His Holiness the 17th Karmapa Trinley Thaye Dorje’s reply to a disciple on 27 February 2014

聖下 第十七世大寶法王 聽列泰耶多傑 對信眾的回答 （日期：2014年2月27日）

His Holiness discusses realizing our true nature.
題目：察覺自己真正的本性

Q: ‘Your Holiness, what is stopping me from realizing my true nature, the Buddha nature?’
問：聖下，請問什麼阻礙我們察覺自己真正的本性 – 佛性？

A: Perhaps it is a lack of a sense of adventure that is holding us back from realizing our true nature. It is easy to get used to the mundane life, the daily routines. As a result, we don’t want to let go of our familiar atmosphere, the life that we are used to. We are missing a sense of adventure.

答：阻礙我們察覺自己真正的本性的，可能是我們欠缺了冒險精神。我們很容易習慣凡世的生活、每天的規律。結果，我們不願意放棄熟悉的環境、及生活。我們欠缺冒險精神。

I think this is rooted in a deep fear: a fear of facing ourselves; a fear of knowing exactly who we are. It is almost like saying we fear looking at ourselves in the mirror and seeing our own reflections.
我想這缺陷是源於深層的恐懼；害怕面對自己；害怕認識自己。就是像恐懼望進鏡子，看到自己的倒影。

Of course, the trouble, or rather the challenge, comes from believing that the mundane elements of our lives somehow define who we are. The errors, the mistakes, the hardships and challenges that we have faced, can sometimes feel like they become a part of us. They hold us back, leaving their mark, sometimes even a sense of trauma. But these experiences are not part of our true nature. In fact, in some ways they can hold us back from seeing our true selves.

當然，這問題（或應該稱為挑戰）源自相信在塵世遭遇的事物，斷定了我們是誰。有時候覺得我們遇到的錯誤、困難、挑戰，成為我們的一部份。這些事物阻礙我們，留下印記、創傷。但這些事情都不是我們真正的品性。其實在某方面，它們阻礙我們看到真我。

Over the years, this kind of habitual pattern can somehow make us not believe in our own true nature, and feel that it is just wishful thinking that our true nature is different – a hopeful dream! So, I think this is what we have to overcome.

經年累月，這些習氣令我們不能相信我們的真本性，並誤以為有別的真本性是痴心妄想。我想我們應克服這觀念。

So that’s why we have to have great courage, and be a bit stern – even a bit stubborn – to really face ourselves.

因此，我們需要強大的勇氣、嚴謹、甚至乎頑固，去真正面對自己。

As practitioners, we will all be faced to some degree by the emotions, challenges and obstacles we experience in life. Without truly facing them, we will never ever realize our true nature.

作為修行人，每人都會遇到情緒化的時候、挑戰、及障礙。不能真正面對它們，我們永遠不能察覺到自己的本性。

When we really face ourselves, when we see our true reflections in the mirror, we see that the errors of this life are manifestations of none other than karma and klesha. We are then able to accept the way things are in quite an efficient way. It is almost as though we are tagging or categorizing our mundane experiences. Once we have somehow put them in their own places, we have nothing to see but ourselves and our true potential. This takes courage. It takes courage to face the fear of the past – to overcome the error of seeing our negative experiences as part of our true selves – but we need to do this in order to to help realize our true nature.

當真正面對自己，在鏡子中看到真正的倒影，我們明白到這生犯的過錯，莫非是業力及煩惱的示現。然後，我們就能夠以一種頗有效率的方法，去接受事物。我們把世上的事物分門別類。當我們把世事安置好，除了自己及其潛能外，就沒有別的可觀。這是要勇氣的。要勇氣面對以前的恐懼；矯正把負面經驗當為自己部份本性的錯誤。我們需要這樣做，才可以幫助證得自己的真本性。