In human life, we always must have a noble mind and spirit and attitude. We must be this way toward power, toward money, toward rank. While everyone in the world is scrambling after them, you must give them a slight smile. This is because what is called “independence” is not being trapped by thoughts and apparent forms, and you must not deliberately tie up and constrain your own mind.
有一天，我跟一个年轻的朋友谈到死亡的启示。我告诉他，我的弟弟二十七岁的时候就死去了，他的死带给我极大的震撼和感悟。至今，我在武威的家里仍藏有一个警枕，是个死人头骨，它一直提醒着我，死亡随时都可能降临。朋友听后谈到大前年的一些想法，他说那段时间他身体不好，就觉得健康的时候一定要以自己想要的方式生活。我问他，你想过什么样的生活？他说，就像现在这样，开着车在街上跑，时不时出去旅游几天。他还说，其实他对现在的生活已经比较满意了，但总是免不了感到痛苦，有时还会对未来感到莫名的恐惧，对别人的误解和伤害也会感到愤怒与伤心。我告诉他，他需要的是自由，但不是他现在的那种自由。他现在仅仅达到了一种身体上的自在，这种自在虽然也不错，但还是被动的，因为它需要物质保障。如果有一天，经济危机影响了他的公司，他的自在就会马上大打折扣。何况，既然他经常会感到恐惧、愤怒、伤心，就说明一定的物质基础并没有带给他心灵的自由。
One day I was talking with a young friend about the revelation of death. I told him that my younger brother had died when he was twenty-seven, and his death brought me a great shock and feeling of enlightenment. Even now, in the house in Wuwei [in Liangzhou] I still keep a headrest which is a dead man’s skull, and this always reminds me that death can arrive at any time. After hearing this, my friend talked about how he was thinking three years earlier: he said that at the time his physical health was not good, and he realized that when he was healthy he certainly would live in the way he wanted to live. I asked him, “What kind of life do you want to lead?” He said, “Just like now, driving along the roads, often taking trips for several days.” He also said that in fact he was already comparatively content with his present life, but he could never avoid feeling pain, and sometimes he would also feel some nameless dread for the future, and he would feel anger and sadness when other people misunderstood him and hurt him. I told him that what he needed was freedom, but not the kind of freedom he had now. Now he had only reached a kind of physical independence, and although this kind of independence is not bad, it is still something passive, because it requires material protection. If someday an economic crisis affected his company, his independence would immediately be greatly reduced. What’s more, since he often felt fear, anger, and sadness, this showed that having a certain material foundation had not brought him freedom of the mind and spirit.
现实生活中，许多朋友都想赚很多钱，因为他们觉得这样就可以生活得自由自在，但事实往往并非如此。因为，他们拥有的更多，看到的就更多，不想失去的也更多。他们拥有和憧憬的更多，就需要花费更多的精力去维持和追求，这样的心境之下，他们很难实现一种心灵的自由，有时连身体的自由都无法保障。
In real life, many friends all want to earn a lot of money, because they feel that this way they can achieve freedom and independence in life, but in fact it is often not like this. This is because the more they have, the more they see, and the more they do not want to lose it. The more they have and the more they long for, the more energy they must expend to maintain it and seek it. In this state of mind, it is very hard for them to realize freedom of the mind and spirit, and sometimes they have no way to preserve even the freedom of the body.
