It's physically grueling too. You are forbidden to shift your body at all once you have been seated, no matter how severe your discomfort. You just sit there and tell yourself, "There's no reason I need to move at all during the next two hours." If you are feeling discomfort then you are supposed to meditate upon that discomfort, watching the effect that physical pain has on you. In our real lives, we are constantly hopping around to adjust ourselves around discomfort — physical, emotional and psychological—in order to evade the reality of grief and nuisance. Vipassana meditation teaches that grief and nuisance are inevitable in this life, but if you can plant yourself in stillness long enough, you will, in time, experience the truth that everything (both uncomfortable and lovely) does eventually pass.
對生理亦是一大考驗。一旦就座，便不準移動身子，無論多么不舒服。你坐在那兒，告訴自己：“接下來兩個小時，我沒有理由隨便亂動?！奔偈垢械讲贿m，也應當沉思這種不適，觀察肉體的痛苦對自己產生的影響。在現實生活中，我們不斷調整自己生理、情緒、心理上的不適，以便逃避現實中的悲傷與障礙?！皟扔^”則教人把悲傷與障礙視為人生在世不可避免的部分，但假若能做到長時間靜坐，你遲早會認清，一切（無論難受或美好的事）終會過去。
"The world is afflicted with death and decay, therefore the wise do not grieve, knowing the terms of the world," says an old Buddhist teaching. In other words: Get used to it. I don't think Vipassana is necessarily the path for me. It's far too austere for my notions of devotional practice, which generally revolve around compassion and love and butterflies and bliss and a friendly God (what my friend Darcey calls "Slumber Party Theology"). There isn't even any talk about "God" in Vipassana, since the notion of God is considered by some Buddhists to be the final object of dependency, the ultimate fuzzy security blanket, the last thing to be abandoned on the path to pure detachment. Now, I have my own personal issues with the very word detachment, having met spiritual seekers who already seem to live in a state of complete emotional disconnect from other human beings and who, when they talk about the sacred pursuit of detachment, make me want to shake them and holler, "Buddy, that is the last thing you need to practice!"
“人世就是這樣，受衰老和死亡折磨，所以，智者懂得人世的規則，不再悲傷?！惫爬系姆鸾探塘x如是說。換言之：習慣它吧。我認為“內觀”不見得適合我。就我的修行觀而言，它太過嚴峻，而我的修行觀通常是以慈悲、愛、蝴蝶、幸福、友善之神為中心（我的朋友達西［Darcy］稱之為“睡衣派對神學”）。內觀禪修對神只字未提，因為神的概念被某些佛教徒視為是最后的依賴目標、最終的靠山，是通往解脫過程中最后將舍棄的事物。我個人對“解脫”一詞很是疑問，我曾遇過生活方式已經幾乎與人類情感脫節的求道者，當他們也說起追求解脫的境界時，我真想推推他們，高喊“老兄，這個是你最不需要練習的啊！”
Still, I can see where cultivating a measure of intelligent detachment in your life can be a valuable instrument of peace. And after reading about Vipassana meditation in the library one afternoon, I got to thinking about how much time I spend in my life crashing around like a great gasping fish, either squirming away from some uncomfortable distress or flopping hun-grily toward ever more pleasure. And I wondered whether it might serve me (and those who are burdened with the task of loving me) if I could learn to stay still and endure a bit more without always getting dragged along on the potholed road of circumstance.
盡管如此，我看得出在生活中培養解脫之道，或許有益于求得平靜。某天下午，在圖書室讀完內觀禪修法后，我思索自己一生花費多少時間像一條喘氣的大魚橫沖直撞，不是扭身逃開不舒服的痛苦，就是如饑似渴地撲向更多的愉悅。若能學會待在原地處之泰然，不要總是在坑坑洼洼的人生道路上被拖著走，或許對我（以及因為愛我而受拖累的那些人）會很有用呢。
All these questions came back to me this evening, when I found a quiet bench in one of the Ashram gardens and decided to sit in meditation for an hour—Vipassana-style. No move-ment, no agitation, not even mantra—just pure regarding. Let's see what comes up. Unfortu-nately, I had forgotten about what "comes up" at dusk in India: mosquitoes. As I soon as I sat down on that bench in the lovely gloaming, I could hear the mosquitoes coming at me, brush-ing against my face and landing—in a group assault—on my head, ankles, arms. And then their fierce little burns. I didn't like this. I thought, "This is a bad time of day to practice Vipas-sana meditation."
這些問題今晚都回來了，于是我在道場的庭院找到一張安靜的長凳，決定靜坐一個小時——以“內觀”方式。靜止不動，氣定神閑，甚至不念咒語——僅純粹觀心，看會出現什么。很不幸，我忘了印度傍晚時分會“出現”的是——蚊子。美好的暮色中，在板凳上坐了下來，立刻聽見蚊子朝我而來，掠過我的臉，群起而攻停在我的頭上、腳踝上、手臂上，而后展開猛烈的叮咬。我不喜歡。我心想：“這不是練習內觀禪修的好時辰。”
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