女性更贴近“成佛之道”——参加Sakyadhita 2008国际会议感言
Closer to the Buddha”s Path as Women--Reflections Upon Participating in the 2008 Sakyadhita Conference in Mongolia
Shih, Chao-Hwei/ 释昭慧
Translated by Prof. Christie Chang/ 张玉玲教授英译
Sakyadhita并不像男性所主导的佛教国际组织，后者一般而言，因其核心成员多半为世界各国佛教领袖，因此往往拥有教会、教团或各寺院所支援的丰沛资源。Sakyadhita这个世界性佛教女性组织，鲜见强而有力的社经背景与物资奥援，主事者Tsomo法师又专事协助穷困的第三世界佛教女性，因此可想见它的运作，是何等艰难！然而这些令人敬佩的释迦女儿，还是在资源有限的情况下，充分发挥了“共用共荣”以及“无相布施”的精神！厥功至伟者，应属来自美国的Sakyadhita会长慧空法师(Rev. Lekshe Tsomo)。
Unlike most other male-dominated international Buddhist organizations, Sakyadhita does not have the support and rich resources from organized churches and strong Buddhist communities or monasteries. As an international Buddhist women”s organization, there is hardly support coming from the privileged socio-economic class and there is very few resources; especially when its leader, Ven. Karma Lekshe Tsomo who is particularly dedicated to assisting less privileged Buddhist women in the third world, we can imagine how tough a task it must have been for Sakyadhita to operate. Nevertheless, these respected daughters of the Buddha have achieved remarkably under such highly constraining conditions. They have been able to completely extend themselves and successfully demonstrated what it means to offer unconditionally and how to really honor and share with one another. Among all these achievements, of course, Ven. Karma Lekshe Tsomo, the current President of Sakyadhita, deserves to take most of the credit.
Tsomo法师十余年来鞠躬尽瘁，席不暇暖，仆仆风尘于亚、美二洲的道途，默默推动着喜马拉雅山区的尼众教育。此次晤面时，她温柔的语调与清朗的笑靥一如往昔，但疲惫的身影，不免透出了操劳过度的痕迹。最令笔者惊叹的是：她的眼神较诸第一次晤面时，显得更为清亮而有神。一般而言，人事与岁月最是磨人而催老，然而笔者直觉：人事与岁月的淬练，在她身上都已转化成了丰沛的菩提资粮。
For the past two decades, Ven. Tsomo has been selflessly and tirelessly devoted to the education of nuns in the Himalayas and traveling between the two continents of Asia and America. At our encountering during the 10th Sakyadhita conference in Ulaan Baatar this time, Ven. Tsomo”s gentle tones and bright laughter remained the same, but I could not help noticing traces of exhaust in her. What surprised me the most, however, is that her eyes seemed to have become even clearer and more spirited. Generally speaking, busy lives and exhausting chores in this mundane world usually speed up one”s old age, yet intuitively I feel that all such tiring experiences have transformed into the Bodhi asset in Ven. Tsomo instead.
还有一件令笔者印象鲜明的就是：与会的佛教女性，竟能跨越语言的有形藩篱！这些佛教女性朋友们，无论是来自东方还是来自西方，无问肤色、种族与国家，都十分真诚地打破语言的隔阂，交换着修行、研究、奉献事工的心得。
What I also found to be very impressive at the Sakyadhita conference in Mongolia was that all the participants were able to break through the language barrier and communicated with not much difficulty! Despite the different parts of the world these Buddhist women came from, east or west, despite the different colors of their skin, their ethnic identifies or countries, they were all able to engage in genuine communications, exchanging their experiences as practitioners, researchers, or Dharma servers.
笔者曾参加过一些国际会议，发现在那种场域，参与者即或可以礼貌地将肤色、种族与国家的偏见暂置一旁，但都很难不对那些无法操持英语的与会人士，表现某种程度的漠视与不耐烦，似乎摆明了：与会者理所当然必须操持英语，否则根本就不具足与会资格。即便是肤色黝黑或黄肤黑发的亚洲人士，只要能操持流利英语，面对那些讲英语时张口结舌的亚洲人，竟也会在无形中流露某种与白人不相上下的优越感，有的甚至会粗鲁地打断别人非英语的发言。
Having personally participated in many other international conferences, I have always observed that although most participants might be able to leave aside their bias or discrimination among races or nationalities, yet not many people have really shown genuine interest in communicating with those who do not speak fluent English. Most of the times, less fluent English speakers are either neglected or treated with much impatience, which seems to pronounce that “if you don”t speak English well, you are not qualified here”. The Asian participants who speak English better in those con…
《女性更贴近“成佛之道”——参加Sakyadhita 2008国际会议感言》全文未完，请进入下页继续阅读…