宽容与多元

　　[中译]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. 当前，世界上的诸大宗教都必须对一项双重挑战作出回应。一方面，是世俗主义的挑战。这股潮流已横扫全球，冲击着神圣信念的亘古堡垒，把人类一切朝向超世的冲动，沦变为一场感人而无谓的悲凉作态。另一方面，是诸大宗教的相互交会。随着地理遥远的国度与文化融合为同一个全球社区，人类的精神追求的代表者们，在一场前所未有的近距离接触中被带到了一起，接触之紧密，使得人们已无后撤的余地。于是，每一个主要宗教，在世界观的圆型竞技场中，同时面对着地球上所有的其它宗教，也面对着以怀疑的蹙眉与漠然的哈欠，回应超世解悟之一切持称的芸芸世人。

　　 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，任何一个层次上高于人类早期遗俗的宗教，都必须能够以一种既令人信服又富有意义的方式，应对这个挑战的双重侧面。一方面，它必须藉使那股直觉保持活力，遏制世俗主义的潮涨，也就是: 无论多少对外在自然的技术性掌控，无论多少对世俗需求的精良供给，都不能给人类的心灵带来彻底的宁静，都不能平息对一种超越偶然性范围之真谛与价值的渴求。另一方面，各个宗教都必须找到某种方式，拆解诸教皆持的抵牾指称，即本教懂得我们在宇宙大局中的位置并拥有救赎之钥。一个宗教在忠实自身之根本原则的同时，必须能够阐明本门旨趣与别教的突出歧异，阐明的方式必须同时既坦诚又谦和，既明察又不强加。

　　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，我打算概述佛教徒对第二种挑战的适当回应由 于佛教在解决精神生活的思想、伦理矛盾时一贯主张“中道”，我们也许会发现，当下问题的解决关键，也有赖于找到最能够体现中道的回复。正如常为人们指出的那样，中道并非是两个极端间的折衷，而是超越两者、避开两者所趋之困境的方式。因此，就教义的多元性问题探索正确的佛教回应时，我们一开始不妨指明中道必须避开的极端。

　　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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