What is Buddhism
什麼是佛教
Buddhism is nothing but the NOBLE TRUTH.
佛教就是神聖的真理。
What is Buddhism
This question has puzzled many people who often inquire if Buddhism is a philosophy, a religion, or a way of life. The simple answer is that Buddhism is too vast and too profound to be neatly placed in any single category. Of course, Buddhism includes philosophy and religion and a way of life. But Buddhism goes beyond these categories.
什麼是佛教？這個問題使人混淆和困擾。因此，人們經常提出這樣的問題：佛教是哲學？宗教？還是一個人生活方式？簡單的說：佛教博大精深，再巧妙的人也無法把它規劃到固定的、狹窄的範疇內。當然，佛教包含了哲學、宗教和生活方式，可是，佛教並不限囿于以上的範疇。
The categories or labels given to Buddhism are like signboards to let the people know what is being presented. If we compare Buddhism to a medicine shop, it will be clear that the signboard on the medicine shop will not cure a person of his sickness. If the medicine is effective, then you can use it to heal yourself without being concerned as to the signboard that merely gives a label for the medicine. Likewise, if the Teaching of the Buddha is effective, then use it and do not be concerned about the label or signboard. Do not try to slip Buddhism into any single category or limit it under any signboard.
以固有的範疇或標簽來規劃佛教，就好像在張貼海報，告訴大家，他們現在在傳什麼法。如果以藥房比喻佛教，我們將會更清楚。藥房的告示牌不能治療人們的病，而藥品確實是有治療作用，我們以藥品來治病，從來都不去理會告示牌說的是什麼。同樣的，如果認爲佛教是有效的，就利用它，不要理會它的標簽和範疇。不要把佛教硬塞進一個簡單和固定的範疇內或任何廣告形式的框框內。
Different people live at different times and in different places have given different labels and interpretations to Buddhism. To some people, Buddhism might appear to be only a mass of superstitious practices. To another group of people, Buddhism might be a convenient label to be used for temporal gains. To another group, it is old fashioned. To yet another group, Buddhism will have significance as a system of thought for intellectuals only. To some others, it is a scientific discovery. To the pious and devout Buddhist, Buddhism means his entire life, the fulfillment of all he holds near and dear to him.
不同的人，生活在不同的時代和環境裏。對佛教必然有不同的看法和解釋。對某些人來說，佛教可能只是一大堆迷信和儀式。對另外一些人來說，佛教可能是獲得短期利益的方便工具。有些人認爲佛教是古時候流行的時髦玩意。而有些人認爲佛教僅僅是對知識份子有意義的思想體系。有些人把它看成是科學的發明。而虔誠的佛教徒，卻把佛教看做是他整個的生命，是值得他犧牲一切來完成的人生大事。
Some intellectuals see Buddhism as a product of its Indian environment or as an outgrowth of another kind of Indian religious teaching. Buddhism is nothing but the Noble Truth. It is an intellectual approach to reality. The Buddha”s realization of universal problems did not come through a purely intellectual or rational process but through mental development and purification. The intellectual stance reminiscent of the scientific attitude, surely makes the Buddha absolutely unique among religious teachers of all time. Of course, the high standard of intellectual inquiry and ethical endeavor prevailing at the time in India were prime conditions for the re-emergence of the light of the Dhamma from the darkness of oblivion.
某些知識份子把佛教當作是古印度環境的産物，或認爲是印度宗教的另一類産品。事實，佛教卻不是這樣的，佛教是神聖的真理。佛教是獲得覺悟、智慧的途徑。佛陀覺悟世間的煩惱與困苦，並不純粹來自知識或理性的過程，而是來自心智的發展和淨化。以知識性爲立足點，使人聯想到科學態度，因此，終于使佛陀成爲有史以來獨一無二的宗教導師。當然，佛法的曙光在印度出現，是有其智慧探索和倫理建設的社會背景與條件。
Thousands of years of religious and philosophical development had left on the intellectual soil of India a rich and fertile deposit of ideas and ideals which formed the best possible environment into which the seed of the Dhamma could fall. Greece, China, Egypt and Babylonia, for all their loftiness of thought, had not attained the same quality of vision as the forest and mountain-dwelling sages of India. The germ of Enlightenment which had been borne, like a winged seed from distant fields, from worlds in space and time infinitely remote from ours _ this very germ of Enlightenment found growth and development in the north-eastern corner of India. This very germ of Enlightenment found its full expression in the ex…
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