楞嚴経与生活”之三 | 色即是空，空即是色

楞嚴経与生活”之三 | 色即是空，空即是色 

Sitanshu Kumar

作者：Sitanshu Kumar

译者：River

Sitanshu Kumar来自印度，他写了一个对《大佛顶首楞严经》的注解。以下是开头部分（后续具体解释经文的部分尚未写成）的一些注解，这里以英汉对照的形式贴出。

今天发出的是第三篇：色与空。

Form and Emptiness

色与空

“Form is emptiness and emptiness is form” is a famous Buddhist saying. In this section we will discover its relevance to our daily life.
“色即是空，空即是色”，这是一个佛教名言。在这一节我们要去发现它与我们日常生活的关系。

Our civilization places a good deal of emphasis on form. From the shape and color of razor blades to latest model sports car, vast sums of money and effort are spent to give physical matter the “right” form for consumption. In the same mold, we work on our bodies to reach a predefined form which can be acceptable and likable to the members of the opposite sex. Our minds do have an intrinsic sense of beauty and we do seem to get a temporary blip in our state of consciousness when our senses are exposed to pleasing influence. Our effort for the continuation of good effects of form has created the value system, relentless pursuit of “formatic” perfection.
我们的文明对色给与了高度的重视。从剃须刀的颜色与形状到最新款式的跑车，巨大的资金与人力被投入进去，为了给物质对象赋予“正确”的形式（色），可供人们消费。同样地，我们努力改造自己的身体，使之达到预定的形式（色），从而让异性接受与喜  欢。我们的心灵确实具有一种内在的美感，当我们的感官受到一种令人愉悦的影响时，我们的内心似乎确实会出现某种短暂的亮点。

But what is form? If we go by the modern atomic theory, all matter, including the various colors we see, the textures we feel and various pleasing, are all composed of atoms. These atoms are in turn composed of sub-atomic particles. The nucleus of the atom is heaviest structure, and it occupies only a fraction of the volume of the atom. Most of the atom is inherently empty. Of course the argument can be repeated with regards to sub-atomic particles. When physicist conduct experiments with sub-atomic particles, many of these entities (sub-atomic particles) are destroyed, merge into empty space, and are reborn as different particles. The only knowable thing during this process is that certain mathematically definable quantities (like energy and momentum) remain constant, but the exact dynamic of “emptiness and form” eludes human conception.
但是什么是色？如果我们跟随现代原子理论，所有的物质，包括我们看到的各种颜色，我们能感受到的各种物质的质地，各种愉悦的感受，都是由原子组成的。这些原子又是由亚原子粒子组成的。原子核是最重的结构，而它仅仅占据原子体积的一小部分。原子的一大部分是空的。当然，这个论证同样适用于亚原子粒子。当物理学家对亚原子粒子进行实验时，发现许多这些实体（亚原子粒子）会自己淹灭，融入无物的空间，并重新产生不同的粒子。在这个过程中，我们知道的只是某些数学上定义的量（例如能量与动量）是不变的。但是“空与色”的确切机制却未能被人类智力掌握。

For a scientist dealing with intricate laws of nature, form and emptiness are very close. All this is at a very minute scale, will say the skeptics, after all I can not see it with my naked eyes. Is there an example at a larger scale, one a bit more tangible? Yes there is, and it is our universe itself. According to the popular “Big Bang” theory, the universe was created by an energy fluctuation in empty space. Is it not, that the universe itself is a manifestation of emptiness? There are some scientists who believe that matter is continually being created from empty space. Not only tiny sub-atomic particles, but gigantic galaxies with millions of star systems are coming out of the womb of emptiness. Whichever theory you may like, it seems that there is no escape from the suggestion that form and emptinessare closely related.
对于关心自然界内在规律的科学家来说，色与空是非常近的。怀疑者可能会反问，这都是在非常小的尺度，我的肉眼又没有看到。有没有一个大尺度的，更加直观的例子呢？确实有，那就是我们的宇宙本身。根据著名的“大爆炸”理论，宇宙是被虚空中的某种能量波动起伏所创造的。宇宙本身难道不就是空的显现吗？有一些科学家相信物质在不断从虚空中被创造出来。不仅是微小的亚原子粒子，而且是有着数以亿万计的星星的巨大的星系在从虚空的母腹中被产生。无论你喜欢哪种理论，似乎都无法逃避这样的迹象，色与空是紧密相连的。

