If you establish happiness on something that is formed by the coming together of causal conditions, this implies that your happiness will be conditional. Once that thing your happiness depends on dissolves away with the scattering of those causes and conditions, then your happiness too will dissolve away. Happiness that is based on external things will not last, no matter what the external things are.
或许有的朋友会问，真正的快乐，到底有多快乐呢？它跟快感到底有什么不同？我无法把这觉受塞到你的心里，但我可以告诉你，假如你认知了真心，便会发现，凭借外境所得到的一切快乐，都无法跟你内心本有的“天堂”相媲美。因为，外界的一切总在不断改变着。
Maybe some friends will ask: “Ultimately, how much happiness is true happiness? How does true happiness ultimately differ from happy feelings?” There is no way for me to take this feeling and fill your mind with it, but I can tell you this: if you recognize true mind, then you will discover that all happiness you get by depending on external objects cannot compare to the inherent “heaven” of your inner mind. This is because everything in the external world is always continuously changing.
比如，你为了买新款手机而省吃俭用，但它迟早会坏掉，更何况，你也许马上又开始期待另一款更新的手机了；再比如，你希望通过买一辆宝马车来让客户对你刮目相看，但是当你买了宝马车的时候，却发现对方已不在乎你开什么牌子的车，他们又开始在乎其他的东西了。这时候，你又该怎么办？
For example, you scrimp and save in order to buy a new style cellphone, but it soon malfunctions, so what then? You may immediately start thinking of another even newer model cellphone. Take another example. You hope that by buying a BMW you will make your clients notice you more, but when you buy the BMW, you discover instead that people do not care what model car you drive, they have begun to care about other things. What should you do then?
如果你把快乐建立在因缘聚合之物上面，就意味着你的快乐是有条件的，一旦它依附之物随着因缘的离散而消亡，它也会随之消失。而且，这种快乐只是一种感觉，感觉是一种记忆，记忆是会被忘掉的东西。那么，通过外物来让自己变得快乐的这个希望，无疑是一个巨大的矛盾。在这种期待中，你将不断品尝失落的痛苦，即使拥有，也会感到患得患失，无法享受拥有的快乐。可见，建立在外物上面的快乐，是不会永恒的，不管这个外物是什么东西。明白了这一点之后，你再来看许多自己曾经非常在乎的东西，就会发现它们其实没什么意义，世界上的一切都没什么真正的意义，因为一切都不会永恒。拥有和失去，并没有本质上的区别，所以一切都不值得在意。但这并不意味着一个人应该啥都不管，随随便便地混日子，相反，明白缘起缘灭的自然规律，是为了让自己拥有一个更加积极的人生。
If you establish happiness on something that is formed by the coming together of causal conditions, this implies that your happiness will be conditional. Once that thing your happiness depends on dissolves away with the scattering of those causes and conditions, then your happiness too will dissolve away. Happiness that is based on external things will not last, no matter what the external things are. Then too, this kind of happiness is just a kind of feeling, and feeling is a kind of memory, and memories are things that will be lost. So then, this hope of making yourself become happy through external things is without a doubt a great contradiction. With this kind of expectation, you will constantly experience the pain of loss. Even if you get what you want, you will feel worries about gain and loss, and you will have no way to enjoy the happiness you have. Obviously then, happiness founded on external things is something that will not last, no matter what these external things are. After you clearly understand this point, when you re-examine the many things you have very much cared about, you will discover that in reality they had no meaning. Nothing in the world has any true meaning, because nothing will last forever. There is no fundamental distinction between having them and losing them, and so none of them are worth caring about. But this does not imply that a person must not be concerned about anything, and drift along at random. On the contrary, understanding the natural law of causal origination and causal extinction is to let you have a more positive, active life.
我举个简单例子，如果你知道自己的爱人患上了绝症，她的生命也许只剩下一个月，你就会像疼爱稀世珍宝般地疼爱她，并且珍惜和享受与她共同度过的每一分每一秒，你甚至觉得只要她还活着，你就已经非常幸福了。这个时候，你不会在乎她对你好不好，有没有做好每一个生活上的细节，能不能做到你心目中的一百分。同样的道理，只有当你意识到所有东西都在不断变化的时候，你才会放下诸多的计较，好好地活在当下。
I’ll give a simple example. If you know your beloved is suffering from a terminal illness, and she has just a month left to live, you will love her dearly, as you would love a rare treasure, and cherish and enjoy every minute and every second you spend with her. You feel that as long as she is still alive, you are already very fortunate. At a time like this, you will not care whether or not she treats you well, or whether or not she does every detail of life well, or whether or not she can be a hundred percent in your eyes. By the same principle, only when you recognize that all things are continuously changing, will you put aside all calculations, and live well in the present moment.
