禪學述原（二）

THIS IS A delicious evening, when the whole body is one sense, and imbibes delight through every pore. I go and come with a strange liberty in Nature, a part of herself. As I walk along the stony shore of the pond in my shirt-sleeves, though it is cool as well as cloudy and windy, and I see nothing special to attract me, all the elements are unusually congenial to me. The bullfrogs trump to usher in the night, and the note of the whip-poor-will is borne on the rippling wind from over the water. Sympathy with the fluttering alder and poplar leaves almost takes away my breath; yet, like the lake, my serenity is rippled but not ruffled. These small waves raised by the evening wind are as remote from storm as the smooth reflecting surface. Though it is now dark, the wind still blows and roars in the wood, the waves still dash, and some creatures lull the rest with their notes. The repose is never complete. The wildest animals do not repose, but seek their prey now; the fox, and skunk, and rabbit, now roam the fields and woods without fear. They are Nature's watchmen — links which connect the days of animated life.



三年多前我讀到這裡時寫了一篇<禪學述原>。之後我繼續研讀《清淨道論》，對於禪定的境界有較多的認識。南傳佛教對’定‘的分類雖有多種，但主要還是以四禪來分；初禪至少應具備五支（成分）：尋，伺，喜，樂，心一境性。（applied thought, sustained thought, happiness, bliss and unification of mind.）二禪無尋無伺，三禪離喜，四禪斷樂。也有將無尋唯伺的狀態視為二禪的，如此則成五禪。依梭羅此段的描述，已在二禪無尋唯伺的境界。

然而，這段文字令我重新感興趣的地方在於，梭羅提到，野生動物藉著低吟聲哄自己入睡。安眠卻永不完全。最野的動物並不安眠，而是在此刻尋找獵物。（..., and some creatures lull the rest with their notes. The repose is never complete. The wildest animals do not repose, but seek their prey now;...) 陳冠學的《田園之秋》也曾提到，公雞從不睡覺。過去我一直不懂睡眠為何是習定的障礙，因為我一直將禪定狀態視為佛教徒對睡眠或動物冬眠狀態的想像；譬如，慈祥的人總能睡得安穩，就好像將慈心當作業處修行的人一樣。實際上，南傳佛法所述禪定境界的差別以及種種說明，多是經驗之談，純粹的想像或理論並不多。

查拉圖斯特拉說了什麼？

It is not all books that are as dull as their readers. There are probably words addressed to our condition exactly, which, if we could really hear and understand, would be more salutary than the morning or the spring to our lives, and possibly put a new aspect on the face of things for us. How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book! The book exists for us, perchance, which will explain our miracles and reveal new ones. The at present unutterable things we may find somewhere uttered. These same questions that disturb and puzzle and confound us have in their turn occurred to all the wise men; not one has been omitted; and each has answered them, according to his ability, by his words and his life. Moreover, with wisdom we shall learn liberality. The solitary hired man on a farm in the outskirts of Concord, who has had his second birth and peculiar religious experience, and is driven as he believes into the silent gravity and exclusiveness by his faith, may think it is not true; but Zoroaster, thousands of years ago, travelled the same road and had the same experience; but he, being wise, knew it to be universal, and treated his neighbors accordingly, and is even said to have invented and established worship among men. Let him humbly commune with Zoroaster then, and through the liberalizing influence of all the worthies, with Jesus Christ himself, and let "our church" go by the board.


這段話提到了瑣羅亞斯德的宗教經驗。瑣羅亞斯德是西元前七世紀的人；遠古時代所謂的宗教經驗，也許就如被附身的乩童；但因為瑣羅亞斯德是一個祭司，再加上當時的社會動亂，所以能夠進行宗教改革。但即使如此，瑣羅亞斯德也因傳教受阻而離開家鄉，但因他深信自己的經驗，不因受排斥而孤立無援就氣餒，才能成功地完成宗教改革。這也就是梭羅此節所提到的 －－ 相信智慧能令人開明，不因立場不同而拒絕接受其他有價值的東西。

身處在台灣社會，即使已經相對開放，但仍有許許多多潛規則必須遵守；然而，當你經歷過不同的生活，而且你發覺自身的天性不適合那些潛規則時，你就會陷入孤絕的境地。對自己的啟悟信心不足的人，只有更為沉默；但相信智慧的宇宙性以及普遍性的人，則可以突破萬難，安然的生活，甚至讓其他具有同樣天性的人相信自己也能如此。

