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現在波斯匿王也是處於同樣的困惑中。那是因為持斷見者告訴他：「當人死了以後，就如同一盞燈熄滅，一切都過去了。假如你行善的話，那是沒有報償的。反之，假如你做惡，也不會有果報的。並沒有所謂來生。」這是很明顯的撥無因果。
然而現在波斯匿王已經對佛陀產生了信心，他時常來聆聽佛陀說法。他明白了「善有善報，惡有惡報」的道理。斷見主義者對於人類的生命與草木的生命，並沒有持不同的看法。生命出來以後，活了一輩子，然後死亡，如此而已。當一個人死後，另一個人出生;但其中並沒有某一個的重生。一個死後，另一個取而代之。就是如此而已。死的是永遠死了，新生的是完全新生的。他們並不相信因果、業力果報、以及生死輪迴，把波斯匿王也弄得迷惑了。
佛陀利用眼根和見性來說服波斯匿王，在我們的生滅身中，有個不生滅的東西，它不受老死，也不會斷滅。那個東西就是我們本具的自性。我們能夠在六根門頭瞥見自性顯露的情形。佛陀讓我們瞥見自性在眼根上顯見的例子。佛問波斯匿王第一次見到恆河水時是幾歲。波斯匿王回答說，他第一次見到恆河水時，才三歲。但他知道那是恆河。佛又問他，在他三歲時所見的恆河與十三歲時所見是否有所不同。波斯匿王回答說：「不但恆河與他三歲時所見的恆河完全一樣。乃至於在他的老年，還是同一恆河水。」
→待續
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Reminder from last Issue: An explanation of eternalism and annihilationism.
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Now King Prasenajit is in a similar sort of quandary. That's because those annihilationists had told the king, "When you die, it's like a lamp going out. It's all over. If you do good, there's no reward received. If you do evil, there is no retribution to undergo. There is no rebirth.” That is a blatant denial of cause and effect.
But now the King has come to believe in the Buddha and to listen regularly to the Buddha's teaching. He has learned that if you do good, you will reap a reward; and if you do evil, you will have to undergo retribution. Those annihilationists regard human life as not different from the life of grass or trees—they get born, live out their life, die, and that's it. When one human being dies, another gets born; but there is no rebirth of any specific individual being. One dies and another takes its place, that's all. What dies is forever dead; what is born is born anew. They don't believe in the law of cause and effect, of karma and retribution, and of the cycle of rebirth. And they have managed to confuse the King.
The Buddha uses the eyes and seeing to convince the King that there is something in us that is not only not subject to old age and death, but that also will not become annihilated. That “something” is our inherent nature. We can get glimpses of it at the gates of our six sense organs. The Buddha gives us a glimpse of the nature at the eye organ as it reveals itself in sight by asking the King how old he was when he first saw the Ganges River. The King replies that he was only three years old when he first saw it, but he knew it was the Ganges. Then the Buddha asks the King if the sight of the Ganges had changed between the time when he had seen it at age three and later when he saw it at age thirteen. The King replies that not only was the Ganges the same Ganges he had seen when he was three, it is still the same Ganges now in his declining years.
- To be continued |
