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多年來,我一直感到沮喪。因為身為一位宗教歷史學家,我已敏銳地意識到,慈悲的中心法則,在世界各地主要信仰中,每個都已發展出各自的版本,即所謂的黃金法則。有時,它有一個積極的版本:「你們願意人怎樣待你們,你們也要怎樣待人」,同樣重要的是消極的版本:「己所不欲,勿施於人」。審視你內心深處,探究是什麼讓你痛苦。然後在任何情況下,拒絕用任何方式將這種痛苦施於別人身上。
人們都強調慈悲的重要性,不只是因為聽起來不錯,而是因為它行得通。人們發現,當他們實行這個黃金法則,如孔子所說:「終生行之」,不只是你做一天好事,然後回復到貪婪和自私的生活,而要整天、每天都這麼做。你將自己從自我中心抽離,放入些別的東西,然後你超越了自己,它將你帶入這樣的存在;就是稱之為神、涅盤、喇嘛、道的境界。某些超出我們所知,存於我們自我約束當中的東西。
但你知道,大多時候你對這些根本一無所知,這是宗教生活相當核心的部份。因為一些令人驚訝的例外,很多時候,當宗教人士聚集在一起,或宗教領導人聚集在一起,爭辯著深奧的理論,或發表充滿仇恨的議論,或反對同性戀之類的人。通常人們並不真正想要有慈悲心。我有時會看到,當我對宗教人士演講時,某種桀驁不馴的表情掠過他們臉上,因為人們往往認為自己是正確的,這當然違背了修習的目的。
為什麼我這麼感謝TED?因為他們非常輕柔地將我從滿是書的房間中帶出,帶領我進入二十一世紀,使我能夠對更廣大的聽眾演說,比我能想像到的多得多。因為我對這一點感到迫切,如果我們不設法在全球落實黃金法則,讓我們對待所有人,不論他們可能是誰,都好像他們是我們自己一樣重要;我懷疑我們能看見一個能傳承給下一代的世界。
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以下為系統擷取之英文原文
For years I've been feeling frustrated because as a religious historian, I've become acutely aware of the centrality of compassion in all the major world faiths. Every single one of them has evolved their own version of what's being called the Golden Rule. Sometimes it comes in a positive version -- "Always treat all others as you'd like to be treated yourself." And equally important is the negative version -- "Don't do to others what you would not like them to do to you." Look into your own heart. Discover what it is that gives you pain. And then refuse, under any circumstance whatsoever to inflict that pain on anybody else.
And people have emphasized the importance of compassion, not just because it sounds good, but because it works. People have found that when they have implemented the Golden Rule as Confucius said, "all day and every day," not just a question of doing your good deed for the day and then returning to a life of greed and egotism. But to do it all day and every day, you dethrone yourself from the center of your world, put another there, and you transcend yourself. And it brings you into the presence of what's being called God, Nirvana, Rama, Tao. Something that goes beyond what we know in our ego-bound existence.
But you know you'd never know it a lot of the time, that this was so central to the religious life. Because with a few wonderful exceptions, very often when religious people come together, religious leaders come together, they're arguing about abstruse doctrines or uttering a council of hatred or inveying against homosexuality or something of that sort. Often people don't really want to be compassionate. I sometimes see when I'm speaking to a congregation of religious people a sort of mutinous expression crossing their faces because people often want to be right instead. And that of course defeats the object of the exercise.
Now why was I so grateful to TED? Because they took me very gently from my book-lined study and brought me into the Twentyfirst Century, enabling me to speak to a much, much wider audience than I could have ever conceived. Because I feel an urgency about this. If we don't manage to implement the Golden Rule globally, so that we treat all peoples, wherever and whoever they may be, as though they were as important as ourselves, I doubt that we'll have a viable world to hand on to the next generation.
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我們這時代偉大的任務之一,是建立一個全球性的社會。正如我所說,是人們可以共同生活在和平中的世界。而宗教,應該做出主要貢獻,而不是被視為問題的一部分。當然,不只是宗教人士得相信黃金法則,這是一切道德之源。這是個把自己放在他人立場,富有想像力的共鳴行動。
因此,在我看來,我們有一個選擇,我們可以說出,或強調我們信仰的教條和偏執處;或者我們可以回到拉比時代;拉比希勒爾生於比耶穌還早的年代,有次要求一位異教徒來總結整個猶太教義,他一腳站著說,「你所憎恨之事也不要施於你的鄰居;這是律法,其他一切都只是註腳」。
拉比和早期教會神父說,任何將經文解釋為孕育仇恨和蔑視的行為皆非正統。我們需要恢復這種精神,這不只是將要發生的事,因為愛的精神充滿了我們,我們必須做到這一點;我們可以做到這一點-以現代通訊技術,這是TED所引導出的。我已受到相當多的鼓舞,來自所有合作夥伴的回應。在新加坡,我們有一個團隊,將使用這個憲章使分裂癒合。
這個觀念最近已在新加坡社會中如雨後春筍般興起,一些議會成員希望將它實現於政治上。在馬來西亞也將有一個藝術展覽,著名藝術家將要帶領一些年輕人,向他們顯示,慈悲也存在於所有藝術的根源中。在整個歐洲,穆斯林社區也舉辦了活動和討論會,討論了在伊斯蘭及所有信仰中慈悲的核心。
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The task of our time, one of the great tasks of our time, is to build a global society, as I said, where people can live together in peace. And the religions, that should be making a major contribution are instead seen as part of the problem. And of course it's not just religious people who believe in the Golden Rule. This is the source of all morality. This imaginative act of empathy, putting yourself in the place of another.
