【文化释说英文有声书】第四篇 找回自己 （九）

Nine – Finding back the self

记者：法师，我看您一直在乐观地讲，您觉得中国传统文化的春天已经来了吗？

Journalist: Master, I see that you have been optimistically speaking on this. Do you feel that the spring for Chinese traditional culture is upon us?

传喜法师：理论的高度很重要，党中央高屋建瓴、励精图治。现在强调中华民族的复兴，中华民族的复兴就是中华文化的复兴，中华传统文化的人生观、世界观、价值观能得以恢复，就能够丰富、提升社会主义核心价值观，我们是充满希望的。

从这个高度上认识中国传统文化的作用，已把它列入社会主义核心价值观，这确实是中国的希望之所在。

Master Chuan-xi: Having a doctrinal vantage point is very important. In a top-down manner, the Central Committee of our Party is sparing no effort to administer and runs our nation well. It is now placing great importance on the resurgence of the Chinese people. The resurgence of the Chinese people is precisely the revival of the Chinese culture. The core values of society will be enriched and enhanced with the revival of the life outlook, world-view, and outlook of values of Chinese traditional culture. We are very hopeful.

From such a vantage point, the efficacy of Chinese traditional culture is understood and it is being posited as the core value system of socialism. This indeed is where the hope of China is.

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!

记者：这是最简单的修行。

Journalist: This is the simplest method of practice.

传喜法师：最简单，但是你学个半年、一百年也没有边际，你念一句不为少，念一百亿句也不为多。

“心”缘此境，一次次唱念默诵，你的“心”依靠着这个佛号，在亲近中越来越平适，在和合中越来越安宁，在圆融中越来越安定，在安享中纯化——宁静致远，越来越清净。

Master Chuan-xi: It is, but whether you practise it for half a year or a hundred years, there will never be boundaries. The effort of a single chant is not too little while that of ten billion will never be too much.

With each of every one of this chant in your heart, your mind makes this a condition and upon this reliance and connection, it becomes more and more composed and acclimatized; in the process of union more at peace and calm, and in the process of harmonization more tranquil and concentrated and as such sublimated and purified. The peace and quietude is expansive and increasingly purifying.

英文翻译&读诵：建成