..續本文上一頁可因愛與慈惠而化解，邪惡爲善良所戰勝。你要說，也許這是事實，而在個人情形中也是可行的。但要應用到國家與國際事務上去，那是一定行不通的。人常爲政治宣傳所習用的術語如“國”、“邦”、“國際”等所炫惑，心理迷蒙，盲目受騙。國家是什麼？還不是一大群個人的集團？國與邦並不能有行動，有行動的就是個人。個人所想所做的，就是邦國所想所做的，能適用于個人的，就能適用于邦國。個人規模的仇恨，可以用愛與慈惠來化解，國家以及國際規模的仇恨化解，一定也同樣地可以實現。就在個人方面，要用慈惠來對付仇恨，也須有極大的勇氣以及對道義力量的信念、膽識與堅心。以國際事務而言，所需要的這一切自然更多。假如“不切實際”一語的意義是“不容易”，那倒是對的。這事決不容易，可是仍應勉力一試。你可以說這種嘗試是冒險的，但決不會比嘗試一場原子戰爭所冒的險更大。
You will say this is all very beautiful, noble and sublime, but impractical. It is practical to hate one another
To kill one another
To live in eternal fear and suspicion like wild animals in a jungle
Is this more practical and comfortable
Was hatred ever appeased by hatred
Was evil ever won over by evil
But there are examples, at least in inpidual cases, where hatred is appeased by love and kindness and evil won over by goodness. You will say that this may be true; practicable in inpidual cases, but that is never works in national and international affairs. People are hypnotized, psychologically puzzled, blinded and deceived by the political and propaganda usage of such term as ”national”, ”international”, or ”state”. What is a nation but a vast conglomeration of inpiduals
A nation or a state does not act; it is the inpidual who acts. What the inpidual thinks and does is what the nation or the state thinks and does. What is applicable to the inpidual is applicable to the nation or the state. If hatred can be appeased by love and kindness on the inpidual scale, surely it can be realized on the national and international scale too. Even in the case of a single person, to meet hatred with kindness one must be tremendous courage, boldness, faith and confidence in moral force. May it not be even more so with regard to international affairs
If by the expression ”not practical” you mean ”not easy”, you are right. Definitely it is not easy. Yet it should be tried. You may say it is risky trying it. Surely it cannot be more risky than trying a nuclear war.
今日想起來，在過去曾有一位曆史上著名的偉大統治者，他有勇氣、有信心、有遠見，敢于實施這倡導非暴、和平與友愛的教誨，將它們應用于治理一個廣袤帝國的內外事務上，實在令人不勝忭慰之至。這位西元前叁世紀頃的偉大佛教帝王阿輸迦，曾被稱爲“天人所敬愛者”。
It is a consolation and inspiration to think today that at least there was one great ruler, well known in history, who had the courage, the confidence and the vision to apply this teaching of non-violence, peace and love to the administration of a vast empire, in both internal and external affairs - Asoka, the great Buddhist emperor of India (3rd century B.C.) -”the Beloved of the gods” as he was called.
At first he followed the example of his father (Bindusāra) and grandfather (Chandragupta), and wished to complete the conquest of the Indian peninsula. He invaded and conquered Kalinga, and annexed it. Many hundreds of thousands were killed, wounded, tortured and taken prisoner in this war. But later, when he became a Buddhist, he was completely changed and transformed by the Buddha”s teachings. In one of his famous Edicts, inscribed on rock, (Rock Edict XIII, as it is now called), the original of which one may read even today, referring to the conquest of Kalinga, the Emperor publicly expresses his ”repentance”, it was for him to think of that carnage. He publicly declared that he would never draw his sword again for any conquest, but that he ”wishes all living beings non-violence, self control, the practice of serenity and mildness. This, of course, is considered the chief conquest by the Beloved of the gods (i.e., Asoka), namely the conquest by piety (dhamma-vijaya).” Not only did he renounce war himself, he expressed his desire that ”my sons and grandsons will not think of a new conquest as worth achieving. .. let them think of that conquest only which is the conquest by piety. That is good for this world and the world beyond.”
起先他完全步他父親賓頭沙羅王以及祖父旃陀菊多王的後塵，想要完成征服整個印度半島的偉業。他侵入並征服了迦陵迦國，予以兼並。在這次戰役中，…
《佛陀的啓示 第八章 佛的教誡與今日世界 Chapter VIII· What the Buddha Taught and the World Today》全文未完，請進入下頁繼續閱讀…