..續本文上一頁, W. S. Wily, once said, ”The existence of the immortal in man is becoming increasingly discredited under the influence of the dominant schools of modern thought.” The belief in the immortality of the soul is a dogma that is contradicted by the most solid, empirical truth.

　　一位傑出的作家 W.S.維利說過：「在現代思想的主要學派中，人類不滅靈魂的存在已經受到懷疑了。」靈魂不滅的信念，是教條主義，它抵觸了可被證實的真理。

　　The mere belief in an immortal soul, or the conviction that something in us survives death, does not make us immortal unless we know what it is that survives and that we are capable of identifying ourselves with it. Most human beings choose death instead of immortality by identifying themselves with that which is perishable and impermanent by clinging stubbornly to the body or the momentary elements of the present personality, which they mistake for the soul or the essential form of life.

　　靈魂不滅的信仰，相信在我們死後還有某些東西存在。可是這存在物到底能不能令我們永恒的存在？除非，我們有能力知道那存在物到底是什麼？並且，我們還要證明我們到底是不是存在于那存在物裏面？可是，大多數人甯可相信死後有不滅的靈魂的存在，他們頑強的執著與攀緣于肉體或人性的某些因緣假合的東西，並錯誤的認爲靈魂是生命的基本形式。

　　About those researches of modern scientists who are now more inclined to assert that the so-called ”Soul” is no more than a bundle of sensations, emotions, sentiments, all relating to the physical experiences, Prof. James says that the term ”Soul” is a mere figure of speech to which no reality corresponds.

　　It is the same Anatta doctrine of the Buddha that was introduced in the Mahayana school of Buddhism as Sunyata or voidness. Although this concept was elaborated by a great Mahayana scholar, Nagarjuna, by giving various interpretations, there is no extraordinary concept in Sunyata far different from the Buddha”s original doctrine of Anatta.

　　現代科學家通過研究後，對所謂“靈魂”描述如下：「靈魂只不過是一些感知、感受的情緒，與生理的經驗互相作用的關系。」詹姆斯教授說：「靈魂這名詞，最多是代表語言的一種圖象，並不反應任何事實。」佛陀的「無我論」在大乘佛教裏，稱爲「空性」或「空義」。這觀念是由大乘著名學者龍樹(Nagarjuna)大士提出的。但是「空性」(Sunyata)並非有別于「無我」，也不見得比佛陀原始的教義「無我論」 來得高明。

　　The belief in soul or Self and the Creator God, is so strongly rooted in the minds of many people that they cannot imagine why the Buddha did not accept these two issues which are indispensable to many religions. In fact some people got a shock or became nervous and tried to show their emotion when they heard that the Buddha rejected these two concepts. That is the main reason why to many unbiased scholars and psychologists Buddhism stands unique when compared to all the other religions. At the same time, some other scholars who appreciate the various other aspects of Buddhism thought that Buddhism would be enriched by deliberately re-interpreting the Buddha word ”Atta” in order to introduce the concept of Soul and Self into Buddhism. The Buddha was aware of this unsatisfactoriness of man and the conceptual upheaval regarding this belief.

　　All conditioned things are impermanent, All conditioned things are Dukka

　　 Suffering, All conditioned or unconditioned things are soulless or selfless. (Dhammapada 277, 278, 279) There is a parable in our Buddhist texts with regard to the belief in an eternal soul. A man, who mistook a moving rope for a snake, became terrified by that fear in his mind. Upon discovery that it was only a piece of rope, his fear subsided and his mind became peaceful. The belief in an eternal soul is equated to the rope

　　 man”s imagination.

　　相信靈魂、自我或造物者的存在，已成爲一般的的想法。佛陀爲何不接受這種多數宗教都認爲絕對必要的說法？事實，當許多外道得知佛陀拒絕這種觀念時，感到十分的驚訝。但是，很多對佛教存有偏見的學者或心理學家，在深入的研究和比較後，都與佛教站在同一立場。也有一些學者，他們固然非常欣賞佛教，可是卻企圖將靈魂或自我的觀念推薦給佛教，曲解了「無我論」，以爲這樣就可以把佛教發揚光大。可是，佛陀早就覺察到，這種思想是一種邪見，對人性的提升一點幫助也沒有。

　　一切行無常。

　　一切受是苦。

　　一切法無我。

　　《法句經》V227、228、229

　　在佛經裏，有一則關于靈魂的寓言故事：「有如把一條動著的繩子當作是一條蛇，因此內心産生了不必要的恐懼，當他發現那是繩子時，那種恐懼就完全消失了。」相信不滅的靈魂，就好比那個人對繩子産生的錯覺──其實，只不過是個人心中的想像罷了。

《無我論 Anatta: The Teaching of No-Soul》全文閱讀結束。