寬容與多元

　　[中譯]良稹

　　Tolerance and Diversity

　　by Bhikkhu Bodhi

　　Today all the major religions of the world must respond to a double challenge. On one side is the challenge of secularism, a trend which has swept across the globe, battering against the most ancient strongholds of the sacred and turning all man”s movements toward the Beyond into a forlorn gesture, poignant but devoid of sense. On the other side is the meeting of the great religions with each other. As the most far-flung nations and cultures merge into a single global community, the representatives of humankind”s spiritual quest have been brought together in an encounter of unprecedented intimacy, an encounter so close that it leaves no room for retreat. Thus at one and the same time each major religion faces, in the amphitheater of world opinion, all the other religions of the earth, as well as the vast numbers of people who regard all claims to possess the Great Answer with a skeptical frown or an indifferent yawn. 當前，世界上的諸大宗教都必須對一項雙重挑戰作出回應。一方面，是世俗主義的挑戰。這股潮流已橫掃全球，沖擊著神聖信念的亘古堡壘，把人類一切朝向超世的沖動，淪變爲一場感人而無謂的悲涼作態。另一方面，是諸大宗教的相互交會。隨著地理遙遠的國度與文化融合爲同一個全球社區，人類的精神追求的代表者們，在一場前所未有的近距離接觸中被帶到了一起，接觸之緊密，使得人們已無後撤的余地。于是，每一個主要宗教，在世界觀的圓型競技場中，同時面對著地球上所有的其它宗教，也面對著以懷疑的蹙眉與漠然的哈欠，回應超世解悟之一切持稱的芸芸世人。

　　 In this situation, any religion which is to emerge as more than a relic from humanity”s adolescence must be able to deal, in a convincing and meaningful manner, with both sides of the challenge. On the one hand it must contain the swelling tide of secularism, by keeping alive the intuition that no amount of technological mastery over external nature, no degree of proficiency in providing for humanity”s mundane needs, can bring complete repose to the human spirit, can still the thirst for a truth and value that transcends the boundaries of contingency. On the other hand, each religion must find some way of disentangling the conflicting claims that all religions make to understand our place in the grand scheme of things and to hold the key to our salvation. While remaining faithful to its own most fundamental principles, a religion must be able to address the striking differences between its own tenets and those of other creeds, doing so in a manner that is at once honest yet humble, perspicacious yet unimposing. 在此情形之下，任何一個層次上高于人類早期遺俗的宗教，都必須能夠以一種既令人信服又富有意義的方式，應對這個挑戰的雙重側面。一方面，它必須藉使那股直覺保持活力，遏製世俗主義的潮漲，也就是: 無論多少對外在自然的技術性掌控，無論多少對世俗需求的精良供給，都不能給人類的心靈帶來徹底的甯靜，都不能平息對一種超越偶然性範圍之真谛與價值的渴求。另一方面，各個宗教都必須找到某種方式，拆解諸教皆持的抵牾指稱，即本教懂得我們在宇宙大局中的位置並擁有救贖之鑰。一個宗教在忠實自身之根本原則的同時，必須能夠闡明本門旨趣與別教的突出歧異，闡明的方式必須同時既坦誠又謙和，既明察又不強加。

　　In this brief essay I wish to sketch the outline of an appropriate Buddhist response to the second challenge. Since Buddhism has always professed to offer a "middle way" in resolving the intellectual and ethical dilemmas of the spiritual life, we may find that the key to our present problematic also lies in discovering the response that best exemplifies the middle way. As has often been noted, the middle way is not a compromise between the extremes but a way that rises above them, avoiding the pitfalls into which they lead. Therefore, in seeking the proper Buddhist approach to the problem of the persity of creeds, we might begin by pinpointing the extremes which the middle way must avoid. 在本篇短文中，我打算概述佛教徒對第二種挑戰的適當回應由 于佛教在解決精神生活的思想、倫理矛盾時一貫主張“中道”，我們也許會發現，當下問題的解決關鍵，也有賴于找到最能夠體現中道的回複。正如常爲人們指出的那樣，中道並非是兩個極端間的折衷，而是超越兩者、避開兩者所趨之困境的方式。因此，就教義的多元性問題探索正確的佛教回應時，我們一開始不妨指明中道必須避開的極端。

　　The first extreme is a retreat into fundamentalism, the adoption of an aggressive affirmation of one”s own beliefs coupled with a proselytizing zeal toward those who still stand outside the chosen circle of one”s co-religionists. While this response to the challenge of persity has assumed alarming proportions in the folds of the great monotheist…

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