0:00

Okay, so in this segment we're going to talk a little about meditation. This is not a how to meditate course. And if it were I wouldn't be the most qualified to teach it by a long shot. But I did want to give both those of you have meditated and those of you who haven't, some sense for the varieties of meditation and meditative experience that are available, and in particular how they connect to themes in Buddhist thought and in this course. Now, if you've never meditated you may have the idea that meditation is this really hard thing, you've gotta master this technique and practice, practice, practice. And you know what? You may actually be right. I mean, different people are different. Some people it comes very easily to. Not to me. I actually meditated a number of times without feeling that it was sufficiently rewarding to sustain a practice. I finally went with kind of total immersion and went to a, a one week silent meditation retreat, and at that point meditation became kind of accessible to me, you might say. Even then it took a lot of work.

在这一小节，我们将要谈论冥修。这不是一个教你如何冥想的课程，如果是，长远来看我也不是最合适的教师。但是，我确实想让你们这些冥想过的和没有冥想过的人，了解一下不同类型的冥修，以及冥想经验。特别是，它们是如何与佛教思想以及本课程的主题相关联的。现在，如果你从来没有冥想过，你可能会认为，冥想是一件很难的事情。你必须通过练习、练习、再练习来掌握这个技术。而且你知道吗？你很可能是对的。我是指，不同的人是不同的。对一些人它很简单，但是对我来说不是。我实际冥想了相当多次，并没有深刻地感觉到回报足以让我持续练习下去。我最后去了一种完全浸泡式、一周的静默冥想闭关。从那开始，我才开始对冥想入门。即使是入门，也费了一番功夫。

1:07

But again, your, your mileage may vary. 但是，再说一遍，你的入门时间可能跟我不一样。

1:11

And moreover there are some things you can do, some kind of shortcuts you can try to take to at least get a sense for what mediation may have to offer. Now one of these came up in a conversation I recently had with Shinzen Young and I'll show you a little bit of that conversation. Shinzen Young is an example of one of these Western Buddhists I've talked about. In fact, he was kind of a pioneer in western Buddhism. I think it was more than 40 years ago that having left America he became ordained as a Buddhist monk in Japan, and then he came back, and became a teacher of meditation, and he, he's kind of got his own system of teaching meditation. He, he might not call himself in every respect an orthodox Buddhist. I don't know, but his, his, his teaching is very much grounded in a, in a Buddhist sensibility. So in this part of the conversation we start out talking about something that, that was alluded to, in lecture one. Which is how meditation can change your view of your feelings. >> When meditation works it gives you a skill set that allows you to experience physical and emotional discomfort with greater poignancy. But less problem. >> So by greater poignancy you almost mean you almost perceive it more acutely in a sense but it causes you less trouble. What, what do you mean by? >> It's exactly what I mean. >> Okay. >> That so, you, learn how to escape into discomfort.

此外，你可以做些事情。你可以尝试一些技巧，至少感受下冥想必须提供的东西。其中之一在我最近跟Shinzen Young的谈话中出现了，我会展示谈话的一小部分给你。Shinzen Young是那些我谈过话的西方佛教徒之一。实际上，他有点儿像西方佛教的先锋。我想他大概40多年前，离开了美国，在日本受戒成为和尚，然后回到美国，成为冥想老师。他有自己的一套教授冥想的体系。他可能不会称自己在各方面都是一个传统的佛教徒。我不知道，但是他的教学确实是基于一个佛教徒的感受。所以谈话的这部分，我们开始谈论那些在第一讲中暗示过的东西。就是冥想如何改变你对你感觉的观点。>> 当冥想起作用时，它给你一个技能包，让你能体验身体上的、感情上强烈的不适，但是问题更少。>> 所以“非常强烈”的意思是你在某种意义上你能更加精确的觉察到它，但是它会给你带来更少的麻烦。这是你的意思吗？>> 完全正确。>> 好的。>> 因此，你知道如何从痛苦中解脱出来。

2:58

There's two ways to deal with discomfort. Escape from it. If you can, great. [LAUGH] But what if you can't? Well, if you can't, it's good to have in your quiver of life arrows, so to speak the ability to escape into it. Then you sort of have your cake and eat it too. You experience the richness of being human. And part of that is uncomfortable. >> Mm-hm. >> But the sense of problem, the sense of suffering is diminished. >> Mm-hm. >> So now how that takes place, well that's a tleast an hour talk. >> It is. Although can I interrupt you, and, and, and just mention one little kind of exercise I've suggested to people as a shortcut to getting the, the idea that I think sometimes actually works. What I've said is, when you're feeling really sad. And these are people who haven't necessarily meditated at all. When you're just feeling sad, bor, on the border of depressed.

