瞎子摸象

There is commonly sufficient space about us. Our horizon is never quite at our elbows. The thick wood is not just at our door, nor the pond, but somewhat is always clearing, familiar and worn by us, appropriated and fenced in some way, and reclaimed from Nature. For what reason have I this vast range and circuit, some square miles of unfrequented forest, for my privacy, abandoned to me by men? My nearest neighbor is a mile distant, and no house is visible from any place but the hill-tops within half a mile of my own. I have my horizon bounded by woods all to myself; a distant view of the railroad where it touches the pond on the one hand, and of the fence which skirts the woodland road on the other. But for the most part it is as solitary where I live as on the prairies. It is as much Asia or Africa as New England. I have, as it were, my own sun and moon and stars, and a little world all to myself. At night there was never a traveller passed my house, or knocked at my door, more than if I were the first or last man; unless it were in the spring, when at long intervals some came from the village to fish for pouts — they plainly fished much more in the Walden Pond of their own natures, and baited their hooks with darkness — but they soon retreated, usually with light baskets, and left "the world to darkness and to me," and the black kernel of the night was never profaned by any human neighborhood. I believe that men are generally still a little afraid of the dark, though the witches are all hung, and Christianity and candles have been introduced.

夜晚，過了午夜12點，我總是帶著小狗出門，到附近的文化中心；那個時候，整個文化中心都是我的庭院，尤其在夏間雨後，人們就把這個小小世界留給黑暗和我，退入他們溫暖的格子裡。時常，有一些精力過剩的年輕人闖入，在我的地方大聲嘻鬧；我想起自己也有過的年少輕狂，也會任由他們放肆。

無論是怎樣的風雨，一個健康純潔的人聽起來都像是美妙的樂章；沒有任何事情可以把簡單而勇敢的人逼入卑俗的悲傷之中。禽鳥之所以無法分辨燈泡和牠的卵，是因為他要把更多的精神用在撫育幼鳥上；人如果不要那麼有分別心，就可以達到真實究竟的清淨解脫。

最甜的生活

However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poorhouse. The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the almshouse as brightly as from the rich man's abode; the snow melts before its door as early in the spring. I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there, and have as cheering thoughts, as in a palace. The town's poor seem to me often to live the most independent lives of any. Maybe they are simply great enough to receive without misgiving. Most think that they are above being supported by the town; but it oftener happens that they are not above supporting themselves by dishonest means, which should be more disreputable. Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Turn the old; return to them. Things do not change; we change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts. God will see that you do not want society. If I were confined to a corner of a garret all my days, like a spider, the world would be just as large to me while I had my thoughts about me. The philosopher said: "From an army of three divisions one can take away its general, and put it in disorder; from the man the most abject and vulgar one cannot take away his thought." Do not seek so anxiously to be developed, to subject yourself to many influences to be played on; it is all dissipation. Humility like darkness reveals the heavenly lights. The shadows of poverty and meanness gather around us, "and lo! creation widens to our view." We are often reminded that if there were bestowed on us the wealth of Croesus, our aims must still be the same, and our means essentially the same. Moreover, if you are restricted in your range by poverty, if you cannot buy books and newspapers, for instance, you are but confined to the most significant and vital experiences; you are compelled to deal with the material which yields the most sugar and the most starch. It is life near the bone where it is sweetest. You are defended from being a trifler. No man loses ever on a lower level by magnanimity on a higher. Superfluous wealth can buy superfluities only. Money is not required to buy one necessary of the soul.

梭羅說：『當你為貧窮所困，那也只是被困在最有意義也最富生機的經驗之中，你被迫面對的是能產生最多的糖和最多營養的材料。那一種生活，最是刻骨的甜。』

不要為了不夠潮而心中不安，別因為沒有買到最新的 iPad 而焦慮，不用急著去結交新的朋友或買新的名牌包。翻翻舊的東西，找找老朋友。他們沒有變，是我們變；無常的是自己，而非世事。賣掉你的衣服，保留你的思想！只要能夠思考，不論身陷何等困境，我一樣可以活得安適自在。子曰：「三軍可奪帥也，匹夫不可奪志也。」多餘的錢財只能用來買多餘的東西；靈魂需要的東西，用不著錢。

『不論你的生活何等低卑，都要去面對它，去安生；不要躲避，不要用難聽的名字咒罵它。』《經集．義品》中佛陀告誡修行的比丘們，既然已經選擇了出世的生活，要如何超越恐懼，如何消滅心中的黑暗勢力？

我得何食何處食，今實苦臥何處臥；
此等諸尋導悲泣，無家有學應調伏。

食物衣服有時得，少許滿足應知量；
護持此等村慎行，雖受污辱無麤語。

He should conquer these four thoughts of lament: 'What will I eat, or where will I eat. How badly I slept. Tonight where will I sleep?' These lamenting thoughts he should subdue — one under training, wandering without home.

