上上个月就想花钱买那个特价99的学习英文的专栏的了，但一直没有时间和金钱。直都近几天才有了时间和金钱，学习英文的专栏才看了大约30分钟。其中说到学习英文的正确方法就是把英文当母语来学习，多看多听多用。今早我就实践了一下。

在公众号见到一个很有兴趣的文章，不长，有录音和视频，最总要是我感兴趣的。

Thanissaro Bhikkhu: Imagine

They have done studies of people who've mastered skills,

trying to figure out why some people are simply very good at a particular skill while other people really master it.

And they discovered that one of the most important factors is that for people who master the skill,

it's something that has captured their imagination.

They like to think about it.  They like to try different ways of practicing the skill, try different ways of using the skill, in unusual and unexpected ways.

And thinking about the various steps that are involved in the skill captures their imagination as they're interested.

And although we often don't think of imagination as being one of the factors involved in meditation—

In fact, we think that meditation is anti-imagination—actually that's not the case.

When you practice concentration,

what are you doing? You're creating a state in the mind。

The noble eightfold path as a whole is something that fabricated, something you put together.

It brings you into the present,

but when you get into the present you discover how much input your intentions have in each present moment.

The practice of the path is designed to make you more and more sensitive to that fact:

to see how you put things together, how you can put things together in a way that creates suffering,

or how you can get more skillful at it

So you can put things together in a way that creates less and less suffering until finally you reach a point

where the whole thing gets taken apart and there's no suffering left.

But to get to that last point you have to understand what you're doing.

You can't simply make up your mind that you're going to be totally uninvolved in the present moment and simply be an observer without participating,

because what happens is that your participation goes underground. You don't see it, but it's still there.

So, instead, you have to be very open about the fact

that you're shaping the present moment simply by choosing what you focus on. That's a decision right there:

The sensations you choose to focus on,

and the way you focus on them, are going to shape your experience of the present moment.

You're creating a state of becoming

—the Pali word here is bhava—

and although one of the things we're trying to learn to overcome is the process of becoming, we can't simply drop the process.

We have to understand it before we can let it go.

We have to understand it to the point of dispassion and then let go.

To do that we have to keep creating more and more and more of these states,

but we have to create a type of state that's  easy to analyze, easy to take apart—

that's  comfortable to stay with, which is why we practice concentration.

Someone once asked Ajaan Lee,

“When you're practicing concentration, aren't you creating these states of becoming in the mind?”

And Ajaan Lee said, “Yes, that's precisely what we're doing.”

He went on to say that you can't understand the process unless you keep doing it, until you can do it really well.

This is like having a hen that lays eggs.

You keep creating these little things.

And you get better and better, I don't know how much a hen gets better out of it. But he says, at the meantime, you get...

Some of you take apart to understand how an egg looks like , others of you eat, he says.

The other part is because it gives you something to take apart,

puts the mind in a position where it can take these present states apart.

So when you're conscious of that fact, look at the way you put the present moment together.

You have choices you know: different things you can focus on, different ways you can focus on them.

If you focus on the breath, you discover that there are many different ways of conceiving the breath:

your way of labeling the breath sensations,

the way you decide when an in-breath is long enough, when it's too long, when it's too short.

A lot of these decisions get put on automatic pilot, but as you're meditating you have a chance to examine them, and adjust them.

to see if there are more skillful ways of deciding how long a good long in-breath is,

How long a breath would be just right it would be.

The same with the out-breaths, the depth, the rhythm, the texture of the breath.

There's a lot to play with here, and the word “play” is important

because you've got to enjoy the process.

Otherwise there's no enthusiasm

for the meditation; you simply go through the motions

because it's time to meditate.

And when there's no joy in the process, that's difficult to stick with it.

The mind is going to lose interest, get bored and try to find something else to think about, something else to fill up the hour.

And what you end up doing is filling up the hour with other things that are not nearly as helpful.

For reason we're here, which is to see how the mind is creating unnecessary suffering for itself and to learn how to stop doing it.

One helpful way of

understanding the process is

to look at the ways it's analyzed imagination,

psychologists have looked the process of imagination, discovered that it involves four skills.

The first is being able to

generate an image in the mind—

simply gives rise to an image of one kind or another.

