佛的世界观

08.

记者：

佛教是很开放、不拒绝的，它是用一种宇宙眼光来看待一切事物，对吧？

Journalist: Buddhism is open and all-inclusive. It sees everything with a cosmic perspective, right?

传喜法师：

可以用“开放”，也可以用“全息”这个名词。

Master Chuan-xi: You can use ‘open’, and also the term ‘holographic’.

记者：

“全息”？

Journalist: Holographic?

传喜法师：

爱因斯坦说，它是具足了宇宙的自然现象、生命的智慧综合一体的。

Master Chuan-xi: Einstein said that Buddhism possesses completely the unity of the natural phenomena of the universe and the wisdom of life.

记者：

那么，请法师简明地总结一下佛教的世界观？

Journalist: Could Master please offer us a concise summary of the Buddhist worldview then?

传喜法师：

佛教的世界观，每一个生命都有佛性，如果迷失了自己的佛性，就像一个人被蒙住了眼睛，走路是危险的，然后在这个过程中会误入歧途、六道轮回，而一旦打开了“佛性”这个智慧的眼睛，自己就会选择正确的道路。

Master Chuan-xi: Buddhism views every life as possessing Buddha-nature. One is like being blindfolded if one has lost his own Buddha-nature. One treads dangerously and in the process strays into errant ways and enters into the cycle of the Six Realms. But one will be able choose the right path with the eyes of wisdom after one has opened up one’s Buddha-nature.  

记者：

“佛”是梵语，用中国汉字应怎么解读“佛性”？

Journalist: ‘Buddha’ is a Sanskrit word. How do we understand ‘Buddha-nature’ within Chinese?

传喜法师：

先解释“佛”，是自利利他、福慧圆满，首先肯定他是一个圆满的人。用现在的话讲，就是百分之百脑细胞苏醒的人，印度语叫“阿耨多罗三藐三菩提”，译成中国话叫“无上正等正觉”。

从唯物史观来说，释迦牟尼佛是真实的历史人物，经典记录了他曾经讲述的语言；僧宝，是从佛陀一直传承延续到今天的这样一个僧团、一个社会团体，就像一个大学的团队，三千多年来没有中断过。

Master Chuan-xi: Let us first explain the meaning of ‘Buddha’. This refers to one who benefits himself as well as others, and is replete with blessings and wisdom. We have to first recognize that he is a perfect person. To use today’s terms, he is one whose every brain cell has completely awakened. In Sanskrit, it is called ‘anuttara-samyak-sambodhi’. Translated to Chinese, it means ‘unsurpassed complete perfect enlightenment’.

From the materialist historical perspective, Buddha Sakyamuni was a real figure. There are records of the words he had spoken in the scriptures. The precious monastic order in its present form is one which has been transmitted continuously from the time of the Buddha. It is a social body much like a club in a university which has survived 3,000 years of uninterrupted transmission.

记者：

佛教一直能传到现在，靠什么东西来维系、粘合、凝聚着？

Journalist: What has Buddhism relied upon during its transmission till now to enable it to be connected, integrated, and bound together?

传喜法师：

每一个人都有求真求实，追求真理的向往。

Master Chuan-xi: Everyone is going after that which is true and real, and is directed towards the pursuit of the truth.

记者：

一种牺牲精神？

Journalist: A kind of spirit of sacrifice?

传喜法师：

牺牲精神是后来产生的，是理智之后产生的。从本能上讲，每一个人都有信仰需求，就像肉体有饮食需求，精神上有信仰的需求，而且都要追真求实、追求终极的信仰。所以，佛教有慈悲、教化众生的这种胸怀，愿意无偿地把这种知识分享给有缘众生，人有孜孜不倦、探索真理的这种本能需求，是这两种力量让佛教在人间得以延续不断，直到今天。

Master Chuan-xi: The spirit of sacrifice is something which comes after rationalization. Instinctively, everyone needs spirituality, just like how the body needs food. The mind has a need for spirituality and this spirituality is all about the pursuit of truth and the ultimate. That is why in Buddhism it is found compassion, the aspiration to teach and transform myriad beings, and the willingness to share such knowledge without seeking any reward with inter-connected myriad beings. Humans have this tireless and instinctive need for the discovery of the truth. These are the two forces which have enabled Buddhism to be perpetuated uninterruptedly in the world until today.

