无始以来，我们一直在轮回

The importance of mastering the doctrine of the Twelve Nidanas

一、精通十二缘起支的重要性

The doctrine of the Twelve Nidanas is a key Buddhist thought. It mainly delineates how the past, present and future lives of human beings or other viviparous animals of the desire realm come about. In other words, it explains how we enter and leave this world.

十二缘起支是佛教的一个重要思想。主要讲了在三界（欲界、色界、无色界）中，欲界的人或者其他胎生有情，经过前世→现世→后世的三个过程是如何发生的。也就是讲，我们来的时候是怎么来的，走的时候是怎么走的。

Why do we need to understand our coming and going? The Twelve Nidanas, like the constantly moving wheel, take us into, out of and back into this world over and over again. We need to be prepared when this process restarts. What the Twelve Nidanas deal with is something that everyone has to face, and how to face it is a very important lesson for us all.

我们为什么要去了解“怎么来”“怎么走”的呢？因为，十二缘起就如同不停转动着的车轮，从不间断。 我们虽然已经来了，但将来还是会这样走的，走了以后还会从头再来。在重新开始的时候，我们每一个人都应该有所准备。 十二缘起支里所讲的内容是每个人都必须面临的，当面临这些问题的时候，该如何去解决，这是一个非常重要的课题。

The Twelve Nidanas as presented in Ornament of Clear Realization are quite complicated. The intent of this discussion is, however, to focus only on the parts that are important for us to know.

十二缘起在《现观庄严论》里是一个难题，但那些比较复杂的部分，我们在这里暂且不谈，目前只讲一些必须学习的关键性问题。

We have all been through the cycle of the Twelve Nidanas innumerable times. It is still continuing today because we have not prepared to confront it so far. In fact, not knowing how to deal with it is the real reason. Unless we begin to tackle it now, the cycle of death and rebirth will never end on its own. This is obviously quite an important matter.

每个众生，都经历过成千上万轮的十二缘起。尽管如此，但在这些过程当中，由于我们没有做任何准备，所以至今它仍然没有停止。没有停止的最主要的原因就是，以前在经历十二缘起时，我们缺少了面对它的方法，以至于直到今天，问题一直未能解决。如果今天再不准备解决这个问题，那么轮回的循环是永远不会停止的，它是绝不可能自动停下来的。所以，这是一个很重要的问题。