不过，这还是一种推理，推理是带着思维痕迹的。思维也是念头，是另外一种记忆。但真心不是逻辑，不是推理的结果，它是一种最本真的东西，是生命本具的智慧，它不是飘忽不定、瞬息万变的，它不随外境的变化而变化，它既无虚幻之生，也无虚幻之灭。但它同样不是空空荡荡、什么都没有的。什么都没有，死水一样的木然沉寂，那是顽空，不是真心。能生起妙用的才是真心。真心的妙用，就是觉醒于当下，明白于当下，觉悟于当下。也就是说，你时刻都要安住于真心，安住于空性，保持警觉，提起正念，不要让欲望左右你的心，也不要昏昏沉沉的，对啥都没任何反应。比如，知道自己口渴了就喝杯水，但不计较这水好不好喝，也不会纠结于自己为啥没买另一种饮料，这就是真心的妙用。我的写作是真心的妙用，我们为众生服务也是真心的妙用。真心的妙用是随缘的，没有任何固定的形式，可以遍及世间一切。你做任何事都清醒、自主，不被私欲所左右，这就是真心生起妙用。因为你明白，世上一切都是记忆，吃了什么、喝了什么、跟谁聊过什么、别人说了你什么等等一切，都是过去了的东西，你计较与不计较，都不能真正改变什么，也没有什么不会过去。当你真正明白了这个事实之后，就不会失落，更不会感到痛苦。你会发觉，随缘确实是一个好东西，假如能够真正随缘，这个世界上就不存在任何“问题”，只有“现象”，没有任何“痛苦”，只有“经历”和“营养”。
But this is still an inference, and inferences bear the marks of thinking. Thinking is thought: it is another kind of memory. But true mind is not logic, not the result of inference. It is the most inherently real thing, the wisdom fundamentally inherent in life. It is not elusive and erratic, changing a thousand times every instant. It does not change along with external objects: since it has no empty illusory birth, it has no empty illusory extinction. But in the same way, it is not vacuous and empty, with nothing there. When there is nothing there, when it’s dead and still, this is inert emptiness, not the true mind. Only that which can give rise to wondrous functioning is the true mind. The wondrous functioning of the true mind is being awake to the present moment, clearly understanding the present moment, being enlightened in the present moment. That also means every minute that you must abide in peace in the true mind, abide in peace in the empty inherent nature, maintain lucid awareness, uphold correct mindfulness. You must not let desires control your mind, and you must not sink into oblivion so you do not respond to anything. It is like knowing you are thirsty, so you drink a cup of water, but you do not calculate whether this water is good or not, and you don’t tie yourself up thinking about why you did not buy something else to drink – this is the wondrous functioning of the true mind. My writing is the wondrous functioning of the true mind, and when we serve sentient beings this too is the wondrous functioning of the true mind. The wondrous functioning of the true mind is something that adapts to circumstances, and has no set form, and can extend to everything in the world. If, whatever you are doing, you are pure and lucid, you are your own master, and you are not controlled by selfish desires, then this is the true mind giving rise to wondrous functioning. This is because you clearly understand that everything in the world is memory – whatever you eat, whatever you drink, whoever you chat with, whatever other people tell you – all these are things that have passed by. Whether you calculate and compare or not, you cannot really change anything, and there is nothing that does not pass by. After you clearly understand this fact, then you will not suffer loss, and you will not feel pain and suffering any more. You will discover that adapting to conditions is truly a good thing. If you can truly adapt to conditions, then no “issues” will exist in this world, and there will only be “apparent forms;” there will not be any “pain and suffering,” only “experience” and “nourishment.”