The second is to maintain the image.

Then once you can maintain it, it gives you the opportunity to inspect it, to look at it in its details,

to explore some of its ramifications.

And then the fourth ability is to alter the image,

making changes and then inspecting it again to see what happens as you alter it.

And although the psychologists who discovered these four, that come out these, constitute these four, is comprised of these four steps.

were doing with mental pictures in the mind, you'll discover that any kind of imaginary work

—whether it's writing, developing a skill,

—involves these four steps.

When you compare the four steps to concentration, you find that... the first thing is just to give rise to a nice pleasant state right here in the present moment. Can you do that?

So how do you give rise to that pleasant state? What do you have to do?

You can adjust the breath. You can adjust your focus.

Breathe in such a way that gives rise to a nice feeling in at least one part of the body.

Then the next step, once you've learned how to generate that state, is to maintain it, keep it going.

And you'll discover that you need mindfulness, alertness, steadiness to do that.

Sometimes you find it's like surfing: The wave changes beneath you, but you learn to keep your balance.

In other words, the needs of the body will change.

When you first sit down, the body may need a fairly heavy rate of breathing in order to feel comfortable, but then as it feels more comfortable, the body's needs will change.

And so you have to learn how to ride that change in the wave.

Adjust the rate of breathing so that it's just right for the body right now, right now, right now.

This makes you more and more sensitive to the fact that the body's needs change,

but you can learn how to

maintain a particular balance  as you get more and more sensitive in responding to those needs, in giving the body the kind of breathing it wants.

Of course, the body's not going to sit there saying, “I want this. I want that,”

but you get more and more sensitive to the areas seem to be starved of breath energy, and you can consciously breathe into them.

The third step is inspection.

You look at the state

you have in the body: Are there places where it's still uncomfortable,

places where it still feels tense, where it feels tight?

Well, you can change it. That's the fourth step.

The third and fourth steps play off each other in this way:

Once you change things, you inspect them again to see if the change has made any improvement or if it's made things worse.

If it's made things worse, you can try another change.

Keep inspecting, keep adjusting. In Pali this is called vicara, or evaluation.

And as things get more and more comfortable, you find that the range of comfort you've been able to create gets larger and larger.

You can breathe in with a sense that the breath energy in the body is connected in all its parts.

You breathe out and the energy feels connected; your awareness keeps filling the body, saturating the body.

After a while you get to a point where you really can't improve the breath any further. It's just right as it is.

When you reach the point of fullness, you stop making so many adjustments, so many changes. You can just be with the breathing.

From this point on it's more a question of how the mind relates to the breath,

whether it feels that it's separate from the breath and watching it, or whether it's more immersed in the breathing.

As it gets more immersed, the rate of breathing is going to change,

not so much because you made up your mind to change it, but simply because you've changed your relationship to the breath.

As you get more in the state of unification and ease.

all the way to the point where the breathing finally stops,

not because you've forced it to stop but because the mind has slowed down enough

to the point where it needs less and less and less oxygen.

The oxygen exchange at the skin is enough to keep the body going so that it doesn't have to keep pumping in, pumping out.

At first, there is a sense of kind of exchange going on,

Ajaan Lee compares this state to an ice cube with vapor coming off of it:

The body feels very still,

but around the edges there's a kind of effortless vapor that you feel with the in-and-out breathing. Then after a while even that stops and everything is perfectly still.

All of this comes from creating that spot in the body where it feels good to stay focused.

Then learning how to maintain it.

Then inspecting it to see where

you can expand it, where you can make it more stable.

And then adjusting it in various ways: using your imagination to

think at least of the possibility that the breath could be more comfortable, the breath could saturate the body.

You could think of all the cells of the body being bathed in the breath—

whatever way you have of

conceiving the breath that makes it more and more comfortable,

a better and better place to stay.

In this way the four aspects of imagination

apply to what you're doing right here,

even though you're not trying to create a mental picture. Sometimes there will be mental pictures behind it,

but you're more concerned with the actual sensation of the breath as you feel it coming in, as you feel it going out,

as you play with it,

as you create a sense of very intense wellbeing right here.

Even though it's something created, it's a good thing to create.

As the Buddha said, right concentration is the heart of the path.

