What is Buddhism
什么是佛教
Buddhism is nothing but the NOBLE TRUTH.
佛教就是神圣的真理。
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.
什么是佛教？这个问题使人混淆和困扰。因此，人们经常提出这样的问题：佛教是哲学？宗教？还是一个人生活方式？简单的说：佛教博大精深，再巧妙的人也无法把它规划到固定的、狭窄的范畴内。当然，佛教包含了哲学、宗教和生活方式，可是，佛教并不限囿于以上的范畴。
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.
以固有的范畴或标签来规划佛教，就好像在张贴海报，告诉大家，他们现在在传什么法。如果以药房比喻佛教，我们将会更清楚。药房的告示牌不能治疗人们的病，而药品确实是有治疗作用，我们以药品来治病，从来都不去理会告示牌说的是什么。同样的，如果认为佛教是有效的，就利用它，不要理会它的标签和范畴。不要把佛教硬塞进一个简单和固定的范畴内或任何广告形式的框框内。
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，生活在不同的时代和环境里。对佛教必然有不同的看法和解释。对某些人来说，佛教可能只是一大堆迷信和仪式。对另外一些人来说，佛教可能是获得短期利益的方便工具。有些人认为佛教是古时候流行的时髦玩意。而有些人认为佛教仅仅是对知识份子有意义的思想体系。有些人把它看成是科学的发明。而虔诚的佛教徒，却把佛教看做是他整个的生命，是值得他牺牲一切来完成的人生大事。
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.
某些知识份子把佛教当作是古印度环境的产物，或认为是印度宗教的另一类产品。事实，佛教却不是这样的，佛教是神圣的真理。佛教是获得觉悟、智慧的途径。佛陀觉悟世间的烦恼与困苦，并不纯粹来自知识或理性的过程，而是来自心智的发展和净化。以知识性为立足点，使人联想到科学态度，因此，终于使佛陀成为有史以来独一无二的宗教导师。当然，佛法的曙光在印度出现，是有其智慧探索和伦理建设的社会背景与条件。
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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