Chapter 10 Prayer, Meditation and Religious

　　第十章 佛教與修行

　　Practices Faith, Confidence and Devotion

　　信仰-信心與奉獻

　　Right understanding points the way to confidence; confidence paves the way to wisdom.

　　有正知才能導向正信，唯有正信才能獲得智慧。

　　Faith in the theistic sense is not found in Buddhism because of its emphasis on understanding. Theistic faith is a drug for the emotional mind and demands belief in things which cannot be known. Knowledge destroys faith and faith destroys itself when a mysterious belief is examined under the daylight of reason. Confidence cannot be obtained by faith since it places less emphasis on reason, but only by understanding.

　　信仰應該是有神論的意識形態。但是，在佛教裏卻不存在「有神論」。有神論的信仰是導致心智閉塞的毒藥，有神論的信仰是不可知的。知識破壞了信仰，而信仰則破壞了它本身，因爲，這種信仰建立在不可知上面，導致對信仰無法産生信心。只有當對宗教有真正的理解時，才會生起信心。

　　Referring to the unintelligible and ”blind”nature of faith, Voltaire said, ”Faith is to believe in something which your reason tells you cannot be true; for if your reason approved of it, there could be no question of blind faith.”

　　宗教信仰是無知和盲目的？法國的哲學家伏爾泰說： 「信仰是去相信一些你理性裏認爲不真實的東西，如果你的理性承認了它，就無所謂盲目不盲目了。」

　　Confidence, however, is not the same as faith. For confidence is not a mental acceptance of that which cannot be known. Confidence is an assured expectation, not of an unknown beyond, but of what can be tested as experienced and understood personally. Confidence is like the understanding that a student has in his teacher who explains in the class-room the inverse square law of gravitation as stated by Newton. He should not adopt an unquestioning belief of his teacher and his textbook. He studies the fact, examines the scientific arguments, and makes an assessment of the reliability of the information. If he has doubts, he should reserve his judgment until such time as when he is able to investigate the accuracy of the information for himself. To a Buddhist, confidence is a product of reason, knowledge and experience. When it is developed, confidence can never be blind faith. Confidence becomes a power of the mind.

　　信仰和信心完全不同。信心不是心靈那種不可知的接受(信仰)，信心是一種可知的、確定的和期待的，是由每個人的理解和每個人的經驗證實。信心，好比是一個熟悉愛因斯坦相對論的學生，在課室內聆聽老師講解牛頓的萬有引力，他不會相信老師所教。相反的，他保留自己的判斷，一直到他自己有能力去解決這個問題。對佛教徒來說，信心來自理性、知識和經驗。當理性、知識和經驗獲得開展後，信心不再是盲從的信仰，信心變成一種心靈的動力。

　　In his book, What The Buddha Taught Walpola Rahula says:

　　在《佛陀的教誨》一書中，作者 W.臘忽拉說：

　　”The question of belief arises when there is no seeing

　　seeing in every sense of the word. The moment you see, the question of belief disappears. If I tell you that I have a gem hidden in the folded palm of my hand, the question of belief arises because you do not see it yourself. But if I unclench my fist and show you the gem, then you see it for yourself, and the question of belief does not arise. So the phrase in ancient Buddhist texts reads:” Realizing, as one sees a gem(or a myrobalan fruit) in the palm”.”

　　「問題在于沒有覺察到信念的産生──覺察到這世間的每一種思維。當你發現時，信念的問題就消失了。當我告訴你，我緊握住的手掌中藏有珍寶，信念的問題就産生了，因爲你並沒有親眼看見。如果，我一開始就讓你看到我掌中的珍寶，那麼信念的問題就不會産生。因此，佛教的經典中說：『相信那位曾經看見掌中珍寶(聖果)的人』。」