無明大夢 Big dreams of ignorance

無明大夢  Big dreams of ignorance

無明大夢這個詞語，華人應該都很熟悉，大乘經典有很多的這種話語，像走出火宅也是，目的都在喚醒人們去修行，這些話語所涵括的內容，通常大到沒有範圍，比方說，眾生都在無明大夢裡，這個比喻等於把所有的事都說完了，因為都在無明大夢，所以只要夢醒了，就會知道一切都是假的，一場以為結結實實的生活，到頭都只是一場夢。

Big dreams of ignorance

Chinese should be familiar with the term ‘the big dream of ignorance’. Many Hinayana Buddhist terms, for example, walking out of the flaming house, aim to advocate Practice. But these terms often cover overwhelmingly. For example, the metaphor ‘All living things are in the big dream of ignorance.’ explains everything about our lives. Once you wake up, you will know everything is unreal. A life we once consider real is but a dream.

 

一般人在社會久了，看到或聽到這樣的語言，應該都能夠接受，這種接受源自於，社會上確實充滿很多令人垢病的現實，不管那個時代。如果有一個方法能一次性的解決所有的苦難，那真的是普天同慶，然而錯綜複雜的人生，真的用夢醒了，就可以把人間事一次的結束？

Most people who have been working in society long should have seen or heard such statement and should accept it easily because the society is filled with disgust indeed, regardless of which era. If there is a way to resolve the sufferings all at once, it will be the universal rejoicing. But can ’life is but a dream’ completely explain and solve all in our complicated and complex life?

 

無明的解釋是，不明白或者黑暗，人們會因為無知而去造成錯誤的人生，相信很多人都會認同，而邏輯上也講得通。但一生下來就有無明，無始無明這樣的說法(人一直在不明白，或黑暗中)，真讓人充滿無力感，我一生下來就有錯，而且每一世都錯，真是無量無邊，佛教徒都不曾去了解到這跟基督教講的原罪，一模一樣。但是佛陀的學說裡從來不曾出現過原罪的思想，真正講，一個學說一直強調我有罪，或者一直強調我生生世世在無明裡，究竟對人有多大的幫助 ，人不是生而學習嗎?！

Ignorance is defined as lack of knowledge or being blind in the dark. People will make errors in life due to ignorance, and I believe most people will agree with it and it’s logical. However, it frustrates people with the statement that humans are born with ignorance and will always be so in each life endlessly (human is always ignorant or feeling lost in the dark). It’s hopeless and useless to strive if a man is born sinful and shall always be so endlessly. Some Buddhists never think when proposing this, they are proposing a viewpoint no different from Christian’s original sin? In fact, Buddha himself never mentioned the concept of the original sin. Strictly speaking, is a doctrine which keeps focusing on people are sinful and always ignorant in each life endlessly helpful? Isn’t that human are born to learn?!

 

在佛陀自己的教學內容中，會提到苦的因，苦的果，等於去探討如果生命感到痛苦，原因出在哪裡 ? ! 而無明大夢等於不探討，直接就認定人一定是處於無明，白話講，就是人變成全面性的錯誤，只有醒來才能解決，那我想問全部都是錯的，要從哪個點醒 ? 就算用跳的，也應該給個點去跳 ! 再有在夢中的比喻也奇怪?! 這樣好像說，有一個我是醒著的，在人世間的一切只是我做了一場夢，夢裡一切都是真的，但只要醒來就明白那是假的，彷彿外太空有一個真正的我在人間睡著了，一直做惡夢，只要有人叫醒就好了。那不變成人都是小天使，根本就不該來人間的，現在夢醒了要回家，哪下回再作夢怎麼辦 ?! 這樣的論述下來，還叫佛學嗎?

Buddha’s teachings mentioned Cause of Suffering and Result of Suffering in order to investigate why life is painful? But under the term ‘the big dream of ignorance’, the question is not discussed. It jumps to the conclusion directly that humans are definitely ignorant. In other words, everything about human is overwhelmingly wrong, and only waking up can correct all the faults. In this case, I want to question if everything in life is wrong, then at which point should I wake up. Furthermore, suppose we do wake up at a certain point in life, what is this "certain point"? Besides, it’s also odd with the metaphor of "being in a dream". This is to describe as if I’m awake, everything happen in life was just a dream of mine which seems all real in the dream. Yet, I will realize that’s all unreal once I wake up. It’s like there is a real me in outer space coming down to the earth, having a nightmare in the sleep constantly. Everything will be fine if someone wakes me up. Isn’t it to say all humans are angels? They don’t belong to the human world and will go back home as soon as they wake up. What if they have another dream next time? According to the discourse above, can it be the real Buddhism theory?  