The other factors are its requisites.

And for discernment to do its work of insight in the present moment.

You have to have a good solid basis,

you have to  create the basis through concentration.

So because it's a created state, you have to be creative about it, imaginative about it.

And you find that the more

your imagination opens up to the possibilities

the more possibilities your imagination opens up.

As long as you're frank about the process, that you're creating this state,

you don't have to worry about getting attached to it—

because deep down inside you know it's something you've created, and eventually you'll have to take it apart.

But in the mean time,

learn how to do it well.

The more solid the concentration,

the more you want to stay here. The more you stay here, the more familiar you get with the territory.

And it's through that familiarity that the practice of concentration turns into the practice of insight,

the kind of insight that can liberate you.

Without this stability and familiarity, your insights are simply ideas you've heard from Dhamma talks, read in books,

notions you've picked up from outside.

They don't seep deep into the mind because the mind hasn't softened up the territory  here in the present moment.

Only through the practice of concentration can the hardness in the present moment begin to soften up

and give the insights a chance to seep deeper and deeper.

So when you have this kind of understanding about what you're doing, you find it a lot easier to go about it.

And you begin to realize it's not a mechanical process. It's a creative process.

That way it can capture your imagination. When it captures your imagination, you get more interested in what you can do with the breath,

not just when you're sitting here with your eyes closed, but any time of the day.

How you deal with the breath, how you get centered in the breath can help you deal with anger.

It makes you more sensitive to what anger does to the body, and you can breathe through the anger

so that you don't

feel like they've taken over.

When there's fear, you can try using the breath to deal with fear.

Get in touch with the physical side of the fear and breathe right through it.

how it can deal with illness, how it can help deal with pain. There's a lot to explore here.

And as the possibilities of the breath capture your imagination,

you find that this skill is useful, not only when you're trying to sit with your eyes closed,  but very basic skill for dealing with present experience, wherever the present may be, wherever you may be in the present.

Whatever the context, whatever the situation, you find that the breath has something to offer—

if you explore it.

And to explore it, you have to get a sense that it can capture your imagination.

It gives you that kind of challenge, along with the sense of reward that comes when you've explored something and discovered something new, a valuable skill.

This is how meditation can start permeating your whole life.

When it permeates your whole life,

when you're more and more familiar with it, that's when the insights arise:

unexpected insights many times,

but valuable nonetheless.

看完第一次全英的感觉是能看多少就多少，不执着不恐惧。回想我们小时候看中文的方法，用猜的，之后就知道自己那些学会了那些还不会。对于不会的那些，小时候我们找妈妈找老师，现在我们可以找百度找词典，现在比以前方便得太多了。有道词典现在可以装在手机上，电脑上，IPAD上， 而且还能翻译句子，记录生词等等。

说到底就是当你想学习一样你觉得你应该要学习的东西时，你的学习能力是最强的效率效果是最好的。这样就可以很好地马上找到属于你自己的学习方式方法啦。特别说明一下，这个学习英文的方法不合适没有勇气地学习的人，现在没有一个人真正是对英文是零基础的，你只会26个字母就不是零基础的了。只要每天坚持学习5个生词，一年后就学会了1825个生词。二年就能把日常常常用的3000多个都学了，当然每天坚持学习5个生词，这五个生词是你有用的常用的你感兴趣的，要不我也坚持不下去。要学习一段才学下一段哦。这样会比较好。最后就是把英语和中文再看一次。

Thanissaro Bhikkhu: Imagine 想象

They have done studies of people who've mastered skills,

有人对技术高手做过研究，

trying to figure out why some people are simply very good at a particular skill while other people really master it.

试图了解为什么对于某种技能，

有些人只是擅长，另一些人却是真正地精通。

And they discovered that one of the most important factors is that for people who master the skill,

他们发现的规律之一是，

为了真正地精通某项技能，

it's something that has captured their imagination.

它必须捕获人们的想象力。

They like to think about it.  They like to try different ways of practicing the skill, try different ways of using the skill, in unusual and unexpected ways.

他们喜欢思考它。他们喜欢尝试不同方式练习，

喜欢以不同寻常、出乎意料的方式运用这种技能。

And thinking about the various steps that are involved in the skill captures their imagination as they're interested.

