Chapter I The Way to the End of Suffering

The search for a spiritual path is born out of suffering. It does not start with lights and ecstasy, but with the hard tacks of pain, disappointment, and confusion. However, for suffering to give birth to a genuine spiritual search, it must amount to more than something passively received from without. It has to trigger an inner realization, a perception which pierces through the facile complacency of our usual encounter with the world to glimpse the insecurity perpetually gaping underfoot.

When this insight dawns, even if only momentarily, it can precipitate a profound personal crisis. It overturns accustomed goals and values, mocks our routine preoccupations, leaves old enjoyments stubbornly unsatisfying.

靈性道路的追尋，是由「苦」而產生的。它的開始不是因為輕快或狂喜，而是受到痛苦、失望與迷惑等困境的啟迪。然而，「苦」之所以產生真實的心靈追尋，絕對不只是被動地接受來自外在的動力，必是內在的了悟

受到驅動，而生起一種覺察力，穿透了我們一向以膚淺 自滿的態度所面對的世間，而瞥見它正危脆地在我們腳下裂開。當這種洞察的靈光乍現，即使只是一剎那，也能猛然引發個人深層的轉變，顛覆慣有的目標和價值， 阻斷我們日常關切的雜務，遠離難以滿足的舊有享樂。

**摘自Bhikkhu Bodhi （The Noble Eightfold Path）

**香光寺譯