可惜我们总是被世界的假象所迷惑。迷了的我们，会觉得自己遇上了过不去的关卡，觉得人生无法继续下去，看不到希望，身心皆疲。有时候，内心还会有另外一种声音趁机对我们说道：人为什么要活着呢？活着太累了，不如去死。死了，一切就都解决了，再也不用担心自己会被人瞧不起，再也不用担心饭碗不保，再也不用担心我爱的人抛弃我，再也不用担心一切的一切……所以有一天股票大跌，有人万念俱灰，就跳楼自杀了。谁知道他才落地，股票又开始反弹。他想象中的倾家荡产、妻离子散、露宿街头、食不果腹等“定数”，原来都会发生变化，只是他的猜想害了他。世界就是这样。巨大的灾难还是人的妄心造成的。
It’s too bad that we are always being deluded by the world’s false appearances. When we are deluded, we will feel that we have encountered a barrier we cannot cross, we will feel that there is no way from life to continue, we will see no hope, and our bodies and minds will be exhausted with fatigue. Sometimes our inner minds will still have another voice that takes advantage of the moment to speak to us and say: Why do you want to go on living? Living is too tiring – it would be better to die. When you are dead, everything will be resolved. You will no longer have to worry that people look down on you, you will no longer have to worry about having enough food, you will no longer have to worry that the people you love will abandon you, you will no longer have to worry about anything. … So one day the stock market crashes and there is someone whose hopes are dashed and he jumps off a building and commits suicide. Who knew that as soon as he hit the ground, the stock market would bounce back? In his imagination, his family went bankrupt and his wife and children left, and he was out on the street without enough to eat, and other disasters struck. Actually, everything will be changing, and it was just his guesses that harmedhim. This is the way the world is. Gigantic disasters are created by people’s false minds.
当你有足够的清醒和理智，能够跳出许多现象来客观评价自己的处境，就会发现，一切都充满了不确定性。这意味着，你当然要承担自己的选择与行为所产生的后果，但这后果未必像你想象中那样不能承受，因为世界是无常的，充满了各种变数。对于前面的那个可怜人而言，他的死亡是一种变数，股票的回升是一种变数，恐惧情绪的消散也是一种变数。再者，如果他能安住于真心，不受欲望的左右，清醒评价自己的承受能力，再进行投资，那么他就不会做出难以挽回的选择，更不会在投资失败之后放弃生命。甚至如果他能安住于真心，可能就会把投资的钱用在发展公益事业或帮助他人上面，这也很好。这又是另一种变数。心变则世界变，命由心造，可惜他偏偏选择了死亡。所以，人的可悲之处，不在于遇到了什么事情，而在于用一种错误的态度面对人生。
When you have enough lucid awareness and knowledge of the truth, you will be able to leap out of the external circumstances where so many apparent forms objectify and evaluate you, and then you will discover that they are all filled with uncertainty. This implies that you certainly must take responsibility for the results produced by your own choices and actions. But these results are not necessarily as impossible to accept as you imagined, because the world is impermanent, and filled with all sorts of variables. As for that pitiful man before [who committed suicide when the stock market crashed], his death was a kind of variable, and stock prices rising again was a variable, and the dissolving away of the emotion of fear was also a variable. Furthermore, if he could have abided in peace in the true mind, and not been under the control of his desires, and he had lucidly evaluated this own ability to accept the situation, and had gone ahead and invested, then he would not have made this irrevocable choice, and he would not have thrown away his life after his investment was lost. If he had been able to abide in peace in the true mind, it is even possible that he would have taken the money he invested and used it to develop enterprises that served the public good or helped other people – this too would have been very good. This too is another variable. When the mind changes, the world changes, and one’s life is created by one’s mind. It is a pity that he deliberately chose death. This is why what is lamentable for people is not a matter of the things they encounter, but that they use a mistaken attitude to face human life.
当我们不能选择自己的命运时，其实还可以选择我们面对人生的态度。正如我的小说《大漠祭》中老顺常说的那句话，“老天能给，老子就能受”。老天能给，是天的能耐；老子能受，是人的尊严。
While we are unable to choose our own fate, in fact we are still able to choose our attitude toward life. It is just like what Laoshun always says in my novel Desert Ceremonies: “What old heaven can give, heaven’s children can accept.” What old heaven can give is heaven’s tolerance. What heaven’s children can accept, is human dignity.
有趣的是，当你以一种高贵的态度，坦然接受命运中的所有事情——包括那些大部分人都不愿意接受的事情——的时候，你就会发现，原来再大的事情，也不过是记忆而已，无论是事情本身，还是痛苦、失落的情绪，都终究会过去，它们都不会永恒。
The interesting thing is, when you have a noble attitude, and calmly accept everything in your fate, including those things that the great majority of people are unwilling to accept, then you will discover that actually the greatest thing is also no more than a memory. No matter whether it is the thing itself, or the feeling of pain and loss, they all ultimately pass away, and they cannot last forever.
