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[Lamrim·Meditation] DEALING WITH LAXITY AND EXCITEMENT P25

一正明其思灭沉掉法

(1’)) Intention and the way it stops laxity and excitement

《广论》【闻·思·修】Lamrim·Meditation

 此中分二:一、正明其思,灭沉掉法;二、明依何因而生沉掉。今初:
  如《集论》云:“云何为思?令心造作之意业,于善、不善、无记役心为业。”应如是知。此复如由磁石力故,令铁转动不得自在,如是于善、不善、无记随一,令心策动之心所者,是名为思。此中是明沉掉随一生时,令心造作断彼之思。
  若尔,如是为断沈掉,发动心已,当如何修灭沈掉理?心沉没者,由太向内摄,失所缘之执取相,故应于彼作意诸可欣事,能令心意向外之因。此复如极端严佛像,非生烦恼可欣乐法。又可作意日光等诸光明相状。沉没除已,即应无间坚持所缘执取相而修。如《修次初篇》云:”若由昏沈、睡眠所覆,执持所缘不显,心沉没时,应修光明想,或由作意极可欣事佛功德等,沉没除已,仍持所缘。”此不应修厌患所缘,厌患是心内摄因故。

又以观慧思择开衍乐思之境,亦能除沈,《摄波罗蜜多论》云:“由勤修观力,退弱则策举。”沉没或退弱者,谓所缘执取相力渐低劣,故名“沉没”;太向内摄,故名“退弱”,故由策举持力及广开所缘即能除遣。《中观心论》云:“退弱应宽广,修广大所缘。”又云:“退弱应策举,观精进胜利。《集学论》亦云:“若意退弱,应修可欣而令策举。”诸大贤哲同所宣说,故除沉没最要之对治,谓思惟三宝及菩提心之胜利,并得暇身大利等功德,须如睡面浇以冷水顿能清醒。此须先于诸胜利品,以妙观察观察修之,令发觉受。又生沉没所依之因,谓昏沉、睡眠及能生昏、睡之心黑暗相,若修光明习近对治,依彼所生沉没亦能不生,生已灭除。《声闻地》说,威仪应经行,善取明相,数修彼相,以及随念佛、法、僧、戒、舍、天六中随一,或以所余清净所缘真实策举其心,或当读诵显示昏沉、睡眠过患之法,或瞻方所及月、星辰,或以冷水洗面等。此复沉没若极微薄,或唯少起,励心正修心执取相。见沉浓厚,或数现起,则应暂舍修三摩地,如其所应修诸对治,待沉除已后乃修习。若见心取内观外观所缘相不明显,心如暗覆之相,随其厚薄,若不断除而修习者,沉没难《声闻地》云:“应以光明俱心、照了俱心、明净俱心、无暗俱心正修止观。如是汝于止观之道修习光明想时,设有最初胜解所缘相不分明、光明微小,由数修习为因缘故,于其所缘胜解分明、光明转大。若有最初行相分明、光明广大,其后转复极其分明、光明极大。此说最初所缘分明者尚须修习,况不分明?应取何等光明之相,亦如前论说云:“应从灯明,或大火明,或从日轮取光明相。”如此之修光明相,非独修习三摩地时,馀亦应修。

《广论》 Pg368LL01-Pg370LL03

*《菩提道次第广论》原文改译——大慈恩译经基金会

(1’)) Intention and the way it stops laxity and excitement
Asanga’s Compendium of Knowledge:
  What is intention? It is the mental activity of applying your mind, having the function of drawing your mind to virtue, nonvirtue, or the ethically neutral.

This is how you should understand it. For example, iron filings are compelled to move under the influence of a magnet. Similarly, the mental process of intention moves and stimulates your mind toward virtue, nonvirtue, or the ethically neutral. So it here refers to an intention that applies your mind to the elimination of laxity or excitement when one of them occurs.
 Question: After you have thus aroused your mind to eliminate laxity and excitement, how do you stop laxity and excitement?
 Reply: Mental laxity involves a very excessive inward withdrawal, leading to a slippage in the way you apprehend the object of meditation; so you should direct your mind to delightful things that cause it to expand outward. This should be something like a very beautiful image of the Buddha, not something delightful that gives rise to afflictions. Or bring to mind an image of light, such as sunlight. When this clears away laxity, immediately tighten the way you apprehend the object and sustain that in meditation. As Kamalasila’s first Stages of Meditation explains:
  How? When you are overcome with lethargy and sleepiness, when there is a lack of clarity in your apprehension of the object of meditation and your mind has become lax, then meditate on the idea of light or bring to mind the most delightful things, such as the qualities of the Buddha. Dispel laxity in this way and firmly hold on to the object of meditation.

