(３)如果有外國人問你：

　　“佛教中最簡要的根本思想是什麼？”

　　3) Now, suppose you meet a person from another country who asks you,

　　3) “Put as briefly as possible, what is the basic message of Buddhism

　　”

　　我們可以引用佛陀最簡短的一句話來回答：“一切都不要執著！”

　　THIS CAN BE answered in one short sentence, a saying of the Buddha himself: “Nothing whatsoever should be grasped at or clung to.”

　　這句話是佛陀親口宣說的簡明格言。我們不必花時間到浩翰的叁藏(Tipitaka)中去尋找答案，因爲佛陀已用這句話，把佛教教義描述得相當清楚。

　　That nothing should be grasped at or clung to is a handy maxim from the mouth of the Buddha himself. We don”t need to waste time in searching through the Tipi.aka (the recorded Teaching), because this one short statement puts it all quite clearly.

　　若把佛陀所有的教誨，乃至八萬四千法門歸結起來，就是這麼一句話——“一切都不要執著！”這句話提醒我們：執著只會帶來痛苦。當我們了悟這道理時，可以說已經明了了佛說的八萬四千法門；當我們實踐這句話時，也可以說已實踐了一切法門。

　　In all the discourses, in the entire teaching, there are as many as eighty-four thousand Dhamma topics, all of which may be summed up in the single sentence, “nothing should be grasped at.” This tells us that to grasp at things and cling to them is suffering (dukkha). When we have come to Know this, we can be said to know all the utterances of the Buddha, the entire eighty-four thousand Dhamma topics. And to have put this into practice is to have practised Dhamma completely, in its every phase and aspect.

　　爲什麼人會犯戒？因爲他有所執著，如果沒有任何喜歡或討厭的執著，就不會犯戒。爲什麼人的心會散亂不定？因爲執著某些事物。爲什麼人會沒有智慧？因爲他愚癡而執著某些事物。如果一個能修證到“一切都不執著”的地步，他當下便能悟道、證果，得到究竟涅槃。

　　The reason a person fails to keep to the rules of conduct is that he grasps at and clings to things. If he refrains from grasping at and clinging to anything whatever, and puts aside craving and aversion, he cannot fail to keep the rules of conduct. The reason a person”s mind is distracted and unable to concentrate is that he is grasping at and clinging to something. The reason a person lacks insight is the same. When he is finally able to practise non-grasping, then simultaneously he attains the Noble Paths, their Fruits, and ultimately nibbāna (Sanskrit, nirvāna).

　　 佛陀是個完完全全沒有執著的人，佛法教導“不執著”的“行”和“證”，僧伽是一群正在修行或已經修證“不執著”的出家衆。

　　The Buddha was a man who grasped at absolutely nothing. The Dhamma teaches the practice and the fruit of the practice of non- grasping. The Sangha (Community of Noble Disciples) consists of people who practise non-grasping, some who are in the process of practising, and some who have completed the practice. This is what the Sangha is.

　　當有人問佛陀：“可否將你的全部教導歸納成最簡短的一句話？”佛陀回答：“可以！”接著說：“一切都不要執著！”

　　When people asked the Buddha whether his entire teaching could be summarized in a single sentence, he answered that it could, and said, “Nothing whatsoever should be grasped at or clung to.”