他们思考让人感兴趣，捕获人们想象力

所涉及的各种步骤

And although we often don't think of imagination as being one of the factors involved in meditation—

虽然我们往往不认为禅定涉及到想象力——

In fact, we think that meditation is anti-imagination—actually that's not the case.

甚至以为禅定是抵制想象的

——实际并非如此。

When you practice concentration,

what are you doing? You're creating a state in the mind.

当你修定时，你在做什么?

你在造作一种心态。

The noble eightfold path as a whole is something that fabricated, something you put together.

八圣道，总体上是一个造作起来的、

合成起来的东西。

It brings you into the present,

它把你带入当下。

but when you get into the present you discover how much input your intentions have in each present moment.

不过当你进入当下时，你发现，

自己对每个当下时刻，输入了多少的动机。

The practice of the path is designed to make you more and more sensitive to that fact:

圣道的修练过程，

就是为了使你对这件事越来越敏感：

to see how you put things together, how you can put things together in a way that creates suffering,

看见自己怎样合成、怎样以造苦的方式合成，

or how you can get more skillful at it

或者，怎样可以以更善巧的方式，

So you can put things together in a way that creates less and less suffering until finally you reach a point

来合成，造作越来越少的苦，直到

where the whole thing gets taken apart and there's no suffering left.

整个过程被拆散，不再有苦为止。

But to get to that last point you have to understand what you're doing.

不过，为了达到最后一步，

你必须懂得自己在做什么。

You can't simply make up your mind that you're going to be totally uninvolved in the present moment and simply be an observer without participating,

你不能单单决意不涉入当下、

不参与一切，只当观察者。

because what happens is that your participation goes underground. You don't see it, but it's still there.

因为那样一来的结果是，你的参与就转入了地下。

你看不见它，但它仍然在那里。

So, instead, you have to be very open about the fact

因此，你必须对这件事开放不讳：

that you're shaping the present moment simply by choosing what you focus on. That's a decision right there:

自己藉著对专注对象的选择，

正在影响[塑形]当下就在那里，那是一个决策：

The sensations you choose to focus on,

and the way you focus on them, are going to shape your experience of the present moment.

你选择专注的那些觉受、你的专注方式，

都将影响你对当下的体验。

You're creating a state of becoming

—the Pali word here is bhava—

你正在造作一种“有”的状态

——该词的巴利语是bhava。

and although one of the things we're trying to learn to overcome is the process of becoming, we can't simply drop the process.

尽管我们试图学会克服的事物之一

正是造“有”的过程，它却不可能被一扔了事。

We have to understand it before we can let it go.

我们必须理解它，才能够放得开它。

We have to understand it to the point of dispassion and then let go.

我们必须对它理解到无欲的程度，然后放开。

To do that we have to keep creating more and more and more of these states,

为此，我们必须连续地一造再造这些状态，

but we have to create a type of state that's  easy to analyze, easy to take apart—

不过制造出来的，必须是

可以易于分析、易于拆解的状态

that's  comfortable to stay with, which is why we practice concentration.

——也要能舒适安住，这就是我们修定的目的。

Someone once asked Ajaan Lee,

“When you're practicing concentration, aren't you creating these states of becoming in the mind?”

有人曾经问阿姜李：“当你修定时，

难道不是在心里制造‘有’的状态吗?”

And Ajaan Lee said, “Yes, that's precisely what we're doing.”

阿姜李回答说：“是的，正是如此。”

He went on to say that you can't understand the process unless you keep doing it, until you can do it really well.

接下来他说，除非你精通这个“有”的制造过程，

否则你是不可能真正做得好它。

This is like having a hen that lays eggs.

他说：“这就好比有一只下蛋的母鸡。

You keep creating these little things.

你一直生产这些小东西。

And you get better and better, I don't know how much a hen gets better out of it. But he says, at the meantime, you get...

你不断进步，我不知道母鸡通过下蛋，

能获得什么进步，他说，同时，你获得……

Some of you take apart to understand how an egg looks like , others of you eat, he says.

有些人敲开鸡蛋，去了解它的样子，

另外一些人，吃掉鸡蛋。他说。

The other part is because it gives you something to take apart,

另一个作用是给你提供拆解的材料，

puts the mind in a position where it can take these present states apart.

