邁向聖寂之佛、禪法部落格

今天繼續推送《正念修習的譬喻系列》——蛇的尾巴。這是一個非常著名的比喻來自泰國的阿姜查禪師，很多人都知道。今天的我選用的這段描述，來自坦尼沙羅尊者的重寫，我做了翻譯。

為了能夠完整的表述這個比喻的含義，我把英文原文在附在下面。

文/坦尼沙羅尊者 《In Simple Terms》

We human beings don’t want suffering. We want nothing but pleasure. But actually, pleasure is nothing but subtlesuffering. Pain is blatant suffering. To put it in simple terms, suffering and pleasureare like a snake. Its head is suffering; its tail is pleasure. Its head contains poison.Its mouth contains poison. If you get near its head, it’ll bite you. If you catchhold of its tail it seems safe, but if you hold onto its tail without letting go, itcan turn around and bite you just the same. That’s because both the head of thesnake and the tail of the snake are on the same snake.

我們人類不想要痛苦，除了享樂我們什麼也不想要。事實上，享樂正是痛苦的微細形態，而痛苦本身是一種粗糙形態的苦。簡單來說，痛苦和享樂是同一條蛇：蛇的頭部是「痛苦」，而尾巴是「享樂」。蛇的頭部有毒，因為它嘴巴有毒牙，如果你靠近它的頭，蛇會咬你。如果你抓著它的尾巴，似乎是安全的，但是如果你緊抓它的尾巴而不放，蛇同樣可以轉過身來咬你。因為蛇頭和蛇尾都是同一條蛇。 

Both happiness and sadness come from thesame parents: craving and

delusion. That’s why there are times when you’rehappy but still restless and ill at ease—even when you’ve gotten things youlike, such as material gain, status, and praise. When you get these things you’rehappy, but your mind isn’t really at peace because there’s still the sneakingsuspicion that you’ll lose them. You’re afraid they’ll disappear. This fear is thecause that keeps you from being at peace. Sometimes you actually do lose these thingsand then you really suffer. This means that even though these things arepleasant, suffering lies fermenting in the pleasure. We’re simply not aware of it.

愉悅和悲傷來自於同一對父母：貪欲與愚痴。這就說明瞭為什麼有時候你得到了你想要的東西，例如財富、詮釋、讚美，但你仍然感到不安，因為你害怕會失去它們。那種擔憂使你無法真正平靜下來。有時候，你真的會失去這些，接著你真的會受苦。這意味著，即使現在這些東西是令人愉悅的，但是痛苦仍然潛藏在愉悅的背後。我們只是忽略沒有注意到它。

Just as when we catch hold of a snake: Even though we catch hold of its tail, ifwe keep holding on without letting go, it can turn around and bite us. So the head of the snake and the tail ofthe snake, evil and goodness: These form a circle that keeps turning around.That’s why pleasure and pain, good and bad are not the path.

如同抓住蛇的尾巴一樣，如果你不放手，它就會轉過身來咬你，所以，無論是蛇頭或蛇尾，壞的與好的，它們形成了一個不停變換的循環。這就是為什麼享樂和痛苦，好與壞並不是解脫之道。

文章來源：

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/X268pSMdunLcJnX5BV3ICA