Freedom is not escape, it is not escaping from everything in the world that can create disturbances for the mind and spirit. Rather, it is letting a kind of wisdom that is inherent in life wake up, it is letting the light of this wisdom shine on your mind and spirit, and illuminate your life. Observing with this inherent wisdom, you will spontaneously cut all the ties that bind your mind and spirit, and conquer all kinds of habit energies and false thoughts that block your mind and spirit, and see through to the real characteristic of the causes of suffering.
世事如同放烟花，每次烟花腾空，总有人高呼着涌了去。这就是妄境。在妄境出现时，不要起善恶心。如果你因某些事而高兴或是苦恼，就是起了善恶心，这是因为你不能安住于空性，不能安住于真心。当你没有安住于真心时，一点点小事就可能让你的心情改变很多。比如，你刚才还很开心，但突然有人骂了你一句，于是你心里立刻充满了愤怒。你不明白，人家骂你，是一时的情绪，你的被骂，也只是一种记忆。要是你安住于真心，对什么都不在意的话，就没人能骂得了你，也没人能抢走你的快乐与宁静。
Worldly affairs are like fireworks. Every time fireworks are shot up into the sky, there are always people who give a loud shout. This is a false realm. When a false realm appears, we do not have to start using the mind that judges in terms of good and evil. If you are happy or sad when something happens, this is starting up with the mind of good and evil. This happens because you are unable to abide in peace in the empty inherent nature, and you are unable to abide in peace in the true mind. When you do not abide in peace in the true mind, minor things can make your mind and feelings change a lot. For example, you were just very happy, but suddenly someone rebukes you, and at this your mind immediately fills with anger. You do not understand that when someone else rebukes you, this is a temporary emotion, and your being rebuked is just a memory. If you abide in peace in the true mind, and you are not concerned with anything, then nobody can rebuke you, and nobody can take away your happiness and tranquility.
我常给朋友发一条我自己写的短信：永远觉醒清明于当下，触目随缘，快乐无忧。做事如彩笔描空，描时专注，描后放下。心中空中皆了无牵挂。这就是典型的任运宽坦。任运，就是顺其自然，自由自在；宽坦，就是心中一片坦然，没有任何担忧，也没有任何懊恼。如果一个人能够做到我短信中所说的那一点，他也就得到了真正的自由。
I often send friends a short note I have written myself: Always be clearly aware in the here and now; whatever you encounter, go along with circumstances; be happy and free from sorrow. Doing things is like painting space with colors: while you are painting, focus your attention, and after you have painted, let it go. In the mind and in emptiness, there are no cares or worries. This is the classic letting things take their course, and being relaxed and calm. Letting things take their course is going along with nature, being free and independent. Being relaxed and calm means that the mind is totally calm, without any anxieties, and without any vexations. If a person can thoroughly carry out the point I express in this short note, the person will achieve true freedom.
这种自由，说起来很容易，但做到的人并不多。为什么？因为，在无知的社会环境中长大的人，就像在狼群中长大的孩子一样，改不了一身的狼孩气。经过长期的熏染，错误的观念已像附肉之蛆一样，融入了我们的生命，异化了我们的价值观、人生观、世界观，甚至道德准则。所以，即使明白了一些道理，我们总还是会把世上的一切看得非常实在。尤其是我们总把身体看成一种实实在在的东西。眼睛看到的、耳朵听到的、鼻子闻到的、舌头尝到的、身体触摸到的、脑海里想到的，各种东西都在诱惑着我们，我们被各种执著所烦扰，离宁静与清明已经越来越远。所以，老子才在《道德经》中说：“为道日损，损之又损，以至于无为，无为而无不为。”这句话的意思是，要精进地清除心灵的污垢，直到破除所有的功利心，消解所有的欲望，达到一种无求，我们的真心才会展露出水晶般纯净的光芒。当我们安住于真心的时候，一举一动，起心动念，无不是真心的妙用。这时，我们才能做事而不执著，品味而不贪恋。无论做什么，都不会计较结果，更不会产生烦恼。
This kind of freedom is easy to talk about, but not many people can accomplish it. Why is this? It is because people who grow up in an ignorant social environment are like children who have grown up in a pack of wolves – they cannot change the wolf cub energy they have had their whole lives. Through long conditioning, mistaken viewpoints have already become like maggots on meat. They have merged into our lives, transformed our sense of values, our views on human life and the world, even our moral standards. Therefore, even if we understand some theoretical truth, we will always see everything in the world as very real. We especially see our bodies as things that really exist. What the eyes see, what the ears hear, what the nose smells, what the tongue tastes, what the body touches, what the brain thinks of – all of these things are deceiving us, and we are afflicted by all kinds of clinging and attachment, and we get farther and farther away from peaceful tranquility and clear illumination. This is why Lao Zi said in the Dao De Jing, The Book of the Path and Its Power: “For the sake of the Path, reduce this, and keep on reducing it and reducing it, in order to get to the point that there is no contrived action, and with no contrived action, nothing is left undone.” The meaning of this saying is that we must energetically clear away the filth from our minds and spirits, until we have removed all our ideas of material gain, and dissolved away all desires, and reached a state where there is no seeking: only then will our true mind send forth its crystalline pure clear light. When we abide in peace in the true mind, whatever we do, whatever we think, it is all the wondrous functioning of the true mind. Only then can we do things without clingingand being attached to them, only then can we taste without greedy longing. No matter what we do, it will always be without calculating the results, and no more will it produce afflictions.