And so we have a choice, it seems to me. We can either go on bringing out, or emphasizing the dogmatic and intolerant aspects of our faith, or we can go back to the rabbis, Rabbi Hillel, the older contemporary of Jesus, who, when asked by a pagan to sum up the whole of Jewish teaching while he stood on one leg, said, "That which is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the Torah and everything else is only commentary."
And the rabbis and the early fathers of the church who said that any interpretation of scripture that bred hatred and disdain was illegitimate. And we need to revive that spirit. And it's not just going to happen because a spirit of love wafts us down. We have to make this happen, and we can do it with the modern communications that TED has introduced. Already I've been tremendously heartened at the response of all our partners.
In Singapore we have a group going to use the charter to heal divisions recently that have sprung up in Singaporean society, and some members of the parliament want to implement it politically. In Malaysia there is going to be an art exhibition in which leading artists are going to be taking people, young people, and showing them that compassion also lies at the root of all art. Throughout Europe, the Muslim communities are holding events and discussions discussing the centrality of compassion in Islam and in all faiths.
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但它不能就此打住,它不能僅止於啟程階段。宗教教育僅專注於對深奧教義的信仰,這就是我們犯錯的地方。宗教教育永遠必須引領出實際行動。我打算在這方面努力,直到我死的那一天。而且我想繼續與夥伴合作做兩件事情-教育和刺激富有慈悲的思想。必須要進行教育,因為人們如此背離了慈悲之道;人們往往認為這只是意味著為別人感到難過。如果你只是想想罷了,你當然不會瞭解慈悲;你也必須身體力行。
我希望他們能使媒體參與,因為媒體是關鍵,能幫助消融一些陳舊的看法,就是我們對其他人的看法;就是這一點將我們彼此分割。這同樣適用於教育工作者。我希望年輕人有動力,就是對一個富有慈悲的生活方式充滿動力和挑戰,也瞭解到它需要敏銳的智慧,而不僅僅是一種感傷的感覺。
我想呼籲學者以自己和其他人的傳統觀點,來探討這個慈悲的主題。也許最重要的是,鼓勵對於無情言論的敏感度。因為人們有這個憲章,不論他們有信仰或缺乏信仰,他們會感到有力量可以挑戰無情的言論,鄙視那些言論。那些來自他們的宗教領袖、政治領袖及來自業界領袖的無情言論。因為我們可以改變世界,我們有這種能力。
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But it can't stop there. It can't stop with the launch. Religious teaching, this is where we've gone so wrong, concentrating solely on believing abstruse doctrines. Religious teaching must always lead to action. And I intend to work on this till my dying day. And I want to continue with our partners to do two things -- educate and stimulate compassionate thinking. Education because people, we've so dropped out of compassion. People often think it simply means feeling sorry for somebody. But of course you don't understand compassion if you're just going to think about it. You also have to do it.
I want them to get the media involved because the media are crucial in helping to dissolve some of the stereotypical views we have of other people, which are dividing us from one another. The same applies to educators. I'd like youth to get a sense of the dynamism, the dynamic and challenge of a compassionate lifestyle. And also see that it demands acute intelligence, not just a gooey feeling.
I'd like to call upon scholars to explore the compassionate theme in their own and in other people's traditions. And perhaps above all, to encourage a sensitivity about uncompassionate speaking. So that because people have this charter, whether whatever their beliefs or lack of them, they feel empowered to challenge uncompassionate speech, disdainful remarks from their religious leaders, their political leaders, from the captains of industry. Because we can change the world, we have the ability.
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我從未想過把這個憲章貼上網,我仍然停留在舊世界,與一大堆研究人員一起坐在一個房間,發出鮮為人知的聲明。TED介紹我一個全新的方式來思考及提出想法,這就是TED的傑出之處。在這個演講廳中有所有的專業知識,如果我們將這一切集合起來,就可以改變這個世界。當然,有時問題似乎很難克服。
不過,我想在結束前引用一位英國牛津作家的話-我不常引用他的話,就是作家C.S. Lewis。但他寫的一件事,從我還是個小女孩讀到它的時候開始,就一直駐留在我腦海中;這是在他的著作《四種愛》中所寫的-他區分了愛欲。當兩個人互相凝視,著迷的看著彼此的眼睛,然後他將這個與友誼做比較。當兩個人並排站立,可以這麼說,肩並肩,眼睛注視著一個共同的目標。
我們不需愛上對方,但我們可以成為朋友。而我深信,我很強烈的覺得,當我們在Vevey的小小審議中,各種不同教派的人聚集在一起,並肩努力為一個共同的目標而努力,彼此間的差異消融;我們學會和睦相處,我們學習共同生活,並瞭解彼此。非常感謝。(掌聲)
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I would never have thought of putting the charter online. I was still stuck in the old world of a whole bunch of boffins sitting together in a room and issuing yet another arcane statement. And TED introduced me to a whole new way of thinking, and presenting ideas. Because that is what is so wonderful about TED. In this room, all this expertise, if we joined it all together we could change the world. And of course the problems sometimes seem insuperable.
But I'd just like to quote, finish at the end with a reference to a British author, an Oxford author whom I don't quote very often, C.S. Lewis. But he wrote one thing that stuck in my mind ever since I read it when I was a schoolgirl. It's in his book The Four Loves. He said that, he distinguished between erotic love, when two people gaze, spellbound, into each other's eyes. And then he compared that to friendship. When two people stand side by side, as it were, shoulder to shoulder, with their eyes fixed on a common goal.
We don't have to fall in love with each other, but we can become friends. And I am convinced. I felt it very strongly during our little deliberations at Vevey, that when people of all different persuasions come together, working side by side for a common goal, differences melt away. And we learn amity. And we learn to live together and to get to know one another. Thank you very much. (Applause)