有一种动机叫“无所谓”

♦ Neutral motivation

（2）无记的动机：

Neutral means neither good nor bad. For example, someone invites a friend along to liberate animals，but the friend does not understand the merit and the benefit related to this activity, just goes along having no particular purpose. After the activity has ended, the friend’s participation would have resulted in a kind of neutral karma. Maybe someone will question, “Didn’t the friend also save some lives? Why was this karma neutral?” It is because the friend did exactly the same thing as everybody else but with no idea as to why it was done. That makes it neutral. Similar concept can also be found in the secular world. For instance, it is a serious crime if one intentionally kills a person, but not as much so if it happens by accident. On this, the law and the Dharma uphold the same principle.

无记是指没有善恶的记录，既非善，亦非恶。例如，一个人去放生，邀请他的朋友同往。他的朋友并不了解放生的功德利益，只是应邀同去放生，心里没有任何目的。放生结束后，受邀同去者的所做之业就称为无记。也许有人会提出疑问，他不是同样也解救了生命吗？为何是无记呢？因为，他虽然与大家在行为上毫无二致，但是他的内心却没有这种概念，所以，他的所做就是无记的。类似这样的概念，在世间也存在。例如，如果故意杀人，就犯了重罪；但如果是无意中杀了人，则所犯的罪就没有那么严重。在这一点上，世间法与佛法是一致的。

It is stated in the scriptures that if our motivation is found to be neutral, we should rather improve than eliminate it. The reason is that the quality of being “neutral” and “wholesome” are relatively closer to each other, whereas being “wholesome” and “unwholesome” are poles apart. So while the former can be improved, the latter must be given up. Ordinarily, before we sit down to practice or meditate, we should first examine the motivation carefully. If it was found to be neutral, we should improve it. Otherwise, none of what we do can lead us to enlightenment. The resulting virtuous karma caused by a neutral motivation may be able to bring some temporal rewards, but only very meager ones.

经书上讲，如果我们发现自己的动机是无记的，就需要改善，而不是断除它。因为无记与善比较接近，而不善与善却有着天壤之别，所以前者可以改善，后者只能断除。平时我们在修行、打坐之前，一定要认真观察，如果发现动机是无记的，就必须改善它。因为在此前提下所作的一切，都不能成为解脱法，与解脱毫无关系。以无记动机所造的善业虽然有些世间善报，但却很微弱。