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Gen-la Gangxiao: Why can't many people read Buddhist scriptures?

In fact, there is no obstacle to the language and writing in the classics!

Question: Nowadays, people read the classics and have a language barrier, is it good to translate them into vernacular?

Xiao: Not good! If you really don't have anything to do, I suggest you move a small bench after dinner and sit under a tree to watch the ants move, which is more beneficial than translating the classics into the vernacular.

Q: So, what should I do if I can't read the Buddhist scriptures?

Xiao: How can you not understand the classics? For example, "If I heard this, for a time Bhagavad traveled through the countries and went to the city of Guangyan, and ...... under the music tree?" Shouldn't it be changed to "There was a time when Shakyamuni walked around and came to the ...... of Guangyan City"? Another example is the Diamond Sutra, do we have to change it to "There was a time when the Buddha and 2,500 disciples lived in the garden of solitude in the royal house, and once when it was time to eat, they put on their robes and took up bowls, and went to the Acropolis to beg for food, and went from house to house in the city to ask for food, and when they came back to eat, they put away their robes and bowls, and then washed their feet and ......"? Is it better than Kumarosh's translation of "At one time, the Buddha was in the garden of solitude in the garden of solitude, and the great bhikshus were all 1,250 people, and when the world-honored ones were eating, they wore clothes and bowls, and went into the great city to beg for food, and they begged in the city, and then returned to the place, and they ate their meals, collected their clothes, washed their feet, and sat down on their seats......"? If you really want to translate Buddhist scriptures, if you really want to do something for the cause of Buddhism, then I suggest you go and learn Pali, Tibetan, Sanskrit. Because until now, there are some scriptures in Pali, in Tibetan, but not in Chinese, and it is much better for you to translate them than to write the Vimala Sutra, the Mida Sutra, and the Diamond Sutra again in the vernacular. In fact, there are no obstacles in the classic language and writing!

Question: Then why can't you read the scriptures?

Xiao: It's not a question of language and writing, it's because most of us think in the form of dots, while in the scriptures we think in a linear way. In other words, our minds are all fortresses one by one, and the fortresses are not connected to each other. One of my problems has been broken, and there is another problem, you attack one of my fortresses, and I have another fortress, and this is not what the scriptures say. Not to mention the Buddhist scriptures, even if the great philosophers and great scientists in the world, their thinking is linear thinking, their thinking is systematic, systematic, one ring after another, there can be no loopholes in the middle, if there is a little loophole in the middle, your entire ideological system is finished. After Einstein published his theory of relativity, several great scientists committed suicide, why? They loved Newton's theoretical system deeply, and they could not accept the reality that Newtonian mechanics was not perfect. If you say you can't understand the Buddhist scriptures, then you don't have to make up your mind about the language, you should think about training your way of thinking, which is fundamental. The text of the treatise is rather cumbersome, but I have not heard of anyone who wants to translate the treatise. Buddhism is literal and meaningful, and only when there is literature and righteousness is it called Buddhism. When you change the classics to vernacular, you have to say that you changed them well, and the bad ones don't count. Even if you change it very well and the meaning is not out of shape at all, then there is no text, because the text represents a mode of thinking, and changing the text means changing the mode of thinking.

2024-02-05 18:05
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