同时又把心放到一个能够拆解

这些当下状态的位置。

So when you're conscious of that fact, look at the way you put the present moment together.

因此，当你意识到这回事时，

就要看一看你合成当下的方式。

You have choices you know: different things you can focus on, different ways you can focus on them.

要知道，你是有选择的：你可以有

不同的专注对象、不同的专注方式。

If you focus on the breath, you discover that there are many different ways of conceiving the breath:

如果你专注气[观息]，你会发现，

构想和观察气的方式可以是多种多样的：

your way of labeling the breath sensations,

你自己对气感的标记方式;

the way you decide when an in-breath is long enough, when it's too long, when it's too short.

你如何决定某个入息何时算够长、

何时算太长、何时算太短。

A lot of these decisions get put on automatic pilot, but as you're meditating you have a chance to examine them, and adjust them.

这些决策，很多被放到自动驾驶仪上任意不究，

不过禅定中，你有机会对它们作检验、调整。

to see if there are more skillful ways of deciding how long a good long in-breath is,

看一看是否存在一些更善巧的办法，

来决定入息多长算是够长，

How long a breath would be just right it would be.

有什么迹象显示它正好够长。

The same with the out-breaths, the depth, the rhythm, the texture of the breath.

对出息的判断也是同样：长度、节奏、质感。

There's a lot to play with here, and the word “play” is important

这其中有许多可以摆弄［游戏，把玩］的余地，

“摆弄”[play]一词之所以重要，

because you've got to enjoy the process.

是因为你得以享受这个过程。

Otherwise there's no enthusiasm

for the meditation; you simply go through the motions

否则对禅定便无热衷：你做一遍动作，

because it's time to meditate.

只不过是因为禅定时间到了而已。

And when there's no joy in the process, that's difficult to stick with it.

当喜乐不存在时，坚持下去就难了。

The mind is going to lose interest, get bored and try to find something else to think about, something else to fill up the hour.

心将会失去兴趣，转为厌倦，试图找别的东西

来思考，找别的填料来充塞时间

And what you end up doing is filling up the hour with other things that are not nearly as helpful.

最终你用其他事情填补时间，

这是没有什么益处的。

For reason we're here, which is to see how the mind is creating unnecessary suffering for itself and to learn how to stop doing it.

我们在这里不只是为了投入时间，

我们在这里是为了看见，心是如何给它自己

制造不必要的苦，并且学会终止这种做法。

One helpful way of

understanding the process is

理解这个过程的一个有益办法是，

to look at the ways it's analyzed imagination,

看一看他们是如何分析想象力的。

psychologists have looked the process of imagination, discovered that it involves four skills.

心理学家研究想象的过程，

发现它包含著四种技能。

The first is being able to

generate an image in the mind—

首先，是能够在心里产生一个意象——

simply gives rise to an image of one kind or another.

想象出这种或那种形象。

The second is to maintain the image.

第二，是能够维持住那个意象。

Then once you can maintain it, it gives you the opportunity to inspect it, to look at it in its details,

一旦你能审视它，你就有机会研究它，

观察它的细节。

to explore some of its ramifications.

探索它的一些分枝。

And then the fourth ability is to alter the image,

第四，是能够对那个意象作出变动，

making changes and then inspecting it again to see what happens as you alter it.

作出改变，接著再审视它，

看看你变换它时会发生什么。

And although the psychologists who discovered these four, that come out these, constitute these four, is comprised of these four steps.

尽管发现这四种技能的心理学家

were doing with mental pictures in the mind, you'll discover that any kind of imaginary work

主要关心的是心造的图像，

你会发现，任何创意活动——

—whether it's writing, developing a skill,

写作、发展其他技能

—involves these four steps.

——都包含了同样这四步。

When you compare the four steps to concentration, you find that... the first thing is just to give rise to a nice pleasant state right here in the present moment. Can you do that?

当你用这四步对照禅定时，会发现，它也适用。

第一步是，在当下升起一种舒适愉悦的状态。

你能够做到吗?

So how do you give rise to that pleasant state? What do you have to do?

你怎么升起这种舒适的状态？你要怎么做？

You can adjust the breath. You can adjust your focus.

