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晚安，希望大家能細心聽我講，因為我要講的是我們該如何教人，和我們該如何弘揚佛法。
法即教育，或者說佛法的一面是教育；反之，教育也是法。所以，通過教育去弘揚佛法就幾乎等於通過教育去推廣教育。兩者差不多是一個詞。
法的意思很多，但它主要的意思，從其梵文出處，以及在印度來說，是指「方法」和「系統」而言。我們可以問自己，什麼是教育？思考這個問題的本身，也就是一個方法——一個將我們混亂的思想理出一個頭緒來的方法。其目標總是一致的：即是幫助眾生明白他們的真實自性，使他們向善向上。所以，佛法即是釋迦牟尼佛及佛教化導眾生的方法。
在梵文裡還有一個詞——「三那塔納法」，意即恆常不變之教。此詞並不包涵佛教、印度教或其他宗教的涵意在裡面。它是一種永恆的東西。這也是釋迦牟尼佛，及此世界許許多多的賢聖者所教的東西；不只是教，更在為這世界重興這種修習之法。此教總是在那兒的，只是需要一再地取來用之，來適應某個時代的情況。
在我們這個「現代世界」——現在應稱「超現代世界」了——從本質上說，人們還是在一樣的；像往常一樣，我們還是非常地迷糊，我們也在尋求一種秩序，以我們能力內的最好方法，去將事情理出一個頭緒。這需要艱苦的付出，嚴格的紀律，還有失望、不快樂，也就是在梵文或巴利文中所稱的「不滿」（dukkha 都卡）；即佛教徒稱之為「苦」的。這是一種苦，但也有樂的一面。總而言之，教育或弘法的宗旨在於使人類找到一條離苦得樂的途徑，在這個基礎上再去幫助別人得到同樣的安樂和遠離執著。
在這一整個過程，作為老師、教育工作者、母親、父親、作為工程師、醫生或律師，我們應時時不忘慈悲或者說觀音菩薩是我們的主要伴侶。那就是我們的救生索，能令我們於迷糊之海中得以生存，能令我們具足能力去幫助別人，使他們也具足能力再去幫助其他的人。否則，在這不完美的社會，我們會別的不成，而盡是滿腔的沮喪，憤懣和怨恨。
為何教育是不可少的呢？一個人如何去從事教育呢？教育人有許多方法，教育的種類也有許多，沒有一個簡單單一的答案。其中一個重要的因素是要瞭解學生的的需求、程度和他們所處的時代。我們不能閉眼不看學生的環境、不顧他們是誰、他們的教育程度在哪兒。深入地瞭解學生，大概是最困難的地方了。一個老師可能對他所授的課非常熟悉，但是他對學生的期望不切合實際。為什麼呢？因為老師想把他最好的東西傳授給學生。在這個過程中，很容易就忘記教的是什麼樣的學生，以及教育的總體目的及其真實宗旨之所在。
為什麼會發生這種情況呢？我想全世界沒有一個老師不想成為最優秀、最和善、最聰明完美的人。但是人是很容易沮喪退縮或生氣的。這是因為要仔細看看老師所處的位置與學生所處的位置——這一實際情況是蠻險惡，很駭人的，因為有許多的迷惑、混亂、坑陷。想「教」與「學」兩者均有所成功，還是需要「慈悲」，也可說是「觀音菩薩」；「慈悲」猶如靈丹，又似潤滑油，能使教育成功。作為老師，我們是絕對不能不看到這一點的。具此慈悲之心，是我們將自己所具的知識轉成智慧之所在。
待續
編按：阿比納博士原籍前南斯拉夫
，生於佛教家庭，篤信佛教。獲貝
爾格勒南斯拉夫大學東方事務學碩
士；土耳其伊斯坦堡大學土耳其事
務學博士。現任美國萬佛城法界佛
教大學校長，教授「佛教宗教觀」
一課；並任加州柏克萊法界宗教研
究院主任、研究教授。
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Good evening. I hope you will listen to my lecture carefully, because I will talk about how we should teach and how we should propagate the Dharma.
Dharma is education, or one aspect of Dharma is education, and conversely, education is Dharma. So, to propagate the Dharma by education would almost mean to propagate education through education. They are almost the same word.
Dharma means a lot of things, but its primary meaning in Sanskrit, where the word comes from, and in India in general, is a "method" or "system." We can ask ourselves: What is education? That, too, is a method: a method for sorting things out in our confused minds. The goal is always the same: It is to help living beings become better by attaining some understanding of their true nature. So, the Buddhadharma is the method of education which Shakyamuni Buddha and Buddhism uses.
There is also something that is called the
sanatana-dharma in Sanskrit, which means the perennial or eternal teaching, the teaching that is always constant and that never changes. And that teaching has no connotation of Buddhism or Hinduism or any other religion. It is that which is always there. And that is also what Shakyamuni Buddha, along with many sages of this world, was teaching—not only teaching, but reviving—as a practice for the world. It is a teaching that is always there, but it needs to be brought forth again and again in order to suit the conditions of a certain age.
In our modern—and what is now called postmodern—world, people are still attempting to do that same thing, in essence. As usual, we are still very confused, and are trying to help ourselves to find some kind of order, to sort things out the best way we can. That requires very hard work. It requires discipline, and of course it requires disappointment, unhappiness, or what in Sanskrit or in Pali is called
dukkha—unsatisfactoriness, which we Buddhists like to call "suffering". It is a form of suffering, but it also involves some happiness. Above all, the whole point of education or Dharma, is to enable us human beings to find a way out of it all, to reach a point of equanimity, from where we can compassionately help others reach that same point—that point of equanimity or detachedness.
Throughout this process, as teachers and educators, as mothers, as fathers, as engineers or doctors or lawyers, we should never forget that' our major companion has to be compassion or Guanyin. That will help us survive above the confusion and enable us to help others to do the same. Otherwise, we will very easily get frustrated in this imperfect world, and we will simply be angry and resentful, nothing else.
Why is education necessary, and how should one go about it? There are many ways of educating people and there are many kinds of education.
There is not one single, simple answer. The important factor, however, is to be aware of your students—of their needs, their levels, and the age they live in. We cannot ignore where they are, who they are, and what their level of education is. That is probably the hardest part—to have an empathy for your student. A teacher may know his subject very, very well, but his expectations are sometimes unrealistic. Why is this so? It's because the teacher wants to impart the best that he can to his student. And in the process, it's very easy to forget who the student really is and what the whole, real purpose of that education is.
Why does that happen? I don't think there's a single teacher in this world that doesn't want to be the best, the kindest, the most intelligent and perfect person. And yet it is very easy to get frustrated and to give up or to become angry. This is because it is very threatening to see the actual truth—where you are as a teacher and where the student is. It's very scary to look at it clearly, because there are many confusions, many mistakes, and many pitfalls. In order for both the teacher and the student to attain some success in whatever they do, compassion again—Guanyin—is the sort of facilitator—the grease—that will make the mechanism of education work. That is something that we absolutely cannot ignore as teachers. It is what turns our knowledge—that which we know—into wisdom.
To be continued
Editor's note: Dr. Akpinar originally came from the former Yugoslavia and was born a Buddhist. She holds an M. A. in Oriental Studies from the University of Belgrade, Yugoslavia, and a Ph.D. in Turkish Studies from the University of Istanbul, Turkey.
She is President of Dharma Realm Buddhist University at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas and teaches a course called "A Buddhist View of Religion".
She is also Director/Research Professor of Institute for World Religions in Berkeley, California.
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