三十三天 1 Trayastriṃśa 1

世界上很少有國家像印度人一樣，有著嚴格的種族階級，加上他們對數字的天份，演化出多到令人眼花撩亂一層層屬於他們的世界觀。三十三天只是其中一個數據代表，剛看佛經的那幾年，經常被一大堆的數字搞得昏頭轉向，原以為那只是印度人的文化問題，一直不當一回事，這幾年有點發現那些數字，並不是完全沒有根據，就我的理解範圍來談一下。

India, unlike most other countries, had a very strict caste system. In addition, their natural talent with numbers produced confusing layers upon layers of their world view. Trayastriṃśa (Thirty-Three Worlds) are only one representation out of many. When I started reading Buddhist Texts, I was often bewildered by a large amount of numerical values used in these Texts the first few years. Originally, I thought it was only an idiosyncrasy of the Indian culture. But these few years, I found that these numbers are not without reason. I'll discuss them based on my understandings.

在古老的國家裡，許多國家在人文方面有著自己的成就，哲學的、數學、醫藥、宗教、印度也一樣有著這方面的成就，以他們對數字的能力，按常理應該會發展出更好的科學才對，可是卻很相反，不但沒有先進的科學，連日常生活都貧瘠的可以，那他們的能力都跑去哪裡了?

In many ancient cultures, many countries have accomplishment in humanities, philosophy, mathematics, medical and religion. India is the same, they have the same type of accomplishment as well. Plus, given their ability with numbers, they should have created better science than their history indicated. Furthermore, instead of advance science, they lived a barren lives, so where did all their abilities went?

從宗教來說，印度教本身就是多神教，不但多神還把每個問題討論到無法喘息的地步，光以食物去探討什麼可吃跟不可吃? 就從動物到植物一件件的算起，動物不能吃的討論大致還好，植物也從大小的量去研究能不能吃，大的還有感覺、小的比較沒有，看到這裡差不多就要窒息! 難不成印度人都不是人，不用吃飯也不用消耗體力，所以不需要任何的熱量。

From the standpoint of religion, Hindu is a polytheism. Not only does it have many gods, it also discussed every problem to death. On food alone, not only do they investigate what should and should not be eaten, they do so from animals to vegetation, one at a time. Discussion about not eating animals might be understandable, but they did the same with vegetation as well. From large vegetation to small, they argued that large vegetation might have feelings, but smaller ones might not. I about fainted when I got to this point. Are Indians all non-human? Don't they need to eat? Don't they spent any energy, so they don't need calories?

半寄 Master Ban Ji

[Note]For some explanation of Trayastriṃśa , please see Buddhist cosmology.

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