..續本文上一頁或社會福利的一種貢獻。

　　When the Buddha gained Enlightenment as a result of His own efforts, He did not selfishly keep this knowledge to Himself. Rather, He spent no less than forty five years imparting His knowledge not only to men and women but even to the devas. This is Buddhism”s supreme example of selflessness and concern for the well-being of all living things.

　　當佛陀證悟後，他毫無保留于他的智慧，他花了四十五年的時間，傳授他的智慧，不僅傳授給人類，也傳授給天人。這是佛教不自私的例子，佛教關心一切衆生的利益。

　　It is often said that the Buddha helped devotees who were in trouble not through the performance of miracles such as restoring the dead to life and so on, but through His acts of wisdom and compassion.

　　有人說，佛陀不幫助那些有困難的虔誠信徒。的確，在佛教曆史中，並沒有記載以神通治病或令死人複活的案例。佛陀僅以他的大悲心和智慧教導佛法。

　　In one instance, a woman named Kisa Gotami went to seek the help of the Buddha in restoring her dead child to life. Knowing that He could not reason with her as she was so distressed and overwhelmed with grief, the Buddha told her that she should first obtain a handful of mustard seeds from a person who had never lost a dear one through death. The distracted woman ran from house to house and while everyone was only too willing to give her the mustard seeds, no one could honestly say that he or she had not lost a dear one through death. Slowly, Kisa Gotami came to the realization that death is a natural occurrence to be experienced by any being that is born. Filled with this realization she returned to the Buddha and thanked Him for showing her the truth about death.

　　有一回，一名叫做齊撒.喬達彌(Qisa Gotam)的婦女，懇求佛陀令他死去的孩子複活。佛陀知道在她的悲恸的打擊下，精神受到很大的傷害，無法理智的說服她。佛陀要那名婦女到一家沒有死過人的家庭，要一把芥子。每個人都願意送給那名婦女芥子，可是每個家庭都曾經死過人。婦女這時覺悟到死亡是一種自然的規律，有生必定有死。她回到佛陀那裏，感謝佛陀對她開示有關死亡的真正意義。

　　Now, the point here is that the Buddha was more concerned with the woman”s understanding about the nature of life than giving her temporary relief by restoring her child to life; the child would have grown old and still have died. With her greater realization Kisa Gotami was able not only to come to terms with the phenomenon of death but also to learn about the cause of sorrow through attachment. She was able to realize that attachment causes sorrow, that when attachment is destroyed, then sorrow is also destroyed.

　　這裏要指出的重點是，佛陀關心那名婦女，並協助她了解生命的本質，更甚于令她得到暫時的慰藉或開解。就算把孩子救活，孩子長大後，將來還是一樣要面對死亡。那名婦女的體驗，不但令他理解了死亡的真相，也理解到「執著」是一切煩惱之因。一但「執著」消失後，一切煩惱也跟著消失了。

　　Therefore in Buddhism, a person can seek the help of external agencies (like devas) in the pursuit of temporal happiness, but in the later stages of development when attachment to the worldly conditions ceases, there begins the path towards renunciation and enlightenment for which one must stand alone. When a man seeks to gain liberation, to break away from the endless cycle of birth and death, to gain realization and enlightenment, he can only do this by his own efforts, by his own concentrated will power.

　　佛教不排除可以藉外在力量(天神)的幫助而獲得短暫的快樂。但是，到了放棄世間一切因緣和執著，突破生死輪回，尋求自我解脫時，唯有靠自己的努力精進、專注和堅韌不拔的意志力。

　　Buddhism gives great dignity to man. It is the only religion which states that a human being has the power to help and free himself. In the later stages of his development, he is not at the mercy of any external force or agency which he must constantly please by worshipping or offering sacrifices.

　　佛教給人很大的尊嚴，它是唯一主張人類有潛在的力量來獲得自我拯救的宗教。在人類發展精神領域的最後階段，不必透過各種犧牲祭祀、禱告、祈求于外在的力量或「代理」來獲得他們的恩惠或施舍。

《自我拯救 How to Save Yourself》全文閱讀結束。