执著是妄念的土壤 【上】Attachment: The Soil of Delusion (Part I)

How can we fundamentally resolve the cause of suffering? We must let go of our attachments to the world.怎样才能从根本上解决痛苦之因？就必须放下对世间的执著。However, these attachments are "sticky." They cannot be dropped just because we wish them to be. We need specific contemplation and practice to resolve them.但这些执著是有粘性的，不是说放下就能放下，需要通过相应的思维和观修来解决。"Contemplating death and impermanence" is an effective tool to help us counteract these attachments.念死无常，就是帮助我们对治执著的有效手段。Although life flows on incessantly, our current physical form lasts for only a few short decades.生命虽然生生不息，但我们现有的这期色身，不过是短短的几十年。No matter how grand your career or how happy your family, in the end, we must all depart empty-handed.不管事业做得多大，家庭多么美满，最终都要两手空空地撒手归去。Death is a certainty, yet the time of death is uncertain. Buddhist scriptures say that life exists only in the space of a single breath.死是一定的，死亡时间却是不定的。佛经说，生命就在呼吸之间。No matter how strong or noble a person may be, if the next breath does not come, the turn of a moment marks the next life.无论再强健的人，再高贵的人，只要一口气不来，转息就是来生。In the devastating earthquakes we have witnessed, tens of thousands of lives and cities built over centuries were destroyed in an instant.在不久前的汶川大地震中，几万人的生命，几十乃至几百年建设的城市，顷刻毁于一旦。Life is impermanent and precarious. No matter how much we care for or linger upon this world, once the breath ceases, all these things are separated from us by the veil of death, having nothing more to do with us.所以，生命是无常的，朝不保夕的，不管我们对世间有多少牵挂，多少留恋，一息不存，所有这些就和我们阴阳两隔，了无干系。When death arrives, what use are our careers, money, children, or family? No amount of wealth can negotiate with death, and not even those dearest to us can take our place.当死亡来临时，我们的事业、金钱，乃至儿女、家庭，哪一样可以帮得上忙？再多的钱不能交易，再亲的人不能替代。