佛陀视角下的中年贡献与遗产传承

英文原文

In this four-part series, a Christian seminary professor and scholar of Buddhism explains how the Buddha’s teaching has made him a keener observer of the human condition, particularly the aging process. The four posts of this blog series move through (1) the author’s academic study of Buddhism and love of basketball, (2) the story of Prince Siddhartha becoming the Buddha, (3) the Buddha’s teaching, and (4) what the author has learned from the Buddha about the human condition. Post #2: From Prince to Buddha. Buddhist tradition has it that Prince Siddhartha was born into royalty in northern India. His family’s status is probably exaggerated, but the underlying point is crucial—he was raised in privileged circumstances. The story of Prince Siddhartha’s transformation into the Buddha is a classic in the history of religions. He had everything one could wish: “I lived in refinement, utmost refinement, total refinement.” (Sukhamala Sutta, transl. Thanissaro Bhikkhu) His father built him three palaces, one for each season of the Indian year, surrounded him with lotus ponds, dressed him in the finest clothes, fed him the finest food, and commanded the servants to hold a shade over his head 24/7 to shield him from the elements. Yet Siddhartha felt unfulfilled. We might think he was simply experiencing what many young adults do when nearing age 30, but the tradition sees his restlessness as part of a larger existential dilemma. So, he left his palaces and took a few tours to see what normal living was like. He encountered Four Passing Sights through which he confronted the human condition. The first sight was an elderly man. Siddhartha had never seen anyone grow old. His father could certainly fill the palace with young servants, but did he not himself age in ways obvious to his son? We must allow for the dramatic license of sacred texts. Charles Prebish and Damien Keown suggest that the Four Passing Sights “is probably best read as a parable rather than a narrative of historical events.” The visage of the old man shocked the young prince, who asked his charioteer Channa to explain the man’s appearance. The Buddhacarita reports Channa’s reply: “That is old age by which he is broken down, the ravisher of beauty, the ruin of vigour, the cause of sorrow, the destruction of delights, the bane of memories, the enemy of the senses.” The text continues: “Being thus addressed, the prince, starting a little, spoke these words to the charioteer, ‘What! will this evil come to me also?’” “It will come without doubt by the force of time through multitude of years even to my long-lived lord.” Siddhartha “was deeply agitated when he heard of old age,” and said to Channa, “Since such is our condition, O charioteer, turn back the horses,—go quickly home; how can I rejoice in the pleasure-garden, when the thoughts arising from old age overpower me?” (transl. Edward B. Cowell) Pretty much the same scenario is replicated in the next two Passing Sights, a sick man and a funeral procession. Siddhartha had never experienced illness (again allowing for the dramatic license of sacred texts) and his father had hidden death from him. What! will these evils come to me also? Yes, O Prince, not even royalty can escape the human condition, the suffering or existential stress of which is epitomized by aging, illness, and death. Reflecting later on these three sights in the Sukhamala Sutta, the Buddha identified three kinds of intoxication that fool most people: intoxication with youth, under which people think they will not grow old; intoxication with health, under which people think they will not fall ill; and intoxication with life, under which people think they will not die (I rely on the translation by Thanissaro Bhikkhu for the term “intoxication”). The notion of intoxication is significant—intoxicated individuals have impaired perception and judgment. But Prince Siddhartha is a long way from coming to this realization in the story. There is an interlude in the Buddhacarita in which numerous women try to seduce him in creative ways, but “he, having his senses guarded by self-control, neither rejoiced nor smiled, thinking anxiously, ‘One must die.’” On his next sally forth from the palace, the prince encountered a fourth sight, one of the many renunciants who sought spiritual liberation in that era. “Tell me, who art thou?” he asks the renunciant, who replies, “Oh bull of men, I, being terrified at birth and death, have become an ascetic for the sake of liberation.” Siddhartha knew immediately the direction he must take to liberate himself from the dire realities of the human condition, so “he set his mind on the manner of the accomplishment of deliverance.” His father the king was not pleased, as we might imagine. The Buddhacarita says he “shook like a tree struck by an elephant” when his son informed him of his intention to become a renunciant. But despite his father’s orders confining him to the palace, Siddhartha mounted his horse and, with the help of divine beings and miraculously hurtling through roadblocks, left the city to begin his Six Year Quest for deliverance. The Ariyapariyesana Sutta has the Buddha saying, “while still young, a black-haired young man endowed with the blessings of youth in the first stage of life—and while my parents, unwilling, were crying with tears streaming down their faces—I shaved off my hair & beard, put on the ochre robe and went forth from the home life into homelessness.” (transl. Thanissaro Bhikkhu) The notion of “homelessness” here is specifically religious—renunciants left home and family life in order to pursue spiritual liberation without the distractions of worldly attachments. In his six years of homeless wandering, Siddhartha studied meditation and followed an ascetic lifestyle, two popular spiritual paths of the day. Although he equaled his meditation teachers in gaining higher states of consciousness, he concluded that this would not lead to the goal he sought, so he left them “dissatisfied.” And although he excelled in his asceticism—he recalls that his spine “stood out like a string of beads” and his ribs “jutted out like the jutting rafters of an old, run-down barn”—he found that path lacking as well: “But with this racking practice of austerities I haven’t attained any superior human state, any distinction in knowledge or vision worthy of the noble ones. Could there be another path to Awakening?” (Maha-Saccaka Sutta, transl. Thanissaro Bhikkhu) Siddhartha decided that the best way to reach his goal would be through his own sheer determination, so he sat down beneath what later came to be called the Bodhi (“Awakening”) Tree and passed through progressively deeper levels of consciousness until he realized enlightenment or Nirvana. One of the texts has him say, “I reached the aging-less, illness-less, deathless [alluding to the first three Passing Sights], sorrow-less, unexcelled rest from the yoke: Unbinding. Knowledge & vision arose in me: ‘Unprovoked is my release. This is the last birth. There is now no further becoming.’” (Ariyapariyesana Sutta, transl. Thanissaro Bhikkhu) He was now the Buddha, now “Awakened” (a common translation of “Buddha,” from the same root as “Bodhi” Tree) to the truth of the human condition and no longer bound to the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth known in Indian religions as saṃsāra. Buddhists believe that enlightenment/Nirvana is impossible to explain “because human language is too poor to express the real nature of the Absolute Truth or Ultimate Reality which is Nirvāṇa,” to quote Walpola Rahula. As the well-known Buddhist metaphor has it, an enlightened one has crossed over to the further shore, which those on this side of the river cannot fully fathom. Trying to explain Nirvana to the unenlightened is like a turtle trying to explain “dry land” to a fish which has no experiential framework for understanding the concept. What, then, can be said about Nirvana? It is the end or cessation (nirodha) of unenlightened human consciousness and all that is bound up with it. In my next blog post, I will elaborate on elements of the Buddha’s teaching that have made me a keener observer of the human condition. Contributed by Paul David Numrich. Numrich is Professor in the Snowden Chair for the Study of Religion and Interreligious Relations, Methodist Theological School in Ohio. His publications include Old Wisdom in the New World: Americanization in Two Immigrant Theravada Buddhist Temples (University of Tennessee Press, 1996), Buddhists, Hindus, and Sikhs in America: A Short History (co-author, Oxford University Press, 2008), and North American Buddhists in Social Context (editor and contributor, Brill and the Association for the Sociology of Religion, 2008).