可惜好多人不明白这一点。他们认假成真，看不透烦恼的真相，贪恋于世间各种享乐。他们不愿像修行人那样，过一种节制与清净的生活，他们觉得那种生活难免枯燥乏味。但他们不知道，这种生活当中，蕴含着一种质朴、简单的宁静之乐，这种宁静之乐也是一种诗意，是一种超脱于功利之外的陶醉。它的快乐，是俗乐不能与之相比的，也是世界上的一切都无法撼动的。所以说，虽然烦恼有好多种，但归根究底，产生烦恼的原因只有一个，那便是“不明白”。
Unfortunately, many people do not understand this point. They accept the false as true, and cannot see through to the true characteristic of affliction, and they are greedy for the various pleasures of the world. They are unwilling to be like the people who cultivate practice, to lead a regulated and pure life: they feel that such a life would inevitably be boring and insipid. But they do not know that this kind of life holds within it the bliss of a plain and simple tranquility. The bliss of this tranquility is also a poetic feeling, a kind of ecstasy that goes beyond material gain. The happiness of this cannot be compared with ordinary happiness, and it is something that nothing in the world can shake. Thus we say, although there are many kinds of affliction, when we get to the bottom of it all, there is just one basic cause that produces affliction: that is “not clearly understanding.”
人一旦不明白，就会犯下一些违背正理的错误，变得本末倒置。因此，《心经》中才说：“远离颠倒梦想，究竟涅槃。”什么叫颠倒梦想？一是不明白无常的真理，认假成真；二是贪恋世俗享乐，不明白欲望是痛苦的根源；三是不明白世上一切都是虚幻无常的，本质上没有任何区别，因此生起诸多的对立妄想；四是不明白“我”也是因缘聚合之物，没有自性，不会永恒。换句话说，所谓“颠倒梦想”，就是认假成真，执幻为实。
Once people do not clearly understand, then they will make mistakes by going against the correct principles, and invert the root and the branch. It was because of this that the Heart Sutra says: “Far removed from inverted dreamlike thinking is ultimate nirvana.” What does it mean by inverted dreamlike thinking? First, not to understand the true principle of impermanence, and to accept the false as the true. Second, to be greedy for worldly pleasure, and not understand that desire is the source of suffering. Third, not to understand that everything in the world is empty, illusory, and impermanent, and that there are no differences in basic substance, and because of this, to give rise to many dualistic false thoughts. Fourth, not to understand that the “self” is also something created by the coming together of causal conditions, and has no intrinsic nature, and will not last forever. In other words, what the sutra calls “inverted dreamlike thinking” is accepting the false as the true, and clinging to illusion as reality.
我常对学生们说：“没有大死，就没有大生；没有大痛，就没有大安。”这正是因为，人的一生中，充满了各种颠三倒四的见解。其中最可怕的，就是把本质为苦的俗乐，当成一种真正的快乐去享受。因为，当一个人觉得快乐的时候，是不会想去改变一些什么的。反而，当一个人遭遇了苦难，经受了他们不愿承受的挫折时，才会寻求改变，开始反思，才会有不同程度的成长。毁灭性打击，也就是我所说的“大死”，会让人彻底放下对世上一切的执著，认知真心，见到空性，获得一种真正的自由与解脱，从此生活得快乐无忧，所以它反而是一种“大生”。
I often say to students: “If you do not have the great death, then you will not have the great birth. If you do not have great pain, then you will not have great peace.” This is just because a person’s life is filled with various kinds of inverted confused views and interpretations. Among these what is the most to be feared is conventional happiness, whose basic substance is suffering, and to accept it as genuine happiness. This is because when a person feels happiness, the person will not want to change anything. Conversely, when a person encounters suffering and difficulty, and experiences setbacks that the person is unwilling to accept, then the person seeks to make changes, and begins to think and reflect: only then will there be different degrees of growth. When devastation attacks, then this is what I call “the great death,” and it will allow people to completely let go of all their clingings and attachments to everything in the world. It will let them recognize the true mind, and see empty inherent nature, and gain genuine freedom and liberation. From this point they will live happily and without worries, and so, contrary to how it might seem, this is a “great birth.”
