..續本文上一頁a”s ferryboat. Out of compassion, one may come down again and revolve, as one likes, in the wheel of birth and death with one aim and object -- the liberation of all beings.

　　These eight precepts give us the general idea to grasp the suffering of birth and death and abandon the five passions in order to cultivate our mind in attaining the Buddhist sainthood.

　　Should the Buddha”s disciple read unremittingly the eight precepts mentioned above, they could get rid of countless sins so as to acquire transcendental wisdom and would soon achieve enlightenment. Consequently, they would be exempt from the suffering of rebirth and could stay always in the state of happiness.[19]

　　Annotation 1

　　This sutra or scripture has been dedicated to laymen by our Master Gotama Buddha before his attainment of Nirvana. As a matter of fact, it is a resume of his fundamental doctrine preached during his life-time. So it may be considered as his last will. It has the same character as the Sutra of Forty-two Sections and the Testament Sutra which the Buddha has particularly consecrated to monks.

　　The written form of the Enlightenment Sutra differs some-what from that of other sutras. Usually in other sutras, we may find such wordings as ”Thus have I heard" used at the very beginning and "All were very happy and retired with pleasure" at the end. But all these expressions are not found in this sutra.

　　Annotation 2

　　In China, all Buddhist texts are pided into two groups of "Maha" and "Hina." The Enlightenment Sutra belongs to the Mahayana School of Buddhism which means the greater or the northern vehicle, performed by China., Tibet, Bhutan, Sikkim, Nepal, Mongolia, Japan, Korea, while the southern Buddhism is "Hina" which means the small or the southern vehicle, practiced by Ceylon, Burma, Thailand, and Cambodia.

　　The historical records of Fa-Hsien and Hsuan-Chuang, two famous Chinese monks, reported in their books of travel to India from 392 to 414 A.D. and from 629 to 645 A.D. respectively, that there existed two kinds of doctrines called Maha and Hina, and that there were temples where monks were learning either or both of them. However different the tenets of various sects may be, we can easily discover the beliefs common to all of them, if we profess true Buddhism. These beliefs are:

　　1. Body is impure;

　　2. Sensation and feeling are painful;

　　3. Mind is impermanent;

　　4. Things as being dependent and without a nature of their own;

　　5. Ever-rotating cycle of birth and death;

　　6. Cause-effect law;

　　7. Nirvana, the ultimate state of happiness.

　　Now, let us look into the differences between Mahayana School and that of Hinayana.

　　(1) Arahatship is the highest ideal to be attained by Buddhists. Mahayanists do not strive for Arahatship, they want to become, if not Buddhas, at least Bodhisattvas.

　　(2) An Arhat wants to save himself in a hurry, but a Bodhisattva who has the patience to wait, always tries to seek wisdom so as to bring salvation to all beings in this miserable world.

　　(3) In Theravada, there are no prayers, no rites and ceremonies. In Mahayana, those rites exist. The former considers prayers, rites and ceremonies a great obstacle to perfection, while the latter strives to attain the Bodhisattvaship by dependence upon the Buddha”s power.

　　Annotation 3

　　There is all movability in the universe from. the tiny electron to the most colossal sun. All is motion from form to form, like the bubbles on a river, sparkling, bursting, and being borne away. There is nothing constant in the universe. Constancy is an illusion. Many things appear constant because our lives are too short to witness the changes taking place, or because the changes are too subtle for undeveloped intelligence.

　　This is true in the material world as well as in the psychic life. In the spi…

《佛說八大人覺經 The Enlightenment Sutra translated by Dr· Tetcheng Liao》全文未完，請進入下頁繼續閱讀…