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Công Án Không 1 1 2 3 FORWORD: LỜI MỞ ĐẦU: THE GREAT KOAN, YOUR DOG ĐẠI CÔNG ÁN, CON CHÓ John Tarrant John Tarrant KOAN BRINGS ABOUT a change of heart—its CÔNG ÁN DẪN ĐẾN chuyển tâm—giá trị value is to transform the mind. công án chính là chuyển hóa tâm thức. The problem we are trying to solve with a Bài toán công án chúng ta cố gắng giải đáp là: koan is this: Mỗi ngày tâm chúng ta loay hoay nghĩ ngợi The mind we work with every day evolved to làm thế nào để thoát khỏi nanh vuốt mãnh hổ, săn flee saber tooth tigers, hunt mammoths, not kill bắt voi, tránh thường xuyên giết hại lẫn nhau, chia sẻ each other too often, share food, gossip, make miếng ăn, trò chuyện, sinh con đẻ cái và triển khai lý babies and develop theories of the universe. To manage all this, the mind makes hypotheses, thuyết về vũ trụ. Để thực hiện những việc trên, tâm wondering, “Is that a stick on the path or is it a thức đưa ra những giả thuyết rồi thắc mắc, chẳng snake?” or “Is that boy or girl hot?” or “Do I have hạn như “Đó là khúc cây bên đường hay là con rắn?” egg on my face?“ or “What will the cancer biopsy hoặc “cậu đó hoặc cô đó có hấp dẫn không?” hay numbers be when they come in?” “Mặt tôi có ngớ ngẩn không?” hoặc “Không biết kết So we wander along, having thoughts, quả mẩu sinh thiết ung thư chỉ số bao nhiêu?” believing them, acting on them, dealing with the Cứ thế mà chúng ta dong ruỗi, miên man khởi results we get. We scheme and plot, fear and niệm, tin vào, hành động theo, rồi chuốc lấy hậu quả. want, trying to wrestle our states of mind into Chúng ta lên kế hoạch lập chương trình, vừa sợ vừa a comfortable shape. People think, “I want not muốn, vật vã làm thế nào đưa tâm thức vào tình trạng to be crazy when I see my mother,” or “I don’t bình ổn. Người đời thường nghĩ, “Tôi không muốn want to feel jealous, or afraid,” and it’s hard work nổi điên khi đến thăm mẹ,” hoặc “Tôi không muốn and painful to be always two inches to the left thấy mình ganh tị, hay sợ hãi,” và thật khó khổ để đạt of where we want to be. Adjusting our states of điều mình muốn dù trong gang tấc. Điều chỉnh trạng mind is a gymnastic workout that never ends. thái tâm là sự luyện tập không bao giờ chấm dứt. 4 5 Our minds are still in beta and we live at some Bộ não con người vẫn còn ở dạng sóng beta và distance from our actual lives. vì thế chúng ta vẫn sống xa cách thực tại. Koans take account of the confusion and Công án xét đến mê vọng và hiểu lầm là đặc cross-purposes that are a feature of the mind. tính của tâm thức. Những đặc tính này dẫn ta vào They lead us to rest in our uncertainty, including trạng thái bất định, kể cả việc gì đang xảy ra ngay what’s happening now and what we want to flee. bây giờ và điều gì ta muốn thoát ly. Koans offer the possibility that you could Công án cung cấp khả năng giải thoát tâm free the mind in one jump, without passing trong một bước nhảy vọt mà không cần phải kinh through stages or any pretense at logical steps. qua những giai đoạn hoặc bất cứ kỳ vọng nào ở In the territory that koans open up, we live down những bước hợp lý. Trong phạm trù khai mở công a level, before explanations occur, beneath the án, chúng ta sống xuống thấp một tầng mức, trước ground that fear is based on, before the wanting khi lý giải xuất hiện, ngay dưới nền tảng sợ hãi, and the scrambling around for advantage, before trước khi có ý muốn và cố ngoi lên chiếm ưu thế, there is a handle on the problem, before we were trước khi có phương cách giải đáp, trước khi chúng alienated from the world. ta xa lánh thế gian. A koan doesn’t hide or even manage fear Công án không che dấu hoặc ngay cả chế ngự or despair or rage or anything that appears in nỗi sợ hãi, tuyệt vọng, cơn thịnh nộ hoặc bất cứ your mind. Instead, with a koan you might stop điều gì phát sinh trong tâm thức. Ngược lại, qua finding fault with what your mind presents, stop công án chúng ta có thể ngừng kiếm lỗi lầm đang assuming you already know what your thoughts hiện diện trong tâm, ngừng cho rằng mình đã nhận and feelings are about and how they need to be biết niệm tưởng và cảm thọ ra sao và biết cách ứng handled. At some stage my thoughts stopped xử. Ở một giai đoạn nào đó niệm tưởng bớt thôi being compelling and I found a joy in what was thúc và ta tìm ra niềm vui với những gì đang xảy advancing toward me. Everyone thinks you need đến với mình. Mọi người sẽ nghĩ bạn cần một mảnh a patch of earth to stand on or you will fall down. đất cắm dùi nếu không sẽ rớt xuống. 