外境只是心的幻化

《The Right View》(3)

Actually, part of idealism, Christianity, ancient Indian religions and other kinds of faith, all share certain common views with Buddhism, but that does not mean they are identical as a whole. Buddhism and idealism are fundamentally different despite their partial similarity. The differences are even greater from an overall perspective. Hence, to regard religion as idealism is purely an opinion of the West, with which Buddhism does not identify.

其实，不管是唯物主义、基督教、古印度宗教，还是其他宗教等等，都有与佛教相似的部分。然而，这些例子只说明了它们有相似之处，却不表示它们在整体上无分轩轾。因此，纵有部分雷同，也不可将佛教视为唯心主义，因为二者从根本上就不同，如果撇开小小的相似处，而从宏观的角度去看，其间的差异就更大了。由此可以证明，将宗教视为唯心主义的观点，纯粹是西方传来的一种主张，佛教是与此全然不符的。

To illustrate further, Chandrakirti’s Introduction to the Middle Way, the epitome of Mahayana teaching, holds that both mental and physical phenomena exist from the point of view of the relative truth, and neither exists in terms of the ultimate truth. Both are empty of self-nature, rather than the physical phenomena have no independent existence but the mental phenomena do. Furthermore, Chandrakirti explained that this is the view of the Buddha, because in Abhidharma-kosa-Shastra the Buddha had inquired extensively into the existence of mental and physical phenomena from the perspective of the relative truth，and subsequently refuted the existence of both when enunciating Prajnaparamita. In other words, both exist if existence is affirmed, and vice versa if it is refuted. This is Chandrakirti's point.

举例来说，月称菩萨的《入中论》是代表大乘佛法最好的经典，该论认为：从世俗谛的角度来说，精神与物质都存在；从胜义谛的角度来说，则物质与精神均不存在，二者都是空性，并不是物质是空，精神是不空。月称菩萨进一步说道，这些都是释迦牟尼佛的观点，因为佛在《俱舍论》中，对世俗谛的精神与物质都有所探讨，而在讲述《般若波罗蜜多》时，又同时破斥了精神与物质。换句话说，如果认为成立，则双双都成立；反之，则双双都要破斥。这是月称菩萨的论点。

On the other hand，the view of the Nyingma tradition can be summed up in Longchenpa’s words:

而密宗宁玛巴的观点，则以无垢光尊者为代表，他认为：

External phenomena are not mind，

外境不是心，

only the illusory manifestations of mind.

只是心的幻化而已。

From what I know about idealism，I can say with full confidence that to equate Buddhism with idealism is very wrong as their views differ quite substantially. Actually, no one really thinks of Buddhism as idealism, only that religion in general is viewed as such, which in the case of Western religion is not incorrect.

唯心主义的观点我也知道一些，佛教与唯心主义的观点实在相去甚远，因此，根本不符合佛教是唯心主义的说法。其实也并没有人真正认为佛教是唯心主义，只说宗教是唯心主义而已，因为西方宗教确实是如此的。

In summary, Buddhism is not idealism because it does not deem the ultimate nature of reality is based on mind or mental phenomena; neither is it materialism as it does not consider the ultimate nature of reality is based on physical phenomena.

综上所述，佛教不是唯心主义，因为它不认为精神是第一性；佛教当然也不是唯物主义，因为它不认为物质是第一性。

佛教≠唯心主义

你根本不了解佛教