內的情形實在糟糕時，總是可以去空間。即使它不是覺醒，它不是非緣起，它仍然強過住於身元素，沉浸在混亂之中。

So the properties provide a useful way of looking at the potentials in the present moment. They also make it easier to get to that sense of awareness itself that you read about so much in the writings of the Thai Ajaas. Once you’re with infinite space, drop the perception of “space” and see what’s left. There will just be a perception of knowing, knowing, knowing, which takes its place. You don’t　have to ask, “Knowing what?” There’s just awareness, awareness, or knowing, knowing.

因此，諸元素提供了一個觀察潛勢的有用方式。它們還使我們更容易達到泰國導師們的文字當中如此頻繁提到的那個獨立的覺知。一旦你住於無限空間後，你可以放開“空間”的辨識，看看剩下什麼。那時只會有一種知，知，知的辨識。你不必問“知什麼？”只有覺，覺，或者說知，知。

Once you’ve got everything divided up into properties like this, you’ve got the raw materials for gaining insight. The terms of analysis may initially seem strange, but once you get a visceral sense of what they’re referring to, you’ll find them extremely useful. They not only give the mind a good place to settle down in the stillness of concentration, but they also help you gain insight into the way perception shapes your experience of the body, shapes your perception of what’s going on here in the present moment, seeing how fabricated it all is. You’ve got potentials coming in from past kamma, but you’ve also got the element of present choice, which becomes extremely clear when you analyze things in this way.

一旦你達到以這種方式把一切歸分爲諸元素時，你就有了證得洞見的原材料。這些分析詞彙可能最初看起來怪異，不過，一旦你切身領會到它們指的是什麼，你將發現它們極其地有用。它們不僅給心一個定止下來的好地方，而且還幫助你洞見辨識如何塑造身感，如何塑造你對當下正在發生之事，使你懂得所有這些何以都是造作的。你有來自舊業的潛勢，但你也有當下選擇的成分，那種選擇在你用這個方式分析時，就極其明顯起來。

When I first went to stay with Ajaan Fuang, he had me memorize Ajaan Lee’s Divine Mantra: six passages dealing with the different properties. For a long time it seemed very foreign to me until one night I was chanting the passage on the property of consciousness and Irealized that it was referring to the awareness that’s right here. This awareness. Right here. When this realization hit, it was as if a huge iceberg in my heart suddenly melted. I wasn’t dealing with some outside, foreign frame of thinking; instead, it was something extremely direct, immediate, right here and now. That was when I began to get a sense of why Ajaan Fuang had asked me to memorize the chant, why he wanted all of his students to think about their present experience in terms of the properties.

我最初去跟阿姜放修習時，他要我把阿姜李的《神聖咒文》^[7]背下來：那是關於各種元素的六個段落。有很長一段時間，它對我來說似乎毫不相關，直到有一個晚上，在持誦意識元素那一段時，我意識到它指的是就在此處的覺知。就是這個覺知。就在此處。意識到這點時，仿佛我心裏的一塊巨大的冰山突然融化了。我在持誦的不是什麼外在、無關的思維框架；反之，它是某種極其直接、緊接、就在此地此刻的東西。那時候，我才開始懂得爲什麼阿姜放要我背誦這段誦文，爲什麼他要他的所有弟子都從元素的角度思考他們的體驗。

So keep this mode of analysis in mind. Try to get some sense of it as you put it to use, and you’ll find that it’s extremely useful in the practice. As with all of the Buddha’s teachings, the importance of the teaching is what you do with it, and what it does for you in helping to gain insight into how stress and suffering are created in the present moment—and how you don’t have to create them, if you pay attention, if you work at these skills.

因此，把這個分析模式記在心裏。在應用它時，試著領悟它，你將發現它對修持極其有用。一如佛陀的全部教說，它的重要性在於你用它做什麼，它在獲得苦的洞見方面能幫助你做什麼——也就是怎樣幫助你看見，苦在當下是如何被造作起來的，你又如何不需要造作它，假若你用心觀察，假若你修練這些技能。