（按：metta是【佛教在线-佛法论坛】里的一位会员，文章出自他。我在这里重新编辑一下）
很早以前就注意到佛教论坛上介绍蒂帕嬷的一些帖子，但并没有引起我的重视。后来看到网友翻译整理的一些资料，介绍蒂帕嬷一些弟子受蒂帕嬷指导禅修的修行经历，认识到这些是非常有价值的禅修参考资料，于是才搜索蒂帕嬷的有关资料，从网上购买了《佛陀的女儿：南传佛教大修行人的传奇心灵》的英文原版“Dipa Ma——The Life and Legacy of A Buddhist Master”。阅读此书，才知道到蒂帕嬷在成就内观智慧（证得了二果）之后，修习并征得了八种禅定和五种神通。不仅仅是她，还有她的妹妹以及她们两家的几个孩子，都是先证得了内观智慧（至少是初果），再修禅定和神通，只是书中没有提她们几位禅定和神通达到了何种水平,但至少书中的记载表明她妹妹的神通成就也是相当大。我们知道，一般认为马哈希禅法修纯内观，走的是慧解脱的路子。有的朋友发心比较高远，不满足于修纯内观，还希望成就禅定和神通，所以可能就会选择先修禅定的法门。但是从这些例子看，完全可以在成就内观智慧之后成就禅定和神通，这就给人们更多的选择。在家人很难长时间住在森林里修行，要先成就禅定颇不容易，因为一般居住的地方很难找到能成就禅定的安静环境。无疑蒂帕嬷给在家人树立了一个很好的榜样，在家人可以先成就智慧，再成就禅定。先修内观，后修禅定，按照经典这样也是可行的.
下面把书中关于蒂帕嬷禅定和神通的有关章节选译一些和大家分享：
1.蒂帕嬷修学神通的因缘 （摘自第二章 ）
In 1965, Dipa Ma was drawn into a new dimension of spiritual practice. In anticipation of Munindra's return to India, the Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw told his student that since he was going back to "the land of siddhis"(psychic powers), he should know something about them. He wanted to train Munindra in the siddhis, but Munindra was too involved in teaching to undertake siddhi practice himself. Instead, Munindra decided to train others, partly as an experiment to prove that the siddhis were real. For this purpose he chose his most advanced students, Dipa Ma and her family,and trained them directly from Visuddhimaga. Munindra knew that psychic powers are not only amoral, but also potentially seductive. There is a great risk of their misuse unless a student's moral development is secure. Dipa Ma was chosen not only for her powers of concentration but also for her impeccable morality.
在1965年，蒂帕嬷被带进了一个新的禅修领域。因为穆恁德拉（蒂帕嬷的师傅）将要回印度，马哈希尊者对他这位弟子说，你既然要回到“神通的国度”，你应该对神通有所了解。他想让穆恁德拉修炼神通，但是穆恁德拉忙于教导弟子没有时间修炼。因此，穆恁德拉决定训练别人，也算一个实验，用来证明神通的真实性。为此，他选择了他的最优秀的一些学生，就是蒂帕嬷和她的一家，直接按照清净道论的方法进行训练。穆恁德拉知道神通不仅是不寻常的，而且可能让人走偏道路。如果一个弟子的德行不够，滥用神通的危险很大。蒂帕嬷被选中，不仅因为她的定力，也是因为她有无可挑剔的德行。
2.禅定和神通的成就（摘自第九章）
Dipa Ma developed her supernatural powers under Munindra's tuelage and never demonstrated them except at his request. Such powers are achieved not throught insight meditation, but throught concentration practices, in which the mind enters a deep state of absorption known as jhana. While she was doing jhana practice, Dpa Ma could enter any of the eight classical jhanic states at will and stay in it as long as she wanted. In the deeper jhanas, bodily processes can sometimes slow almost to a standstill, so it is not neccessary to drink, eat, sleep,move,or urinate. Dipa Ma could resolve to enter a specific jhana and "wake up" or emerge from it at predetermined time. On one occasion, she resolved to enter the eighth jhana and stay in it for three days,twenty hours,eight minutes,and three seconds. She emerged from the jhana exactly to the second that she had predetermined.
