Many people today experience death anxiety. Why is this? It’s because we perceive life and death as very concrete realities, leading to the formation of inherent views about the phenomena of life and death. Believing that death signifies the end of everything, we cling to life and fear death.

现在很多人有死亡焦虑，为什么会这样？是因为我们把生和死看得非常实在，就会在生的现象上产生自性见，在死的现象上也产生自性见，以为死亡就是一切的终结，于是贪著生，恐惧死。

The Buddha attained enlightenment under the Bodhi tree through the observation of the cycle of birth and death. Life, like a river, follows the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination: ignorance, formations, consciousness, name and form, six sense bases, contact, feeling, craving, grasping, becoming, birth, and old age and death, cycling endlessly. These are the twelve links of samsara, where sentient beings create karma due to ignorance, and by the force of karma, consciousness is propelled to take rebirth, constituting name and form. The six sense bases are our windows to see the world; upon contact with external objects, they give rise to various feelings, leading to craving, grasping, becoming, and thus to the continuation of birth and death.

当年佛陀在菩提树下，就是通过对生死轮回的观察而觉悟。生命就像河流，遵循无明、行、识、名色、六入、触、受、爱、取、有、生、老死十二因缘，周而复始。这也是轮回的十二个环节，众生因无明而造业，由业力推动识去投胎，构成名色。六入是我们认识世界的六个窗口，当它们接触外境后，会产生各种感受，导致爱、取、有，导致生死的相续。

In this process, we tend to develop inherent views and attachments at each link. Now, we need to learn to observe each link with the wisdom of emptiness. Whether it’s ignorance, formations, consciousness, or even birth and death, all are devoid of inherent existence and are merely false appearances arising from conditions. Ignorance, in essence, does not exist; Formations, fundamentally, do not exist; Consciousness, fundamentally, does not exist. The non-existence mentioned here is in terms of inherent nature. But on the level of dependent origination, from ignorance to old age and death, every link exists.

在此过程中，我们在每个环节都会产生自性见，产生执著。现在我们要学会用空性智慧观察每一个环节，不论无明也好，行也好，识也好，乃至生死也好，都是无自性的存在，都是条件关系的假相。无明，其实根本没有无明；行，其实根本没有行；识，其实根本没有识。这里所说的没有，是自性意义上的没有。在缘起层面，无明乃至老死都是有的。

If we can understand that each link forming the cycle of birth and death is a false appearance arising from conditions, and by wisely observing them, we can experience the nature of emptiness, which is neither arising nor ceasing, at the moment of observation, thereby transcending birth and death within the cycle itself. When we come to experience the nature of emptiness, which is neither arising nor ceasing, would we still fear death?

如果我们能了解到，构成生死的每个环节都是条件关系的假相，通过对它们的智慧观照，就能在观照的当下，体会到不生不灭的空性，在生死中超越生死。当我们体会到不生不灭的空性，还会害怕死亡吗？

摘自《心经》的禅观

版权所有：济群法师

Excerpted from:

The Meditative Approach to The Heart Sutra

by Master Jiqun