你可以调整呼吸[气]。你可以调整你的专注。

Breathe in such a way that gives rise to a nice feeling in at least one part of the body.

以一种能够在身体至少一部分

升起愉悦之受的方式呼吸。

Then the next step, once you've learned how to generate that state, is to maintain it, keep it going.

一旦你学会制造那个状态，下一步是

维持那个状态，使它继续下去。

And you'll discover that you need mindfulness, alertness, steadiness to do that.

你会发现，你需要念住、警觉、

平稳才能后做到。

Sometimes you find it's like surfing: The wave changes beneath you, but you learn to keep your balance.

有时侯，你发现这就像冲浪：身下的水波在变，

但你学会维持平衡。

In other words, the needs of the body will change.

换句话说，身体的需要会变。

When you first sit down, the body may need a fairly heavy rate of breathing in order to feel comfortable, but then as it feels more comfortable, the body's needs will change.

刚开始坐下时，身体也许需要比较深重的呼吸

才能感觉舒适，不过随著它舒适起来，

身体的需要会发生变化。

And so you have to learn how to ride that change in the wave.

因此你必须学会骑在波浪的形变之上。

Adjust the rate of breathing so that it's just right for the body right now, right now, right now.

调整呼吸的频率，使得它恰好符合

当下、当下、当下身体的需要。

This makes you more and more sensitive to the fact that the body's needs change,

它使你对身体的需要

会发生变化这件事越来越敏感，

but you can learn how to

maintain a particular balance  as you get more and more sensitive in responding to those needs, in giving the body the kind of breathing it wants.

不过，随著你越来越敏感地回应那些需要，

越来越敏感地给提供身体它需要的呼吸方式，

你可以学会维持某种特定的平衡。

Of course, the body's not going to sit there saying, “I want this. I want that,”

当然身体不会坐那里说：“我要这。我要那。”

but you get more and more sensitive to the areas seem to be starved of breath energy, and you can consciously breathe into them.

但是你可以对你身体那些缺乏气能的部位，

越来越敏感，你可以有意地把气输入那里。

The third step is inspection.

第三步是审视。

You look at the state

you have in the body: Are there places where it's still uncomfortable,

观察身内你所处的状态：哪些地方仍然不舒适、

places where it still feels tense, where it feels tight?

仍然有张力、有紧张感?

Well, you can change it. That's the fourth step.

那么你可以想办法改变呼吸［气］。

那就是第四步。

The third and fourth steps play off each other in this way:

第三和第四步是这样相互依赖的：

Once you change things, you inspect them again to see if the change has made any improvement or if it's made things worse.

一旦你作了变化，你再审视，看那个变化是

造成了良好的效果，还是使情形更糟。

If it's made things worse, you can try another change.

如果它使情形更糟，你可以再作改变。

Keep inspecting, keep adjusting. In Pali this is called vicara, or evaluation.

继续审视，继续调整。在巴利文中，

这叫做vicara，即，评估[伺]。

And as things get more and more comfortable, you find that the range of comfort you've been able to create gets larger and larger.

随著情形越来越舒适，你会发现，

你能给自己制造的舒适范围开始扩大。

You can breathe in with a sense that the breath energy in the body is connected in all its parts.

你的入息方式，可以使

身内的气能在各处相互连通。

You breathe out and the energy feels connected; your awareness keeps filling the body, saturating the body.

你的出息方式，可以使气能相互连通：

你的觉知连续地填满全身，饱和全身。

After a while you get to a point where you really can't improve the breath any further. It's just right as it is.

过了一阵，你达到了实在不能

再改良气的地步。它就是那样了。

When you reach the point of fullness, you stop making so many adjustments, so many changes. You can just be with the breathing.

当你达到充满的地步，就可以终止

作这么多调整、这么多变动了。

你可以只与气住在一起。

From this point on it's more a question of how the mind relates to the breath,

从这里开始，问题主要变成是：心与气如何相关，

whether it feels that it's separate from the breath and watching it, or whether it's more immersed in the breathing.

它是否觉得它是独立于气而在作观察，

还是沉浸在气中。

As it gets more immersed, the rate of breathing is going to change,

随著它越来越沉浸在气中，

呼吸的频率会发生变化，

not so much because you made up your mind to change it, but simply because you've changed your relationship to the breath.