勞保年金制度

Such is the universal law, which no man can ever outwit, and with regard to the railroad even we may say it is as broad as it is long. To make a railroad round the world available to all mankind is equivalent to grading the whole surface of the planet. Men have an indistinct notion that if they keep up this activity of joint stocks and spades long enough all will at length ride somewhere, in next to no time, and for nothing; but though a crowd rushes to the depot, and the conductor shouts "All aboard!" when the smoke is blown away and the vapor condensed, it will be perceived that a few are riding, but the rest are run over — and it will be called, and will be, "A melancholy accident." No doubt they can ride at last who shall have earned their fare, that is, if they survive so long, but they will probably have lost their elasticity and desire to travel by that time. This spending of the best part of one's life earning money in order to enjoy a questionable liberty during the least valuable part of it reminds me of the Englishman who went to India to make a fortune first, in order that he might return to England and live the life of a poet. He should have gone up garret at once. "What!" exclaim a million Irishmen starting up from all the shanties in the land, "is not this railroad which we have built a good thing?" Yes, I answer, comparatively good, that is, you might have done worse; but I wish, as you are brothers of mine, that you could have spent your time better than digging in this dirt.


華爾騰湖的第一章，經濟，仔細一讀，處處都點出目前台灣的問題。梭羅說，人們總有一種不清楚的概念，以為只要大家有錢出錢，有力出力，接在一起，接得夠長，則最後人人都不用花多少錢，不用多少時間，要坐到哪就坐到哪。然而，等到高鐵站都蓋好了，才知道能夠乘坐的人畢竟只有少數。我們的保險制度不也是如此？大家努力繳保費，等到快要退休了，才發現每月可領的不足以讓自己活下去。現在好了，我們知道，鐵軌至少還可讓關廠老工人們拿來抗議。因此而無法準時搭到火車的乘客請不要生氣，此時正好讓自己靜下來想想，是否沒有火車高鐵的台灣會比現在幸福一點。

房屋無法遮蔽我們的過失，唯有戒水才能清淨有情的塵垢

We may imagine a time when, in the infancy of the human race, some enterprising mortal crept into a hollow in a rock for shelter. Every child begins the world again, to some extent, and loves to stay outdoors, even in wet and cold. It plays house, as well as horse, having an instinct for it. Who does not remember the interest with which, when young, he looked at shelving rocks, or any approach to a cave? It was the natural yearning of that portion, any portion of our most primitive ancestor which still survived in us. From the cave we have advanced to roofs of palm leaves, of bark and boughs, of linen woven and stretched, of grass and straw, of boards and shingles, of stones and tiles. At last, we know not what it is to live in the open air, and our lives are domestic in more senses than we think. From the hearth the field is a great distance. It would be well, perhaps, if we were to spend more of our days and nights without any obstruction between us and the celestial bodies, if the poet did not speak so much from under a roof, or the saint dwell there so long. Birds do not sing in caves, nor do doves cherish their innocence in dovecots. 

摩訶僧祇律第二卷記載著，一開始人之所以會蓋房子居住，是因為作了讓自己覺得慚愧的事，所以跑去藏起來不讓人看到；藏久了，才有了起造房子的念頭。現代人卻以擁有房子為人生奮鬥第一目標，有錢人則競相購買豪宅來顯示自己的身份地位。富人真的是應該覺得慚愧，所以必須買豪宅把自己藏起來。 「人類的進步一定要把吃肉的習慣拋掉，如同野蠻人和比較文明的人結交久了以後，逐漸把人吃人的習慣拋棄掉一樣。」梭羅如是說。總有一天，人類也會進步到自覺太過富有是一件羞恥的事；因為，只要你吃葷，就有人會為你殘忍的殺生；只要你過於富有，就有人因之挨餓受凍。

追憶逝水年華

Thus for sixteen days I saw from my window a hundred men at work like busy husbandmen, with teams and horses and apparently all the implements of farming, such a picture as we see on the first page of the almanac; and as often as I looked out I was reminded of the fable of the lark and the reapers, or the parable of the sower, and the like; and now they are all gone, and in thirty days more, probably, I shall look from the same window on the pure sea-green Walden water there, reflecting the clouds and the trees, and sending up its evaporations in solitude, and no traces will appear that a man has ever stood there. Perhaps I shall hear a solitary loon laugh as he dives and plumes himself, or shall see a lonely fisher in his boat, like a floating leaf, beholding his form reflected in the waves, where lately a hundred men securely labored. 

這段充滿詩意的文字立刻讓我想到了《徒然草》中第26段所引的一首和歌：

昔日幽期處牆腳傾廢，

唯見堇花叢生荒草間。

有不待風吹而自散落者，人心之花是也！

從人事的慣例看來，曾經互訴情愛的兩人往往會變成不同世界的人，這比死別更可悲。生長在都市的人，一切變化太快，幾年後回到舊的地方，連可回憶的景物都不見了，更何況是人呢！