【文化释说英文有声书】第二篇明明德 止于至善（四）

 “喜怒哀乐之未发 , 谓之中;发而皆中节 , 谓之和。中也者 , 天下之大本也;和也者, 天下之达道也。”“中”是天下之大本;“本”是天下之大道,“道”就是佛性。

‘When joy, anger, sorrow and pleasure have still to arise, this is known as the ‘mean’. When they arise appropriately, this is known as ‘harmony’. The mean is the great root of the universe. Harmony is the path through which the universe reaches the Dao. The mean is the great root of the universe; this ‘root’ is the great path of the universe. The Dao is Buddha-nature.  

《心经》说:无眼耳鼻舌身意,无色声香味触法。如果你的喜怒哀乐一生起来,你就见不到“道”了。我们修行人说“参话头”,话头是什么?念未生起的状态。不识字的六祖大师说:不思善不思恶。道家说:道生一,一生二,二生三,三生万物。没有“生二”的时候, 是“道”的本体状态,如果生了喜怒哀乐,在佛教里:无明缘行,行缘识,识缘名色,名色缘六入,六入缘触,触缘受,受缘爱,爱缘取,取缘有,有缘生,生缘老死忧悲苦恼。你不知“道”的时候,你就会随着境界起分别,有分别就落入生死。

The Heart Sutra says, ‘No eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind; no colour, sound, smell, taste, touch, and mental formations.’ If joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure have arisen, you will never be able to see the Dao. We practitioners talk about ‘contemplation of an utterance’. What is an utterance? It is the state of our mind when no ideation has arisen. The Sixth Patriarch, who was illiterate, said, ‘Thinking neither about good nor evil.’ The Taoists say, ‘The Dao begets one, one begets two, two begets three, and three begets all things.’ Before one produced two, the Dao was in its original state of being. When joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure has arisen, it is said in Buddhism that ignorance will be given rise to. With ignorance as a condition, volition arises, and with volition consciousness, with consciousness body-and-mind, with body-and-mind the six-fold sense bases, with the six-fold sense bases contact, with contact sensations, with sensations craving, with craving grasping, with grasping becoming, with becoming old-age and death and lamentation and sorrow and suffering. When you do not know the Dao, your mind will be led by different realms of experiences and will start to discriminate. When there is discrimination, one falls into the cycle of birth and death.  

这就是宇宙文明的一个学问。你只要研究,就会进入到一个转凡成圣的序列中,叫“率性之谓道”。上自皇帝下至百姓,通晓了这个“道”,你就是最尊贵的人。如果不知“道”,即使是皇帝,也是平庸无道之君。

This is the knowledge of the civilization of the universe. Only if you are to study it, you will be able to join the ranks of those who have transformed themselves from the ordinary to the sagely – ‘accordance with ‘nature’ is known as the Dao’. Whether one is an emperor at the top or an ordinary citizen at the bottom, once you are able to understand this Dao, you will be the one most respected. If you do not know the Dao, even when you are an emperor, you will just be a mediocre ruler.

如果你知“道”,虽匹夫亦不穷。中国人说:三百六十行,行行出状元。因为行行有“道”,人人皆可成圣人。如果你是木匠,也可成为当代鲁班;如果你是医生,可能成为再世华佗,各行各业都有“道”。但随着近百年来去中国化的思潮,砸碎一个旧中国之后的现状是——三百六十行,行行出危机。因为一个人,当他的光明战胜不了他的黑暗, 就后患无穷。

If you know the Dao, you will never be destitute. There is a Chinese saying: ‘There are 365 trades, and in each of these trades, there are people who excel.’ This is because as the Dao is in each and every trade, anyone can become sagely. Say you are a carpenter, you can be the modern Lu-ban; and if you are a physician, it is possible that you can become Hua-tuo reincarnated. The Dao is in every trade and profession. However, with the de-scinicization movement of the past few hundred years to crush old Chinese values, what we have that remains now is: there are 365 trades, and in each and every of these trades, there is a crisis. This is because when one cannot overcome darkness in him with the light he has, there will be endless misfortunes to follow.