记者：

有人讲，佛门那么多的清规戒律，对人性不是一种控制吗？

Journalist: Some question whether the numerous precepts found in Buddhism are a kind of control over human nature?

传喜法师：

清规戒律是对人的保护，戒律是我们人生的红灯，就像我们坐车要系安全带，走路要看红绿灯一样，这是对次序的维护，是我们生活得以更加自由、方便快捷的保障。

Master Chuan-xi: The precepts are to protect the person. They are like the red traffic lights of our lives or the safety belt system when we are in a vehicle. When we walk, we need to observe the traffic light. This is to maintain order so that we can enjoy more freedom in our lives and be assured of convenience and speed.

记者：

既然是为他好，为什么佛教又讲，如果不遵守戒律就会下地狱呢？

Journalist: Since it is for the good of a person, why is it still mentioned in Buddhism that one will descend into hell if one should not abide by the precepts?

传喜法师：

那个是结果，不是对他的诅咒。这是事实，这是他的行为得到的必然结果。

Master Chuan-xi: That is a description of the result and not a curse. It is factual and a necessary result of one’s conduct.

记者：

就是说，他自己是身不由己的，是吗？

Journalist: Which is to say, something not within one’s control, right?

传喜法师：

对，你只要做了这个事，就必然有一个结果。

Master Chuan-xi: Right. Once you have done a certain thing, there will be a certain result.

记者：

你可以觉得你好，但你的“果”不是由你来决定的，是另外一种东西，对吗

Journalist. You can feel that you are good, but the result of your actions will not be decided by yourself. Instead, it will be decided by something else, right?

传喜法师：

对，行为准则嘛，就像脚下的悬崖，你踏出一步就是万丈深渊，粉身碎骨。“戒律”就相当于来保护你的栏杆，是避免你掉进悬崖里去的，你偏要翻越栏杆自己去试，那肯定是粉身碎骨的后果。

没有人诅咒你，那是物体的自由下降速度让你粉身碎骨的，这要由你自己承受。

Master Chuan-xi: Right. It is the standard of conduct, like a cliff beneath your feet. A step forward and you will descend into an abyss ten thousand miles deep and at the bottom of which you will end up in fractured pieces. The precepts are like railings to protect you from falling down into the abyss. If you insist on climbing over the railing, then the result of you ending up in fractured pieces will be certain. There is no one who has brought such a curse upon you. It is due to your fall as a result of gravity that your body will be fractured into pieces. You will have to burden the outcome.

记者：

教育要实现现代化，佛教这么古老了，和现代化有关系吗？

Journalist: Education needs modernization. Being so ancient, does Buddhism have anything to do with modernization?

传喜法师：

现代化是我们人类成熟的一种标志吧。这种成熟不仅仅是一种机械现象，也代表着我们人类在运用机械上的自觉和理性。

这种自觉和理性是传统文化的结果，不是实验室里的成果，我们的传统文化素养越雄厚，才越有可能迎来社会的现代化。

Master Chuan-xi: Modernization is a kind of sign of the maturity of humankind. This kind of maturity is not only phenomena of industrialization, but also a representation of human self-awareness and rationalization in the utilization of machines. This self-awareness and rationalization is the result of traditional culture, and not of the laboratory. It is only when we are more endowed with our traditional culture that we are better able to bring in a modernized society.

记者：

现代化并不单纯指手机、高科技，而是指一种内在的、灵魂的、精神的现代化，我这样理解对吗？

Journalist: Modernization not only refers to hand-phones, advanced technologies, but it also refers to the modernization of our inner-being, soul, and spirit. Am I right to understand it this way?

传喜法师：

很有道理，一个人有了健全的身心，有了强大的精神支撑，才能更好地运用这些科技。这时，传统文化素养积淀得越深厚，社会才越有可能发展得更好更快

Master Chuan-xi: Very true. It is only when a person has a healthy and wholesome body and mind, and a strong spiritual support, that he will be able to make use of these technologies. At this time, the more nurtured a society is from traditional culture, the more likely it will be able to develop in a better and faster manner.

记者：

佛教能解决现在中国社会的现实问题吗？

Journalist: Will Buddhism be able to solve the practical problems in present Chinese society?