但可悲的是，有的人即便遭受丧偶、绝症等毁灭性打击，也不能全然醒悟，反而选择了一种及时行乐的生活方式，比以往更加放纵自己的欲望，这无疑是在白白浪费着解脱的契机。
The sad part it, for some people, even when they meet with devastating blows, like the loss of their spouses, or a terminal illness, they still cannot completely awaken, and instead choose to live for the moment, and indulge their desires even more than they did before. Without a doubt they aretotally wasting their chance for liberation.
安宁、快乐、自在的真正敌人是欲望，不是外部世界。如果放不下心中的各种贪恋，即使躲到深山老林里闭关修炼，也免不了盘算与计较，所以才会有那么多的出家人，虽穿着僧衣，心里却仍然充满了贪婪与执著。而且，想要逃开世俗的一切，依靠山野的清净来找回宁静，这是一种消极，也是一种自私。唐东嘉波喇嘛就批评过许多躲在山洞里修炼不管百姓疾苦的修行人。
The true enemy of tranquility, of joy, of independence is desire; it is not the external world. If you cannot give up the various greedy cravings in your mind, then even if you escape far into the mountain forests and cultivate practice in seclusion, you still will not be able to avoid calculating and scheming. This is why there can be so many monastics who, although they wear monastic robes, have minds that are still full of greedy desires, clingings, and attachments. Moreover, to want to escape from everything in the mundane world and rely on the purity of the wilderness to recover your tranquility is a kind of passivity, and a kind of selfishness. Lama Thangtong Gyalpo [a Shangpa Kagyu master teacher, 1361 – 1485] criticized the many practitioners who escaped to the mountain valleys to cultivate practice and did not care about the hardships suffered by the common folk.
所以说，自由不是逃避，不是逃开世间一切能对心灵造成干扰的东西，而是让一种生命本具的智慧觉醒，让这种智慧的光明照亮你的心灵，照亮你的生命。在这种本有智慧的观照下，你自然会斩断心灵的所有束缚，战胜各种阻碍心灵自由的习气与妄念，洞悉苦因的真相。那么，就算品尝苦果，你心中也再无苦乐的分别。这样一来，烦恼就无从产生了。
Thus we say that freedom is not escape. It is not escaping from everything in the world that can create disturbances for the mind and spirit. Rather, it is letting this wisdom that is inherent in life wake up – it is letting the light of this wisdom shine on your mind and spirit, and illuminate your life. Observing with this inherent wisdom, you will spontaneously cut all the ties that bind your mind and spirit, and conquer all kinds of habit energies and false thoughts that block your mind and spirit, and see through to the real characteristic of the causes of suffering. Then, even if you taste the fruit of suffering, in your mind there will no longer be any distinction between suffering and happiness. If you are this way, then there is no way for affliction to be produced.
当你一天又一天地如法锻炼心灵，进入一种宁静的状态，并且时刻观察内心的一切变化时，你就会渐渐发现，真正的快乐与自在，确实是不需要任何外在条件的，它仅仅是心灵的一种状态。当你时刻保持着这种宁静、喜悦、清醒的状态，便会发觉，世间的一切都像流水般哗哗地流走，因缘聚了又散，散了又聚，包括你那些越来越少的妄念与情绪，也是虚幻无常的。
When you train your mind and spirit according to the Dharma day after day, and you enter into a state of tranquility, and you are constantly observing all the changes in your inner mind, then you will gradually discover that true happiness and independence really do not require any external conditions, they are just a state of the mind and spirit. When you constantly preserve this state of tranquility, happiness, and lucidity, then you will discover that everything in the world is flowing by like a burbling stream of water, because what comes together also scatters again, and what scatters also comes together again. This includes your false thoughts and emotions, which become fewer and fewer – they are also empty, illusory, and impermanent.
很多时候，在你凝神的那一刻，计较与在乎的念头便自然消失了，所以你也懒得再去计较什么，懒得再去在乎什么，懒得去强求什么已经改变了的东西，懒得去期待什么还没有发生的事情。你宁愿在拥有时珍惜，给它一个留存得更久的理由，得不到或失去了的时候，也就随它去。你不留恋也不期待，仅仅专注于当下、品味当下、做好当下，直到有一天你会发现，自己的心里连解脱与彼岸都没有了，但这世上却再也没有任何东西可以改变你的心。这时候你才彻底觉悟了。彻底的觉醒就是真正的自由。60 世界是心的倒影
Many times, in the instant that you concentrate, your calculations and the thoughts you care about spontaneously dissolve away, so you do not feel like going on calculating anything, and you do not feel like going on caring about anything, and you do not feel like going on seeking anything that is already changing, you do not feel like going on expecting anything that has not happened yet. You would rather value something while you have it, and give it a reason to last longer, and when you cannot get it or you lose it, then you let it go. You are not reluctant to part with things, and you do not expectantly await things. You just concentrate on the present moment, savor the present moment, do a good job in the present moment, until one day you discover that even liberation and reaching the other shore are no longer in your mind, but there is no longer anything in this world that can change your mind. At this time you finally experience thorough enlightenment. Thorough enlightenment is true freedom.
