Loving-Kindness

慈悲心

What is lacking in the world today is loving-kindness or goodwill.

今天的世界，缺少的就是慈悲心。

In the world today, there is sufficient material wealth. There are very advanced intellectuals, brilliant writers, talented speaker, philosophers, psychologists, scientists, religious advisors, wonderful poets and powerful world leaders. In spite of these intellectuals, there is no real peace and security in the world today. Something must be lacking. What is lacking is loving-kindness or goodwill amongst mankind.

今天的世界，拥有充足的物质资源、拥有先进的知识、拥有才华横溢的作家、能言善辩的演说家、高明的医生、哲学家、心理学家、科学家、宗教顾问、诗人、有才干的政治领导人物等等。虽然这世间拥有这么许多有才干的人，可是这世间并不因此而获得幸福与和平。这世间一定是缺少了某些东西，是的，就是缺少了对他人的慈悲心。

Material gain in itself can never bring lasting happiness and peace. Peace must first be established in man's own heart before he can bring peace to others and to the world at large. The real way to achieve peace is to follow the advice given by religious teachers.

物质不能带来永恒的幸福与和平。和平必须奠基于人类的心，唯有自己的心识，才能带来和平，进而扩展到他人以及全世界。要获得真正的和平，唯一的道路就是依据佛陀的教义而行。

In order to practise loving-kindness, one must first practise the Noble Principle of non-violence and must always be ready to overcome selfishness and to show the correct path to others. The fighting is not to be done with the physical body, because the wickedness of man is not in his body but in his mind. Non-violence is a more effective weapon to fight against evil than retaliation. The very nature of retaliation is to increase wickedness.

要修持慈悲心，首先必须培养非暴戾的崇高原则，克服贪欲、嗔恚、愚痴，以正道处事待人。殴斗并非我们的身体的个别作用，而是我们的「心」以不正确或不正当的「念」引导我们身体的作用。非暴戾的慈悲心，远比以暴力的行动来报复更为有效，报复只会助长邪恶。

In order to practise loving-kindness, one must also be free from selfishness. Much of the love in this world of self-centered, only a love of one is own self:

要修持慈悲心，必须抛开个人自私的「爱」。这世界太多的「爱」是以个人为出发点，人们只爱个别的自我。

'Not out of love for the husband loved; but the husband is loved for love of self. Children are loved by the parents, not out of love for the children, but for love of self. The gods are loved, not out of love for the gods, but for love for self. Not out of love is anybody loved, but for love of self are loved.'

「爱丈夫，并非出自对丈夫的爱，而是出自对自己的爱。爱儿女，并非出自对儿女的爱，而是出自对自己的爱。爱上帝，并非出自对上帝的爱，而是出自对自己的爱。到头来，所有被爱的人，都得不到真正的爱，而是他人自己对自己的爱。这就是以自我为中心的爱。」 

Man should learn how to practise selfless love to maintain real peace and his own salvation. Just as suicide kills physically, selfishness kills spiritual progress. Loving-kindness in Buddhism is neither emotional or selfish. It is loving-kindness that radiates through the purified mind after eradicating hatred, jealousy, cruelty, enmity and grudges. According to the Buddha, Metta - Loving-kindness is the most effective method to maintain purity of mind and to purify the mentally polluted atmosphere.

人们应该了解修持无我的慈悲心，能获得自我解脱。自杀能终止身体的活动，自私却阻碍了心灵的进展。今日世间所缺少的就是无我的慈悲心。慈悲心在佛教里不是情绪化，也不是自私的。慈悲心是根除贪、嗔、痴、嫉妒、暴戾和根除一切污染的最有效的方法。

The word 'love' is used to cover a very wide range of emotions human beings experience. Emphasis on the base animal lust of one sex for another has much debased the concept of a feeling of amity towards another being. According to Buddhism, there are many types of emotions, all of which come under the general term 'love' First of all, there is selfish love and there is selfless love. One has selfish love when one is concerned only with the satisfaction to be derived for oneself without any consideration for the partner's needs or feelings. Jealousy is usually a symptom of selfish love. Selfless love, on the other hand, is felt when one person surrenders his whole being for the good of another _parents feel such love for their children. Usually human beings feel a mixture of both selfless and selfish love in their relationships with each other. For example, while parents make enormous sacrifices for their children, they usually expect something in return.