有两种方法可以对付痛苦。避开它，如果你可以，那很好。[大笑]但是如果你不能呢？如果你不能，那最好，在你生命之箭的箭筒里有，渗入到痛苦的能力。然后你就可以两者兼得了。你体验到作为人类的丰富性。这其中是有些痛苦的。>> 嗯—— >> 但是有问题的感觉，受苦的感觉消失了。>> 嗯—— >> 所以现在那是怎么发生的，这至少要花一个小时去说明。>> 是的。尽管，我能打断你吗，只是提到一点我自己的练习，我已经建议人们把那作为获得那个观念的捷径，我想有时候，它确实有用。我说的意思是，当你感觉非常悲伤时。有人并不一定是冥想（这个翻译不太确定），当你只是感到悲伤，在抑郁的边缘，

3:57

Sit down, close your eyes and just try to accept it. And just say, bring it on. What does, what does sadness feel like? Pay attention to it.

坐下来，闭上眼睛，只是试图接受它。只是带着它。悲伤是种什么感觉？关注它。

4:06

You know, ac-, just accept it. Just, just, just ask your, just close your eyes and examine the feeling of sadness. Get closer to it. And some of them do report, you know, although they haven't meditated that oddly they do sense some of the kind of diminishing of, of the suffering and, you know what I mean? >> Well, I totally do. >> Of course you do.

你知道，只是接受它。只是，只是，只是问你的，只是闭上眼睛，仔细检查悲伤的感觉。离它更近一点。有些人报告说，你知道，尽管他们不冥想，奇怪的是，他们确实感到了某种痛苦的消失，你懂我的意思吗？>> 完全明白。 >> 你肯定懂。

4:28

/>> however, I would just slightly disagree, and say those people in fact have meditated. >> Okay. >> You just gave them the essence of meditation. >> Right.

/>> 然而，我只是有一点不赞同，说那些人实际上是冥想了。 >> 对。>> 你只是给了他们冥想的本质。>> 对的。

4:37

/>> remember, you don't have to have your eyes closed to be sitting on the floor. What, what did you have them do? You had them focus on the discomfort. You had them try to be precise about the discomfort. And you had them try to not fight with the discomfort. >> So, meditation could be as easy for you as one, two, three. Could be.

/>> 记住，你不是一定要闭上眼睛，在地板上坐着。你让他们做什么了？你让他们关注痛苦。你让他们试图认真对待痛苦。你让他们试着不要与痛苦斗争。>> 所以，冥想对你可以像1，2，3一样简单。

5:02

But I do want to add one asterisk to, to that conversation. You know, Shinzen said you know, meditation doesn't have to be about sitting down and closing your eyes. That's true and for example, you can find yourself in line at a store, you're getting frustrated because the person in front of you is taking so long, why they didn't remember to take their credit card out before they got to the cash register. And then you can just decide to look at this feeling of irritation. And observe it. And then it loses its power over you and kind of dissolves. That can happen. But I do think that mainly happens with people who are doing a regular meditative practice. Meditating so regularly that they can then carry the practice into their everyday lives. Okay. So as for kinds of meditative practices. Well, for starters, there, there are different kinds of meditation associated with different Buddhist traditions.

我要给那个谈话加上一个星号。你知道的，Shinzen说你知道，冥想不是一定要坐下来和闭上眼睛。这是真的，例如，你能在商店排队时发现你自己，你感到沮丧，因为前面的人花了那么长时间。为什么他们不记得在到收银台之前就拿出信用卡呢？然后你就能决定看看这种恼火的感觉。观察它。然后它就在你身上失去了它的力量，消散了。这是可能发生的。但是我确实认为这更常发生在那些定期冥修的人身上。冥想如此常规以至于他们能把这个练习融入到日常生活中。好了。所以对于冥想练习的各种种类，对于初学者，有跟不同佛教传统相关的不同冥想方式。

6:03

so, for example Tibetan Buddhists, when they meditate, often do a lot of visualizing of images.

