生存的方式是什么？

The way of living

二、生存的方式

The way of living means how one goes about sustaining oneself, essentially how one manages to live. What is the proper way of living for a Dharma practitioner? What did the Buddha say about this?

生存的方式，是指衣食房车等生活的条件。修行人的生活模式应该是什么样的，佛的要求又是什么样的呢？

Should all practitioners give up everything and retreat to the caves to meditate like Milarepa did? It would be great if one can do that, but most laypeople cannot and so the Buddha did not rule this way. In a nutshell，the Buddha only asked all Buddhists to be content with fewer desires, which means differently to the monastics and lay practitioners. How then should lay practitioners interpret this request from the Buddha?

是不是所有的人都要像米拉日巴尊者那样放弃一切到山洞里面去修行呢？能够这样做当然是很好的，但很多在家人做不到，因为做不到，所以佛也没有这样要求。简单地说，佛对所有佛教徒只要求四个字，就是少欲知足。对于出家人和在家人来说，少欲知足四个字的含义不尽相同，作为在家人，我们应该怎样去理解这四个字的意思呢？

I have seen that someone who owns three or four villas but hardly ever lives in any of them. Very often this person just spends the night on the office sofa. Others own three or four cars but only use one; the rest just lay idle in the garage. This kind of lifestyle does not comply with the Buddha’s request for a life filled with fewer desires. From the standpoint of the world as a whole，over-consumption of either fossil fuels or trees is also a wrong way of living，which does not meet the Buddha’s request either.

我见到的有些人中有这样的情况：一个人拥有三四套别墅，但这些人却并没有住这些房子，而是很多时候都在办公室的沙发上睡；还有很多人有三四辆车，但是只用一辆车，其他的又闲置于车库……这样的生活，就不是少欲知足。另外，从整个世界的角度来说，过度地开发能源、过度地砍伐森林等等，这些都是错误的生存方式，也不符合佛的要求。

In today’s world，one is basically unable to survive without money and the Buddha also deemed reasonable means for living justified. What he requested is that under normal circumstances one should live a simpler and modest life. There is really no need for fancy stuff as long as one stays in a livable condition. But that is not to say that one must eat lousy food，wear old clothes，or live in a run-down place. The Buddha also said that it is not necessary to live too modestly if one can afford a comfortable life with relative ease，thanks to good karma from the past life. To live a simple life，as opposed to a luxurious one，means less energy need be spent on acquiring material wealth and hence more time and attention for really meaningful matters. This is the way the Buddha told us to live.

该怎么理解佛的要求呢？虽然人的生活离不开金钱，如果根本没有钱，现代人便没办法生存，佛也没有说这些生活的基本条件不能有；但佛要求我们，在一般的情况下，个人的生活应当尽量地简单一点儿、朴素一点儿，只要能够生存就可以了，不一定要生活得太优裕。这不是说一定要吃不好吃的，一定要穿很旧的衣服，一定要住很破的房子。佛也说了，如果因前世的福报，自己在这一生当中不需要太多的辛苦，不需要花太多的时间，就能过上很优裕的生活的话，也不一定要过很朴素的生活。少花一些精力来追求物质财富，过简单的生活，也就是说不能太奢侈，这样就可以节约很多时间来做很多有意义的事情，这是佛告诉我们的生存方式。