透过教育弘扬佛法

　　PROPAGATION OF BUDDHISM THROUGH EDUCATION

　　法界佛教大学校长阿比纳博士讲于九月八日万佛城大殿

　　A talk by Dr. Snejzana Akpinar, President of Dharma Realm Buddhist University on September 8, 1998, in the Buddha Hall at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas

　　戴岳子 中译 Chinese translation by Dai Yue Zi

　　晚安，希望大家能细心听我讲，因为我要讲的是我们该如何教人，和我们该如何弘扬佛法。

　　Good evening. I hope you will listen to my lecture carefully, because I will talk about how we should teach and how we should propagate the Dharma.

　　法即教育，或者说佛法的一面是教育；反之，教育也是法。所以，通过教育去弘扬佛法就几乎等于通过教育去推广教育。两者差不多是一个词。

　　Dharma is education, or one aspect of Dharma is education, and conversely, education is Dharma. So, to propagate the Dharma by education would almost mean to propagate education through education. They are almost the same word.

　　法的意思很多，但它主要的意思，从其梵文出处，以及在印度来说，是指「方法」和「系统」而言。我们可以问自己，什么是教育？思考这个问题的本身，也就是一个方法——一个将我们混乱的思想理出一个头绪来的方法。其目标总是一致的：即是帮助众生明白他们的真实自性，使他们向善向上。所以，佛法即是释迦牟尼佛及佛教化导众生的方法。

　　Dharma means a lot of things, but its primary meaning in Sanskrit, where the word comes from, and in India in general, is a "method" or "system." We can ask ourselves: What is education

　　 That, too, is a method: a method for sorting things out in our confused minds. The goal is always the same: It is to help living beings become better by attaining some understanding of their true nature. So, the Buddhadharma is the method of education which Shakyamuni Buddha and Buddhism uses.

　　在梵文里还有一个词——「三那塔纳法」，意即恒常不变之教。此词并不包涵佛教、印度教或其他宗教的涵意在里面。它是一种永恒的东西。这也是释迦牟尼佛，及此世界许许多多的贤圣者所教的东西；不只是教，更在为这世界重兴这种修习之法。此教总是在那儿的，只是需要一再地取来用之，来适应某个时代的情况。

　　There is also something that is called the sanatana-dharma in Sanskrit, which means the perennial or eternal teaching, the teaching that is always constant and that never changes. And that teaching has no connotation of Buddhism or Hinduism or any other religion. It is that which is always there. And that is also what Shakyamuni Buddha, along with many sages of this world, was teaching—not only teaching, but reviving—as a practice for the world. It is a teaching that is always there, but it needs to be brought forth again and again in order to suit the conditions of a certain age.

　　在我们这个「现代世界」——现在应称「超现代世界」了——从本质上说，人们还是在一样的；像往常一样，我们还是非常地迷糊，我们也在寻求一种秩序，以我们能力内的最好方法，去将事情理出一个头绪。这需要艰苦的付出，严格的纪律，还有失望、不快乐，也就是在梵文或巴利文中所称的「不满」(dukkha 都卡)；即佛教徒称之为「苦」的。这是一种苦，但也有乐的一面。总而言之，教育或弘法的宗旨在于使人类找到一条离苦得乐的途径，在这个基础上再去帮助别人得到同样的安乐和远离执着。

　　In our modern—and what is now called postmodern—world, people are still attempting to do that same thing, in essence. As usual, we are still very confused, and are trying to help ourselves to find some kind of order, to sort things out the best way we can. That requires very hard work. It requires discipline, and of course it requires disappointment, unhappiness, or what in Sanskrit or in Pali is called dukkha—unsatisfactoriness, which we Buddhists like to call "suffering". It is a form of suffering, but it also involves some happiness. Above all, the whole point of education or Dharma, is to enable us human beings to find a way out of it all, to reach a point of equanimity, from where we can compassionately help others reach that same point—that point of equanimity or detachedness.

　　在这一整个过程，作为老师、教育工作者、母亲、父亲、作为工程师、医生或律师，我们应时时不忘慈悲或者说观音菩萨是我们的主要伴侣。那就是我们的救生索，能令我们于迷糊之海中得以生存，能令我们具足能力去帮助别人，使他们也具足能力再去帮助其他的人。否则，在这不完美的社会，我们会别的不成，而尽是满腔的沮丧，愤懑和怨恨。

　　Throughout this process, as teachers and educators, as mothers, as fathers, as engineers or doctors or lawyers, we should never forget that” our major companion has to be compassion or Guanyin. That will help us survive above the confusion and enable us to help others to do the same. Otherwise, we will very easily get frustrated in this imperfect world, and we will simply be angry and resentful, nothing else.

　　为何教育是不可少的呢？一个人如何去从事教育呢？教育人有许多方法，教育的种类也有许多，没有一个简单单一的答案。其中一个重要的因素是要了解学生的的需求、程度…

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