幸福，真的完美无缺吗？
【中英文连载】
Are You Ready for Happiness? (88)
如何面对痛苦和幸福
How to Face Suffering and Happiness?
How to Face Happiness
如何面对幸福
WE ALSO NEED THE DHARMA IN GOOD TIMES
幸福时也需要佛法
When ordinary people are faced with suffering and cannot bear it, suffering becomes an obstacle in their practice; their lives are also affected in many different ways. In the same way, when people are blessed with “happiness”- wealth, position, status - and cannot moderate their attitude, they become arrogant; they discriminate against others and even bully or oppress those less fortunate.
凡夫面对痛苦的时候，因为无法承受，痛苦就成为修行的阻碍，生活也会受到各种各样的影响。同样，因为过去的福报，而得到一些“幸福”——发财、升官、有名声的时候，若不能及时调整心态，就会心生傲慢，继而歧视乃至欺负社会底层的人或其他生命。
The worst thing about arrogance is that people believe they are better than everyone else and eventually lose respect for others. Additionally, they develop a mistaken view that money will resolve all problems. Not recognizing the benefits of practice and liberation, they plunge further into material pleasures and lack the impetus to improve. When advised to recite Amitabha or to practice with diligence, they respond, “Everything in my life is progressing smoothly; I have all that I want. Why would I still need to go to the Amitabha pure land?”
傲慢心最大的坏处和负面作用，就是自以为超越一切，自视清高、目中无人，最终丧失恭敬心。另外还会产生一种错误的价值观，认为只要有钱，就可以解决一切问题。感觉不到修行与解脱的重要性，从此更加沉迷于物质享受，没有积极向上的态度。别人劝他念阿弥陀佛、好好修行。他会回答说：我现在各方面都一帆风顺、毫无缺憾，为什么还要往生西方极乐世界呢？
This complacency, unwillingness to progress, and even greater reluctance to engage in serious practice are not the problems of any individual but phenomena typical of our time. When these afflictions control us, our practice becomes difficult and is filled with obstacles. To surmount these difficulties, we need special methods.
就这样满足于现状，而不思进取，更不愿精进修行。这不是个别人的问题，而是很有代表性的现象。在这些烦恼的操控下，修行也会变得艰难起来，所以凡夫的修行道路是荆棘满布、障碍重重的。若想修行一帆风顺，必须要有一些对治的方法。
Ordinary people are very knowledgeable about worldly matters - how to make money, how to live, etc. - but because they have never received Dharma teachings and are not educated on liberation and other profound issues of life, their values are often wrong and inverted. They only see what is immediately ahead and do not reflect on longer-term problems. Not knowing the fundamental nature of wealth and material things eventually gives rise to arrogance and laziness.
凡夫虽然掌握丰富的世间知识——怎么赚钱，怎么生活等等，但因为没有经过闻思，没有接受佛教教育，在解脱等深层次的人生问题上一无所知，所以价值观是错误且颠倒的——只看眼前，不去思考更长远的问题。不了解金钱、物质等身外之物的本质，最终导致傲慢心与懒惰思想的滋生。
A lot of people opt for a life in the middle whereby there is neither great suffering nor happiness - a relatively placid life in which they can also practice the Dharma. However, an ordinary life such as this is not necessarily long-lasting. We cannot avoid the eight types of suffering, including birth, aging, illness, and death, and may even encounter great vicissitudes in life. Without the Dharma, how do we confront these circumstances?
很多人比较向往中庸的生活——既不是很痛苦，也不是很幸福，平平淡淡地过日子，同时好好修行。但即便是这种普普通通的生活，也不一定是长久的，因为生老病死等八大痛苦，谁都无法避免，更何况保不准还会出现一些大起大落的人生，如果没有佛法，我们将如何面对？
未完待续
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