That is all in the external world, how are form and emptiness related inside me? What is form and emptiness in the mind? Form in the mind consists of two aspects, sound (“Nama” in Sanskrit) and visual image (“Rupa” in Sanskrit). The foundation of our consciousness rests on these two aspects of form together with their dormant static appearance, memory. If one examines carefully, associated with most “forms” are emotional responses (common feelings like fear, anger, pleasure, calmness etc) either positive or negative.
这些都是外在世界的事，那么在我心中，色与空是如何相联系的呢？什么是内心的色与空？内心的色由两个方面组成，声音（梵文中的“Nama”，名）与视觉形象（梵文中的“Rupa”，形）。我们意识的基础就是色的这两个方面，以及它们潜伏的静态形式，记忆。如果你仔细地审视，多数的“色”都关联着某种正面或负面的情绪反应（常见的感觉，例如恐惧，愤怒，快乐，平静，等等）。

The name-image and associated feelings are not fixed but keep changing with time. For example one person may be a darling friend, but becomes a bitter enemy once his treachery is discovered. A chance encounter with him could evoke a totally different emotional response. The same unknown energy which manifested itself as friendship or love was transformed, now manifesting as revulsion or hatred.
名-图象，以及相关联的感觉不是固定的，而是随时变化的。比如说一个人可能是你亲密的朋友，但是一旦你发现他背叛了你，他就变成了可恨的敌人。你再遇到他时就可能会产生完全不同的情绪反应。那个显现为友谊或爱的未知能量转变了，现在显现为冷漠或仇恨。

The dormant memories are another manifestation of the same energy. The situation is not very much unlike than when we described external reality in terms of sub-atomic particles and their interactions. Just as many sub-atomic particles can combine together to form an atomic particle, many simple feelings can combine together to form a complex feeling. For example, take the image of another person that you have built up over the years. This image consists of many hundreds (maybe thousands) of impression, all merging and playing up on each other.
潜伏的记忆是同一种能量的另一种显现。这里的情况与我们用描述的外在世界，亚原子粒子以及它们的相互作用，没有太大的不同，就像许多亚原子粒子可以组合起来形成一个原子，许多简单的感觉可以组合起来形成复杂的感觉。比如说，你多年来建立的关于另一个人的形象。这个形象由几百个（也许几千个）印象组成，这些不同的印象也在相互游戏与融合。

It is much harder to be aware of these image-feelings than the simpler feelings like fear, jealousy, anger etc. The image-feeling complex loads our brain. Our brain have more intrinsic capacities (the fundamental amongst them is happiness), but as long as they occupied (the content of the occupation being form, or image-feeling complex) it does not function freely, its movement become haphazard.
觉知这些复杂的“图象-感觉” ，要比觉知那些更简单的感觉，例如恐惧、嫉妒、愤怒，等等要困难得多。这些“图象-感觉”的复合体是大脑的沉重负担。我们的大脑具有更加内在的能力（其中基本的能力之一是幸福），但是只要它被占据着（占据的内容是色，或者说“图象-感觉”的复合体），它就没法自由地运转，它的运动变得混乱。

How does description given above help us in dealings of our daily life? A lot of us suffer from emotion overload. Our feelings have becomes complex and interdependent. It is increasingly hard to balance ourselves. When our senses pick up any input (sound, light etc.) so many neurons fire together that peace evaporates quickly. If we learn to look at our feeling one by one, and understand that they are the manifestation of the same energy, hopefully we can learn how to transform them into positive vibrations.
上面的描述对我们的日常生活有什么帮助呢？我们很多人都因为情绪负担过重而痛苦。我们的感觉已经变得复杂且相互依赖。保持自身的平衡变得越来越困难。当我们的感官收到任何的输入（声，光等等），如此多的神经元都会受到刺激，以致平静迅速的地蒸发了。如果我们能学会一个一个地看我们的感觉，并理解到它们是同一个能量的显现，或许我们能学会如何把它们转化为正面的东西。

