超越轮回，却不离轮回

1. Overview

一、概述

The practice of the Four Noble Truths begins with the cultivation of renunciation and bodhicitta. Renunciation enables us to transcend samsara while bodhicitta inspires us to remain in samsara without being bound by it. Are they contradictory to each other? No, they’re not. If renunciation is not generated，samsara cannot be transcended. We will then end up in the same position as all other beings in the six realms, having no ability to save anyone. In order to transcend samsara, one must resolutely cut off all attachment to it. But that does not mean one should abandon all those remained in samsara afterwards. To abandon them means one’s goal is only to seek enlightenment for oneself and upon reaching that goal, one ignores their need for liberation. Sravakas and pratyekabuddhas, abiding in the meditation of cessation, have transcended samsara and at the same time abandoned those left in samsara. Alas, owing to their limited power of samadhi, they neither have the ability nor the aspiration to lead other sentient beings to liberation.

四谛的修法就是从出离心、菩提心开始。出离心让我们超越轮回，菩提心让我们在超越轮回后却不离轮回。这二者之间是否矛盾呢？并不矛盾。如果没有出离心、不能超越轮回，我们就与六道众生无异，谁也没有能力去度化他人。如果要超越轮回，就必须断除贪欲轮回的念头，但在超越之后，却不能脱离这个轮回世界。所谓“脱离”的意思，就是得到涅槃后不度众生，只追求自己的解脱。声闻缘觉就是不但超越而且脱离了轮回，他们安住在灭定中，因定力有限，所以既没有能力，也没有愿望度化众生。

But Mahayana Buddhism calls for transcendence, not desertion, of samsara. The bodhisattvas practice emptiness, not-self, or great compassion not to escape from the suffering of samsara but to benefit sentient beings more thoroughly and effectively, and to serve the needs of others more generously. Ordinary people, unable to break loose from samsara, have no choice but to remain trapped in the cycle of rebirth. Whereas the bodhisattvas, no longer being bound by samsara, choose to remain because sentient beings only exist in samsara, not in nirvana. In order to deliver sentient beings from all suffering, the bodhisattvas must work from within, not out of, samsara. The key to understand this dichotomy lies in distinguishing between the relative truth and the absolute truth.

但大乘佛法则要求超越却不能脱离轮回。因为大乘菩萨不论是修空性、无我或大悲心，其目的并不是要逃避轮回的痛苦，而是为了具有更强大的能力，能够更有效、更完整地去利益众生，能够更无私地付出。凡夫因为没有超越轮回，所以没有任何选择余地，他们身不由己地要流转轮回。而大乘菩萨虽然超越了轮回，却自愿不离轮回，因为他们深知，要度化众生就必须身处其中，因为在涅槃中并没有众生，所以大乘菩萨不能脱离轮回。在这点上最重要的，是要将世俗谛与胜义谛分开来看。