Zen, and its ancestor Chan, is a very practical form of Buddhist wisdom.

禅（Zen），及其古词“禅”（Chan）是佛陀智慧的一种具体实践形式。

It encourages a process of rediscovery by living simply.

它鼓励通过简单的生活重新发现的过程。

The Zen tradition emphasises that enlightenment is possible here and now.

传统禅宗强调任何时间地点都可能开悟。

Is it then very different from other forms of Buddhism?

这样是不是显得禅宗与众不同？

Zen means pointing directly to our mind, it means right now wake up, you know, and be clear, what are you doing now.

禅意味直指我们的精神世界，意味着当下觉悟，意味着明白自己正在做的事。

Actually, our mind is not complicated.

事实上，我们的心灵并不是那么复杂。

It is our thinking with our life that is very complicated.

复杂的是我们队生活的看法。

So Zen is a tool to help us to bring back our mind to our everyday life and be simple.

因此禅是一种工具，它能使我们的心灵回归到日常生活，变得简单。

Zen, like all Buddhist practice, turns philosophy into a tool to help in day-to-day life.

禅，就像所有的佛教修行一样，将哲学转变为帮助处理日常生活的方法。

Meditation is also used to bring about a tangible outcome, either in the understanding of the world or in our ability to deal with it, and with the suffering we see all around and feel within us.

冥想也会使我们获得切实的成果。不管是我们对世界的看法，还是我们的处理能力——处理外部世界的能力，和处理我们所见的周遭苦难和自己承受的内心之苦的能力。

One thing that struck me was that whatever the regional variations of Buddhism, issues of suffering are right at the core of the philosophy.

令我惊讶的是，无论佛教的地区差异有多大，苦难却总是这门哲学的核心内容。

Now that is really interesting, because in general over the last 2,500 years,

这非常有趣，因为在过去的2500多年中，

the cultures of the East have been very unabashed about suffering, they don't mind putting it centre stage.

东方文化对苦难并不避讳。他们并不介意把它放到舞台中央。

Whereas in the West, these are issues that we can sometimes try to brush under the carpets.

但在西方，人们有时恨不得把它扫到地毯下。

In the modern age, for instance, we've been accused of trying to cheat death itself.

在现代社会，举个例子来说，我们常被指责为试图逃避死亡。

But just look at that statue, there's the Buddha promising to deal with all the suffering in the world.

但是，看看那尊佛像，那就是许诺去化解世间所有苦难的佛陀。

So it does make you wonder what future Buddhism has as a global belief system.

这使你想要知道，作为全球性信仰的佛教将会拥有怎样的未来。

What's going to happen when ideas of the East, which put suffering to the fore, start to take root in the West?

东方的观念是要先经历痛苦。这种思想要是在西方扎根后又会如何？