古人之道:在明明德,止于至善。我们现在反被黑暗牢牢地控制着, 不要说“止于至善”了,甚至连做好人的勇气都没有了。劝他做好人, 怕好人被人欺、好人吃亏。所以恢复中华道统,对每个人都具有真实意义。

The way of the ancients is this: to illuminate one’s bright virtues, and to stop only at perfect wholesomeness. Instead, we are being completely controlled by darkness. Let us not mention stopping only at perfect wholesomeness, we do not even have the courage to be a good person. When we ask a person to be good, we worry that he will be taken advantage of, and that he will lose out. Therefore, the restoration of the Chinese tradition of the Dao is full of real and practical meaning to everyone.

因为我们生而为人,能思考,几十年为人,不能错失做人的机会。做人的机率是很低的,即使一窝蚂蚁,其数量甚至也超过世界人口的总数。为什么我这辈子投胎做人,这是非常不容易的一个结果,要珍惜人生,不能用宝贵的人身去换那点很肤浅的东西。

As we have been born human, we are able to conceptualize. We cannot miss out on the opportunity to be born as a human being for a few scores. The odds of being human are extremely low. Even the population of a nest of ants is also more than the human population of the world. Why have we been born as a human this lifetime? This is a result highly unlikely to happen. We have to cherish our lives. Do not use our precious lives to exchange for something shallow and superficial.

中华民族文化,从上到下,贯穿着一个道统文化。每个人在这个学问面前,都可以实现前面讲的“天命之谓性”,就是“明心见性”。

That which runs through the culture of the Chinese nation and connects the present with the past is the tradition of the Dao. With this recognition, everyone can actualize what we have spoken of previously – that ‘that which Heaven has ordained is known as ‘nature’’ – which is the ‘illuminating of the mind to make manifest one’s true nature’.

但是还有没有这个学问?有没有这样的文化人?这需要方法的, 还要从“修道之谓教”入手。文化要有文化人,文化人要有文化的生活, 所以“道”有道统,有传承。

However, is there still such a recognition? Are there erudite people like this? This requires a method, and it has to start from the ‘practice of the Dao [which] is known as ‘cultivation’. A culture needs erudite people, and such people need to be engaged in activities of cultivation. That is why there is a tradition to the Dao, and there has to be inheritance.

虽然有书有字,但如果儒学的传承断了,就糟糕了。就像埃及, 那些博物馆、神庙都还在,文字也在,甚至考古学家也已经在翻译古埃及文字了,但真正的古埃及文化的精髓已不在了,它造福人类社会的功能性已经没有了,充其量只是一个旅游地,变成了一个探奇寻幽之地。

Although there are books and the written word, once the passing down of the tradition of Confucianism is to be broken off, it will be disastrous. It is like Egypt. The museums and temples are still there, and so is the ancient Egyptian written language of which the archaeologists have already begun translating. However, the true and original essence of the ancient Egyptian culture is long gone. This culture has already lost its ability to bring benefit to the people, and Egypt is presently at best just a tourist attraction, having become a place where exotic discoveries can be made.

我们中国人,三教还都有传人。今天非常棒 , 儒释道三教也都在座, 我们的文化基因还在。一个民族雄厚的文化基因,才是其健康茁壮的 最主要的内因。

For us Chinese, there are still people to carry on the traditions of Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism. It is excellent that we should have people of all the three traditions in the audience today. Our cultural gene is still within us. The most important cause for a people to be healthy and strong is the possession of a robust cultural gene.

“致中和 , 天地位焉 , 万物育焉。”“中”就是前面讲的“道”, “中也者,天下之大本也。”“和”就是明白“德”,遵循“道”,“和 也者,天下之达道也。”如果一个人能够明白这个“中”,能够遵循这个“和”,“天地位焉,万物育焉”。天地宇宙的运行,就是儒家所说的“人天相应”,最后达到“人天合一”。

‘When the mean and harmony have been reached, Heaven and Earth will be in their proper positions, and myriad things will be nourished.’ As mentioned previously, the ‘mean’ is the Dao. ‘The mean is the great root of the universe.’ ‘Harmony’ is the understanding of virtue, and accordance with the Dao. ‘Harmony is the path through which the universe reaches the Dao.’ If one is able to understand this ‘mean’ and to abide by this ‘harmony’, then ‘heaven and earth will be in their proper positions’ and ‘myriad beings will be nourished.’ The workings of heaven and earth, and of the universe, are just like what the Confucians say – it begins with mutual resonance between human and Heaven and ends finally with the coming together of the two.