Mindfulness is an extremely difficult concept to define in words -- not
because it is complex, but because it is too simple and open. The same
problem crops up in every area of human experience. The most basic concept
is always the most difficult to pin down. Look at a dictionary and you
will see a clear example. Long words generally have concise definitions,
but for short basic words like 'the' and 'is', definitions can be a page
long. And in physics, the most difficult functions to describe are the most
basic--those that deal with the most fundamental realities of quantum
mechanics. Mindfulness is a pre-symbolic function. You can play with word
symbols all day long and you will never pin it down completely. We can never
fully express what it is. However, we can say what it does.

正念很難藉文字來定義它，這不是因為它複雜，而是由於它過於單純而無隱。這類問
題亦常存在於我們的經驗中，往往最基本的的概念最難澄清。我們可以在英文字典中
看到一個典型的例子：長的字通常具有明確的定義，而某些很短的字卻需整頁的說明
。在物理學上，最難以解釋的就是最基本的、處理最基礎本質的量子力學。正念之難
以用文字描述，即使你用文字說明一整天也無法解釋清楚。我們無法將之完整地描述
，但我們可以解釋它的作用。

                                                        ∼待續∼