主要不是因为你决意改变，

而只是因为你已经改变了你与气的关系。

As you get more in the state of unification and ease.

随著你越来越进入一种牢固的合一和安适感。

all the way to the point where the breathing finally stops,

气会越来越精细，以至于最后停止，

not because you've forced it to stop but because the mind has slowed down enough

不是因为你迫使它停止，

而是心已经减慢到足够程度，

to the point where it needs less and less and less oxygen.

使得它的需氧度越来越低。

The oxygen exchange at the skin is enough to keep the body going so that it doesn't have to keep pumping in, pumping out.

皮肤表面的氧气交换足以维持身体功能，

不需要继续把气泵进泵出。

At first, there is a sense of kind of exchange going on,

开始的时候，还有一种交换的感觉存在。

Ajaan Lee compares this state to an ice cube with vapor coming off of it:

阿姜李把这个状态比作一块冰，

水汽从上面蒸发出来：

The body feels very still,

身体感觉极其寂止，

but around the edges there's a kind of effortless vapor that you feel with the in-and-out breathing. Then after a while even that stops and everything is perfectly still.

不过在［身体］边缘，随著出入息，

你会感到一种不费力的蒸汽。

接著，再过一阵，连它也停了下来，

一切全部寂止。

All of this comes from creating that spot in the body where it feels good to stay focused.

这一切，都发源于在身内制造出

一个呆著有舒适感的地方。

Then learning how to maintain it.

然后学会维持它。

Then inspecting it to see where

you can expand it, where you can make it more stable.

接著审视它，看看在哪里你可以扩大它，

在哪里可以使它更稳定。

And then adjusting it in various ways: using your imagination to

然后，以种种方式调整它：运用你的想象力，

think at least of the possibility that the breath could be more comfortable, the breath could saturate the body.

至少思考一下气可以更舒适，

气可以饱和身体的可能性。

You could think of all the cells of the body being bathed in the breath—

你可以观想身内所有细胞浸浴在气中——

whatever way you have of

conceiving the breath that makes it more and more comfortable,

总之，任何气的构思方式，

只要能使它越来越舒适、

a better and better place to stay.

越来越变成一个好居处。

In this way the four aspects of imagination

正是以这种方式，想象力的四个侧面

apply to what you're doing right here,

适用于你正在这里做的事，

even though you're not trying to create a mental picture. Sometimes there will be mental pictures behind it,

尽管你不是在试图构造一个心的图像。

有时，它的背后会有一些心的图像，

but you're more concerned with the actual sensation of the breath as you feel it coming in, as you feel it going out,

不过你更关心的是气在进来时、出去时、

as you play with it,

你在摆弄它时、

as you create a sense of very intense wellbeing right here.

你在这里制造出一种高度的康乐感。

Even though it's something created, it's a good thing to create.

尽管它是制造出来的东西，

它却是制造出来的好东西，

As the Buddha said, right concentration is the heart of the path.

正如佛陀所说，正定是圣道的核心。

The other factors are its requisites.

其它的因子是它的配备。

And for discernment to do its work of insight in the present moment.

为了使明辨在当下作观，

You have to have a good solid basis,

you have to  create the basis through concentration.

你必须制造一个良好、牢固的基础。

你必须透过定，制造这个基础。

So because it's a created state, you have to be creative about it, imaginative about it.

因此，正因为它是造就的状态，

你必须有创意，有想象力。

And you find that the more

your imagination opens up to the possibilities

你会发现，你的想象力对现存的

诸种可能性越开明，

the more possibilities your imagination opens up.

它就越能够开启更多的新的可能性。

As long as you're frank about the process, that you're creating this state,

只要你坦然面对这个过程，

懂得你在制造这个状态，

you don't have to worry about getting attached to it—

你不必担忧自己会粘取它——

because deep down inside you know it's something you've created, and eventually you'll have to take it apart.

因为内心深处，你知道它是你制造出来的、

最终必须拆解开来的东西。

But in the mean time,

learn how to do it well.

不过，与此同时，你要学会善加制造。

The more solid the concentration,

定越牢固，

the more you want to stay here. The more you stay here, the more familiar you get with the territory.

