從愛心出發

清海無上師以英文講於福爾摩沙屏東三地門 1992.12.21

問：我有一個純粹理論上的問題，十幾年來一直都想不通。我心裏了解其實沒有這個「我」，感覺和思想都不是真正的我，那到底是什麼東西在輪迴？是什麼在造業障及收業障？又是什麼在修功德及收功德？是這個頭腦嗎？

師父：是我們這個頭腦，以及執著這個頭腦 的靈魂，例如車子出了問題，而司機不跳出去，就會跟著車子一起出事了；如果他及時跳出去，如果他不那麼執著那輛車，不想去救那輛車，或許還可以保住生命， 有些人愛車勝過愛自己的生命。我們多數人就是有這種麻煩，愛這個收集垃圾的物質身體勝過愛自己的靈魂及真我。我們一直接觸外在的世界、眾人的思想、各種成 見以及許多沒有用的東西，而沒有和我們真正的主人、真正的自我聯繫，所以才有麻煩。

我再解釋清楚一點，你知道活著的是誰嗎？是靈識、真我藉由手、腳、眼、耳、口、感覺和頭腦這些知覺工具來生活。如果這個真我、這個靈識一直被感覺、思想和 資訊綁住，就無法從感覺、思想以及從社會環境收集來的成見和習性中解脫出來，當然這個真正的靈識、這個真我就必須再回來；如果這個真我能一直了解自己只是 所有感覺和思想的旁觀者，真我就絕不會被這些感覺和概念綁住，而會永遠自由自在。當往生時，會很清楚自己不是那些感覺、束縛、環境以及概念，然後就解脫 了，重回到那個完整的生命之河，而不會陷在思想、感覺、喜愛及憎恨的角落裏。所以我們必須再度喚醒自己的靈識，拉它回歸源頭，不斷的提醒它：「你不是這個 感覺，不是這個概念，不是這個，也不是那個，你什麼都不是。」

問：痛苦的情況也是一樣嗎？

師父：是的，是身體感覺到痛苦，是神經感 覺到痛苦，因為神經是用來感覺，然後靈識感受到這些感覺、認知外在的事物，否則我們怎麼知道呢？是靈識透過身體感受到痛苦，而靈識本身從不會痛苦。比方說 吃蘋果，甜的是蘋果，不是你的舌頭甜，也不是你自己甜，甜味不是你，是從蘋果來的，而你是那個享受甜味的人。同樣的，是我們的靈識享受快樂，知道痛苦，拒 絕不愉快的事物，但所有這些情況都不重要，享受也罷，拒絕也罷，愉快也好，不愉快也好，就是這樣而已，你本身並不是快樂和痛苦，這些只是情況而已。所以為 什麼會被綁在那裏？生生世世被綁住？那是因為人不滿足。我們必須知道這些東西都是無常，今天來，明天就走了，就是這樣，能享受就享受，遇到不愉快就忍受， 如此而已，該走的時候就走，失去了就失去了。否則如果我們這個靈識還繼續不斷地追求快樂，那就只好再輪迴；靈識會試著抓住殘餘的感覺，試著把自己再框進去 享受或忍受，一直執著那些酸、甜、苦、辣，追在它們後面。

如果有人給你一個蘋果，你吃了以後，哇！太喜歡那個味道，而你又沒有別個，所以就到處想再找一個，每天只想著：「蘋果、蘋果、蘋果！」什麼事也不能做，而 迷失了自己，迷失在蘋果的甜味裏。我們人生也是這樣，這個靈識追求快樂，討厭痛苦，然後困在那裏，無法從感覺中解脫，所以我們才被綁住，無法解脫。如果我 們時時刻刻，尤其是在死亡那一剎那，知道自己不是這些感覺，不在乎這些感覺，這些感覺已完全跟我們無關，那我們就自由了，其實我們一直都是自由的，從沒有 不自由過。（大眾鼓掌）

所以想哭就哭，想笑就笑，但要瞭解哭和笑都不是你自己，只是為了認知事物以及存在這世界而體驗它們，否則你不會存在，這世界也不會存在。我們說這世界充滿 痛苦，它不應該存在，但為什麼不應該？如果它不存在，我們也會很無聊，沒事可做，只是一直很快樂：「噢！我是這個，我是那個，（大眾笑）我是上帝。」如此 而已，「我是萬能的，我知道，我沒有痛苦，什麼都沒有，一直非常快樂。」那又怎樣？涅槃不涅槃又怎樣？如果你每天都快樂，那又怎樣？

但因為你現在仍想要涅槃，所以要努力，一直努力到不再想要，到厭煩為止，那時你就自由了（師父與大眾笑）。我要你們努力以得到涅槃，是因為要你們知道你們 不需要涅槃，但只要你們仍然覺得需要，就繼續努力。如果還需要假的塑膠奶嘴，就儘管含著，一直到有一天嘴含乾了，還喝不到牛奶或任何東西時，就會吐掉奶 嘴，然後了解到從一開始就不需要它，因為你本來就可以沒有它，本來就不需要它。

http://www.godsdirectcontact.org.tw/ch/news/117/sl2.htm  真我永遠自在

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The True 'I' Is Always
Free

Spoken by Supreme Master Ching Hai
Santimen, Pingtung, Formosa December 21, 1992
(Originally in English)

Q: I have one question, which is purely theoretical, but I've stuck with it for over ten years. I understood with the mind that we don't have an I; our feelings are not us and our thinking is not us and so on. So what is the thing that goes from one reincarnation to another, and what causes karma and collects it, and what causes merit and collects it? Is it our mind?

