With wisdom observing, you will live a serious, focused life, but without demanding results, and without demanding that a certain state remain forever. At this time, you can abide in peace in the inherent nature of phenomena, and go along according to circumstances, and remain calm no matter how you are treated.
生活在红尘俗世中的我们，不得不接触到各种各样的恶，尤其在现在这样一个信息畅通的时代。所以，为了不要受到恶的熏染，我们必须给自己营造一个善的环境，或者寻找一位导你向善的老师，或者结交一些向善的朋友，或者经常阅读一些承载大善精神的好书，或者经常做一些力所能及的善事，或者以佛家修行的形式，让善的信息不断熏染自己的心。
We who live in the mundane world of the red dusts inevitably come in contact with various kinds of evils, especially in this contemporary era of unlimited access to information. Therefore, in order that we not be subjected to the defilements of evil, we must build for ourselves a good environment. You must find a teacher who leads you toward the good, or form relationships with friends who are going toward the good, or always be reading good books which convey the spirit of great good, or always be doing the good things that are in your power to do, or use the forms of Buddhist practice,and thus let good information continuously influence your mind.
人的心灵像是一片田地，不种庄稼就会长出野草。如果你不用豁达、利众的真理来熏染自己的心灵，它就会被消极、负面的信息填满。如果你想要活得快乐、坦然，就应该选择一些适当的内容，选择一些好的方法，将真理与爱种进你的心田。同样的道理，假如你厌恶某些社会现象，就先让自己变得与它不一样，然后用你所有的言行举止来传达善。当这个社会里善的声音超过了恶的声音之时，就会形成一种善的集体无意识，这个世界就会改变。所以说，世界的改变，源于每一个愿意改变自己的你。
The human mind and spirit is like a field. If we do not plant crops, then weeds will grow there. If you do not use the true principles of generosity and bringing benefits to living beings to influence your own mind and spirit, they will get filled with passive, negative information. If you want to live happily and calmly, then you must choose appropriate content, choose some good methods, and plant truth and love in the field of your mind. By the same principle, if you are disgusted by certain phenomena in society, then the first thing to do is let yourself change so that you are not the same way. Then use all you say and do to transmit the great good. When the voices of good in this society surpass the voices of evil, then they will form a kind of good collective unconscious, and then this world will change. Thus it is said that changing the world starts with every one of you who is willing to change yourself.
我的小说《西夏的苍狼》中有一个西部歌手，他曾经杀了无数的狗，后来在某个月夜里，他被一只母狗的哭声感动了，他突然明白狗也是生命，狗也有母亲和孩子，它们的母亲也会为了它们的死亡而痛苦不堪。他不知道母爱是什么，因为母亲因生他而去世了。但他觉得，当自己痛苦、受伤甚至死亡的时候，母亲也会像那只母狗一样，为他这样撕心裂肺地痛哭。所以，在那个瞬间，他那颗充满愤恨的心突然软到了极致，哀伤充盈了他的心灵，他生起了真诚的悔改之心。于是，他不断念诵承载大爱与大善精神的经文，无数次清洗自己内心的污垢，终于变成了一个心里充满爱的人。
In my novel The Grey Wolf of the Western Xia, there is a singer from the northwest of China, and he has killed countless dogs. Later, on a certain moonlit night, he is moved by the crying of a mother dog, and he suddenly understands that dogs too are living beings, and dogs too have mothers and children, and their mothers also feel unbearable pain when they die. He had not known what a mother’s love is, because his mother had died giving birth to him. But he realized that when he felt pain or was wounded and died, his mother would have been like that mother wolf, and she would have given this kind of grief-stricken cry for him. Thus, at that instant, that mind of his which had been filled with hatred suddenly melted, and the grief filled his mind and spirit, and he generated a mind of genuine sincere repentance. From then on, he constantly recited sutras bearing the spirit of great love and great good, and washed away the defilements in his own inner mind countless times, until he finally changed into a man whose mind was filled with love.
