你真的了解自己吗？

What Buddhism does acknowledge is that sentient beings do not have free will over their cyclic existence, and that it is not without causes that we keep roaming about involuntarily in samsara. Yet causes and conditions can be changed and improved because they are compounded phenomena.

我们承认什么呢？我们承认的，就是前面提到的，众生是在不自由的情况下来，在不自由的情况下走。为什么不愿意走还是得走，不愿意来还是得来呢？这是有因缘的，而因缘是可以改善的，因为它是有为法。

Fatalists think that everything is predestined and under no circumstances can it be changed. Buddhists do not acknowledge this viewpoint. Buddhism holds that even immutable karma can be changed with the attainment of realization of emptiness or true repentance. It is also owing to the view that compounded phenomena are not predestined, but can be improved, transformed and controlled, that we need to learn the Twelve Nidanas. It can be said that not knowing the Twelve Nidanas is in fact not to know ourselves.

宿命论认为，一切都是命中注定的，一旦注定了，在任何情况下都不能改变，这是一种外道的观点，佛教却不承认。佛教的观点是：虽然定业是有的，但是所谓的定业也不是没有办法改变的，若能证悟空性，或者能励力忏悔，则定业也会发生变化。正因为一切有为法都不是命中注定的，而是可以改善、可以转变、可以控制的，所以，我们要去了解十二缘起。不了解十二缘起支，实际上就是不了解我们自己。

Those who are deemed the greats by the world, such as the respectable Nobel Prize winners, are really only adepts in their respective field that in terms of scope is still somewhat limited. Many of them possibly do not even understand their own nature, much less the mystery of mind. It is simply out of need, not curiosity, to resolve the question of cyclic rebirth that we now proceed to learn the Twelve Nidanas.

世俗间所谓的伟人，如很多得到诺贝尔奖的、令人尊敬的专家学者，其实他们也只是精通了一些狭窄范畴里的知识，却根本不了解自己，更不了解心的奥秘。现在，我们去了解十二缘起，并非出于好奇，而是为了解决问题。

First of all，we need to identify the origin of sentient beings’endless and involuntary rebirths in the six realms of samsara. Once found, we must eradicate it. Only then will we have truly found the path out of samsara.

首先，我们要找出众生总是身不由己地穿梭于六道之间的根源到底是什么。根源找到了，就要去消灭它，只有这样才是真正地找到了解脱轮回的出路。