看過幾本佛經(尤其是原始教典阿含經)的讀者，印象最深的應該是[苦]這個字，苦這個名詞在佛經，處處可見，人生一定是有痛苦，可是印度人講的特別多，隨便翻開一本印度人的書籍，都可以看到苦的身影，或許你會說那是因為大部份印度人，生活現在過的還不怎樣，當然特別講苦，那如果說苦是每個國家都有，而它卻是印度人的講學文化之一，會不會有點驚訝!
Most readers, having read a few Buddhist Texts (Especially the Early Buddhist Texts Agama), should have dukkha this word burned into their mind. "Dukkha" is prevalent in Buddhist Texts. Of course there are pain and suffering in life, but Indians discussed it more than anyone else. If you open any Indian books, you would see the shadow of dukkha everywhere. You might think that it is because the quality of life is not great for most Indians today, of course they are going to talk about dukkha. But if every country has suffering, would you be surprised that it is one of cultural lecture theme for Indians?
把苦當作是一種文化，並且視它為理所當然，怎不會是匪夷所思!? 沒錯! 很多思想的促成都跟當地文化的走向，認同有著絕大關連，個人就一向認同地理孕育人文的觀點，既然地理的特質對文化的產生有這麼大的緊密互動，看一個思想時，去了解它背後的孕育過程，應該是不錯的。
It is incredible that a culture would treat suffering as a cultural theme, and consider it to be the norm. But the catalyst of many ideas and concepts are related to the local culture. I have always thought that geography breed humanity. So the characteristic of the geography would be closely tied to the birth of a culture. When you look at an idea, you need to understand how it was developed.
原始教典處處可以看到苦，苦講到極點時，連修行的比丘也受不了，進而產生自殺行為，讓佛陀自己傷感之餘，立下不能自殺的戒律，這也是大乘佛學興起的主因，苦的思想流傳到中國以後，幾乎無立足之地，華人自己幾經戰亂的摧殘，已不堪再負荷苦的傳播，阿含經在華人世界的傳遞，只停留在翻譯出來的階段而已。
Dukkha is everything in the Early Buddhist Texts. When it was discussed to the extreme, even the bikkunis cannot the thought of suffering and choose to suicide. Not only was Buddha sadden, he also declared the precept against suicide. This is another reason for the rise of Mahayana Buddhism. The concept of dukkha was not well accepted in China. Chinese people were no longer able to stand the broadcast of suffering, because they had experience the savages and suffering of wars many many times in their history. The spread of Agama in China only went as far as getting translated.
半寄 Master Ban Ji
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