Receiving food & cloth at appropriate times, he should have a sense of enough for the sake of contentment. Guarded in regard to these things going restrained into a village, even when harassed he shouldn't say a harsh word.

曹洞宗與相對論

There was an artist in the city of Kouroo who was disposed to strive after perfection. One day it came into his mind to make a staff. Having considered that in an imperfect work time is an ingredient, but into a perfect work time does not enter, he said to himself, It shall be perfect in all respects, though I should do nothing else in my life. He proceeded instantly to the forest for wood, being resolved that it should not be made of unsuitable material; and as he searched for and rejected stick after stick, his friends gradually deserted him, for they grew old in their works and died, but he grew not older by a moment. His singleness of purpose and resolution, and his elevated piety, endowed him, without his knowledge, with perennial youth. As he made no compromise with Time, Time kept out of his way, and only sighed at a distance because he could not overcome him. Before he had found a stock in all respects suitable the city of Kouroo was a hoary ruin, and he sat on one of its mounds to peel the stick. Before he had given it the proper shape the dynasty of the Candahars was at an end, and with the point of the stick he wrote the name of the last of that race in the sand, and then resumed his work. By the time he had smoothed and polished the staff Kalpa was no longer the pole-star; and ere he had put on the ferule and the head adorned with precious stones, Brahma had awoke and slumbered many times. But why do I stay to mention these things? When the finishing stroke was put to his work, it suddenly expanded before the eyes of the astonished artist into the fairest of all the creations of Brahma. He had made a new system in making a staff, a world with full and fair proportions; in which, though the old cities and dynasties had passed away, fairer and more glorious ones had taken their places. And now he saw by the heap of shavings still fresh at his feet, that, for him and his work, the former lapse of time had been an illusion, and that no more time had elapsed than is required for a single scintillation from the brain of Brahma to fall on and inflame the tinder of a mortal brain. The material was pure, and his art was pure; how could the result be other than wonderful?

安可先生和曹洞宗曾經有這麼一段淵源：

根據吳晴月所持有禪門曹洞宗的「生死簿」的推算，王安可的陽壽只有四
十八年又三個月。若是活過這個年又不離開他的家，就會對家人有損。不
過安可先生確實活了幾年卻沒人知道，因為他在六十幾時還在台東太麻里
山上洗溫泉。

生死簿和一般算命完全不同，它是以一再轉世輪迴的靈魂為主體，記錄著
每一世所累積起來的善惡業，到目前這一世將會有什麼樣的業報出現，其
中預言了個人的生、老、病、死、劫，但是不提供任何意見，只告訴你有
什麼籌碼，藉由這些去掌握自己的一生。

吳晴月並告訴安可先生，一味空想要過多好的生活，或是整天羨慕別人的
財富和幸福，都是無益的。不承認自己這世的「實相」，會讓自己終日不
快樂，陷入痛苦的情緒中。只有了解業因並修正自己的內心，才能排解疑
難，過較正確的生活。人生的根本問題是沒有答案的，它無可限制，端看
你怎麼創造，因為人生就是一連串無常的活動，這才是「真相」。

據說，生死簿共二十本，成書於後唐，大約西元1230年東渡日本，1895年由曹洞宗四十八代開教使雪凝和尚帶來台灣佈教。雪凝和尚在中日戰後遭遣返日本，留下此套書籍交給同門師弟普信，也就是吳晴月的師父。然而「真相」是，安可先生根本沒見過吳晴月，一切都是他自己心中的想像。真相與實相也許可以用「真話」和「實話」來類比。真話是心裡的話，實話則不一定。但是真話的內容卻可能不是實情，而是因人的虛妄之心所造成的「假相」。但這種「假相」不能說不存在。『從因果施設邊說，即空的假名有，不可說無』，也就是說在這種情況下個人周遭的人、事、物，雖然是空的、假的，卻是存在的，不可說它們都是幻覺。『從自性不可得邊說，即假的自性空，不可說有』。這是相對於前面來說的。如果沒有前面的空的假名，就沒有所謂的假的自性，所以自性也是假、也是空。從這個觀點才可以說一切是不存在的。所以佛才說：『一切有為法，如夢、幻、泡、影，如露亦如電，應作如是觀』。這就是所謂的「實相」。實相是批判之依據，若無此為據，焉知世間之苦是何所指耶？說的白話一點，人要跳出自己的意想範圍之外，才能對此世間有所評斷。至於這個世界的「真相」佛陀似乎從來沒有提過，因為他認為瞭解它對於人的解脫並沒有幫助。這個世界在佛陀的心裡到底是怎樣的，也就成為佛學的一個重要課題。

