入世第二课 THE SECOND LESSON OF ENTERING THE SECULAR WORLD

　　杨钊居士

　　Author Charles Yeung

　　Translated by Soula Lo

　　进入社会，要获得生活所需，首先要学会挣取金钱，学习求财之道，其中，可以通过提供劳力，也可以通过知识和智力去获取金钱。因此，西方的教育目标：教育学生的知识以及获取知识的工具，而东方传统文化的教育，则是以生命为目标，因为获得知识，往往只能使事业成功，而事业的成功只是人生的一半，尚有一半就是生命。生命的价值和意义不是以拥有多少财富，多少名誉、多少社会地位去衡量，而是以人们对你的认同，对你的尊重来衡量。因此，生命的价值不是自己对自己的看法，而是别人及社会对你的看法及评价，所以，生命的价值在于回馈社会，对社会作贡献，对别人作贡献。

　　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.

　　进入社会，学习的目标可以归纳为四个字，「处事、待人」，青年人进入社会只要学会做事就不忧两餐，学会做人就能不断进步，所以西方教育传授人们知识，而东方传统文化教育在于「育人」，培养做人的本领。

　　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.

　　在人生的实践中，往往离不开学习「做事」和「做人」，而东方教育又提倡「未学做事，先学做人」，可见「做人」对做事有很大的帮助，而「做人」之道，「先学吃亏」，只要学会「吃亏」，继而学会「吃苦」，人生才能立于不败之地。

　　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.

　　对于「处事待人」之道，儒家有很深入的研究，并总结出很好的方法及下手处，其中「大学」篇，有令人神伏的地位。在此，与大家重温一下「大学」是如何教导「处事待人」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.

　　「大学」的道理在于净化自己的德性，使人们能够去除不良的习惯，革新自己，不断进步，直至「完满至善」的境界。能够知道要达到「至善境界」的目标，就要树立坚定不移的志向，有了坚定不移的志向，内心就会不杂乱，内心不杂乱，精神就会安稳，精神安稳，然后可以自我反思，自我反省，然后就会有所收获，这样就能忠诚自己的意念，不会自己欺骗自己，就好像讨厌难闻的气味，喜爱美丽的颜色一样。这时，自己就能心安，即使独处的时候，也会慎重自己的行为。

　　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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