Between this thought and the next thought, there is a state where there are no thoughts, and if only you can catch it in time, and use your inherent nature or your awakened mind to observe it, then you will very easily merge into the state of true mind.
真心和妄心体性为一，不是截然分开的两个本体，正如平静的大海与波浪虽然外表看起来不太一样，但并不是两个相互独立的个体，两者的体性都是海水。无风不起浪，投石才成涟漪，体性不变，可又因为具体情况有差异而产生多种示现。
The essential nature of the true mind and the false mind is one. They are not divided into two fundamental essences. It is just like the ocean when it is flat and still, and the ocean when the waves arise – although seen from the outside they are not at all the same, it is not true that there are two entities independent of each other. The essential nature of both of them is the sea water. When there is no wind, no waves arise, and only when you throw a stone into the water do ripples form. The essential nature does not change, but because specific conditions differ, they produce many kinds of appearances.
当你抵挡不住这个世界的诱惑，心随念走时，心就起了变化，这就是妄心。波息浪住的时候，就是真心状态。每个人随时都可能出现真心状态，只是我们未必能够认知。比如，这个念头和下一个念头之间，有一个无念状态，只要你能及时捕捉到它，用你的自性或者觉心去观照它，你就很容易契入真心的状态。
When you cannot resist the delusive enticements of this world, and your mind follows your thoughts off, then your mind creates changes – this is the false mind. When the waves cease, this is the state of true mind. Everyone can manifest this state of true mind at times, but we might not necessarily be able to recognize it. For example, between this thought and the next thought, there is a state where there are no thoughts, and if only you can catch it in time, and use your inherent nature or your awakened mind to observe it, then you will very easily merge into the state of true mind.
《真心直说》中为我们提供了十种非常好的“真心息妄”之法：
Direct Explanations of the True Mindby theKorean Zen master Chinul(1158-1210)offers us ten very excellent methods of “the true mind stopping the false.”
第一种，觉察。观察的同时谨防妄念生起，一旦发现自己在胡思乱想，就要立刻斩断念头，不再想下去。比如，你正在写文章，却突然想起晚饭不知道吃什么好，这时你不能在这个问题上停留，而要立刻回到写文章的状态中去，专注地做好眼前的事情。对于那些时时诱惑你的念头，你一定要学会拒绝，千万不能跟着它走，因为你一旦放松警惕，它就会用许许多多的理由来迷惑你、诱惑你，让你对自己的决定产生怀疑和犹豫。
First, aware observation. At the same time you are observing, you guard against false thoughts arising. As soon as you discover that you are engaged in random thoughts, then you immediately cut the thoughts off, and do not keep thinking them. For example, say you are writing an article, but suddenly you begin to think of dinner, and you do not know what would be good to eat. At this moment you cannot linger over this question – rather you must immediately return to the state of writing the article, and with focused attention, do a good job at the task before you. You certainly must learn how to ward off those thoughts which are constantly enticing you, and above all, you cannot go off following along with them. This is because as soon as you relax your vigilance, these thoughts will use all kinds of reasons to come delude you, seduce you, and make you come to have doubts and waver in your own resolve.
第二种，休歇，也就是放下。让你的分别之心歇一歇，别用它来衡量眼前的人和事物，不去计较好与不好，该与不该，靠谱还是不靠谱。观察之后，你放下便是。比如，你看见一个美女，欣赏过便是，无需评论她的行为是否配得上她的美貌，也不用深究她哪里最美，更不要念念不忘，害上相思。
Second, stopping – this is letting go. Let your discriminating mind come to a stop, and do not use it to evaluate the people and things in front of you. Do not calculate what is good and not good, what you must do and what you must not do, what is reliable or not reliable. After you observe, you let it go – that’s it. For example, you see a beautiful woman, and after you appreciate her beauty, that’s it. You do not have to evaluate whether or not her actions match her beautiful appearance, and you do not ponder what is most beautiful about her, and you must not keep thinking about her and become lovesick.