愛因斯坦的相對論卻向我們透露了一點這個世界的「真相」。牛頓的運動定律基本上是假設時間的脈動頻率對每一個運動中物體都是一樣的。也唯有如此，他的運動定律才能成立。而這個假設對人類來說是完全合乎先驗的，沒有人曾經懷疑這個假設的真實性。但是後來發現，時間的推移是因運動而定。然而牛頓在發現他的運動定律之時，並不知道每個物體的時間都是不同的，所以他的定律和人心所產生的各種有為法一樣，都是夢幻泡影。然而，將時間的脈動施設為一致是有必要的，因為一切因果必須由此開始。羅素說：『如果我們處在一個不斷變動（無常）的世界中（事實上我們也是，只是沒人感覺到，釋迦牟尼是第一人），可能打從頭就推算出相對論，要不然就是糊里糊塗，永遠不知科學定理為何物。因為一步就跳到相對論的人必須一手包辦歐幾里德、伽利略、牛頓及愛因斯坦的科學成就，這種天才既不可能存在，我們只得選擇後者。』釋迦牟尼就是這樣的天才！牛頓的定律雖不契合真理，但是若沒有假的定律，如何去解釋這個零中之零，空中之空。

王中之王是誰？聖中之聖是誰？
何謂愚人？何謂智者？
如何離開垢穢？怎樣獲證涅槃？
何人沉溺在生死海裡？誰能逍遙於解脫國中？

正如庫魯城那個做手杖的藝術家所經歷的一樣，打坐的奇妙之處在於，不論你用功了多久，在你結束打坐時，你會覺得用掉的時間都差不多，所逝去的時間只是一種幻象。若是你搭上了一部以光速移動的自動扶梯，無論你在上面是站著不動或往上走，到達頂端的時間都是一樣。這與人們在俗世中急急忙忙死命地去追求成功，死命地去投身於某某企業的景況豈不相同？在生死輪迴中流轉就如搭上以光速移動的手扶梯，不論你跑多快，結果都是一樣。打坐的情形卻正好與之相反，時間不管怎麼走，你還是坐在那裡。這是很耐人尋味的事。由於專心一志，不跟時間妥協，時間只好站到一邊去，遠遠的嘆息。日本曹洞宗之父道元說：「即令是初學者的坐禪，也都是他們全部自性的顯現。」

《註》：
曹洞宗源自唐朝禪宗青原一系，青原指的便是行思(? ─ 公元740年)，為慧能會下的上首。得法後回到吉州，住青原山靜居寺。

五蘊即世間

What does Africa — what does the West stand for? Is not our own interior white on the chart? black though it may prove, like the coast, when discovered. Is it the source of the Nile, or the Niger, or the Mississippi, or a Northwest Passage around this continent, that we would find? Are these the problems which most concern mankind? Is Franklin the only man who is lost, that his wife should be so earnest to find him? Does Mr. Grinnell know where he himself is? Be rather the Mungo Park, the Lewis and Clark and Frobisher, of your own streams and oceans; explore your own higher latitudes — with shiploads of preserved meats to support you, if they be necessary; and pile the empty cans sky-high for a sign. Were preserved meats invented to preserve meat merely? Nay, be a Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within you, opening new channels, not of trade, but of thought. Every man is the lord of a realm beside which the earthly empire of the Czar is but a petty state, a hummock left by the ice. Yet some can be patriotic who have no self-respect, and sacrifice the greater to the less. They love the soil which makes their graves, but have no sympathy with the spirit which may still animate their clay. Patriotism is a maggot in their heads.What was the meaning of that South-Sea Exploring Expedition, with all its parade and expense, but an indirect recognition of the fact that there are continents and seas in the moral world to which every man is an isthmus or an inlet, yet unexplored by him, but that it is easier to sail many thousand miles through cold and storm and cannibals, in a government ship, with five hundred men and boys to assist one, than it is to explore the private sea, the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean of one's being alone.

"Erret, et extremos alter scrutetur Iberos.
Plus habet hic vitae, plus habet ille viæ."

Let them wander and scrutinize the outlandish Australians.
I have more of God, they more of the road.

佛陀開示：就在這個六呎之軀以內，包含了種種感官意念、種種念頭和想法的這個五蘊合和的身心，就是整個世間，是苦的世間；同時，它也包含了痛苦世間的起源和結束，以及通往痛苦結束的道路。

梭羅說，相較於我們內心的領土，國家的領土不過是蕞爾小國。所以為何要為小的犧牲大的？愛國心不過是腦袋裡的蛆。讓他們去戡察喜馬拉雅山與南極洲，我富於神，他們富於路。有人說巨蟹座的人無法關心自己以外的任何事物，那是因為其他人沒有能力發現自己更高的緯度，只好向外探求。由於欲望與貪婪，人類已經成功地征服地球上的一切，除了內心；人類該成就的都達到了，除了快樂以外。在將台灣建立成一個獨立的國家之前，在形成台灣民族主義之前，為何不先成為一個獨立的人，為何不先確實實踐內心的"民族主義"，確立自己思想的一致性，而非人云亦云？