Can the First Cause be Known?

能知道第一因吗

It is rather difficult for us to understand how the world came into existence without a first cause. But it is very much more difficult to understand how that first cause came into existence at the beginning.

我们很难理解，如果没有第一因，世界如何存在呢？但是，更难理解的是：第一因是如何成为存在的开端？

According to the Buddha, it is inconceivable to find a first cause for life or anything else. For in common experience, the cause becomes the effect and the effect becomes the cause. In the circle of cause and effect, a first cause is incomprehensible. With regard to the origin of life, the Buddha declares, 'Without cognizable end is this recurrent wandering in Samsara(cycle of birth and death). Beings are obstructed by ignorance and fettered by craving. A first beginning of these beings is not to be perceived.

根据佛陀的看法，为生命或事物寻求第一因，是一件不可思议的事。根据一般的经验：因变为果，果变为因，在因果循环中，要找到什么是第一因，是一件不可思议的事。有关生命的缘起，佛陀这么说：「在生死轮回中，没有可以被认定的目标，人被愚痴所阻挠，被贪欲所束缚，人的开始是不可知的。」《相应部经》

(Anamatagga Samyutta in Samyutta Nikaya). This life-steam flows on ad infinitum, as long as it is fed by the muddy waters of ignorance and craving. When these two are cut off, only then does the life-steam cease to flow, only then does rebirth come to an end.

生命只要不离开贪和痴，将是无止尽的。唯有断除贪和痴，生命之流才不会泛滥。 也只有到那时候，轮回才会结束。

It is difficult to conceive an end of space. It is difficult to conceive an eternal duration of what we call time. But it is more difficult for us to understand how this world came into existence with a first cause. And it is more difficult to understand how that first cause came into existence at the beginning. For if the first cause can exist though uncreated, there is no reason why the other phenomena of the universe must not exist without having also been created.

我们很难理解空间的尽头，我们也很难理解时间的本性，更难理解的是：一旦没有时间，时间又将如何？同样的，我们也无法理解：世界是如何由第一因而存在的？世界一开始时，第一因是如何导致世界的存在？如果说，第一因是不被创造而存在的，那么，就没有理由说明宇宙的其它现象，因为不被创造，所以不能存在。

As to the question how all beings came into existence without a first cause, the Buddhist's reply is that there is no answer because the question itself is merely a product of man's limited comprehension. If we can understand the nature of time and relativity, we must see that there could not have been any beginning. It can only be pointed out that all the usual answers to the question are fundamentally defective. If it is assumed that for a thing to exist, it must have had a creator who existed before it, it follows logically that the creator himself must have had a creator, and so on back to infinity. On the other hand, if the creator could exist without a prior cause in the form of another creator, the whole argument falls to the ground. The theory of a creator does not solve any problems, it only complicates the existing ones.

我们不禁要问：何以没有第一因而有众生呢？佛陀不正面回答这个问题，因为问题本身，是由于人有限的理解力而引起的。假如，我们能理解时间相对性的本质，我们就可以理解为什么世界可以没有开端。有关这个问题的解答，本身就出了问题。我们假设：每个生命的存在都必须有一个创造者，那么，谁是创造者之前的存在者呢？

依据逻辑：创造者本身也必须有一个创造者，这样的推理，最终是无穷尽。如果说：创造者不须要因(以前各种形态的创造者)而存在，那么，问题就不能成立了，整个争论也就没有了结果。创造者的理论，不能解决问题，只能使问题更加复杂化。

Thus Buddhism does not pay much attention to theories and beliefs about the origin of the world. Whether the world was created by a god or it came into existence by itself makes little difference to Buddhist. Whether the world is finite or infinite also makes little difference to Buddhists. Instead of following this line of theoretical speculations, the Buddha advises people to work hard to find their own salvation.

佛陀不愿意讨论世界缘起的问题。无论世界是被神所创造的，或是自发而生起的，都无关重要，佛教徒的修持也不会因此而不同。无论宇宙是有限或无限，佛教徒依然是佛教徒。佛陀告诫人们，要不断的努力精进，寻求自我解脱的道路，不要做无谓的推测。

Scientists have discovered many causes which are responsible for the existence of life, plants, planets, elements and other energies. But it is impossible for anyone to find out any particular first cause for their existence. If they go on searching for the first cause of any existing life or thing, they point certain causes as the main cause but that never becomes the first cause. In the process of searching for the first cause one after the other, they will come back to the place where they were. This is because, cause becomes the effect and the next moment that effect becomes the cause to produce another effect. That is what the Buddha say, 'It is incomprehensible and the universe is beginningless.'

虽然科学家已经发现了许多形成生命、植物、星体或其它事物的原因，可是依然无法为它们的存在，找出第一因。如果他们继续的寻求第一因，在一个接一个的过程中，他们可能回到起点，因为「因」变成「果」，「果」又变成另一个「果」的「因」。

所以佛陀说： 「第一因是不可思议的，宇宙是无始的。」