中文翻译

在这个四部分系列中，一位基督教神学院教授兼佛教学者解释了佛陀的教导如何使他成为对人类状况更敏锐的观察者，特别是衰老过程。这个博客系列的四篇文章依次探讨（1）作者对佛教的学术研究和篮球的热爱，（2）悉达多王子成为佛陀的故事，（3）佛陀的教导，以及（4）作者从佛陀那里学到的关于人类状况的见解。第二篇：从王子到佛陀。佛教传统认为，悉达多王子出生在印度北部的王室。他家族的地位可能被夸大了，但关键点在于——他是在特权环境中长大的。悉达多王子转变为佛陀的故事是宗教史上的经典。他拥有一切人们所渴望的：“我生活在精致、极度精致、完全精致之中。”（《苏卡马拉经》，Thanissaro Bhikkhu 译）他的父亲为他建造了三座宫殿，每座对应印度一年中的一个季节，周围环绕着莲花池，给他穿最精美的衣服，喂他最精美的食物，并命令仆人24/7为他撑伞以遮挡风雨。然而，悉达多感到不满足。我们可能认为他只是像许多接近30岁的年轻人一样经历着，但传统将他的不安视为更大存在困境的一部分。于是，他离开宫殿，进行了几次游览，看看正常生活是什么样子。他遇到了“四相”，通过这些他直面了人类状况。第一相是一位老人。悉达多从未见过任何人变老。他的父亲当然可以用年轻仆人填满宫殿，但他自己难道没有以儿子明显可见的方式衰老吗？我们必须考虑到圣典的戏剧性许可。查尔斯·普雷比什和达米安·基恩认为，“四相”“最好被解读为寓言而非历史事件的叙述”。老人的面容震惊了年轻的王子，他问他的车夫阐那解释那人的外貌。《佛所行赞》记载了阐那的回答：“那是衰老，它使他衰弱，是美丽的掠夺者，活力的毁灭者，悲伤的起因，快乐的破坏者，记忆的祸根，感官的敌人。”文本继续写道：“听到这些话，王子微微一惊，对车夫说了这些话，‘什么！这种邪恶也会降临到我身上吗？’‘它无疑会随着时间的力量，经过多年，甚至降临到我长寿的主人身上。’”悉达多“听到衰老时深感不安”，并对阐那说：“既然我们的状况如此，哦车夫，调转马头，——快回家；当衰老的思绪压倒我时，我怎能欢喜于乐园？”（爱德华·B·考威尔 译）接下来的两相，一个病人和一个送葬队伍，几乎重复了相同的场景。悉达多从未经历过疾病（再次考虑到圣典的戏剧性许可），他的父亲向他隐瞒了死亡。什么！这些邪恶也会降临到我身上吗？是的，哦王子，即使是王室也无法逃脱人类状况，其痛苦或存在压力以衰老、疾病和死亡为缩影。后来在《苏卡马拉经》中反思这三相时，佛陀指出了三种迷惑大多数人的陶醉：对青春的陶醉，人们认为他们不会变老；对健康的陶醉，人们认为他们不会生病；对生命的陶醉，人们认为他们不会死（我依赖 Thanissaro Bhikkhu 对“陶醉”一词的翻译）。陶醉的概念很重要——陶醉的人感知和判断力受损。但在故事中，悉达多王子离意识到这一点还很远。《佛所行赞》中有一个插曲，许多女人以创造性的方式试图诱惑他，但“他，以自制守护感官，既不欢喜也不微笑，焦虑地想着，‘人必有一死。’”在他下一次冲出宫殿时，王子遇到了第四相，那个时代许多寻求精神解脱的苦行者之一。“告诉我，你是谁？”他问苦行者，苦行者回答：“哦人中雄牛，我因恐惧生死，已成为寻求解脱的苦行者。”悉达多立即知道了他必须采取的方向，以将自己从人类状况的可怕现实中解放出来，因此“他决心于成就解脱的方式。”他的父亲国王不高兴，正如我们可能想象的那样。《佛所行赞》说，当儿子告知他打算成为苦行者时，他“像被大象撞击的树一样颤抖”。