..续本文上一页的传统以及道德规约对我们来说已经有些太僵化了，失去了其真实的意义，也可以说贵族的风仪和生活方式，已经从现代生活中被淘汰掉了。就这一方面而言，现今在我们所处这个时代，这些老方法，旧规约，已经土崩瓦解了，所剩下的只是一些片段残迹而已。
Today, we live in the modern and postmodern world, and these old habits of chivalry and traditions and moral codes have become a little bit too rigid for us. They lost their true meaning. The air and the life of the aristocracy or nobility was somehow sucked out of them, so to speak. At this point in our age, these old methods— these old codes—seem to be shattered, and we see bits and pieces of them flying around—that”s all that”s left.
在世界上许多地方，这些传统也已经撤底粉碎了，留下的也只不过是一些粉末尘埃；这种现象的存在已非常久了。作为佛教徒，我们知道这种情形还会不断地持连续下去。这种现象以前也发生过。现在是末法时代，我们应该去适应这个时代；要看清楚，现在对于整个世界，什么才是至为重要的。
In many parts of the world, they have completely shattered, and all we have is dust. This phenomena, though, in itself is very old, and it is a continuous process, as Buddhists know. This has happened before. It is the Dharma-ending age. That is why, at present, we must adapt ourselves to the conditions of this day and age, and see what is relevant and important for the whole world right now.
我们有点像考古学家，发现了一小块古柱石而自豪不已，将它珍藏在博物馆里。我们得一而忘整；忘记这块古柱石所可能代表的是地下的一整座古庙，那可远比这一块小石头来得重要得多；或者这座古庙曾经是一座古城的中心；而这座古城又曾是一个古国之中心等等。我们看得很重的这一小块古柱石，对于我们所要做的事而言，其实只不过是一件装饰品而已，没有多大的意义。
We”re sort of like archaeologists, who find a little piece of a column and are very proud of it, and so they hold onto it and put it in a museum. But they tend to forget that there is a bigger picture, that this particular little piece of a column was probably holding something very important—a temple that was much more important than this little piece. Or that the temple was the center of a big city, or that the big city was at the center of a big country, and so on. We may look at that little piece and think that it”s very important, but it is just a silly little piece of decoration which has very little consequence for what we are trying to do.
现在我讲一讲在我来这演讲之前所发生的一件事情，来说明这一点。今天下午我在想今晚要讲些什么时，我打在我的电脑里，心想：「打好后，我存在磁碟片里，然后送去办公室印出来；那样一来，我手上就有一份清楚的版本给翻译的人看，此事不难。」
Now I will illustrate this with a story that happened to me right now before I came to this lecture. This afternoon as I was thinking of what to say for this lecture, I wrote it on my little computer and thought, "Well, I”ll just put it on a floppy disk and take it to the office and have it printed, so that I will have a cleaner example of what I”m going to say and I can give it to the translator. That is a simple enough thing to do."
别提一千年以前，就是几年以前，一个要上课的老师绝不会想到这些事情。这些事，不管怎么说，都是多余的事。凑巧的是我的磁碟片在办公室的电脑上打不开，计划因此失败。我心想：「算了。我还是在我自己的电脑上打开，再抄下来！」可是我电脑萤光幕上打出来的竟是希腊字母！因为我懂希腊字母，所以看得懂；但是文章是英文写的，字母却是希腊字母！简单的一篇讲稿，竟有如此多的混淆周章：我们现在生活的世界就是这样子的。
I”m sure that just a couple of years ago even, not to mention a thousand years ago, a teacher who was going to lecture wouldn”t have thought of all these things. These are extras that are just coming from every which way and floating in the air. Well, it just so happened that my floppy disk didn”t match with the office computer, so my plan failed. "Never mind,"I thought, "I can go back and read my file on the screen of my own computer and then just copy it down on paper." And so I took the floppy back and put it in my computer, and the file came on the screen, but— it was in Greek! I could understand it, since I can read the Greek alphabet, but it was English words written in the Greek alphabet. Can you imagine the confusion we have to go through just to do a very simple talk
That”s the world we live in.
能意识到这是末法时代、古风不再的好老师就得去找一个能适应此时代的方法；若能如此，则他可以在教某一门课的具体知识时在学生的脑海里勾画出一幅更广阔的背景画。
A good teacher who is aware of the Dharma-ending Age and of all of these pieces floating all over has to find a way of adapting to the new age, so that he or she can impart to their students the bigger picture along with the specific …
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