蒂帕嬷在穆恁德拉指导下开发出了神通，但是没有他的要求她绝不会给别人表现这些神通。神通不是由内观获得，而是通过修定，这种修行心会进入称为禅那的深定。在修禅那时，她能如意地进入经典的八定之中任何一定，并且在定中停留她所希望的时间。在比较深的定中，身体的新陈代谢几乎停止，所以不需要喝水、吃饭、运动、以及上厕所。蒂帕嬷能够通过决意进入某一定并且在预先设定的时间“醒来”或者说出定。有一次，她决定进入第八定并且在定中停留3天20小时8分3秒。她出定的时间就精确到她预先确定的秒数。
When she left Burma, Dipa Ma stopped ptracticing these powers, insisting that they involve ego and are therefore a hindrance to liberation. Munindra concurred. "These powers are not important," he said. "Enlightenment is important.You need wisdom to use these powers . You don't want to use these powers with ego,beause they are not yours. You can't use them and think you're the one who is powerful. This is not wisdom."
当她离开缅甸后，蒂帕嬷停止了修练神通。她坚持认为神通包含我相因此对解脱是一种障碍。穆恁德拉也同意这个观点,他说:“这些神通并不重要，悟道才是重要的。你需要智慧驾驭这些神通。你不要想带着我相运用这些神通，因为这不是你的。你不能运用神通并且认为正是你很了不起。这不是智慧。”
Jack Engler once asked Dipa Ma if she sitll possessed the extraordinary powers she had acquired years before while studying with Munindra.
"No," she said.
"Could you get them back?"
"Yes,"she said, "but it would take a long time."
"How long?" asked Jack, thinking she would reply in terms of months or years.
"Oh, about three days,"she replied, "if I really practiced."
杰克.英格勒尔曾经问蒂帕嬷她是否还拥有她多年前根穆恁德拉学习时获得的神通。
“没有，”她回答说。
“你可以把神通找回来吗?”
“可以，”她说，“但是要很长时间。”
“多长？”杰克问道，心想她可能会说几个月或几年。
“嗯，大约三天，”她回答说，“如果我很认真地用功的话。”
（五种神通，略）
According to Munindra, Dipa Ma demonstrated each of these powers to him. The following are based on Munindra's recollections. "You may not believe it,"he said,"but it's true."
按照穆恁德拉，蒂帕嬷向他表演了这些神通（五种神通）的每一种。下面内容是基于穆恁德拉的回忆。“你可能不相信，”他说，“但这是真的。”
Once Munindra was in his room when he noticed something unusual in the sky outside his window. He looked out and saw Dipa Ma in the air near the tops of the trees, grinning at him and playing in a room she had built in the sky. By changing the air element into the earth element, she had been able to create a structure in mid-air.
有一次穆恁德拉正在他的房间，他注意到他窗外的天空有些不寻常。他向外看，看见蒂帕嬷在树梢上方的空中一边咧着嘴向他笑，一边在空中她变现的房屋里面玩。通过把风元素变为地元素，他可以在半空中造出一个建筑物。
Changing denser elements to air produced only slightly less astonishing occurrences. Sometimes Dipa Ma and her sister Hema arrived for interviews with Munindra by spontaneously appearing in his room, and Dipa Ma occasionally left by walking throught the closed door. If she was feeling especially playful,she might rise from her chair, go to the nearest wall, and walk right through it.