6 7 Your patch of earth might be someone’s Miếng đất cắm dùi có thể là được sự chấp approval or a certain amount of money. When the thuận của ai đó hoặc có một số tiền chẳng hạn. Khi koan opens, you don’t need somewhere to stand, công án khai mở, bạn không cần phải đứng trên or a handle on your experience. miếng đất nào hết, hoặc cần một cách giải quyết The kindness of a koan consists mainly in nào đối với sự chứng nghiệm của mình. taking away what you are sure of about yourself. Lòng tốt của công án chủ yếu là tước bỏ niềm This isn’t a sinister trick, and though I found it tự hào. Đây không phải là một kế độc, và dầu tôi disorienting it was more relieving than painful. cho là đánh lạc hướng nhưng sẽ giúp dễ chịu hơn Taking away is the first gift of a koan. là đau đớn. Tước bỏ là tặng phẩm đầu tiên của Among the thousands of koans in the công án. curriculum, the koan Mu (as it’s known in Giữa hàng ngàn công án thì công án Không Japanese), or Wu (Chinese), or No (English) has đã được sử dụng cả 1,200 năm. Công án Không been used for about 1200 years. It is popular as a được phổ cập như công án hàng đầu, đại diện cho first koan, the koan that stands for all koans, the tất cả công án, khuôn mẫu và tiêu biểu, gây lầm exemplar and representative, confusing, irritating, lẫn, kích thích, huyền bí, đẹp đẽ, và giải thoát, một mysterious, beautiful, and freeing, a gateway into cửa ngõ đi vào thực chất như thị của đời sống, nơi the isness of life, where things are exactly what các pháp đúng là cái-đang-là và chưa thành vấn đề. they are and have not yet become problems. It Công án Không bắt đầu bằng cách xem xét câu hỏi begins by looking at the question of whether we để biết chúng ta xa lạ hoặc giả chúng ta hoàn toàn are alienated or whether we participate fully in dấn thân vào cuộc đời. Công án Không diễn biến life. It comes from a long dialogue with an ancient, bằng một cuộc đối thoại dài với đại thiền sư Trung twinkly, Chinese grandmaster called Zhaozhou. Hoa Triệu Châu. Sau đây là đoạn văn đầy đủ được Here is the full version from The Book of Serenity, trích từ Thung Dung Lục, do Joan Sutherland và as translated by Joan Sutherland and me: tôi chuyển ngữ: A monk asked Zhaozhou, “Does a dog have Tăng hỏi Triệu Châu, “Con chó có Phật tánh Buddha nature or not?” hay không?” “Yes,” replied Zhaozhou, Triệu Châu đáp, “Có,” “Then why did it jump into that bag of fur?” “Thế thì tại sao lại chui vào dãy da?” 8 9 “It knew what it was doing and that’s why it “Vì biết mà cố phạm.” dogged.” Một lần khác tăng hỏi Triệu Châu,2 Another time a monk asked Zhaozhou, “Con chó có Phật tánh hay không?” “Does a dog have Buddha nature or not?” “Không.” “No.” “Tất cả chúng sinh đều có Phật tánh. Tại sao “All beings have Buddha nature. Why doesn’t con chó lại không có?” a dog have it?” “Bởi vì Phật tánh là bản giác trong cõi giới 3 “Because it’s beginning to awaken in the vô minh. ” world of ignorance1.” Các vị thầy thường giao cho đệ tử công án Teachers usually offer the student the one một chữ “Không”. Cả một câu chuyện dài về thủ word “No” or “Mu.” There is a long history to this thuật này và làm thế nào tôi lần đầu tiên đã đương tactic and it was how I first encountered the koan, đầu với công án, có tham khảo trong sách vở. Công reading about it in books. It offered a completely án đưa ra đường lối hoàn toàn khác biệt để tiếp cận different way of approaching the world, something thế gian, một điều gì, tuy lúc ấy tâm tôi rất hoang that, given the confused state of my mind at that mang, nhưng có vẻ xứng đáng để cố gắng.
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