其实，爱是每个人天性中的需要，也是人心本具的东西。我们之所以有时会忽略了它，是因为我们被欲望和妄念所迷惑，不能认知真心。当我们以适当的方法调心，让自己变得越来越宁静时，我们就会看到自己内心原本具足的爱与智慧，体会到与诸佛菩萨无异的慈悲，这便是真心的妙用，也是真正的空乐，它是遍及整个虚空法界的。它就是我们常说的“无缘大慈，同体大悲”。想要真正理解到这一点，你必须拥有一种正念。而拥有正念的前提，就是开悟，明白真心，见到实相光明。
In reality, love is required in every person’s nature, and it is something inherent in the human mind. The reason we sometimes neglect it is because we have become deluded by desires and false thoughts, and we cannot recognize the true mind. When we attune our minds using the appropriate methods, and let ourselves become more and more tranquil, we will then see the love and wisdom that our own inner minds are inherently equipped with, and experience compassion no different from all the buddhas and bodhisattvas. This is the wondrous functioning of the true mind, and it is also the genuine bliss of emptiness. It encompasses the whole realm of emptiness. It is what we often speak of as “unconditional great compassion, the great mercy of sharing the same essence with all beings.” If you want to genuinely understand this point, you must have a kind of correct mindfulness. And the prerequisite for having this correct mindfulness is becoming enlightened, understanding the true mind, and seeing the light of reality.
什么是真心？什么是妄心？我常说，妄心就是假想浮动之心，真心是澄然空寂之心。妄心者，情绪波动，杂念纷飞也。真心者，本来清净心也。
What is the true mind? What is the false mind? I always say that the false mind is the mind with false thought floating around, and the true mind is the mind that is empty and still clear through. With the false mind, emotions move in waves, and miscellaneous thoughts are flying around all over. The true mind is the mind that is fundamentally pure and clean.
真心无波无纹，本来清净，如虚空，如明镜，朗照万物，而如如不动时，还有那份警觉存在。空性为体，警觉为用。空性无变易，警觉随缘现。这便是正念。当你心如虚空湛然空寂时，当你心如明镜朗照万物时，你必须提起正念，你必须守住觉性。你可以试着去聆听远处的一声鸟鸣。当然，你的目的不是听那鸟鸣，而是为了生起一份警觉。
When the true mind has no waves and no ripples, and is fundamentally pure and clear, like emptyspace; it is like a clear mirror that reflects the myriad things yet remains as it is without moving, and still has that awareness there. The empty inherent nature is its essence, and awareness is its function. The empty inherent nature is changeless, and the awareness appears according to conditions. This then is correct mindfulness. When you mind is clear and empty and still as empty space, when your mind is like a clear mirror reflecting the myriad things, you must maintain correct mindfulness, you must preserve the enlightened inherent nature. You can try to listen to a far-off birdsong. Of course, your purpose is not to hear that birdsong, but rather to generate a lucid awareness.
每个人明心的因缘不同。有一天，一个女孩在跳作明佛母舞时明白了真心。那时，她非常陶醉，达到物我两忘。那时，她就是作明佛母，作明佛母就是她。她的心中充满了快乐，心灵像天空一样明静自由。她的心中没有任何杂念，没有任何分别，既自由快乐，又高度宁静。这时，她便见到了自己的真心。
The causal conditions for illuminating mind are not the same for everyone. One day a girl understood true mind while she was doing the Kurukulla dance. [Kurukulla is the Enlightening Buddha Mother visualized in Vajrayana.] At that time she was very intoxicated, and reached the point where things and self were both forgotten. At that moment’ she was Kurukulla and the Kurukulla was her. Her mind was filled with happiness, and her mind and spirit were as bright and clear and free as the sky. In her mind there were no miscellaneous thoughts, and no arbitrary distinctions, so she was free and happy, and exalted and tranquil. At this time she saw her own true mind.