传喜法师：

可以解决，需要大家自觉地来学习佛法。为人民服务是帮助人民大众，自度度人、普度众生是救度天下所有人，都是在做对天下众生有利益的事。

Master Chuan-xi: It will be able to solve them. We need every individual to come to the self-awareness that Buddhism should be practised; and that to serve the people is to help them. One conveys not only oneself but also others to emancipation. To universally convey myriad beings is to help and convey all under the sky to salvation. It is to do everything that is beneficial to all myriad beings in this world.

09.

记者：

中国的未来是一片光明，可以寄予很大的期望。

Journalist: The future of China looks bright everywhere. We can have great expectations.

传喜法师：

至少我们自己要活出光明来，保证自己是光明的。

Master Chuan-xi: We have to at least live a bright life, and ensure that we ourselves are illuminated.

记者：

法师，除了道路自信、理论自信、制度自信之外，您似乎还提到了“文化自信”？

Journalist: Master, besides being self-confident in the path we have chosen, our doctrines and our system, you seem to have also mentioned self-confidence in our culture.

传喜法师：

文化自信、民族自信、国家道统自信。

Master Chuan-xi: Cultural self-confidence, ethnic self-confidence, and self-confidence in the national tradition of the Dao.  

记者：

在您看来，我们每个中国人的文化使命是什么？

Journalist: In your view, what is the cultural mission of each and everyone of us Chinese?

传喜法师：

文化应该帮助我们理解内在的规律吧。文化应该帮助我们厘清这个问题，明白我们自己，就像前面讲到的“心”。现在我们很多人，“心”迷失了就变成了行尸走肉，继而又变成了破坏性的，成为个人、家庭乃至社会的负能量。所以，人首先要“修复”，要找回自己。修身养性，建树自己，由个体自悟到群体自悟，从而形成中国人文化的整体高度。

Master Chuan-xi: Culture is to help us understand the laws within ourselves. It should help us become clear on such issues and understand ourselves. Just like the ‘mind’ we have mentioned previously – having lost the ‘mind’, many of us become the walking dead and subsequently end up being harmful and the negative energy at the individual, familial and even societal level. Therefore, one has first to be healed back to one’s former self – to find oneself back and nurture one’s body and character so that once upright, one attains self-realization on the individual level and then on the group level – such that from there, the overall vantage point of Chinese culture can be reached.

记者：

这几天在寺庙里，看到有“大慈”“大悲”“大愿”“大行”，为什么没有“大爱”这个词？

Journalist: During these few days of being in the monastery, I have seen phrases like ‘great loving-kindness’, ‘great compassion’, ‘great aspirations’, and ‘great conduct’. Why is there not ‘great love’?

传喜法师：

“爱”字比较狭隘，“我爱”“我所”有时就有“占有”，而慈悲是建立在平等、理性上的，是正能量。

Master Chuan-xi: ‘Love’ has a narrower connotation. ‘I love’ and ‘mine’ sometimes has the meaning of ‘possessing’, but ‘compassion’ is based on equality, rationality, and positive energy.

记者：

像太阳普照大地，这不是一种“爱”吗？

Journalist: Like the sun which shines on everything. Is not this a kind of love?

传喜法师：

我们说“天地有好生之德”，这是天地的德，有时也比喻像父母亲的爱。我们用了更好的名词，“大慈、大悲、大愿、大行”，涵盖了“大爱”。

“慈”更具体，是给你快乐，“悲”是去除你的痛苦，这都是在大爱的生命情怀下完成的。“大爱”，怎么爱、什么方式爱，就不具体。

儒释道里面，你若赋予它更深的内涵，填充更具体的内容，你到佛教里来找，都可以找到更具体的方法。

Master Chuan-xi: We say ‘it is the virtue of heaven and earth to value life’. Such is the virtue of heaven and earth. It sometimes refers also to parental love. We have employed better terms: ‘great loving-kindness’, ‘great compassion’, ‘great aspirations’, and ‘great conduct’. They all encompass ‘great love’.

‘Loving-kindness’ is more concrete as it gives you joy. ‘Compassion’ is to get rid of your suffering. These are all achieved within a mindset of ‘great love’. With ‘great love’, it is difficult to be specific on how to go about loving.

In Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, if you are able to accord something a deeper meaning and give it a more specific definition, you will be able to reach more concrete solutions. This is especially so in Buddhism.