「慈爱」涵盖的范围很广，包括了对一切动物的爱。佛陀说，爱的动机有很多种，首先是自私的爱和无我的爱，自私的爱，只是在满足于个人对同伴的感受，嫉妒就是自私的爱的另一种表现。无我的爱，是指一个人完全放弃自我的感受，全心全意的去善待他人，如：父母对子女无私的爱。通常，人类对「自私的爱」和「无我的爱」混淆不清，譬如：父母对子女的慈爱，通常都还有要求回报的因素存在。

Another kind of love, but closely related to the above, is brotherly love or the love between friends. In a sense, this kind of love can also be considered selfish because the love is limited to particular people and does not encompass others. In another category we have sexual love, where partners are drawn towards each other through physical attraction. It is the kind that is most exploited by modern entertainment and it can cover anything from uncomplicated teenage infatuations to the most complex of relationships between adults.

另一种与「慈爱」很接近的就是「友爱」。「友爱」也有一定的局限性，它只作用于少部份的人。还有就是「性爱」，「性爱」是一切成长的众生，缔结伴侣，繁衍后代的一种必然程序，「性爱」也造成了成人之间的最密切关系──夫妻关系。

On a scale far higher than these, is Universal Love or Metta. This all-embracing love is the great virtue expressed by the Buddha. Lord Buddha, for example, renounce His kingdom, family and pleasures so that He could strive to find a way to release mankind from an existence of suffering. In order to gain His Enlightenment, he had to struggle for many countless lives. A lesser being would have been disheartened, but not the Buddha-elect. It is for this He is called 'The Compassionate One'. The Buddha's boundless love extended not only to human beings but all living creatures. It was not emotional or selfish, but a love without frontiers, without discrimination. Unlike the other kinds of love, Universal love can never end in disappointment or frustration because it expects no reward. It creates more happiness and satisfaction. One who cultivates universal love will also cultivate sympathetic joy and equanimity and he will then have attained to the sublime state.

超越种种「爱」的就是「慈悲心」(Metta)，这是佛陀极力推荐的。佛陀抛弃家庭、王位、荣华富贵，为的就是由于他多世实践慈悲心。佛陀的慈悲心不仅仅对于人类，也普及一切众生。佛陀的慈悲心没有动机也不自私，是一种无欲无求的奉献。世间的爱，往往以失望为收场，就是因为有所求。慈悲心却能带来更大的幸福和满足。

一个人如果发展这种宇宙性的慈悲心，不仅为他带来快乐，也提升了他个人的境界。

In this book, The Buddha's Ancient Path Ven. Piyadassi says:

在《佛陀的古道》(The Buddha's Ancent Path)一书中，作者毗亚达息尊者( Ven. Pyadass)说：

'Love is an active force. Every act of the loving one is done with the stainless mind to help, to succor, to cheer, to make the paths of others easier, smoother and more adapted to the conquest of sorrow, the winning of the highest bliss.

「慈悲心是一种活跃的力量，由意识的引导而作用，导致一切支援、振奋、简化、消除烦恼的正面力量，从而获得更高的幸福。」

'The way to develop love is through thinking out the evils of hate, and the advantages of non-hate; through thinking out according to actuality, according to karma, that really there is none to hate, that hate is a foolish way of feeling which breeds more and more darkness, that obstructs right understanding. Hate restricts; love release. Hatred strangles; love enfranchises. Hatred brings remorse; love brings peace. Hatred agitates; love quietens, stills, calms. Hatred divides; love unites. Hatred hardens; love softens. Hatred hinders; love helps. And thus through a correct study and appreciation of the effects of hatred and the benefits of love, should one develop love.'

「发展慈悲心，要断除邪恶和嗔恚。根据真性，根据业力而加以发展。嗔恚是一种愚蠢的行径，导致无明与黑暗，唯有通过正知加以消除。慈悲心增长，嗔恚心减退，慈悲心圆满，嗔恚心消遁。通过正确的方法以精进对治嗔恚，当慈悲心获得发展时，也就能获得慈悲心所带来的利益。」

In Metta Sutta, the Buddha has expounded the nature of love in Buddhism. 'Just as a mother would protect her only child even at the risk of her own life, even so, let him cultivate a boundless heart towards all beings. Let his thoughts of boundless love pervade the whole world, above, below and across without any obstruction, without any hatred, without any enmity.'

佛陀在《慈经》(Metta Sutta)中说道：

「有如母亲在危急的环境中保护她唯一的子女一般，我们以类似的心，去培养无边无际，一视同仁对待众生的慈悲心。我们把这无边无际的慈悲心，推广普及于世间，乃至天下，横遍十万方广，没有障碍、没有嗔恚、没有敌意。」