例如，藏族佛教徒，当他们冥想时，常常想象很多图片。

6:11

You know Zen Buddhists may meditate on these koans these you know, these cryptic or paradoxical sayings or question, questions. And sometimes Zen, Zen Buddhists actually meditate, do meditate with their eyes open, sitting down, kind of looking at a wall or something. In Vipassana meditation, which is particularly common in Southeast Asia, there's a lot of emphasis on observing the workings of your mind. So there, there are a lot of different traditions, there are stereotypes about the people who practice the traditions, so, I heard once you know, Tibetan meditation is for artists. Zen is for poets, Vipassana is for psychologists.

你知道禅宗佛教徒可能在公案，这些晦涩的或者矛盾的警句或者问题上冥想。有时候，禅宗佛教徒实际上睁着眼睛冥想，坐下来，看着墙或者什么东西。在内观冥想中，在东南亚特别普遍，大量强调观察你思想的工作。所以有许多不同的传统习俗，有对践行那些传统的人的刻板印象。我有次听说，西藏冥想是给艺术家提供的。禅修是给诗人，内观是给哲学家的。

6:55

But I do think ultimately these traditions have more in common than they have differences among them. I think for example, observing your own mind is to some extent something that winds up happening in almost any tradition.

但是我确实认为最终这些传统的共同之处比不同处要多。我想，例如，观察你自己的思想，某种意义上几乎在所有传统中最终都会出现。

7:10

Even if it is a more explicit goal in Vipassana meditation and in general I have found in talking to people from different traditions. When I talk to really serious meditators, by which I mean people who have meditated a lot more than I have. I, I find that they're talking the, the same language. When they're talking about the most profound experiences they've had they tend to be grounded in, in Buddhist doctrine related to the Buddhist teaching. So I think maybe more useful than covering all the varieties of meditation associated with Buddhist traditions Is to look at two basic kinds of meditation. Both of which are often found within a single tradition and these are the two types that are pointed to by those final factors in the eightfold path that we looked at in the previous segment that is right mindfulness In right concentration. Those are two kinds of mediation. Now concentration meditation involves focusing on something very intently. It could be a mantra, could be your breath, your breathing. Could be a visual image and you, you focus on it very single-mindedly. Get absorbed in it. And this kind of meditation is said to bring great serenity, even bliss. And in fact, I can attest to the bliss. one, one thing that happened during my first meditation retreat was like day four or day five I was focused on my breath.

即使它在内观中是一个更易于理解的目标，一般来说，我在跟来自不同传统的人谈话中都会发现。当我跟一些真正严肃的冥想者谈话时，我的意思是那些比我冥想更多的人，我发现他们说这同样的话。当他们谈论他们最深刻的体验时，他们趋向于基于佛教教义，跟佛教教学相关的。所以比起涵盖跟佛教传统相关的所有种类的冥想，我想也许更有用的是，找两个基本冥想种类。两者都常常在单个传统中找到。这是那些在之前讲座里，我们看过的，八正道里最终因素指出的两种类型：正念，正定。这是两种类型的冥想。正定包括高度集中关注某件事。可以是一个咒语，可以是你呼吸的空气，你呼吸的动作。也可以是一张想象的图片，你一心一意地专注于它。沉浸于它。这种冥想据说带来巨大的宁静甚至是极乐。实际上，我能证实这种极乐。在我第一次闭关冥想时发生了一件事，好像是第四还是第五天，我专注于自己的呼吸。

8:47

Breath after breath, and that was something I had a lot of trouble doing at the beginning of the retreat, but I got really absorbed in it. And I suddenly just entered this state that can only be described as blissful. And there was a lot of powerful visual stuff going on. And I mean, I just remember thinking you know, this must be what heroin is like. I mean, it was an amazing feeling. And so I was like, very proud of myself, you know? I thought I'd finally arrived as a meditator. So I arranged to talk to one of the teachers after the meditation retreat. And so I had this little session with him. And I described the thing, you know, to him. And I thought he was going to give me a medal or something, I don't know. You know, I, I guess I didn't think that I had attained nirvana, but I thought I had done, you know, gotten to some kind of higher plane. And he said, oh, sounds, sounds nice. And, and then he said, but don't get attached to it. And, what he meant, first of all, he's being a good Buddhist and reminding me, don't get too attached to any pleasure.

