Dhammapada verse #46
知此身如泡，覺悟是幻法，折魔羅花箭，越死王所見。
Having known this froth-like body
and awakening to its mirage nature,
smashing Mara’s flowered shafts
unseen beyond the Death-king go.
☆☆☆
【第46偈的故事】
有一次，佛陀停留在舍衛城的祇樹給孤獨園時，有位比丘得到佛陀給他的觀想題目後，到一處森林裡去禪修。
他雖然很精進，卻進步不多，因此對自己不滿意，並且想道：「我要回去，請佛陀另外給一個比較適合我的題目。」想完之後，他就出發回祇樹給孤獨園。
途中，他遇見海市蜃樓，仔細思惟之後，他明白這種現象不過是水的幻影而已。人的血肉之軀同樣也只是生老病死的幻像，實際上無我。他當下繼續觀想海市蜃樓的幻像。後來，他又到阿致羅筏底河邊洗浴，洗完後坐在河邊的樹下休息時，看見飛濺的水花泡沫時，他明白血肉之軀的無常。
這時候，佛陀在祇樹給孤獨園中，看見他的情形，就放光，向他說法：「比丘！你的觀念正確，繼續保持下去，能夠觀身如水花般無常，幻影般無我是很好的事。」
佛陀告誡後，這比丘就證得阿羅漢果。
While residing at the Jētavana Monastery, the Buddha spoke this Verse, with reference to a certain monk.
A monk obtained a meditation topic from the Buddha and entered the forest for the purpose of practising meditation. But when, after striving and struggling with might and main, he was unable to attain arahatship, he said to himself, “I will ask the Buddha to give me a meditation topic that better suits my needs.” With this thought in mind he set out to return to the Buddha.
On the way he saw a mirage. He said to himself, “Even as this mirage, as seen in the season of the heat, appears substantial to those that are far off, but vanishes on nearer approach, so also is this existence unsubstantial by reason of birth and decay.” Upon fixing his mind on the mirage, he meditated on the mirage. On his return, wearied with the journey, he bathed in the Aciravati River and seated himself in the shade of a tree on the river bank near a waterfall. As he sat there watching the white water bursting from the force of the water striking against the rocks, he said to himself, “Just as this existence produced and just so does it burst.” And this he took for his meditation topic.
The Buddha, seated in his perfumed chamber, saw the elder and said, “Monk, it is even so. Like a bubble of foam or a mirage is this existence. Precisely thus is it produced and precisely thus does it pass away.” And when He had thus spoken the Buddha pronounced the stanza.
他雖然很精進，卻進步不多，因此對自己不滿意，並且想道：「我要回去，請佛陀另外給一個比較適合我的題目。」想完之後，他就出發回祇樹給孤獨園。
途中，他遇見海市蜃樓，仔細思惟之後，他明白這種現象不過是水的幻影而已。人的血肉之軀同樣也只是生老病死的幻像，實際上無我。他當下繼續觀想海市蜃樓的幻像。後來，他又到阿致羅筏底河邊洗浴，洗完後坐在河邊的樹下休息時，看見飛濺的水花泡沫時，他明白血肉之軀的無常。
這時候，佛陀在祇樹給孤獨園中，看見他的情形，就放光，向他說法：「比丘！你的觀念正確，繼續保持下去，能夠觀身如水花般無常，幻影般無我是很好的事。」
佛陀告誡後，這比丘就證得阿羅漢果。
While residing at the Jētavana Monastery, the Buddha spoke this Verse, with reference to a certain monk.
A monk obtained a meditation topic from the Buddha and entered the forest for the purpose of practising meditation. But when, after striving and struggling with might and main, he was unable to attain arahatship, he said to himself, “I will ask the Buddha to give me a meditation topic that better suits my needs.” With this thought in mind he set out to return to the Buddha.
On the way he saw a mirage. He said to himself, “Even as this mirage, as seen in the season of the heat, appears substantial to those that are far off, but vanishes on nearer approach, so also is this existence unsubstantial by reason of birth and decay.” Upon fixing his mind on the mirage, he meditated on the mirage. On his return, wearied with the journey, he bathed in the Aciravati River and seated himself in the shade of a tree on the river bank near a waterfall. As he sat there watching the white water bursting from the force of the water striking against the rocks, he said to himself, “Just as this existence produced and just so does it burst.” And this he took for his meditation topic.
The Buddha, seated in his perfumed chamber, saw the elder and said, “Monk, it is even so. Like a bubble of foam or a mirage is this existence. Precisely thus is it produced and precisely thus does it pass away.” And when He had thus spoken the Buddha pronounced the stanza.
☆☆☆
中文法句出處：《南傳法句經》 了參法師譯
中文故事出處：《法句經故事集》 達摩難陀長老著 周金言譯
