慈悲心 Loving-Kindness
Loving-Kindness
慈悲心
What is lacking in the world today is loving-kindness or goodwill.
今天的世界，缺少的就是慈悲心。
In the world today, there is sufficient material wealth. There are very advanced intellectuals, brilliant writers, talented speaker, philosophers, psychologists, scientists, religious advisors, wonderful poets and powerful world leaders. In spite of these intellectuals, there is no real peace and security in the world today. Something must be lacking. What is lacking is loving-kindness or goodwill amongst mankind.
今天的世界，擁有充足的物質資源、擁有先進的知識、擁有才華橫溢的作家、能言善辯的演說家、高明的醫生、哲學家、心理學家、科學家、宗教顧問、詩人、有才干的政治領導人物等等。雖然這世間擁有這麼許多有才干的人，可是這世間並不因此而獲得幸福與和平。這世間一定是缺少了某些東西，是的，就是缺少了對他人的慈悲心。
Material gain in itself can never bring lasting happiness and peace. Peace must first be established in man’s own heart before he can bring peace to others and to the world at large. The real way to achieve peace is to follow the advice given by religious teachers.
物質不能帶來永恆的幸福與和平。和平必須奠基于人類的心，唯有自己的心識，才能帶來和平，進而擴展到他人以及全世界。要獲得真正的和平，唯一的道路就是依據佛陀的教義而行。
In order to practise loving-kindness, one must first practise the Noble Principle of non-violence and must always be ready to overcome selfishness and to show the correct path to others. The fighting is not to be done with the physical body, because the wickedness of man is not in his body but in his mind. Non-violence is a more effective weapon to fight against evil than retaliation. The very nature of retaliation is to increase wickedness.
要修持慈悲心，首先必須培養非暴戾的崇高原則，克服貪欲、嗔恚、愚癡，以正道處事待人。毆斗並非我們的身體的個別作用，而是我們的「心」以不正確或不正當的「念」引導我們身體的作用。非暴戾的慈悲心，遠比以暴力的行動來報復更為有效，報復只會助長邪惡。
In order to practise loving-kindness, one must also be free from selfishness. Much of the love in this world of self-centered, only a love of one is own self:
要修持慈悲心，必須拋開個人自私的「愛」。這世界太多的「愛」是以個人為出發點，人們只愛個別的自我。
‘Not out of love for the husband loved; but the husband is loved for love of self. Children are loved by the parents, not out of love for the children, but for love of self. The gods are loved, not out of love for the gods, but for love for self. Not out of love is anybody loved, but for love of self are loved.’
「愛丈夫，並非出自對丈夫的愛，而是出自對自己的愛。愛兒女，並非出自對兒女的愛，而是出自對自己的愛。愛上帝，並非出自對上帝的愛，而是出自對自己的愛。到頭來，所有被愛的人，都得不到真正的愛，而是他人自己對自己的愛。這就是以自我為中心的愛。」
Man should learn how to practise selfless love to maintain real peace and his own salvation. Just as suicide kills physically, selfishness kills spiritual progress. Loving-kindness in Buddhism is neither emotional or selfish. It is loving-kindness that radiates through the purified mind after eradicating hatred, jealousy, cruelty, enmity and grudges. According to the Buddha, Metta - Loving-kindness is the most effective method to maintain purity of mind and to purify the mentally polluted atmosphere.
人們應該了解修持無我的慈悲心，能獲得自我解脫。自殺能終止身體的活動，自私卻阻礙了心靈的進展。今日世間所缺少的就是無我的慈悲心。慈悲心在佛教里不是情緒化，也不是自私的。慈悲心是根除貪、嗔、癡、嫉妒、暴戾和根除一切污染的最有效的方法。
The word ‘love’ is used to cover a very wide range of emotions human beings experience. Emphasis on the base animal lust of one sex for another has much debased the concept of a feeling of amity towards another being. According to Buddhism, there are many types of emotions, all of which come under the general term ‘love’ First of all, there is selfish love and there is selfless love. One has selfish love when one is concerned only with the satisfaction to be derived for oneself without any consideration for the partner’s needs or feelings. Jealousy is usually a symptom of selfish love. Selfless love, on the other hand, is felt when one person surrenders his whole being for the good of another _parents feel such love for their children. Usually human beings feel a mixture of both selfless and selfish love in their relationships with each other. For example, while parents make enormous sacrifices for their children, they usually expect something in return.
