(３６)现在先检视一个次要问题，好让我们更了解以下的问答。我要提出的问题是：
“世间充满着什么？”

36) Now we shall examine a minor point to help give us a better understanding of the foregoing questions and answers. I shall put the question,

36) “What is the world full of?”

　　有些人以这样的角度回答：“世间充满着苦”，他们说世间只有苦的生起、苦的安住、苦的熄灭。这样的说法没有错，但令人难以理解。

SOME PEOPLE WITH a certain outlook answer, “This world is full of suffering (dukkha).” For instance they say that there is nothing that arises, persists, and passes away but it is a source of suffering. This is correct, but it is hard to understand.

　　这个问题应像佛陀一样回答：“世间充满着‘空’。世间都是‘空’的，没有什么是‘我’或‘人’。”

The question should be answered as the Buddha answered it. “This world is full of empty things. This world is empty. There is nothing that is a “self” or that belongs to a ‘self’.”

　　因此，不要只满意“世间只有苦，没有什么不是苦”的回答，而认为这说法是对的。这说法确实是正确的，但太过含糊，一不小心就错了，因为只要对一切事物都不执着，就一点也不苦了。

Don’t be satisfied with saying simply “In the world there is only suffering, there is nothing that is not a source of suffering.” This is certainly a correct statement, but it is ambiguous and liable to be misinterpreted; for those same things, if one doesn’t go grasping and clinging at them, are not a source of suffering at all.

　　要充分了解世间和构成世间的任何东西，本身并不是苦，是人们起了执着才有苦，如果没有执着就无苦。因此不可以说生命是“苦”或“不苦”，若只说“生命是苦”，那么是太肤浅。且太过简化了。

Let this be well understood. Neither the world nor any of the things that comprise the world is or ever has been in itself, a source of suffering. The moment one goes grasping and clinging, there is suffering; if one does not grasp and cling, there is no suffering. To say that life is suffering is shallow, oversimplified, and premature.

　　有执着的生命是苦的，若不执着就不苦了。生命不是毫无意义的，它有价值，喜欢说生命没有价值的人，是因为他们不知如何让它有价值。

Life grasped at and clung to is suffering; life not grasped at or clung to is not suffering.This life has purpose, it is not pointless. Some people like to say that life has no purpose because they do not know how to give it purpose.

　　如果我们知道怎样把“生命当成工具”，用它来认知世间、世间的起因、世间的灭尽和到达世间灭尽的修行之道，那么生命就有价值了，它已成为学习、修行和获取成果的根据地，同时也是用来了解人类所能达到的至高无上境界——涅槃的基地。所以请记住！生命真的有意义，但是对不知如何利用它的傻瓜而言，生命一点价值也没有。

If we known how to use this life as an instrument for finding out about the world, about the causes of the world’s arising, about the complete cessation of the world, and about the way of practice leading to the complete cessation of the world, then this life does have purpose. Life, then, is a means of studying, practising, and obtaining the fruits of practice. It is a means of coming to know the best thing that human beings can and ought to know, namely, nibbāna. So remember, this life does have purpose, although for the fool who doesn’t know how to use it, it has no purpose at all.

　　世间充满着什么？从某个角度看，你会说它充满着“苦”，或简单地说“它是苦”，但从较高层次的角度看，你可以说它什么都不是，只有无止尽的生、住、灭，生、住、灭……。如果我们执着它，就会产生痛苦；如果我们不去执着，它只是继续生、住、灭罢了。所以，已解脱和证阿罗汉果的人，不会把这些当成痛苦或快乐，他们清净的五蕴只是随着因缘而迁流变化，那不能说是苦的。

What is the world full of? Look at it from one point of view and you say, “It is full of suffering,” or simply, “It is suffering.” But look at it from a higher point of view and you can say that it is nothing but an endless process of arising, persisting, ceasing, arising, persisting, ceasing. If we grasp at and cling to it, suffering will be produced. If we do not grasp at and cling to it, then it simply continues arising, persisting, and ceasing. So we must bear in mind that a person who has become free, who has become an arahant, does not regard these things as a source of suffering, nor of happiness either. The arahant’s unsoiled pa.cakkhandha (five aggregates or body-mind complex) cannot be said to be involved in suffering. There is only the causally conditioned flowing, changing, and revolving of the five aggregates.

　　世间充满着什么？充满着生、住、灭的事物，执着就苦，不执着就不苦。

What is the world full of? It is full of things that arise, persist, and cease. Grasp and cling to them, and they produce suffering (dukkha). Don’t grasp and cling to them, and they do not produce suffering.