时间：08/23/2025 08/24/2025
地点：星湖禅修中心
主讲：龙示林
佛法知识
禅修中的觉受
在禅修过程中，觉受几乎不可避免地会出现。所谓觉受，指的是修行中身心所体验到的各种感受与状态，包括轻安、喜悦、清明、扩展、沉静，也包括不适、酸麻、紧绷、烦躁、空虚等。对许多修行者而言，觉受往往是最先引起注意的部分，也最容易引发困惑与执著。
需要首先澄清的是，觉受并不是禅修的目的。它们是修行过程中自然出现的现象，是身心条件改变时的伴随反应，而不是修行成就本身。若将觉受视为目标，修行很容易从觉知转为追逐，从清醒转为贪著。
觉受之所以会出现，是因为禅修改变了心的运作方式。当心逐渐安定、觉知增强，平时被忽略的身体感受与心理变化会变得清晰。原本被散乱掩盖的细微经验浮现出来，觉受便随之而生。这并不神秘，也不特殊，只是觉知变得更细致的结果。
在初期修行中，愉悦性的觉受尤其容易引发误解。轻安、喜悦、宁静、明亮，往往让修行者误以为自己已经“修得很好”，甚至以为这就是觉悟。事实上，这些觉受仍然属于有为法，是因缘和合的结果，必然会变化、消失。若对其生起执取，反而会成为新的障碍。
与愉悦觉受相对的，是不舒服甚至令人困扰的觉受。腿部疼痛、身体僵硬、情绪翻涌、内心空虚，常被误认为修行出了问题。实际上，这些觉受往往是长期被忽略或压抑的身心反应，在觉知增强后浮现出来。它们并不是退步，而是修行触及真实层面的表现。
禅修中对觉受的正确态度，是如实觉知而不介入。觉受出现时，既不追逐，也不排斥；既不美化，也不否定。只是清楚地知道：此刻，某种觉受正在出现。觉受持续时，知道它在持续；觉受变化时，知道它在变化；觉受消失时，知道它在消失。这样的态度，才是真正的修行。
觉受之所以重要，不在于它们本身，而在于它们如何帮助修行者看见无常、苦与非我。任何觉受，无论多么细腻或强烈，都无法恒常存在；试图抓住它，便会带来紧张；抗拒它，也会带来不满。当修行者在觉受中直接体会这些事实，智慧便不再只是概念。
在成熟的禅修中，觉受逐渐不再占据中心位置。修行者不再频繁评估“现在的状态如何”，而是更关心是否保持觉知。觉受可以存在，也可以不存在，但觉知持续存在。这是修行从“体验导向”转向“觉知导向”的重要标志。
一个常见的偏差，是以觉受作为衡量修行进展的标准。事实上，修行是否成熟，并不取决于觉受是否殊胜，而取决于贪、嗔、痴是否减弱，反应性是否降低，心是否更为柔软与清醒。若觉受很多，但执著与我执未减，修行仍停留在表层。
在日常生活中，觉受的训练同样重要。工作中的紧张、关系中的温暖、压力下的收缩，都是觉受的延伸。若能以禅修中培养的态度去觉知这些感受，而不立刻反应，修行便真正融入生活。
最终，禅修中的觉受，只是路上的风景，而非终点。它们提醒修行正在发生，却不能代替解脱本身。当修行者能够欣赏觉受而不依赖觉受，经历觉受而不迷失觉受，心便逐渐走向真正的自由。
因此，正确理解禅修中的觉受，是修行成熟的重要一步。觉受可以来，可以去；重要的不是它们带来了什么感觉，而是修行者是否在其中保持清醒。当觉知稳固，觉受便失去束缚的力量，反而成为通向智慧与解脱的助缘。
Date: 08/23/2025 08/24/2025
Location: Star Lake Meditation Center
Teacher: Shilin Long
Dharma Knowledge
Experiential Sensations in Zen Meditation
In the course of Zen meditation, experiential sensations inevitably arise. These sensations include bodily and mental experiences such as ease, joy, clarity, openness, and stillness, as well as discomfort, pain, tension, restlessness, or emptiness. For many practitioners, these sensations are the most noticeable aspect of practice and also the most confusing.
It is essential to clarify at the outset that such sensations are not the goal of meditation. They are natural byproducts of changing mental and physical conditions, not indicators of awakening. When sensations are taken as goals, meditation easily shifts from awareness to pursuit, from clarity to attachment.
Sensations arise because meditation alters the way the mind functions. As attention stabilizes and awareness deepens, subtle bodily and mental processes that were previously unnoticed come into view. Experiences that were masked by distraction become vivid, and sensations naturally follow. This is not mystical or extraordinary, but a simple result of refined awareness.
In early practice, pleasant sensations are especially prone to misunderstanding. Calm, joy, lightness, and clarity can lead practitioners to believe they have attained something profound or final. In reality, these sensations are conditioned phenomena. They arise due to causes and conditions and will inevitably change and fade. Attachment to them becomes a new form of bondage.
Unpleasant sensations, on the other hand, are often interpreted as signs of failure. Physical pain, emotional turbulence, restlessness, or inner emptiness can feel discouraging. Yet these sensations frequently represent long-suppressed or unnoticed reactions surfacing under increased awareness. They are not regressions, but indications that practice is reaching deeper layers of experience.
The appropriate attitude toward sensations in meditation is clear knowing without interference. When a sensation arises, it is neither pursued nor rejected, neither idealized nor denied. It is simply known. When it remains, it is known as remaining; when it changes, it is known as changing; when it fades, it is known as fading. This relationship to sensation is itself the practice.
The importance of sensations lies not in their content, but in what they reveal. Every sensation, pleasant or unpleasant, demonstrates impermanence. Clinging to pleasant sensation creates tension; resisting unpleasant sensation creates suffering. When these truths are directly experienced within sensation, insight ceases to be theoretical and becomes embodied.
As meditation matures, sensations gradually lose their central importance. Practitioners become less concerned with evaluating their current state and more attentive to the continuity of awareness itself. Sensations may arise or not, but awareness remains present. This shift marks the movement from experience-centered practice to awareness-centered practice.
A common mistake is to use sensations as a measure of progress. True progress is not indicated by extraordinary experiences, but by the reduction of greed, aversion, and delusion, by decreased reactivity, and by increased clarity and compassion. Rich experiences without inner transformation remain superficial.
The training with sensation extends naturally into daily life. Tension at work, warmth in relationships, contraction under pressure are all forms of sensation. When these are met with the same mindful presence cultivated in meditation, practice becomes integrated with living.
Ultimately, sensations in Zen meditation are scenery along the path, not the destination. They signal that practice is active, but they cannot replace liberation itself. When practitioners can experience sensations without dependency or aversion, awareness becomes free.
Understanding experiential sensations correctly is therefore a crucial step toward maturity in practice. Sensations may come and go; what matters is whether awareness remains clear. When awareness is stable, sensations lose their binding power and instead become supportive conditions for insight and freedom.