一个接一个呼吸，闭关之初，我有许多麻烦。但是我真的全神贯注。突然我进入了一种状态，只能用极乐来描述。有许多强大的想象事物在进行。我的意思是，我只记得思想，你知道，这一定是像海洛因。我的意思是，那是一种非常惊人的感觉。我有点为自己自豪，你知道吗，我想我终于变成了一个冥想者。所以我安排了跟其中一个老师谈话，在闭关冥想后。我跟他小谈了一次。我对他描述了那件事，你知道。我想，他会给我一个奖牌或者什么的。你知道，我猜我不认为自己达到了涅槃，但是我想我进入到了某种较高的层次。他说，哦，听起来很不错。然后他说，但是不要迷恋它。他的意思是，他是一个好的佛教徒，并提醒我不要迷恋任何快乐。

9:48

But secondly, this was a retreat in the Vipassana tradition, which means it was about mindfulness meditation, the second of these two kinds of meditation. It, it wasn't fundamentally about concentration, or attaining bliss, or anything else. We were supposed to use meditation to observe things mindfully. Okay? You, you could use, and should use concentration techniques to get to a point where your mind is kind of stable and calm enough to do the mindfulness meditation. But that's it, I should have gotten off that rocket ship, you know, at some lower level than I did.

但是第二点，这是一个内观传统的闭关，这意味着它是关于正念冥想的。两种冥想的第二种。它基本上不是关于专注，或者获得极乐，或者其他什么东西。我们应该使用冥想来专心致志地观察事物。明白吗？你能使用，也应该使用专注的技术去到达一个点，这个点上，你的思想有些足够的稳定和平静，来做正念冥想。但是仅此而已，我本该在更低一点的水平时就下船的。(这个翻译不太确定，这是指应该更早就入门？)

10:26

So what is mindfulness meditation? Well it consists of observing anything in your realm of experience. Your own mind, your own feelings. Anything you can feel. Sounds you hear while meditating. And if you're carrying it into everyday life it can be things you see. But it involves observing these things in a kind of unusual way in a special way. And you saw some of this in that conversation with Shinzen Young. In the way he talked about viewing unpleasant feelings. You know, normally your relationship to a, to a feeling like anxiety is first of all, you don't like it. And second of all, it is controlling your thinking. So, for example, you might be sitting there going I'm going to screw up that presentation tomorrow. Or, you may be doing a counter narrative and saying well, it'll be okay because there's probably nobody in the audience who really matters that much anyway. But either way, the anxiety is controlling what you think about. And it's kind of ironic. You know, here, you've got this feeling that you really don't approve of, you don't like. And yet, you're letting it control your thoughts. Well, as you may have gleaned from the conversation with Shinzen. With mindfulness meditation, you are observing in this case a feeling without like or dislike, that's the idea, without judging it so to speak. You're observing it you know, kind of objectively.

所以什么是正念冥想呢？它由观察任何你的真实体验构成。你自己的思想，你自己的感觉。任何你能感觉的事情。在冥想时听你听到的东西。如果你把它带到日常生活里，它也可以是你看到的东西。但是它包括通过一个不寻常的、特别的方式观察这些东西。你看这些，跟Shinzen Young的谈话中。看他谈论看待痛苦感觉的方式。你知道，通常你与一种感觉，比如焦虑的关系，首先，你不喜欢它。第二点，它控制了你的思想。所以，例如，你可能坐在那里，想着，我可能会搞砸明天的演说。或者你可能会反过来想，说，好吧，也没关系，因为很可能观众中没有人真正非常关心。但是另一面，焦虑控制着你的想法。这有点儿讽刺。你知道，你有这种感觉，你真的不愿意，不喜欢。然后，你让它控制了你的思想。也许你已经四处搜集了和Shinzen的谈话。关于正念冥想，你在观察，在这个例子里，是一个没有喜欢或者不喜欢的感觉，这就是那个意思，没有评价。你在观察它，客观地。

11:54

And as a result it, it doesn't control your thoughts.

结果，它没有控制你的思想。

11:58

Now when you think about it this is kind of an unnatural thing to do, because after all feelings were designed by natural selection to influence our thought and perception. We already saw a little of that in lecture one, the way fear can influence what you literally see.