记者：

今天我们谈了这么多，确实受益匪浅。最后，请您简要介绍一个“修心”法门。

Journalist: We have talked on so much today. I have really benefitted a lot. Lastly, could you please recommend us a method of ‘mind practice’?

传喜法师：

我一直在念着“南无阿弥陀佛”，这就是最简单同时也是最神圣的。“南无”是虔敬、信从的意思。“阿弥陀佛”是印度话，“阿”的意思是无，“弥陀”的意思是量，“无量”就是时间无量、空间无量。“阿弥陀佛”是无量佛，无量光、无量寿，“阿弥陀佛”的众多个德号，都可以理解为是超越时空的。

实际上，我们每个人的“心”都被框在“五蕴”山下，像孙悟空被压在五行山下一样。我们的猴子“心”一个跟头十万八千里，可以漫无边际，没有时间、空间的束缚，但现在被压在了这个五行山下，所以，我们念“南无阿弥陀佛”，求真求实、回归心灵的本来面目。

“阿弥陀佛”，是修这个成就的佛，有自己的国土、有自己的空间，同时也是圆满的。我们虽没圆满，但也是无量光、无量寿的特质，也是阿弥陀佛的特质，阿弥陀佛已经结果了，我们还含苞欲放呢！

我们平时“南无阿弥陀佛”，既是培养认识“我内在有无量光、无量寿的心”，同时也知道“佛是无量光、无量寿，已经圆满结果了”。

我们念“南无阿弥陀佛”，是要把我的“心”找回来，恢复到“心”的本来面貌，就会改变我的肉体、改变我的世界；我的肉体、我的世界改变了，就能跟阿弥陀佛的世界，两个能融合在一起了。

“南无”是让你与佛“融在一起”、归一、合一、救度，也是彼岸的意思。彼岸离不开此岸，有此岸的因，彼岸的果才会相互融合。

“南无阿弥陀佛”，从因地上说是念自己，在果地上又是念佛，所以，佛和果可以不分，这就是修行的一种方法。

南无阿弥陀佛！

Master Chuan-xi: I have been always chanting ‘Namo Amitabha’. This is the simplest and most sublime practice. ‘Namo’ means sincere respect and faith. ‘Amitabha’ is Indian: ‘A’ meaning ‘endless’ while ‘tabha’ means ‘measure’. ‘Endless measure’ refers to measureless time and space. ‘Buddha Amitabha’ means ‘measureless Buddha’, ‘infinite light’, and ‘infinite life’. The many noble epithets of Buddha Amitabha can all be understood to mean the transcendence of time and space.

In actual fact, the ‘mind’ of every one of us has been trapped under the mountain of the ‘five aggregates’, just like how Su Wu-Kong had been trapped under the Marble Mountain. Our mind is like that monkey, covering 18,000 miles in a single leap. It is able to travel far and wide, unrestrained by the limits of time and space. However, it has been trapped under the Marble Mountain. Therefore, we chant ‘Namo Amitabha’ in pursuit of that which is true and real, and to find our original spiritual self back.

Amitabha is the Buddha who practises to achieve such a result. He has his own realm, his own space, and is at the same time complete and perfect. Although we are not complete and perfect, we do also possess the unique feature of being measureless in light and life. Buddha Amitabha is like a flower that has grown into a fruit while we are just only budding!

Ordinarily, when we chant ‘Namo Amitabha’, we are inculcating the realization that there is this mind which is infinite in light and in life within ourselves. At the same time, we are also instilling in ourselves the notion that the Buddha being infinite in light and in life is already completely and perfectly accomplished.

We chant ‘Namo Amitabha’ to find our mind back, and to restore it to its original form. We will then be able to transform our body and our world. With that, we will be able to be harmonized into the world of Buddha Amitabha.

‘Namo’ is to let you be harmonized with, return to being with, be in union with, and be conveyed to the other shore by the Buddha. The other shore cannot be spoken of without reference to this shore. It is with ‘this shore’ as causation that there is a corresponding result in the other shore.   

From the perspective of the causal ground, chanting ‘Namo Amitabha’ is to be mindful of oneself; while from the perspective of the fruition ground, it is to be mindful of the Buddha. As such, this is also a method of practice in which the Buddha and results are treated as the same.

Namo Amitabha!