你就越想住在这里。

你越住在这里，你会对地盘越熟悉。

And it's through that familiarity that the practice of concentration turns into the practice of insight,

正是透过那种熟悉，

定的修练转为观［洞见］的修练，

the kind of insight that can liberate you.

就是能够令你解脱的那种观。

Without this stability and familiarity, your insights are simply ideas you've heard from Dhamma talks, read in books,

没有这种稳定和熟悉，你的洞见只不过是

你从法义开示中听来的、从书里读来的想法，

notions you've picked up from outside.

从外面拾来的观念而已。

They don't seep deep into the mind because the mind hasn't softened up the territory  here in the present moment.

它们不会深透地渗入内心，

因为心尚未软化当下这里的地盘。

Only through the practice of concentration can the hardness in the present moment begin to soften up

只有透过定的修练，

当下的坚硬才能够开始软化，

and give the insights a chance to seep deeper and deeper.

给观赋予渗透得越来越深的机会。

So when you have this kind of understanding about what you're doing, you find it a lot easier to go about it.

因此，当你对自己正在做什么，

有了这等领悟时，你会发现做起来容易多了。

And you begin to realize it's not a mechanical process. It's a creative process.

你开始意识到，这不是一个机械的过程，

而是一个创意的过程。

That way it can capture your imagination. When it captures your imagination, you get more interested in what you can do with the breath,

那样，它就能捕获你的想象力。

当它捕获了你的想象力时，

你对练气，就会越来越有兴趣，

not just when you're sitting here with your eyes closed, but any time of the day.

不仅当你闭眼坐在这里时，

而且在一天当中的任何时候。

How you deal with the breath, how you get centered in the breath can help you deal with anger.

懂得如何操纵气，如何定在气中，

就可以帮助你对付嗔怒。

It makes you more sensitive to what anger does to the body, and you can breathe through the anger

你会更敏感于嗔怒的身体效应，

你可以令气贯穿嗔怒的身体诸症状，

so that you don't

feel like they've taken over.

而不觉得被它们占了上风。

When there's fear, you can try using the breath to deal with fear.

当恐惧存在时，你可以尝试用气对付它。

Get in touch with the physical side of the fear and breathe right through it.

你设法找到恐惧的身体效应，用气贯穿它。

how it can deal with illness, how it can help deal with pain. There's a lot to explore here.

你会注意到，气如何可以帮助你对付疾病、

对付痛感。这里可以探索的地方有很多了。

And as the possibilities of the breath capture your imagination,

随著气的种种可能性抓住了你的想象力，

you find that this skill is useful, not only when you're trying to sit with your eyes closed,  but very basic skill for dealing with present experience, wherever the present may be, wherever you may be in the present.

你会发现，这种技能，不仅在你闭眼入定时有用，

不管当下在哪，不管当下你在哪，都是有用的。

Whatever the context, whatever the situation, you find that the breath has something to offer—

无论背景是什么，无论处境是什么，

你会发现气都有可用之处——

if you explore it.

假如你探索它的用处。

And to explore it, you have to get a sense that it can capture your imagination.

为了探索它，你必须对它可以捕获

你的想象力这件事有所领悟。

It gives you that kind of challenge, along with the sense of reward that comes when you've explored something and discovered something new, a valuable skill.

它会给你那样一种挑战，同时，随著你的探索，

发现某种新东西、新技能，

它也会给你一种报偿感。

This is how meditation can start permeating your whole life.

这就是禅定如何可以渗透你的整个生活。

When it permeates your whole life,

当它渗透你的整个生活时，

when you're more and more familiar with it, that's when the insights arise:

当你对它越来越熟悉时，那就是洞见升起之时：

unexpected insights many times,

很多时候是意想不到的洞见，

but valuable nonetheless.

尽管如此，却十分珍贵。

音频与文本：www.dhammatalks.org中文译文:www.theravadacn.org根据音频，对中译略有调整。All of the content on this page is meant to be released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Unported License.本作品采用知识共享署名-非商业性使用4.0 国际许可协议进行许可。

英语出处：https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/dh8ES5vZLJMowpnW6G9t1Q 这有视频。

今天的分享到这，谢谢收看，20171120