入世第二課 THE SECOND LESSON OF ENTERING THE SECULAR WORLD

　　楊钊居士

　　Author Charles Yeung

　　Translated by Soula Lo

　　進入社會，要獲得生活所需，首先要學會掙取金錢，學習求財之道，其中，可以通過提供勞力，也可以通過知識和智力去獲取金錢。因此，西方的教育目標：教育學生的知識以及獲取知識的工具，而東方傳統文化的教育，則是以生命爲目標，因爲獲得知識，往往只能使事業成功，而事業的成功只是人生的一半，尚有一半就是生命。生命的價值和意義不是以擁有多少財富，多少名譽、多少社會地位去衡量，而是以人們對你的認同，對你的尊重來衡量。因此，生命的價值不是自己對自己的看法，而是別人及社會對你的看法及評價，所以，生命的價值在于回饋社會，對社會作貢獻，對別人作貢獻。

　　Upon entering society, and obtaining an income for living necessities, first we need to learn how to make money, and learn a way to pursue fortune. We can make money through offering labor, or through some knowledge and intelligence. The goal of Western education is to teach students knowledge and give them the tools to obtain knowledge. But the goal of Asian traditional culture”s education is about “Life”. Because gaining knowledge can only let people have a successful career, yet a successful career is only the half part of life, the other half is Life itself. The value and meaning of life is not measured by how much fortune you own, how much fame you gain, how high your status is, but rather by how people recognize you, how much they respect you. Thus, the value of life is not just how you look at yourself, but how other people look at you and appraise you. So the value of life is about repaying society, contributing to society, and making contributions to other people.

　　進入社會，學習的目標可以歸納爲四個字，「處事、待人」，青年人進入社會只要學會做事就不憂兩餐，學會做人就能不斷進步，所以西方教育傳授人們知識，而東方傳統文化教育在于「育人」，培養做人的本領。

　　Entering society, the goal of learning can be summarized by this phrase, “handling tasks and getting along with others.” When young people are entering society, if they have learned how to work and handle tasks, then they wouldn”t have to worry about whether they can get enough food for surviving or not. However, learning how to be a man can let him have a constant progress; therefore, Western education teaches people knowledge, whereas Asian traditional culture”s education is to cultivate people”s virtue¸ and teach them the way of how to be a man.

　　在人生的實踐中，往往離不開學習「做事」和「做人」，而東方教育又提倡「未學做事，先學做人」，可見「做人」對做事有很大的幫助，而「做人」之道，「先學吃虧」，只要學會「吃虧」，繼而學會「吃苦」，人生才能立于不敗之地。

　　To put this practice into life, more often than not, it never is far from learning how to handle tasks and how to be a man. Asian education advocates the idea of “Learning how to be a man before learning how to handle a task”. We can imagine that learning how to be a man can help people a lot with handling tasks. The way of learning how to be a man, is to learn how to accept the unfavorable situation instead of taking advantages from other people. Once we learn how to accept the unfavorable situation, we then can learn how to bear hardships; as a result, we could be an undefeated person in our life.

　　對于「處事待人」之道，儒家有很深入的研究，並總結出很好的方法及下手處，其中「大學」篇，有令人神伏的地位。在此，與大家重溫一下「大學」是如何教導「處事待人」的。

　　As for the way of handling tasks and getting along with others, the Confucian school has a very profound study, and they have summarized some great methods and the ways of approaching them. One of the concepts from 《Great Learning》has an impressive and important status. Here we can review some parts from《Great Learning》,and see how it gives the teachings about handling tasks and getting along with others.

　　「大學」的道理在于淨化自己的德性，使人們能夠去除不良的習慣，革新自己，不斷進步，直至「完滿至善」的境界。能夠知道要達到「至善境界」的目標，就要樹立堅定不移的志向，有了堅定不移的志向，內心就會不雜亂，內心不雜亂，精神就會安穩，精神安穩，然後可以自我反思，自我反省，然後就會有所收獲，這樣就能忠誠自己的意念，不會自己欺騙自己，就好像討厭難聞的氣味，喜愛美麗的顔色一樣。這時，自己就能心安，即使獨處的時候，也會慎重自己的行爲。

　　The principle of 《Great Learning》is to purify our essence of characters, so that we would be able to get rid of our bad habits, to reform ourselves, and constantly making progress until we achieve the state of “complete sovereign goodness.” To know how to achieve the goal of “complete sovereign goodness,” we need to establish an aspiration of determined resolu…

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