In this situation, do not meditate on a disenchanting object because disenchantment causes your mind to withdraw inward.
 When you expand your mind by using discerning wisdom to analyze an object of your choice, this also stops laxity. Aryasura’s Compendium of the Perfections says:
  When slack, your mind is stimulated and inspired
  By virtue of the energy of striving for insight.

Thus laxity, or slackness, is as follows. The state of mind the two terms describe is called “laxity” because there is a decline in the way you apprehend the object of meditation. It is called “slackness” because there is an excessive withdrawal inward. You counteract it by stimulating the way you apprehend the object and by making the object of meditation extensive, so as to expand your mind. Bhavaviveka’s Heart of the Middle Way states:
  In the case of slackness, expand your mind
  By meditating on an extensive object.

And:
  Further, in the case of slackness, inspire yourself
  By observing the benefits of joyous perseverance.

Also,  Santideva’s Compendium of Trainings states: “If your mind becomes slack, inspire yourself by cultivating delight.” The great scholars and adepts are in agreement on this matter.
 So here is the most important remedy for stopping laxity: When you reflect on the good qualities of such things as the three jewels, the benefits of the spirit of enlightenment, and the great significance of attaining leisure, it should have a bracing effect on your mind, just as cold water is thrown in the face of a sleeping person. This depends on your having had experience with discerning analytical meditation on these beneficial topics.
 If you cultivate a remedy for being accustomed to the underlying causes of laxity—namely, lethargy, sleepiness, and something that induces these two wherein your mind takes on a gloomy aspect—then laxity resulting from these causes will not arise or, if it has arisen, will stop. In this regard, Asanga’s Sravaka Levels suggests such activities as going for a walk; holding an image of brightness in your mind and familiarizing yourself with it repeatedly; pursuing any of the six recollections—the Buddha, the teaching, the community, ethical discipline, generosity, and the deities; stimulating your mind by means of other inspiring objects of meditation; orally reciting teachings that discuss the faults of lethargy and sleepiness; gazing in different directions and at the moon and stars; and washing your face with water.
 Also, if laxity is very slight and occurs only infrequently, tighten up your apprehension of the object and continue meditating; but if laxity is dense and seems to occur repeatedly, suspend your cultivation of concentration, clear away laxity using any of those remedies, and then resume your meditation.
 Whether your object of meditation entails directing your mind inward or outward, if the object is unclear and you have the sense of darkness—slight or dense—descending on your mind, then it will be hard to cut through laxity if you continue to meditate without eliminating it. Therefore, as a remedy for that, repeatedly meditate on the appearance of light. Asanga’s  Sravaka Levels states:
  Cultivate serenity and insight correctly, with a mind that is bright and radiant, a mind of clear light, free of gloom. On the way to serenity and insight, meditate on a sense of brightness in this way. If you do, then even if at the outset your interest in an object of meditation is dull and brightness is fading, the cause and condition of having accustomed yourself to that meditation will clarify your interest in the object of meditation and lead to great brightness. If there is clarity and great brightness at the outset, clarity and brightness will later become still more vast.

So since he says you should cultivate brightness even when the object of meditation is clear from the beginning, this is all the more true when it is unclear. Asanga’s Sravaka Levels also describes how to hold the sign of brightness in meditation:
  Hold in meditation the sign of brightness from the light of an oil- lamp, the light of a bonfire, or the orb of the sun.

Meditate on the sign of brightness not only while cultivating concentration, but on other occasions as well.

Lamrim Chenmo Pg62LL13-Pg65L04


References 参考资料:​​
  1. 《菩提道次第廣論》全文下載
  2. The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment (Tib. Lam rim chen mo) (Volume 3), Shambhala Publications
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