把厚重的元素变成风元素，产生的震撼稍小一点但同样也是令人惊奇的事。有时蒂帕嬷和她的妹妹西嬷去见穆恁德拉会突然在他的房间现身，蒂帕嬷偶尔在离开时会穿过关着的门走出去。如果她感到很有玩兴，她可能从椅子上站起来走到最近的墙壁，直接穿墙走过去。
Dipa Ma learned to cook food by making the fire element come out of her hands. She could also change the earth element into the water element, which she demonstrated to Munindra by diving into a patch of ground and emerging with her clothes and hair wet. If she had to walk alone at night, Dipa Ma could duplicate her body, creating a companion for herself so that no one would bother her.
蒂帕嬷学会了用她的手产生火元素来生火做饭。她还能把地元素变成水元素，她曾这样向穆恁德拉表演：象跳水那样她潜入一块地面之下然后从中钻出来，衣服头发都是湿的。如果她必须一个人走夜路，蒂帕嬷会复制一个身体，给她自己造一个同伴，这样就没人找她麻烦。
Dipa Ma's abbilities in this regard were once tested by a third party. Munindra knew a professor of Ancent Indian History at Magadh University who was skeptical about psychic powers. Munindra offered to prove the existence of such powers, and the two of them set up an experiment. The professor posted a trusted graduate student in a room where Dipa Ma was meditating to watch and make sure she didn't leave the room. On the appointed day, the student verified that Dipa Ma never left her meditation posture, and yet at the very same time, she appeared at the professor's office ten miles away and had a conversation with him.
蒂帕嬷的这方面的神通曾由第三方测试过。穆恁德拉认识摩羯陀大学的一位印度古代史教授，这位教授怀疑神通的存在。穆恁德拉表明愿意向他证明神通的存在，于是他们俩就安排了一个实验。这个教授派了一个他信得过的研究生在蒂帕嬷禅坐的房间守着以确保她没有离开房间。在实验那天，那位研究生确认蒂帕嬷从没有从禅坐中起来，但是在同时，她却出现在十里之外的教授办公室和教授说话。
Dipa Ma and Hema once used their extraordinary powers in tandem to move a bus. One afternoon in Rangoon, they were waiting at a bus stop. When the bus finally arrived, over an hour late, they realized they were going to miss their engagement some distance away. Because it was important to arrive one time, they both began to concentrate and got the bus back on schedule."During the samadhi [absorptive ]state,"Munindra explained,"they made resolutions and moved the bus even while sitting in it. They shortened the time and distance. It can be done. The Buddha did this with Angulimala. When Angulimala was trying to kill the Buddha, he kept running after him,but the Buddha didn't move, and still he could not catch him. This was because the Buddha used his powers to make the distance always the same."
蒂帕嬷和西嬷曾联手用她们的神通力影响一辆公共汽车的运行。在仰光的一天下午，她们在公共汽车站等车。当车子终于到了的时候，已经晚点一个小时，她们意识到她们会错过约定的时间太多。由于按时到达很重要，她们开始入定并且让公共汽车正点到达。“在三摩地状态，”穆恁德拉解释说，“她们决意并且移动那辆她们坐的汽车。她们让时间和距离变短。这是可以做到的。佛陀曾经对秧倔摩罗运用这种神通。当秧倔摩罗想杀佛陀的时候，他不断追赶佛陀，但佛陀没有移动他也追不上。这是因为佛陀用他的神通使他们之间的距离保持不变。
When the Burmese diplomat U Thant was about to become the new secretary general of the United Nations, Munindra, knowing that U Thant would give an acceptance speech, asked Dipa Ma to go into the future and remember the content. She recited the speech, and Munindra recorded it . A month later, accoring to Munindra, U Thant gave the exact speech, word for word, just as Dpa Ma had predicted.
当缅甸外交官吴丹（U Thant）就要就成为联合国新任秘书长时，穆恁德拉知道吴丹会作一个就职演说，就叫蒂帕嬷进入未来并且记住就职演说的内容。然后她念出就职演说，穆恁德拉把它录下来。据穆恁德拉说，一个月以后，吴丹作了完全一致的演说，和蒂帕嬷预先知道的一字不差。