For example take the case of a person making a rude gesture while driving. As soon as this visual gesture hits our eyes, feeling offended (the “I”gets offended, see the chapter “Where Am I”) and threatened, we respond out of our conditioning. I say “out of our conditioning”, because a person from Mars may not understand this at all, and completely fail to react. Our response can be different, some may make a doubly rude gesture, or some may slow down so as not to make a bad situation worse (in most cases the driver is possibly already disturbed even before he makes a gesture). The low diagram below depicts some possibilities.
比如说有人一边开车一边做了一个粗鲁的手势。当这个视觉的手势进入我们的眼睛时，感觉到被冒犯（“我”被冒犯了，参见“我在哪里”那一节）与威胁，我们会根据我们受到的局限来做出反应。我说“根据我们受到的局限”，因为一个从火星上来的人也许根本不理解这个手势，因此就完全没有反应。我们的反应可以很不相同，有的人可能会做一个更粗鲁的手势，或者有的人会把车速降下来，以避免让情况变得更糟（多数情况下，那个司机可能在做出手势以前就已经是心烦意乱了）。下面的图表示了几种可能性。（图略）

Hold Back Reaction

忍住自己的反应

If for some reasons you hold back, you may form or reinforce some opinions about the driver (in terms of drives race, social class, gender etc.) Notice that this opinion is also “form” in the sense we are discussing in this chapter. The incident has further conditioned our brain and will flow in the “alaya” of habits (see chapter on alaya).

如果你由于某种原因忍住自己的反应，你或许会形成或者加强你对那个司机的某种看法（关于司机的种族、社会地位、性别，等等）。注意到这些看法也是“色”，在本节讨论的意义下。这个事件进一步局限了我们的大脑，而且会流入习惯的“阿赖耶”（参见关于阿赖耶的那一节）。

Rude Reaction

粗鲁地反应

In this case, either you are also disturbed, and react out of irritation, or you have an opinion that “tit for at” is a valid response. Opinions are a great cause of disturbing the flux of mind and in turn, a disturbed mind creates multitude of opinions. Opinions are also complex feelings born out of the base of sound visual image along with active principle in the mind.
在这种情况下，要么你也是内心混乱的，从你自己的愤怒中做出反应，或者你有这样的观点，认为以牙还牙是合理的。观点是导致内心之流混乱的主要原因之一，反过来，一个混乱的心则会制造出无数的观点。观点也是一种复杂的感觉，它是从声与光的图像以及心中的活跃要素等基础上产生出来的。

Acute Awareness

敏锐的觉知

As the visual image is captured by the eyes and the mind starts to go in overdrive, if you can observe very acutely the activity of your mind, then at that instant, you and your reaction merge. When there is no division between the two, instead of damage, a creative energy is released. Instead of anger and irritation, the creativity produces thoughts of compassion and love. You have been successful in not falling into the trap of habits, and move one step closer to clearing the stream.
当视觉图像被眼睛捕获，心开始快速地转动时，如果你能非常敏锐地观察你内心的活动，那么在那个瞬间，你和你的反应就融合了。如果没有这两者的分离，那么不是破坏性的，而是创造性的能量就释放了。没有烦躁与愤怒，创造性会导致爱与慈悲的想法。你成功地避免了陷入习惯，向清洗意识之流又走近了一步。

Meditation

冥想

Let me take one step at a time
the one be many
Recognize that form is emptiness
Emptiness is form
Let the formation of complexes cease
The already existing one come to light
Let me take one swipe at a time
The one be many
Let me clear my mind
让我每次走一步
而一就是多
意识到色就是空
空就是色
让内心的复合体形成停止
已经存在的显露出来
让我每次来一次重击
而一就是多
让我把心灵打扫干净