我的学生们有过许多这样的经历，比如，一个学生告诉我，为了给家人创造更好的生活环境，她不断努力着，把大量的时间都花在工作与应酬当中，从来没有耐心地听孩子说过话，也没有好好地给家人做过一顿饭。她的孩子从小就缺乏母爱与关怀，变得敏感而自卑，无法自如地跟别人交流。长大之后，她的个性当中就形成了难以修补的缺陷。现代社会中，这样的故事非常多。好多孩子，从很小的时候，就忙于上各种补习班，没时间玩游戏，没时间亲近大自然，小小的他们总是背着沉重的书包，一个人在街上徘徊。每次看见这种情景，我就觉得非常心酸。我不知道，是否有一天，社会上的父母们都能明白，孩子们最需要的并不是越来越好的物质条件，而是爱、关怀与正确的教导。而父母的诸多欲望，社会上不断异化的价值观和人生观，总在污染和伤害着孩子们水晶般纯净的心灵，无情地打碎了他们的梦想与向往。他们也会像父母一样，在社会的挤压中烦恼地生活，无法品尝一种真正的快乐与自由。
My students have had many experiences of this kind. For example, one student told me that in order to build a better living environment for her family, she was constantly making great efforts, and spent a great deal of her time working and socializing, and never listened patiently to the things her child said to her, and never prepared a meal for her family. From an early age, her child lacked motherly love and attention, and became hypersensitive and suffered from an inferiority complex, and could not interact comfortably with other people. After the child grew up, she developed defects in her personality that were hard to repair. In contemporary society there are many such stories. Many children, from the time they are very small, are kept busy going to supplementary classes, and have no time to play, and no time to commune with nature. Little as they are, they are all carrying heavy book bags, wandering the streets alone. Every time I see this situation, I feel very saddened. I don’t know whether or not one day all the parents in the society will be able to understand that what children need the most is not better and better material conditions, but rather love, attention, and correct guidance. But the many desires of the parents, the society’s ever-changing values and views of life, are always polluting and doing harm to the crystalline purity of the children’s minds and spirits, and pitilessly smashing their dreams and yearnings. They too will be like their parents, living harried lives within society’s pressures, with no way to taste true happiness and freedom.
其实，自由并不像好多人想象中的那么复杂，它非常质朴，非常简单，也非常纯净。而且，它跟物质是没有绝对关系的。陈亦新的妈妈说过一句非常好的话：“拣垃圾也能吃上饭的。”她的意思是，一个人要活下去并不难。只要一个人能活下去，他就有主动选择生活方式的权利。所以说，剥夺你的自由的，好多时候并不是命运，而是你那颗充满了欲望的心。举个例子，假如你觉得一定要有小车、楼房，一定要每年出国旅行一次才叫过得好，那么你就给自己套上了一个无形的枷锁，因为你要为得到这些物质而舍去好多东西，包括宝贵的生命时间，有时候还包括你的善良与道德底线。再者，命由心造，如果没有自由的心灵，又怎么能活出自由的命运？
In reality, freedom is not as complicated as many people imagine. It is very plain and simple, and very pure. Moreover, it is no absolutely linked to material things. My son Chen Yixin’s mother made an excellent statement: “Picking through the trash you can still manage to eat.” She meant that a person must keep on living and it is not difficult. As long as a person can keep on living, the person has the power to decide and choose his own manner of living. So we say that what takes away your freedom is often not fate, but your mind filled with desire. Let’s take an example. If you feel that, in order to say you are living well, you certainly must have a car and an apartment, and you must take an annual vacation abroad, then you have shackled yourself with invisible chains, because, to get these materials things you must give up many things, including the precious time you are alive, and sometimes what you give up will also include your standards for morality and virtue. What’s more, your life is created by your mind, and if you do not have a mind and spirit that are free, then how can you live a free life?