M: Our mind, and our soul that clings to that mind. For example, if the car goes wrong and the driver doesn't jump out of the car, then he gets done with, together with the car. If he jumps out in time, if he doesn't feel so attached to the car that he tries to save the car, then he might save his life. Some people love the car more than their life. That's the same trouble with most of us; we love our garbage collector more than our soul, more than our real Self. We are always in touch with the outside world, with the collecting of thoughts, with all kinds of preconceived ideas, with all kinds of nonsense, but we are not in touch with our real Lord, our real Self. So we have trouble.

I will try to explain more. In your life, do you understand who is living now? It's the awareness, the real 'I' that is living through the perceiving agents of the hands, the feet, the eyes, the ears, the mouth, the feelings, and the brain. That's it. And should 'I', this awareness, always get stuck with these feelings, with this thinking, with this information, then the 'I' cannot be free from the feelings, from the thinking, from the preconceived collective ideas of society, of the environment, of the habits. And of course, that true awareness, that true 'I' has to come back again. But should this true 'I' always understand that he, the true 'I', the true awareness, is only the witness of all these feelings, all this thinking, all these collective thoughts, then this 'I' never gets stuck with these feelings or ideas, and is always free. So when he dies, he knows absolutely that he is not these feelings, not these bindings, not these surroundings, not these ideas; then he is free. He marches back to the whole, to the whole river of life, and doesn't get stuck in that corner of so-called thinking, feeling, hate and love. So we have to awaken our awareness again, pull it back and keep reminding it all the time, "You are not this feeling, you are not this idea, you are not this, and you are not that." Understand? Nothing is you!

Q: Is it the same with pain?

M: Yes, because the body feels pain; the nerves feel pain because the nerves are made to feel things. The awareness enjoys these feelings and enjoys knowing outside things. Otherwise, how can we be aware? This is the awareness that experiences pain through the body, but the awareness itself never has pain! If you eat an apple, it's the apple that is sweet; it's not your tongue that is sweet. It's not you who are sweet! The sweetness is not you, it's from the apple; you are the one who enjoys the sweetness. Similarly, we ourselves, the awareness, enjoy the pleasure, know the pain and reject the unpleasant things. But all these things don't matter. You enjoy it or you reject it; you experience the unpleasant or the pleasant, but that's it. You are not the pleasant or unpleasant. These are only circumstances.

So why should you get stuck there, and be bound life after life? Because you are not satisfied. You have to know that these things are fleeting. Today it comes, tomorrow it goes. Okay, that's it. If I have enjoyed, I enjoy it. If I experience an unpleasant thing, then I endure it, and that's it. When I'm gone, I'm gone. When I don't have them, I don't have them. Otherwise if we, the awareness, keep chasing after pleasure, then we reincarnate. The awareness is trying to catch the last leftover feeling, so it tries to put itself into a frame again and enjoy it or suffer, always clinging to this sweet or bitter feeling, chasing after it.

If someone gives you an apple, and you eat it: Oh, you love it so much! But now you don't have another one, and you go everywhere searching for an apple; every day your mind says only, "Apple, apple, apple!" You cannot do anything else, and you lose yourself. You lose yourself in the sweetness of the apple. It's the same thing with our life: The awareness is chasing after the pleasant and hating the unpleasant, and we get stuck there. The awareness cannot free itself from these feelings; therefore, we are bound, we are not liberated. If we know that at every moment, and especially at the time of death, we are not this feeling, we don't care about this feeling, and we are done with all these feelings, then we are free. We are always free! We have never been unfree. (Audience applauds)

So, cry when you want to cry, and laugh when you want to laugh, but understand that the crying and laughing are not you. You just experience them, for the sake of knowing things, for the sake of existence. Otherwise you don't exist; otherwise the world doesn't exist. We say that the world is full of suffering and it shouldn't exist, but why shouldn't it exist? If it didn't exist, it would also be boring. There's nothing else to do, and you enjoy all the time: "Oh, I am this, I am that, (Audience laughs) I am God, that's it, I am Almighty, and I know it! I have no suffering, nothing. I am always blissful." So what? Don't bother about nirvana, so what? If you are happy every day, so what?

But because you still want nirvana, so work for it. Work until you don't want it any more, until you're fed up with it, and then you'll be free. (Master and audience laugh) I only want you to work for nirvana because I want you to know that you don't need nirvana. But as long as you need it, then work for it. If you still want the dummy, the plastic one, then just have it. But have it until your mouth is dry and you have no milk, nothing, and then one day you will throw it away. And realize that you didn't even need it in the beginning. Because you are always free of that, you don't need it.

The True 'I' Is Always Free