但尽管父亲命令将他禁闭在宫殿中，悉达多骑上马，在神祇的帮助下奇迹般地冲破路障，离开城市，开始了他的六年解脱之旅。《圣求经》中佛陀说：“当我还是年轻，一个黑发年轻人，享有青春祝福，处于生命第一阶段——而我的父母不情愿，泪流满面——我剃去头发和胡须，穿上赭色袍，从家庭生活出家成为无家者。”（Thanissaro Bhikkhu 译）这里的“无家”概念是特指宗教的——苦行者离开家庭生活，以追求精神解脱，不受世俗执着的干扰。在他六年无家流浪中，悉达多学习了冥想并遵循苦行生活方式，这是当时两种流行的灵修路径。尽管他在获得更高意识状态方面与冥想老师相当，但他得出结论这不会导致他寻求的目标，因此他“不满意”地离开了他们。尽管他在苦行方面表现出色——他回忆说他的脊柱“像一串珠子一样突出”，肋骨“像旧破谷仓突出的椽子一样突出”——他也发现那条路径不足：“但通过这种折磨性的苦行实践，我未达到任何优越的人类状态，任何值得圣者的知识或见解的 distinction。难道有另一条觉醒之路吗？”（《大萨迦迦经》，Thanissaro Bhikkhu 译）悉达多决定，达到目标的最佳方式是通过他自己的纯粹决心，因此他坐在后来被称为菩提（“觉醒”）树的树下，经历了逐渐更深层次的意识，直到他实现觉悟或涅槃。其中一部经文让他说：“我达到了无老、无病、无死[暗指前三相]，无悲，无上的轭之休息：解脱。知识与见解在我心中生起：‘我的解脱是无缘的。这是最后一生。现在没有 further becoming。’”（《圣求经》，Thanissaro Bhikkhu 译）他现在是佛陀，现在“觉醒”（“佛陀”的常见翻译，与“菩提”树同根）到人类状况的真理，不再受印度宗教中称为轮回的生死循环束缚。佛教徒相信，觉悟/涅槃无法解释“因为人类语言太贫乏，无法表达绝对真理或终极现实的真实本质，即涅槃”，引用瓦波拉·罗睺罗的话。正如著名的佛教隐喻所说，觉悟者已渡到彼岸，河流此岸的人无法完全理解。试图向未觉悟者解释涅槃就像乌龟试图向鱼解释“干燥陆地”，鱼没有理解这个概念的经验框架。那么，关于涅槃能说什么呢？它是未觉悟人类意识及其所束缚一切的终结或止息（nirodha）。在我的下一篇博客文章中，我将详细阐述佛陀教导中使我成为对人类状况更敏锐观察者的元素。由保罗·大卫·努姆里奇贡献。努姆里奇是俄亥俄州卫理公会神学院斯诺登宗教与宗教间关系研究讲座教授。他的出版物包括《新世界中的古老智慧：两个移民上座部佛教寺庙的美国化》（田纳西大学出版社，1996年），《美国的佛教徒、印度教徒和锡克教徒：简史》（合著，牛津大学出版社，2008年），以及《社会背景下的北美佛教徒》（编辑和贡献者，Brill 和宗教社会学协会，2008年）。

文章概要

本文是系列文章的第二篇，聚焦悉达多王子从奢华宫廷生活到觉悟成佛的转变过程。文章详细描述了王子通过“四相”（老人、病人、死者、苦行者）直面人类不可避免的衰老、疾病和死亡，从而引发对生命意义的深刻追问。他放弃王位，经历六年苦修与冥想探索，最终在菩提树下证悟涅槃，摆脱轮回束缚。文章结合佛教经典，探讨了佛陀对人类状况的洞察，特别是中年阶段如何从存在困境中寻求解脱与贡献，呼应关键词“Buddhist perspectives on legacy and midlife contributions”，强调通过觉悟超越世俗局限，留下精神遗产。

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