解脱之道：出离心、菩提心、空性见

The Noble Truth of the Path Leading to the Cessation of Suffering

道谛

The cause of entering nirvana or that of liberation is the path leading to the cessation of suffering. It also has four characteristics listed in the Abhidharma-kosha-shastra, but we will not discuss them in details here. The gist of the path is contained in The Three Principal Aspects of the Path written by Je Tsongkhapa, which encompasses all the key issues of exoteric and esoteric Buddhism.

涅槃的因也即解脱的因，就是道谛。道谛在《俱舍论》中也有四种行相，但此处我们不广讲。道谛的主旨，都包含在宗喀巴大师的《三主要道》中，其内容涵盖了显密所有关键的问题。

The first aspect is renunciation, which essentially means not to make the pursuit of material accomplishments the purpose of life. Having generated renunciation, one should no longer act like those who exchange their whole precious life for ephemeral pleasures, but set to obtain liberation as the grand purpose of life. One can even imitate the bodhisattvas to arouse bodhicitta and live for the deliverance of all sentient beings to liberation. If one determines to focus life on obtaining one’s own freedom from cyclic existence instead of pursuing material pleasures, one can be deemed having generated renunciation.

第一是出离心，就是不将物质生活的追求当成生存的目标。发起出离心以后，就不能再像常人一般，用生命的代价去换取生活中的享乐，而是要树立起崇高的生存目标——希求解脱。甚至应该像大乘菩萨般发菩提心，为了度化众生而生存。如果活着是为了解决自己的生老病死问题，而不是为了吃喝玩乐，就具备了出离心。

The second is bodhicitta, which is the aspiration to live for the attainment of liberation for all sentient beings. This is different from the good Samaritans reported in the newspapers or on television. The true bodhisattvas have only one goal in life, and that is to use their lifetime to benefit others.

第二是菩提心，就是为了度化一切众生而生存。这与一般报章杂志等媒体上所宣传的好人好事不一样，真正的菩萨仅有一个目的，就是为了利益他人而活。

The third aspect is realization of emptiness.

第三是证悟空性。

In a nutshell, the path leading to the cessation of suffering can be subsumed under these three aspects. Over the years, I have kept insisting on the necessity of generating renunciation and bodhicitta before taking up any other practice. It is not because there are no better practices, but rather it would be useless to practice them without having the requisite faculties. Taking the path leading to the cessation of suffering can eliminate all the defilements which are the origins of the suffering of samsara. Just as physical pain disappears once the illness has been cured, suffering ceases after all the defilements have been eradicated.

一言以蔽之，道谛所讲的不出这三条。我也一再强调过，在没有生起出离心与菩提心之前，不要修任何其他的法。并不是没有更殊胜的法可修，而是在根机不适应时，再怎么修也是枉然。道谛可以彻底断除集谛中所有的烦恼，如同病根尽除之后，病痛也随之而消失一样，集谛的烦恼断除后，痛苦也不复存在。

Conventional wisdom holds that to see is to believe. So for us, what we can see with our own eyes is most convincing. For example，it would be quite difficult to visualize a transparent stone wall because the eyes do not see such a wall. However, when practice has reached a certain stage, practitioners will be much less influenced by the external factors. At that point, one has gained the ability to change or control outer phenomena at will, thereby weakening or eliminating the external influence altogether. But presently such ability is still beyond our reach. Although some may question its plausibility, descriptions of such ability are abundantly available in various texts and have been broadly analyzed in some of the more contemporary treatises. In addition, personal actualization by many accomplished practitioners has provided even stronger proof. It is just that our own practice is not up to that high standard yet. To get to that level of attainment, the foundational practices are absolutely indispensable. And the first step is to generate renunciation.

对凡夫而言，眼识是极具说服力的，眼见为凭。譬如，要将石墙观想为透明的就很困难，因为眼睛看不到透明的墙。但当修行达到某种层次时，外界的影响就会变得很微弱，我们就可以随心所欲地去改变或控制外在的现象，使它们逐渐淡化甚至消失，但这种境界离现在的我们还有一段距离。有些人会怀疑这种境界的可能性，但这种境界不仅在佛经中有记载，我们有论证，更有许多高僧大德亲身的经历足以证明，只是目前离我们的境界还相当远，所以要从最基础的出离心开始做起。