现在，当你想着，这是一种不自然的方式。因为毕竟感情就是被自然选择设计来影响我们的思想和知觉的。我们已经在第一讲里看到了一点点，恐惧影响我们真正看到东西的方式。

12:18

And that is very much what feelings are about from natural selection's point of view. They are supposed to, to help govern our behavior, and our thoughts, and our perception. So to try to turn the tables in this way and, and look at feelings in a way that, that can disempower them is, is really you know, quite a, quite a striking thing to do. and, and very unnatural, you know, and it's, and it's very much kind of a violation of natural selection's agenda in a certain sense. and, and this came through in a description of mindfulness meditation that I heard not long ago when I was listening to a lecture from Bhikkhu Bodhi, who you may remember from our previous segment. These are lectures he actually delivered quite a while ago but they are available online and here's what he said about mindfulness. He said, ordinarily the faculty of attention is used as an instrument for serving our purposes, our biological and psychological needs. But mindfulness is a kind of attention which operates independently of all ulterior aims and purposes. I like that idea of you know, talking about our, our, our basic biological

这正是自然选择眼中的感觉。它们就是设计来帮助控制我们的行为、我们的思想，和我们的觉知。所以试图把表格这样放，这样看感觉，会剥夺它们的力量。这真的是非常惊人的事情。非常不自然。你知道的，它非常，在某种意义上，有点儿违反自然选择的—议事日程(不太确定这个翻译)。这来自对正念冥想的描述，我不久之前听说的，当我正在听Bhikkhu Bodhi的一个演讲。你可能会记得他，在之前的部分讲过。这些是他实际很久之前就发表的演说，但是它们在网上可以找到，这是他说的关于正念的部分。他说，通常我们注意的感官功能是一种仪器，用来服务于目的的，服务于我们的生物和心理需要。但是正念是这样一种注意力：它独立于所有隐秘的目的和需要。我喜欢这个观点，谈论我们基本的生物的和心理需要，把它当成一个秘密。

and psychological needs as ulterior. You know, as in some sense, kind of illegitimate. Whereas, you know, from natural selection's point of view, no, these are, these are the central valid, governing things of your life. This should determine everything you see about the world. And he's kind of wanting to cast them aside. He goes on to say, mindfulness is attention that functions in an atmosphere of detachment. It's attention that aspires towards a pure objectivity, an awareness which reflects the nature of objects exactly as they are, without adding to them, without elaborating upon them, without interpreting through the screens of subjective evaluation and commentary. So the idea is that the mind as it ordinarily works and is designed to work is not a reliable instrument of perception and of thought. Now, I agree with that. I believe that the human mind as it naturally works is not necessarily a reliable way of looking at the world in, in the most truthful way possible. And we'll be hearing more of that theme. But I do want to pause now and just emphasize what a radical reorientation mindfulness is. You know, mindfulness, I think, has this reputation for being this kind of gentle thing, you know. You eat mindfully, you go through life mindfully and appreciate the beauty of life. And, and that's actually all true, that's, that's possible, but at the same time there's a kind of edge to mindfulness.

你知道，某种意义上，有点儿不符合规定。然而，你知道，从自然选择的观点，不，这些是核心有效的、管理你生活的东西 （华佼注：指感觉和情绪）。这应该决定任何你看世界的任何事情。他有点儿想要把它们抛在一边。他继续说，正念，是一种关注，是在一种分离的氛围中起作用的。它是一种向着纯粹的客观激发的注意力，一个觉知，反映客观事物的本质，不添加。不把它变得复杂。不通过主观评价和注释中解释。(不太确定这个翻译) 所以它的意思是思想像它通常那样工作，被设计来工作，大脑并不是一个可靠的觉知和思想的仪器。现在，我同意它。我相信，人类思想本能的作用，未必是看世界靠谱的方式，可能不是最真实的方式。我们将能听到更多这类主题。但是我确实想停下来，只是强调，一个彻底的、重新定义的正念是什么。你知道，正念，我想，有这个名声(不太确定这个翻译)，对这类微妙的事情。你知道。你专心的吃，你专心的生活，欣赏生活的美。这的确都是真的，这是可能的。但是同时，正念也是有止境的。(不太确定这个翻译)

15:05

Because it does constitute a kind of rebellion against the agenda of natural selection. It's not the way we're designed to work.

因为它的确有一种对自然选择的反叛构成。它不是我们被设计来运行的方式。

15:15

now, in the next segment, we're going to hear a little more about that. We're going to talk more about mindfulness and, and, and flesh it out. We're also going to talk about, you know, mind fleeting and things like that. And we're going to look at what is going on according to science in the brains of people who do mindfulness meditation and for that matter other forms of meditation.

现在，下一节，我们将要听到关于那些的一点更多的东西。我们将要谈论更多关于正念，并充实它。我也将要谈论，你知道，思想溜号等类似的事。我们将看到根据科学，那些正念冥想的人大脑里在发生什么，因为它会影响其他形式的冥想。