(４５)在所剩的短短时间里，我要提出最后一个问题：
　　“佛陀的遗教是什么？”

45) Now in the short time remaining I shall put the final question:

45) “What were the Buddha’s last instruction to us?”

　　众所皆知，遗言就是一个人临终前所交待的话。佛陀临入灭时，说出最后的遗言：“一切因缘和合法，必定败坏，大家应自精勤，不要放逸！”
　　所有事物只是不断地迁流，一切皆空。所有事物无常(anicca)，不停地变化，无止境地迁流，这样不断的迁流，完全无“我”、非“我所有”，大家应自精勤，不要放逸。换句话说，佛陀叮嘱我们：别傻！别对事物入迷！别认为有什么可执著！别轻率地执著任何事物，这是佛陀所说“不要放逸”的意思。我们应该要时常具足精勤！

AS EVERYONE KNOWS, a person who is about to die usually makes out a will, a set of last instructions. When the Buddha was on the point of dying, he said these last words: “All compounded things are subject to decay. Be well equipped with heedfulness!” All things are nothing but a perpetual flowing-on, that is, they are empty (of selfhood). All things are anicca, they change incessantly, they flow on endlessly. That perpetual flux is devoid of any self or of anything belonging to a self. Be vigilant and well prepared. In other words, don’t be foolish, don’t become infatuated with things, and don’t regard anything as worth grasping at and clinging to. Don’t mindlessly attach to anything. This is what he meant by heedfulness. With such heedfulness we must always be well equipped.

　　且看现代年轻人的问题，他们是多么轻率啊！他们认为一切事物都可爱、可取，执著于爱、执著于恨，到头来，只有使自己和他人苦恼罢了！这种人没有遵行佛陀遗言中的教导，辜负生为人身、长于佛教家庭，辜负自己是佛教徒，他们没有实践佛陀最后的期许！

Now young people are a problem. Look how completely heedless they are. They regard all sorts of things as thoroughly desirable, as worth grasping at and clinging to. Attaching to things as either desirable or hateful is ultimately a source of distress to oneself and to others. Such people are not carrying out the instructions given in the Buddha’s will. They are wasting the benefit of having been born a human being and of Buddhist parents. They are not carrying out the Buddha’s last wishes.

　　我们所有的人，不论老少，正面临实践佛陀遗教的处境，不要放逸、不要失念！别糊里糊涂以为事物可执、可取，要常观世间“我空”、“我所有空”。若我们的心空掉执著，贪、瞋、痴就不会生起，那么，不论做什么，都将是人类所能达到最真、最善、最美的，也就是说，所有的问题都消失、结束了，所作皆办了。
　　佛陀还给我们另一个最后的指示：“去！到处去！去宣扬妙法，初、中、后时法味一如。”这是叮嘱我们要去作利他的事。我喜欢把这教导诠释成佛陀嘱咐我们都去教导“无执无著”——初级的对孩童说，中级的对成年人说，高级的对即将了悟无上法的人说，此外别无可说了。

All of us, young and old, are in a position to carry out the Buddha’s last instructions. Let us not be heedless or mindless. Let us not go thoughtlessly regarding things as worth grasping at and clinging to. Let us always view the world as devoid of any self or of anything belonging to a self. Our minds will be free of grasping; lust, hatred, and delusion will not arise in them. Thus we will accomplish the highest thing which is possible for humanity. In other words, all problems will cease, and that’s all there is to it.

　　佛陀只教导“无执无取著”，它可以不同的层次教导小孩、中年人和老人。或者也可用另一种方式来了解：为得现世人间的利益而说法是低层次的；
　　为得他方世界的利益而说法是中级的；最终极的是为得超越世间的无上利益而说法。全部的教义精华可被归纳成：由于无执无著而不苦。因此空掉“我”、“我所有”而无执无著，是最重要的教诲。

The Buddha gave another final instruction: “Go forth and preach well the doctrine, splendid in its beginning, middle, and end.” I like to interpret this as enjoining us all to teach non-grasping and non-clinging on an elementary level to children, on an intermediate level to adults, and on the highest, most advanced level to those who are heading for the Supreme State and for whom nothing else matters. The Buddha taught only non-grasping, nothing more. It can be taught on different levels to children, to people of middle age, and to old people. Or it can be taken in another way. Teach Dhamma for the benefit of people living in this world, on a low level; for benefits in other worlds, at an intermediate stage; and then for the sake of the highest benefit, which transcends all worlds.

　　请各位好好记住一个宣说全部“法”的字——“空”(sunnata),它是佛教的核心与精髓。人因心不“空”而破戒；因心不“空”而没有禅定；因心不“空”而没有智慧。
　　佛陀有“空心”，“空心”正是佛陀的特性；“法”也是“空”——解“空”、行“空”、证“空”，“究竟空”即涅槃；僧伽是随佛修行以到达“空心”的一群人，佛、法、僧归纳起来就是个“空”字。
　　持戒是因空掉烦恼、执著，而能无执无著；当到达“空心”，没有烦恼时，就能到达圆满的定；当了悟世间一切皆空，不再有任何执著，就有了究竟的智慧。道、果、涅槃是有次第地了悟“空”直到“究竟空”；施、戒、皈依、定、慧、道、果与涅槃——全部都可归结为“空”。