第三种，泯心存境。妄念起时，便令其消灭，不管外面发生了什么事，但息自心即可。妄心要是熄灭了，外部环境也就无法再迷惑或者诱惑你。例如，你看见自己的女朋友在跟别的男人吃饭，心里十分不快，甚至有些愤怒。你担心会失去她，但这只是你的猜测，它只会伤害你自己。因此，你不妨不作任何猜测，看见就看见了，不作任何想象、牵挂和执著，便能不堕入妄念的火海。
Third, letting the mind vanish and letting the objects remain. When false thoughts arise, you let them be obliterated. No matter what is happening externally, you just stop your own mind. If the false mind is extinguished, there will be no way for the external world to keep on deluding you or seducing you. For example, you see your own girlfriend eating a meal with another man, and your mind is very unhappy, and you even feel hatred and anger. You are worried you will lose her, but this is just speculation on your part, and it only hurts you. Therefore, you might as well not do any speculating. Seeing is seeing, and if you do not do any imagining, worrying, or clinging, then you can manage not to fall into the fiery ocean of false thoughts.
第四种，泯境存心。你只要明白，所有事物都是海市蜃楼般的存在，早晚会变成记忆。这记忆也终将消失，也就不会去在乎它。
Fourth, letting the objects vanish and letting the mind remain. All you have to do is clearly understand that all things exist like mirages, and sooner or later become memories. These memories end up dissolving away too, and so you do not care about them.
第五种，泯心泯境。你不但明白所有事物都虚幻不实，还要明白自己的心念同样瞬息万变。今天所担忧的事情，有时正是你明天所期待之物；昨天所期待的东西，有可能变成后天所担忧之事。因为，你的情绪随时在变，你心中的世界也随时在变。那么，你何必把外境放在心上，又何必费心费神地对外境诸般思量呢？
Fifth, letting the mind vanish and letting the objects vanish. You not only understand that all things are empty and illusory and unreal, but you also must understand that your own mind is the same way, going through myriad changes every moment. The things that you are worrying about today are sometimes precisely those things which you will be looking forward to tomorrow. The things that you were looking forward to yesterday, may become the things you will be worrying about the day after tomorrow. This is because your emotions are changing all the time, and the world in your mind is changing all the time too. So why should you put external objects in your mind, and why should you spend so much mental energy thinking all kinds of thoughts about external things?
第六种，存境存心。不要被眼前的现象所迷惑，不因经历而生出喜恶等情绪。做到这一点，你也就实现了一种真正的自由。我在法兰西学院演讲时说过，外界允许我们做自己想做的事情，说自己想说的话，这不是真正的自由。因为它是被动的，它需要外界的配合，但这种配合又不是我们能够控制的。所以，期待这种自由，就等于承认自己是外部世界的奴隶，因此这种期待本身，就是一种巨大的不自由。只有当我们的世界与外部世界之间相互独立，对外界发生的一切都清清楚楚，但又不会被它影响的时候，我们才能实现真正的自由与自主。这便是存境存心。
Sixth, letting the objects remain and letting the mind remain. You must not be deceived by the apparent forms before your eyes, and you should not give rise to various emotions like joy and loathing based on your experiences. If you can manage this, then you will realize a genuine freedom. When I gave a lecture at the French Academy, I said that the external world lets us do what we want to do, and say what we want to say, but this is not true freedom. This is because it is passive; it requires cooperation from the external world, but this cooperation is not something we can control. Therefore, if we expect this kind of freedom, this is tantamount to acknowledging that we are slaves of the external world, and this is a great lack of freedom. It is only when our own world and the external world are independent of each other, and we are completely clear about everything that happens in the external world, but are not influenced by it, that we can finally realize true freedom and independence. This is letting the objects remain and letting the mind remain.
第七种，内外全体。世间万象皆不离真心。有一位德国哲学家叫马丁•布伯，他写了一本书叫《我与你》，里面阐述了实现不朽的两种可能：其一是让巨大的存在消解自我，其二是让自己的心灵变得足够博大，能够包容整个宇宙和大自然。试想，假如你的心量大到能够包容整个外部世界，外界与你就必定融为一体。既然本为一体，又怎么会存有一丝半点的对立？没有对立，自然没有分别；没有分别，自然没有了滋生妄想的土壤。当然，实现这种包容的前提，仍然是明白世界不过是梦幻泡影，本质为空。但它不是“空无一物”的空，而是真心般湛然空寂、具有无数种可能性的空。
Seventh, internal and external as the whole essence. The myriad forms of the world are not apart from the true mind. A German philosopher named Martin Buber wrote a book called I and Thou, and in it he expounded on two possibilities for realizing something enduring: the first is to let a greater existence dissolve away the self, and the second is to let your own mind and spirit change into something sufficiently vast to be able to encompass the whole universe and the natural world. Just think, if your mental capacity werebig enough to take in the whole external world, the external world and you would surely merge into one essence. Once you were fundamentally one essence, how could there still be any trace of dualism? If there is no dualism, then naturally there is no discrimination. If there is no discrimination, naturally there is no soil to nurture false thoughts. Of course, the prerequisite for realizing this inclusiveness is still to understand that the world is no more than a dream, an illusion, a bubble, and its fundamental substance is empty. But this is not the emptiness of “emptiness without a single thing.” Rather it is the clearempty stillness like the true mind, an emptiness that has countless possibilities.
