应对慢性焦虑——两种观察烦恼的方式

德加尼亚禅师：当谈到观察任何不善的精神状态或活动、任何烦恼的时候，你可以有两种方法去应对它。

一种是当你知道思想和感觉中在发生什么时，你就单纯地观察它们。当五根强健且平衡的时候，你就可以这么做。这样，即使仅仅是观察思想和感觉中在发生什么，心就能够从中学习，因为它了知发生的内容，但却足够超脱以从中学习。

另一种是当你还没有强大到这么去做，并学习到的时候；在这个阶段，例如当我还在工作时，我会停下思想，而仅仅留意于感觉，并持续观察感觉。总有一刻，当你停下思想，而仅仅观察感觉时，感觉会离开，会完全消失，而心的状态也会从那种轻微负面不适的感觉变成真正舒适的感觉，烦扰也都会随之消失。

当感觉完全改变后，思想也会不同——这并非因为你理解了什么，只是单纯因为你没有让你的心沉溺于不善之中，因为想法会滋养情绪。因为你把思想抛在一边，而用对感觉的觉察去滋养此刻。而当感觉完全消失时，你就会注意到思想也变化了。

当负面体验彻底消失时，心思考同一件事情的方式就不同了。以此为基础，一个人可以不断重复这样去观察每一件他难以应对的事情；这就是他可以修习的方式。

一位禅修者的记录

原出处：

Sayadaw U Tejaniya (SUT) USA Maui Retreat 2016 Q&A 2016-11/21 (38:01-44:29)

Dealing with chronic anxiety – 2 ways of watching defilements

SUT: When it comes to watching any unwholesome mental state or activity, any defilement, there are 2 ways you can deal with it.

One is that you know what is happening in the thoughts and the feelings; and you’re just watching them. This works when the state of the 5 aggregates is strong and balanced; then even just watching what’s happening in the thoughts and the feelings, the mind can still learn lessons because it knows the content but is uninvolved enough to be able to learn lessons.

The other way is when you’re not strong enough to do that and learn lessons; and in that stage, what I’ll do when I’m working is to stop the thoughts and zone into just the feeling and watch the feeling continuously. There comes a time when you stop the thinking and are just watching the feeling and the feelings go away and are totally gone, the state of mind changes from that slight negative uncomfortable feeling to being really comfortable and no sign of the distress anymore.

When the feelings change completely, the thinking is different - not because you have understood anything, but simply because you did not let the mind dwell on the unwholesome, because thinking feeds emotion. Because you kept the thinking at bay and fed that time with awareness of the feeling, and when the feeling is completely gone, you’ll notice that the thinking is different.

When the negativity is totally absent, the way the mind thinks about the same thing is different. And building from that, he’ll do it over and over again for everything that he couldn’t handle; that was his way of working with it.

A yogi’s notes

Transcribed by Sheng Bin Chiu