稍微超出道德風尚概念的，我們就稱之為倫理。什麼是倫理？如何與道德風尚相關，有何區別？簡單明瞭地說，道德風尚可成文，而倫理超越文字。風尚幫我們守德。倫理一詞的詞根是什麼？我想把它與「乙太」相連，乙太即純淨的空氣，無有污染物。此空氣周遍虛空，進入我們身心性命的每一角落--它使我們更愉悅、清爽，更有朝氣、更細緻、更靈活；使我們身心有質的變化，乃至於能得無言之義。那樣我們就有希望不以分別之心能觀因果，能辨善惡。道德風尚是當遵之指南，倫理則更入道一層。身為老師，當喚起學生倫理之心。
世界上有的語言，如中東的希伯萊文、古閃米語，以及現今的阿拉伯語中，倫理一詞與創造性相連繫的。好的創造性即是倫理。它亦與行善有關。所造之物若是惡的，即不配「生命」之這一冠稱，是不合倫理的；不合倫理即差不多是死的--對世界那地方而言。
在現代社會，我們知道有許多複雜的問題，這個世界很複雜。從事教育工作者需要知倫理，如不能行至少要知理。我們在座大部分人都清楚現代的世界是怎麼一回事。從十八世紀起，大約兩百多年前，這世界就是一個科學稱霸的世界；樣樣都要講科學，講究事物的可量、可證、和可觸性。如果哪件事你無法證明，那麼就根本沒有去想的價值。這種研究態度席捲全球，根深蒂固。這就是為什麼時人不再學藝術、佛學、或是學我們稱之為人文的東西；凡是難以證明的，即使某些人有些興趣，家長們也都會潑冷水，因為人文學科賺不了什麼錢。為人父母者很在意孩子的前程，學那些不可量、不可證、不可觸的學科卻鮮為人尊崇。那些最後去學人文學的人，還是得去「證明」，因而不得不將難以證明的概念轉變成易懂的零碎片段，將複雜的思想過度簡化後，放在一個個小小的盒子裡。
現在人耳邊聽的話都是說，去作工程師、科學家，去修商業管理、法律、醫學，因為那樣既受人尊敬，又能賺錢。我並不是說那是不好，因為每一門行業都有其方法，都有幫助人類的潛力；這點是可以肯定的，但是不幸的是當今社會不再強調以提昇人的道德作為職業的目標了。事實上，科學業急功近利；科學方法如此速效風靡，於是世界上就產生了越來越時髦的學者所稱的「後現代主義」。我們不再處於「現代」社會了；不再處於科學真理和實驗的社會，而是處在「後現代」的社會了。
現代科學世界十分僵化，樣樣都得講證明；二加二總是等於四。人類對此的反應是什麼呢？就是形成了「後現代」社會。
何為「後現代主義」呢？這指許多東西，是飄浮在空中的古文化的點點滴滴。但總體而言，這是對於僵化的科學規則的一種反叛。我們或許都還沒有注意到，這是一場浩大的反科學革命。這裡面有相當積極的因素在裡面，有我認為對十足狹隘方法體系非常好的反彈。但也如同其他的事情一樣，「後現代主義」也是很難謹遵循中道的。
「後現代主義」是很自由化的，鼓勵人從僵化死板的傳統形態中解放出來--這些形態經常是「現代主義」的產物。「現代主義」講求正式，樣樣都要有一個邏輯在後面；而「後現代主義」則鼓勵我們去解除束縛，爭取自由；可是一但自由了，下一步又是什麼呢？就沒有下文了。這是一個世界自己丟出來的問題：「好啦，我們現在掙脫框框了！打破傳統了！又該怎辦呢？」這是一個很嚇人的問題。
待續 |
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That which goes a little bit beyond the concept of morality is called ethics. What is ethics, and how does ethics connect with morality, and what is the difference? A very quick and simple answer would be that morality can be spelled out and ethics is beyond words. Morality helps us to become ethical. What is the root of "ethics"? I like to connect it with the word "ether", or the pure air, which has no pollutants in it. It is something that can pervade and enter our whole being—our mind and our body—and make us more lighthearted, more buoyant, more alive, more subtle, and more capable of bending. It helps us transform ourselves and our minds so we can grasp concepts beyond words. We can hope to see then into the roots of cause and effect and know what is good and what is bad without having to think about it. Morality is a guide to hold onto; ethics is further down the path. And a teacher needs to awaken that sense of ethics in his students.
In some languages of this world, like the languages of the Middle East—Hebrew, the ancient Semitic languages, and Arabic of today--the word for ethics is associated with creativity. It is the creativity of the human being that is good that is called ethics. Ethics has to do with creating good things. Anything that is created that is bad is not worth the title of being a "creature"—something that is created; it is not ethical. And what is not ethical is almost not alive— for that part of the world.
In our modern world, we know that there are many, many complex issues. Our world is a very complicated one. Those who teach definitely need to understand ethics, at least in theory if not in practice. Most of us here are quite aware of what the modern world is about. It began, so to speak, in the eighteenth century, or roughly two hundred years ago. It is the world of science; everything needs to be scientific in this world. It has to be measurable, provable, and tangible. If you cannot prove something, then it is not even worth thinking about. This attitude has by now swept our whole world and taken hold of it. That is why people these days do not study the arts, Buddhism, or anything that would be called the humanities—anything that is hard to prove. And even if anyone has the interest, that interest is usually discouraged by his or her parents, because it doesn't make any money. Parents are worried about the well-being of their children, and there is very little prestige in studying something that is not measurable, provable, or tangible. Those who nevertheless do study the humanities must limit these hard-to-prove concepts into little, tangible bites-they have to be able to prove them anyway, so they have to oversimplify very complex ideas and put them in little boxes.
People today are encouraged to become engineers, scientists, business majors, lawyers, and doctors, mostly because those are respected and profitable professions. I'm not trying to say that this is a bad thing necessarily, because all of these profession have methods, and they have potentials of helping human beings. There's no question about this. But unfortunately, these days ethics is not emphasized as the goal of these professions. In fact, these scientific professions are only concerned with short-term usefulness and quick results. As a reaction to this scientific approach that is so efficient and quick, and is taking over, we now have something that is increasingly popular in this world, which the scholars call "postmodernism." We are not in the modern world anymore, in the world of scientific truth and experiments, but in the postmodern world.
The modern world of science was very rigid. It always had to have proofs. Two and two was always four in the modern world. Now we have a reaction to this, and that is the postmodern world.
What is postmodernism? It is a lot of things. It is the bits and pieces of ancient culture that are floating about the earth. But mostly, it is a rebellion against the rigid scientific approach to life. We might not be aware of this, but it is a very serious revolution against science. And there are elements in it that are quite positive, that I consider to be very good reaction to the very narrow approach. But, like everything else in this world, in postmodernism too, it is very hard to find and stick to the Middle Path.
Postmodernism is very liberated, because it encourages people to free themselves from those rigid, petrified old traditions and their forms-forms that were very often created by modernism. Modernism was very formal; it had to have logic behind everything it did. Postmodernism encourages us to free ourselves from this. But, once we are free, then what? The answer is simply not there. And that is the question which the world is posing to itself today. "Alright, we broke all the forms, we broke all the traditions—now what?" It's a very scary question.
To be continued |