 

 

佛陀講的無明，只談論到觀點上的錯誤，糾正想法上的錯誤，再引導進入修學，讀者或許會問，那些不都是釋迦牟尼佛講的嗎? 原則上大乘佛學是後來興起的佛學思想，大乘佛學有歷史的演變問題在裡面，有興趣的讀者可以去讀印順導師作品的相關系列 。

 【無明】翻譯成白話就是不明白，如果不拉太遠去說，就說人可以修學的範圍，應該是每一件我不能明白的事，如果可以盡量去弄明白它，把犯錯的機會降低，常常這樣做，錯誤的機率一降低，成功就跟著升起來，這是一種自己透過讀書(或眼睛的觀察，或被教導正確，不論什麼教導! 善財童子的五十三參，就是不斷拜訪各行各業的人），判斷，行為，三種加在一起的結晶，一定可以把某些的不明白弄得清楚，用這樣的方法何須害怕無明，不明白就搞清楚，該害怕的是自己已無能力再吸收。

When speaking of ignorance, Buddha merely discuss mistakes from viewpoints, correcting errors on the idea then give guidance for practicing. Some readers might question, aren’t those proposed by Sakyamuni Buddha? In principal, Mayahana Buddhism is the Buddhist ideology developed later on. It involves some issues in the historical evolution. Interested readers may want to refer to series of books written by Master Yin Suan.   

To put it simply, ignorance means unknown/unclear. If not to discuss it too far and just within human’s practical range, it would be trying to get everything unknown straight and lessen possibilities of errors. By doing this frequently, success will come once the chances of making mistakes reduced. Through the method of combining self-reading (or observation, or being corrected regardless ways of teachings. Example such as Sudhana who visited 53 Good and Wise Advisors to learn different experiences from each of them) judgment and action to get things cleared, you do not need to be afraid of ignorance. Just figure it out every time when you have something unknown. It is the inability to progress that you should fear.

 

 

在佛教裡有一個典故，一個自認很有修行的人，死後變成狐狸，他不甘心化成人形去問百丈禪師，說我到底錯在哪裡，為什麼變成狐狸 ? 百丈禪師問了他的想法後，找出原因出在於他認為一個很有修行的人，不會有因果的報應。百丈禪師對他說: 是清楚因果的脈絡，不是沒有因果，他才恍然大悟自己錯在哪裡 !

There is a Buddhist story of a practitioner who considers himself accomplished becoming a fox after he died. He then transformed into a human reluctantly to ask Zen Master Bai Zhang what he has done wrong that resulted him to transform into a fox. After consulting him, Zen Master Bai Zhang concluded that the reason he became a fox is because he believes that a successful practitioner will not have Causes and Karmic Results. Zen Master Bai Zhang reminded him : Cause and Result certainly exist, you need to understand the overall context of the Cause and Result. And this practitioner finally realized the mistake he made.

 

很有修行的人，不會有因果，好像說，很有修學的人絕對不會犯錯，也絕對知道人世間所有的事，其實是不可能的，正確說法是；明白因果，因為明白才能謙虛，謹慎，人世間所有的事，我們不明白的太多了，唯有謙虛，謹慎，不斷的進步，才是修行者該做的。

To say ‘a successful practitioner is free from Causes and Results’ is like saying a well practiced man will never make mistakes and definitely knows everything in the human world. Actually it’s impossible. The correct statement should be -- understanding Causes and Results makes a practitioner humbler and more cautious because he realizes that there is so much to learn and to improve. He needs to progress constantly to elevate himself.

 

後來的佛教徒都把這件事當成是亂說佛法的報應，其實問題在於他根本就不知道自己錯在哪裡？！就好像一個已經沒有存款的人，不知道自己已經沒有存款，還拼命的花錢，結果一定很慘，佛學的目的在讓世人擁有大腦，不是一直要講懲罰，不能有能力再創造時，再多的處罰也於事無補。像非洲的飢荒，懲罰已完全沒有意義，一定要正視到無知，或不能明白才是最可怕的。修學者如能像善財童子般，把視野拉廣，拉深時，無明是不是在夢裡，自然會有答案。

半寄

Buddhists later on misinterpreted this story as it was about the karmic retribution. In fact, the real issue is he didn’t even know what he did wrong? For instance, a man keep spending money without realizing that he has no saving left and the result of that must be miserable. Buddhism advocates for a thinking and reasoning brain, not aims to punish. Punishment is useless and meaningless when one is not able to create. For example, it is meaningless to talk about punishment when facing situation like starvation in Africa. We must face up to it: It’s ignorance, or inability to know, that is the most horrible. If a practitioner can broaden and deepen his insight as Sudhana (or Excellent Wealth) does, he will know the answer if ignorance is in a dream or not.

 

後語；【西風吹，歲月殘，人如夢，幻如真】。用詩，文學來說人生是夢，我可以接受，但修學絕對不行，會沒完沒了。

Epilogue: West wind blows; the time ages. Life is like a dream; illusion is like reality.

I can accept that life may be like a dream in a poem or in literature, but certainly not in practicing; otherwise it would go on forever.

 Master Ban Ji
 Translated by Grace Tsai
 Proofread by Sophiea Kuo