我活得非常自由，非常快乐，就是因为我舍去了好多东西。好多年前，在我还没有成功的时候，我曾经开过一个书店，那个书店能为我挣很多钱，但是它浪费了我大量的生命时间，所以我毫不犹豫地把它给关掉了。跟我一起做图书生意的人，现在有好多都成了千万富翁，但他们都羡慕我，因为我出了好几本书，更因为我留下了一些岁月毁不了的东西。如果我想要吃好的，穿好的，住好的，还想开小车，那么我就不得不去做一些毫无意义的事情。所以我常说，人的一生里，总该有一种高贵的心灵和姿态，对权力，对金钱，对地位，都应该这样。当满世界都趋之若鹜时，你应该对它淡淡一笑。只要你有了这样一颗不被欲望所缚的心灵，你就自然能活得自由自在。因为，所谓的“自在”，就是不为念头和现象所困，也不要刻意去束缚和压抑自己的心。
I live very freely and very happily, because I have given up many things. Many years ago, before I had become successful, I once opened a bookstore, and that bookstore could earn a lot of money for me, but it was wasting a lot of my life time, so without the least bit of hesitation, I closed it down. Many of the people who were in the book business with me have now become rich, but they all envy me, because I have produced many books, and even more because I have left behind things that time cannot destroy. If I had wanted to eat well, dress well, live well, drive a car, then I would have only been able to do meaningless things. That’s why I often say, in human life, we always must have a noble mind and spirit and attitude. We must be this way toward power, toward money, toward rank. While everyone in the world is scrambling after them, you must give them a slight smile. If you have this mind and spirit that are not bound by desires, then you will naturally be able to live freely and independently. This is because what is called “independence” is not being trapped by thoughts and apparent forms, and you must not deliberately tie up and constrain your own mind.
佛家所追求的解脱，便是一种绝对的自由，我们也称之为自在。它跟许多人理解的“自由”不太一样。人们通常认为，外界制约了自己的语言和行为，所以他们才感到不自由；但佛家认为，自由应该是完完全全的自主，是一种“纵横尽得”的境界。而且，佛家提倡的自主，是一种心灵的自主，是不被虚幻的现象所迷惑的清醒，是一种主动且坚定地做出选择的勇气，而不是一种盲目的固执，更不是一种不负责任的放纵。不过，人们心中的“自由”与佛家所说的“自由”之间，还是有相通之处的，那便是两者都强调要“摆脱束缚”。仅仅因为佛家对“束缚”的理解与社会共识不太一样，才造成了两者在解读“自由”时出现的许多分歧。人们总是认为，束缚是外部世界强加在自己身上的东西，所以他们习惯于要求外部世界发生改变；而佛家则认为，束缚是人们认假成真后生起的诸多执著，是自己施加给自己的东西。所以，真正的佛家行者向往且追求的，永远都是自心的改变，而不是外部世界的改变。在他们的眼中，真正的“摆脱束缚”，应该是放下一切执著。
The liberation that Buddhists seek is a kind of absolute freedom – we also call it independence. It is not like the “freedom” that many people understand in theory. People usually think that the external world constrains their own words and actions, so they feel they are not free. But Buddhists recognize that freedom must be total complete freedom, a realm of “total achievement in all directions.” What’s more, the freedom which Buddhists advocate is a freedom of the mind and spirit, a pure lucidity that is not deluded or confused by empty illusory apparent forms. It is the courage to make choices independently and firmly. It is not blind obstinate clinging, and not irresponsible indulgence. Nevertheless, there is an area where there is a correspondence between the “freedom” in people’s mind and the “freedom” which Buddhists speak of. This is that both emphasize that we must “get free from bondage.” But because there is a big difference between the Buddhist understanding of “bondage” and the common understanding of this term in society, this creates many divergences between how the two understand “freedom.” People all think that bondage is something the external world forces on them, and so they are accustomed to looking for the external world to change. But Buddhists think that bondage is the many clingings and attachments that arise from recognizing the false as real, and is something that people impose upon themselves. This is why what genuine Buddhist practitioners yearn for and seek is always a transformation of their own minds, and not a change in the external world. In their eyes, to genuinely “get free from bondage,” they must leave behind all clingings and attachments.
不同的观点催生了不同的选择，不同的选择催生了不同的追索之路，这本是非常正常的。我也常说，太阳有太阳的轨迹，行星有行星的轨迹，正是许许多多的不同，构成了世界的丰富。不过，这世上，到底有多少人能清醒地做出选择，又有多少人甘愿承担选择带来的一切后果呢？
Different points of view engender different choices, and different choices give rise to different routes of seeking. This is basically very normal. I often say, the sun has the sun’s trajectory, and a planet has a planet’s trajectory. It is precisely all the many differences that make up the abundance of the world. However, in this world, ultimately how many people can lucidly make choices, and how many people are willing to accept all the results their choices bring?