真心，也是“平常心是道”中的“平常心”。它是我们原本具足的一点灵光，湛然空寂，明明朗朗，如虚空般遍及一切，如明镜般映照一切。当这点灵光照亮我们的生命之时，我们便安住在一种宽坦任运当中，任自然地做人，从真心地行事，无机心也无计较，无所谓执著也无所谓舍弃，不把任何事情放在心上，却又能专注用心地做好任何事。这就是我常说的“以出世之心，做入世之事”。平常心，便是那出世之心。
The true mind is also “the ordinary mind” in the saying “the ordinary mind is the Path.” It is a spiritual light with which we are all inherently equipped: clear and empty and still, shining bright, extending everywhere like space, reflecting everything like a clear mirror. When this light illuminates our lives, we then abide in peace in a kind of expansive calm adaptability, letting nature take its course as we live, and doing things following the true mind, without scheming or calculating, without so-called clinging and without so-called letting go. We do not put anything in our minds, and yet we can still act with complete focus and do anything well. This is what I often speak of as “using the mind that transcends the world to do tasks in the world.” The “ordinary mind” is this mind that transcends the world.
假如暂时还找不到能够让你开悟的老师，你也可以不断观察生生灭灭的现象：露珠的蒸发；闪电的忽来忽去；友人爱侣眨眼间成了隔世的鬼；回忆不断变成黄沙里遁去的狗；楼兰的存在终将被沙漠所吞噬；马尔代夫的美丽也将成为一个昏黄的记忆……在不断的观察中，你会逐渐明白缘起性空的真理：不管你是否愿意，当旧因缘离散、新因缘聚合的时候，世界必然会发生改变。世界的变幻无常，会使你对一切都越来越感到淡然。金钱也罢，名利也罢，得失也罢，包括生命，你都不那么在乎了。不过，这种不在乎不是一种束手就擒，而是一种不强求、不执著的智慧。
If for the time being you still cannot find a teacher who can enable you to become enlightened, you can still continuously observe the apparent forms of birth and extinction: the dew drops evaporating; the flashes of lightning as they suddenly come and suddenly go; friends and loved ones who suddenly become ghosts worlds away; memories constantly changing into dogs fleeing into the desert; ancient cities that end up swallowed by the sands; the beauty of the Maldives becoming a faded memory….With continuous observation, you will gradually understand the truth of the inherent emptiness of causal origination: no matter whether you want itto or not, when old causal conditions scatter, and new causal conditions come together, the world will inevitably change. The changing illusory impermanence of the world will make you feel more and more indifferent to everything. Whether toward money, or fame and fortune, or gain and loss, and even including life itself, you will no longer care that much. But this not caring does not mean giving up without trying, but rather the wisdom in which there is no frantic seeking and no clinging or attachment.
在这种智慧的观照下，你会认真专注地生活，但不强求结果，也不强求某一状态的永远留驻。这时候，你便可安住于法性当中，随缘任运，宠辱不惊。
With this wisdom observing, you will live a serious, focused life, but without demanding results, and without demanding that a certain state remain forever. At this time, you can abide in peace in the inherent nature of phenomena, and go along according to circumstances, and remain calm no matter how you are treated.
什么是法性？法性就是世界的真正面目，它不会随着因缘的生灭而改变，它就是真如、真心、实相。它是世间唯一的永恒。而所谓的以智慧改变生命，就是认知法性、保任法性，然后慢慢融入法性，当法性即是你、你即是法性的时候，你的生命状态也就自然改变了。
What is the inherent nature of phenomena? The inherent nature of phenomena is the true face of the world. It does not change according to the birth and extinction of causal conditions. It is true thusness, the true mind, the real characteristic. It is the only eternal thing in the world. What is called using wisdom to change your life is recognizing the inherent nature of phenomena, preserving your awareness of the inherent nature of phenomena, and then gradually merging with the inherent nature of phenomena. When the inherent nature of phenomena is you, and you are the inherent nature of phenomena, then the state of your life will spontaneously change.
