究竟的真理 The Ultimate Truth

The Ultimate Truth

究竟的真理

The Ultimate Truth can be found in the Teaching of the Buddhism.

究竟的真理，可以在佛陀的教義中發現。

Buddhism recognizes two kinds of Truth. The apparent conventional truth and the real or ultimate Truth. The ultimate Truth can be realized only through meditation, and not theorizing or speculating.

佛教承認兩種真理的存在──普遍性的真理和究竟的真理。究竟的真理不是理論性或推測性的，唯有透過觀禪的訓練才能獲得。

The Buddha’s Teaching is the Ultimate Truth of the world. Buddhism, however, is not a revealed or an organized religion. It is the first example of the purely scientific approach applied to questions concerning the ultimate nature of existence. This timeless Teaching was discovered by the Buddha Himself without the help of any divine agency. This same teaching is strong enough to face any challenge without changing the basic principles of the doctrine. Any religion that is forced to change or adjust its original Teachings to suit the modern world, is a religion that has no firm foundation and no ultimate truth in it. Buddhism can maintain the Truth of the original Teaching of the Master even under the difficult conditions prevailing in the modern world. The Buddha did not introduce certain personal or worldly practices which have no connection with morality or religious observances. To the Buddha, such practices have no religious value. We must make the distinction between what the Buddha taught and what people preach and practise in the name of Buddhism.

佛陀的教義是這世間最究竟的真理。佛教不是一種天啟或有組織的宗教。他是人類首創以純粹科學探究終極存在的本質的例子。這種超時空的教義，是佛陀不經任何外在因素所發現的。這教義強而有力，足以面對任何挑戰，而不需要改變其基本原則來適應種種的變遷。許多宗教為了適應現代社會，而被迫更改或放棄原有的教義，這是因為他們的宗教缺乏固定的基礎和究竟的真理。在目前世界困難普遍存在 的情況下，佛教還是能夠照樣的保存佛陀原始的教義。

Every religion consists of not only the teachings of the founder of that religion but also the rites and ceremonies which have grown up around the basic core of the teachings. These rituals and ceremonies have their origins in the cultural practices of the people who accepted the religion. Usually the founders of the great religions do not lay down precise rules about the rituals to be observed. But religious leaders who come after them formalize the religion and set up exacting codes of behavior which the followers are not allowed to deviated from.

Even the religion which we call ‘Buddhism’ is very different in its external practices from what the Buddha and His early followers carried out. Centuries of cultural and environmental influence have made Burmese, Thai, Chinese, Tibetan, Sri Lankan and Japanese Buddhism different. But these practices are not in conflict, because the Buddha taught that while the Truth remains absolute, the physical manifestation of this truth can differ according to the way of life of those who profess it.

佛陀不曾介紹過與道德或宗教無關的個人或世間修持。對佛陀來說，這些修持都是沒有價值的。有些時候，我們必須區別佛陀所說的佛法和一般人所說的佛法，以及利用佛陀名義的修持方法是些什麼？

所有宗教的弘法，並非由創始人獨立完成的。有時候，弘法的任務也交由素質較高的弟子來執行。而宗教的創始人，也未曾制訂弘法章程或教育方案。但是後來的宗教領袖卻制定了種種方案來防止信徒的叛離。就算在今天，佛教在形式上也已經和早期不同了。經過了數世紀的傳播，緬甸、泰國、中國、西藏、斯里蘭卡和日本的佛教，就已呈現不同。但是，這並沒有引起混亂，因為佛陀所教誨的究竟是真理。這究竟的真理體現，可以根據不同的生活方式顯示出來。

A few hundred years after His passing away, the disciples of the Buddha organized a religion around the Teachings of the Master. While organizing the religion, they incorporated, among other concepts and beliefs, various types of miracles, mysticism, fortune-telling, charms, talismans, mantras, prayers and many rites and rituals that were not found in the original Teaching. When these extraneous religious beliefs and practices were introduced, many people neglected to develop the most important practices found in the original Teaching; self-discipline, self-restraint, cultivation of morality and spiritual development. Instead of practicing the original Teaching, they gave more of their attention and effort to self-protection from evil spirits and sought after prosperity or good luck.

佛陀入滅後數百年，他的信徒們開始將他的教義組織起來，形成了宗教。他們摻雜了其它信仰，各種奇蹟、神秘、占卜、符咒、靈符、壇場、禱告和各種儀軌。這些未曾出現在原始佛陀的教義里。當這些外來的宗教信仰被納入佛教體系中，很多人忽略了原始佛教中最重要的修持：自律、自制、道德的陶冶和心靈的發展。人們不再修持佛陀原來的教義，反而花費大部分的精力去向邪惡的神靈尋求庇護和追尋財富及運氣。

Gradually, people began to lose interest in the original Teachings and became more interested in discovering ways and means of getting rid of the so-called misfortunes or bad influences of stars, black magic, and sickness. In this manner, through time the religious practices and beliefs degenerated, being confined to worldly pursuits. Even today, many people believe that they can get rid of their difficulties through the influence of external powers. People still cling to this belief: hence they neglect to cultivate the strength of their will-power, intelligence, understanding and other related human qualities. In other words, people started to abuse their human intelligence by following those beliefs and practices in the name of Buddhism. They also polluted the purity of the Buddha’s message.

漸漸的，他們對佛教失去了興趣，變成只是一昧追尋占卜、魔法，或擺脫惡運、晦氣或病魔的方法。在這種情況下，宗教的修行與信仰，就局限于一般的、世俗的追求了。即使是現在，還是有很多人相信他們能夠通過外來的力量而擺脫他們種種的困擾。只要人們繼續追求這種信仰，他們就無法培養堅韌不拔的意志、智慧與學識，以及其它有關人類的優良本質。換句話說，人們開始利用佛教的名義， 濫用人類的智慧與學識去追求仰仗外力的信仰。他們也因此污染了原本純淨的佛陀教義。

Thus the modern religion we see in many countries is the product of normal human beings living in a country and adjusting to various social and cultural environments. However, Buddhism as a religion did not begin as a superworldly system that came down from heaven. Rather it was born and evolved through a long historical process. In its process of evolution, many people slowly moved away from the original Teachings of the founder and started different new schools or sects. All the other existing religions also face the same situation.

One should not come to a hasty conclusion either by judging the validity of a religion or by condemning the religion simply by observing what people perform through their blind faith in the name of that religion. To understand the real nature of a religion one must study and investigate the original Teachings of the founder of that religion.

In the face of the profusion of ideas and practices which were later developments, it is useful for us to return to the positive and timeless Dhamma taught by the Buddha. Whatever people believe and practise in the name of Buddhism the basic Teachings of the Buddha still exist in the original Buddhist texts. 究

我們可以在許多國家里找到這些現代的宗教，這是因為人類所居住的社會背景和文化環境不同的關系。即使把佛教當作宗教，它也不是一開始就從天掉下來的，而是經過很長的歷史，和在誕生的過程中加以發展的。在它演化的過程中，人們開始拋開佛陀原始的教義，而創立了許多不同于佛陀教義的新宗派。其它的宗教也面對同樣的問題。

我們不應該只觀察到那些掛著佛教名義的盲目信仰，就驟然給宗教下了一個不好的結論。要了解一個宗教的本質，必須研究和考據這個宗教創始者的原始教義。

現在我們面對後期佛教所發展的各種不同的宗派和思想。我們有必要回到正確和究竟的佛法。不管人們信仰和實踐的是什麼樣的佛教，佛陀原始的教義完完整整的保存在經典里。