The whole essence of the teaching can be summed up as freedom from suffering through non-attachment. Hence this non-grasping and non-clinging, this absence of any idea of self or of anything belonging to a self, is the most important teaching. So please, every one of you, bear well in mind one word, the one single word that reveals the entire Dhamma, the single syllable waang (empty, void, free), which in Pali is su..atā — the core and essence of Buddhism. People break the moral precepts because they lack cit waang (mind free of the self-idea). People lack concentration because they do not have cit waang. People have no insight because they do not have cit waang. The Buddha had cit waang. Cit waang is just what Buddhahood is. The Dhamma is simply the teaching of cit waang, the practice that leads to cit waang, and the fruit of that practice, which is cit waang and ultimately nibbāna. The Sangha consists of people following the Buddha’s system of practice in order to attain cit waang. Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha are summed up in the word waang (free, void, empty). One succeeds in keeping the moral precepts through abstaining from grasping and clinging, and through being free of the mental defilements, free of grasping and clinging. When cit waang has been attained, the defilements are absent and concentration is at its best. When one has come to see things (the world) as empty, one doesn’t grasp or cling to any of them and one has full insight. The Path and Fruit of Nibbāna consist in knowing emptiness and in successively gaining the fruits of emptiness right up to the very culmination. Charity, morality, taking refuge (in Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha), concentration, insight, Path and Fruit, and nibbāna — all these are summed up in the single word waang (empty).

　　这说明佛陀为何这么说：“‘空’是我所教，没有谈及‘空’是他人的教导，是后期弟子为音韵和谐所凑成的非正轨教导。任何的素旦答(suttanta)是如来所说，与‘空’相应，义理奥妙深远，超越世间。”这是如来所说的法。相反地，“任何(自称的)素旦答(suttanta)，纵使辞藻华丽、音韵和谐，若脱离‘空’的轨道，就与‘空’不相应，这是弟子的说法。”有这两种素旦答(suttanta)的说法，与“空”相应的是如来的说法，与“空”不相应的是后期弟子的说法。

This is why the Buddha said, “Emptiness is what I teach. A teaching that does not treat of emptiness is someone else’s teaching, an unorthodox teaching composed by some later disciple. All discourses which are utterances of the Accomplished One are profound, have deep significance, are the means of transcending the world, and deal primarily with emptiness (su..atā). “This was spoken by the Tathāgata. On the other hand, “A discourse of any kind, though produced by a poet or a learned man, versified, poetical, splendid, melodious in sound and syllable, is not in keeping with the teaching if not connected with su..atā. “There are these two kinds of discourses. Those dealing with su..atā are utterances of the Buddha; those not dealing with su..atā are utterances of later followers.

　　佛陀认为“空”和“空相应法”为佛教真正的本质。因此他说：“当‘空’的教义失落，人们不再关心‘空’时，佛法的精髓就会消失。”(泰本巴利藏第１６册，３１１页)。

So the Buddha considered su..atā and discourses dealing with su..atā to be real essence of Buddhism. This is why he said, “When the teaching of su..atā had died out and no-one is interested in it any longer, then the real essence of the Dhamma will have been lost.”

　　这很像古代陀舍罗诃(Dasaraha)国王代代相传的鼓，当它渐渐磨损、毁坏，长期一次次被补缀整修，直到最后全由新的材料组成，它真正的实质就消失殆尽了！

It is like the drum owned by the Dasāraha kings in ancient times, which was handed down from generation to generation. As it became worn out and dilapidated, it was patched and mended time and time again, over a long period, until eventually consisted of nothing but new materials. The real substance of it had completely disappeared.

　　当比丘不再重视那原是他们应该去解、去行的“空相应法”时，原始佛教的本质就可说已经完全消失，除了后代弟子所说的新的内容，没有留下什么，那就像鼓的遭遇一样。请去读读看！想一想！佛陀叮咛我们要宣扬“无执无著”的微妙法，而且“初、中、后时，法味一如”；
　　但是，现在佛教所呈显的是什么风貌？
　　它像原本的老鼓，或只是由新材料补缀而成的新鼓？
　　我们只要观察人是否关心“空”和修习“空”，自己就可找到答案了。这些是佛陀的遗教，精勤修行，宣扬这教法(空相应法)，并藉着学习“空”，修复已毁坏的材料，让它重现生机。大家一定要自己去挖掘，去研讨，去学习，直到重新明白(空相应法)，这才可以说已经恢复它的实质了。

When the time comes that bhikkhus no longer are concerned with studying and listening to topics relating to su..atā, which is the subject that they ought to be studying and practising, at that time it can be said that the original substance of Buddhism has been lost completely and that nothing remains but new material, utterances of later disciples, just as happened with the drum. Think it over! The Buddha urged us to teach the Dhamma, splendid in its beginning, middle, and end, in terms of non-grasping and non-clinging. But what is the condition of Buddhism at the present time? Is it like the original old drum or does it consist of just new material, just patches? We can find this out for ourselves by simply examining it to see whether or not people are interested in su..atā and practise su..atā.

These were the Buddha’s last instructions to his disciples: to practice heedfulness of this teaching, to proclaim this teaching and to restore the decayed material to fresh and good condition by studying su..atā. This is to be done by digging, probing about, studying, and discussing until such time as the understanding of this teaching has been revived and it can be said that the genuine material has been restored to its original condition.