「慈愛」涵蓋的范圍很廣，包括了對一切動物的愛。佛陀說，愛的動機有很多種，首先是自私的愛和無我的愛，自私的愛，只是在滿足于個人對同伴的感受，嫉妒就是自私的愛的另一種表現。無我的愛，是指一個人完全放棄自我的感受，全心全意的去善待他人，如：父母對子女無私的愛。通常，人類對「自私的愛」和「無我的愛」混淆不清，譬如：父母對子女的慈愛，通常都還有要求回報的因素存在。
Another kind of love, but closely related to the above, is brotherly love or the love between friends. In a sense, this kind of love can also be considered selfish because the love is limited to particular people and does not encompass others. In another category we have sexual love, where partners are drawn towards each other through physical attraction. It is the kind that is most exploited by modern entertainment and it can cover anything from uncomplicated teenage infatuations to the most complex of relationships between adults.
另一種與「慈愛」很接近的就是「友愛」。「友愛」也有一定的局限性，它只作用于少部份的人。還有就是「性愛」，「性愛」是一切成長的眾生，締結伴侶，繁衍後代的一種必然程序，「性愛」也造成了成人之間的最密切關系──夫妻關系。
On a scale far higher than these, is Universal Love or Metta. This all-embracing love is the great virtue expressed by the Buddha. Lord Buddha, for example, renounce His kingdom, family and pleasures so that He could strive to find a way to release mankind from an existence of suffering. In order to gain His Enlightenment, he had to struggle for many countless lives. A lesser being would have been disheartened, but not the Buddha-elect. It is for this He is called ‘The Compassionate One’. The Buddha’s boundless love extended not only to human beings but all living creatures. It was not emotional or selfish, but a love without frontiers, without discrimination. Unlike the other kinds of love, Universal love can never end in disappointment or frustration because it expects no reward. It creates more happiness and satisfaction. One who cultivates universal love will also cultivate sympathetic joy and equanimity and he will then have attained to the sublime state.
超越種種「愛」的就是「慈悲心」(Metta)，這是佛陀極力推薦的。佛陀拋棄家庭、王位、榮華富貴，為的就是由于他多世實踐慈悲心。佛陀的慈悲心不僅僅對于人類，也普及一切眾生。佛陀的慈悲心沒有動機也不自私，是一種無欲無求的奉獻。世間的愛，往往以失望為收場，就是因為有所求。慈悲心卻能帶來更大的幸福和滿足。
一個人如果發展這種宇宙性的慈悲心，不僅為他帶來快樂，也提升了他個人的境界。
In this book, The Buddha’s Ancient Path Ven. Piyadassi says:
在《佛陀的古道》(The Buddha’s Ancent Path)一書中，作者毗亞達息尊者( Ven. Pyadass)說：
’Love is an active force. Every act of the loving one is done with the stainless mind to help, to succor, to cheer, to make the paths of others easier, smoother and more adapted to the conquest of sorrow, the winning of the highest bliss.
「慈悲心是一種活躍的力量，由意識的引導而作用，導致一切支援、振奮、簡化、消除煩惱的正面力量，從而獲得更高的幸福。」
‘The way to develop love is through thinking out the evils of hate, and the advantages of non-hate; through thinking out according to actuality, according to karma, that really there is none to hate, that hate is a foolish way of feeling which breeds more and more darkness, that obstructs right understanding. Hate restricts; love release. Hatred strangles; love enfranchises. Hatred brings remorse; love brings peace. Hatred agitates; love quietens, stills, calms. Hatred divides; love unites. Hatred hardens; love softens. Hatred hinders; love helps. And thus through a correct study and appreciation of the effects of hatred and the benefits of love, should one develop love.’
「發展慈悲心，要斷除邪惡和嗔恚。根據真性，根據業力而加以發展。嗔恚是一種愚蠢的行徑，導致無明與黑暗，唯有通過正知加以消除。慈悲心增長，嗔恚心減退，慈悲心圓滿，嗔恚心消遁。通過正確的方法以精進對治嗔恚，當慈悲心獲得發展時，也就能獲得慈悲心所帶來的利益。」
In Metta Sutta, the Buddha has expounded the nature of love in Buddhism. ‘Just as a mother would protect her only child even at the risk of her own life, even so, let him cultivate a boundless heart towards all beings. Let his thoughts of boundless love pervade the whole world, above, below and across without any obstruction, without any hatred, without any enmity.’
佛陀在《慈經》(Metta Sutta)中說道：
「有如母親在危急的環境中保護她唯一的子女一般，我們以類似的心，去培養無邊無際，一視同仁對待眾生的慈悲心。我們把這無邊無際的慈悲心，推廣普及于世間，乃至天下，橫遍十萬方廣，沒有障礙、沒有嗔恚、沒有敵意。」