第八种，内外全用。当你真能安住于真心时，所有外境与自己的心念就都成了真心生起的妙用。你不对它们做任何有意识的分析与评价，不用思维、经验、标准和概念去衡量它们，不用对立的概念来区分和归纳它们。就是说，走路时便走路，睡觉时便睡觉，吃饭时便吃饭，不要给这些自然而然的行为加上许多目的、方法和评价。例如，你不用计较自己走路的姿势是否优雅，睡觉会不会磨牙，饭量太大会不会让人笑话，你只管保持当下的轻松自在便可。
Eighth, internal and external as the whole function. When you can really abide in peace in the true mind, all external things, together with your own mind and thoughts, all become the wondrous function generated by the true mind. You do not do any conscious analysis or evaluation toward them; you do not evaluate them by using thoughts, or experiences, or standards, or concepts; you do not use dualistic concepts to distinguish among them or draw conclusions about them. This means that when you are walking, you are walking, and when you are waking up, you are waking up, and when you are eating food, you are eating food. You do not add all sorts of goals and methods and evaluations to these very natural behaviors. For example, you do not calculate if your manner of walking is elegant or not, or whether or not you grind your teeth when you sleep, or whether or not people will laugh at you for eating too much. All you have to do is to preserve your relaxed independence in the moment, and that will do.
第九种，即体即用。眼前万法，既是真心之体，又是真心之用。比如，人行道中间有个大坑于是你绕行，你闻到米饭变馊就晓得饭已坏掉，但它并非妄想，而是一种超越概念与意识的直感。这种清明的觉知，便是真心与无记、昏沉、发呆之间的区别。只要你每时每刻都保持清醒的觉知，同时又安住在空寂的状态之中，就既能享受“空”的轻松自在，遇事又能有敏捷的反应，这样一来，又何须对事对物多作猜测与联想？
Ninth, what is essence is function. Since the myriad phenomena before you are the essence of the true mind, they are also the function of the true mind. For example, when there is a big hole in the sidewalk, you go around it, and when you smell that the rice is off, then you know it has spoiled. But these are not false thoughts: rather, they are a direct perception that transcends concepts and consciousness. This kind of pure clear awareness is the difference between the true mind and being oblivious, being in a daze, being in a trance. You must preserve this pure lucid awareness at every moment, and at the same abide in peace in a state of empty stillness. When you can experience the ease and independence of “emptiness,” and you can also respond with agility to the things you may encounter, if you can go along like this, then what need is there to create so many speculations and concerns about things and events?
第十种，透出体用。你不用管什么是体什么是用，什么是真什么是妄，什么是外什么是内，什么是烦恼什么又是菩提，你尽管把一切概念与对立都统统放下，不思前也不想后，只管专注于当下，随缘任运，清明于当下。这样一来，你自然不会生起妄念。
Tenth, penetrating through essence and function. You do not concern yourself with what is essence and what is function, what is true and what is false, with that is external and what is internal, with what is affliction and what is enlightenment. You take all concepts and dualistic distinctions and completely abandon them. You do not think of before and after, all you do is focus on the present moment, and go along according to conditions, pure and clear in the present moment. When you go along like this, you naturally will not give rise to false thoughts.
这十种方法都是很好的入道之门，你只需选择最适合自己的一种，长期依法锻炼，就定能使心灵与生活发生巨大改变。可惜识货者不多，大部分人都以为真正的珍宝总是长着惊世骇俗的面孔与身姿，而且总被藏在一个神秘的远方，以致宝珠染尘，明镜蒙垢，实在可惜。
These ten methods are all very good ways of entering into the Path. You must choose the one that is most appropriate for you, and cultivate practice according to the method over a long period, and then you will assuredly be able to cause an enormous change in your mind and spirit, and in you life. Unfortunately, not many people recognize what is has real value. Most people think what is truly valuable is to develop a facade and a pose that shocks the world, and they are always hidden in an occult remoteness, so the jewel is stained with dust, and the clear mirror is covered with dirt – this is really regrettable.
