第94篇		Paper 94
东方的麦基洗德教导		The Melchizedek Teachings in the Orient
94:0.1 (1027.1) 撒冷教的早期导师们深入到了非洲和欧亚大陆的边远部落，始终宣讲玛可文塔关于人对一体遍在之神的信仰和信任作为得到神恩之唯一代价的福音。麦基洗德与亚伯拉罕的圣约，对于所有早期从撒冷及其他中心出去的宣传来说是典范。玉苒厦(Urantia)再没有一个宗教能拥有比这些携带了麦基洗德教导跨越整个东半球的高尚男女更为热情而又富于进取的传教士了。这些传教士是从许多民族和种族中招募而来的，他们在很大程度上以本地皈依者为媒介来传播他们的教导。他们在这个世界的不同地方建立了培训中心，在那里为本地人讲授撒冷教，然后委派这些学员担当他们自己民族中间的导师。		94:0.1 (1027.1) THE early teachers of the Salem religion penetrated to the remotest tribes of Africa and Eurasia, ever preaching Machiventa’s gospel of man’s faith and trust in the one universal God as the only price of obtaining divine favor. Melchizedek’s covenant with Abraham was the pattern for all the early propaganda that went out from Salem and other centers. Urantia has never had more enthusiastic and aggressive missionaries of any religion than these noble men and women who carried the teachings of Melchizedek over the entire Eastern Hemisphere. These missionaries were recruited from many peoples and races, and they largely spread their teachings through the medium of native converts. They established training centers in different parts of the world where they taught the natives the Salem religion and then commissioned these pupils to function as teachers among their own people.
1. 吠陀时代印度的撒冷教导 ^top		1. The Salem Teachings in Vedic India ^top
94:1.1 (1027.2) 在麦基洗德的时代，印度曾是一个世界性的国家，刚处于来自北面和西面的雅利安-安德族入侵者的政治和宗教主导之下。在这一时期，只有半岛的北部和西部地区受到了雅利安人的广泛渗入。这些吠陀教新来者随身带来了他们的许多部落神祗。他们的宗教崇拜形式紧密追随了他们较早期安德族祖先的仪式做法，因为父亲仍然担当男祭司，母亲则担当女祭司，家庭炉灶仍被用作祭坛。		94:1.1 (1027.2) In the days of Melchizedek, India was a cosmopolitan country which had recently come under the political and religious dominance of the Aryan-Andite invaders from the north and west. At this time only the northern and western portions of the peninsula had been extensively permeated by the Aryans. These Vedic newcomers had brought along with them their many tribal deities. Their religious forms of worship followed closely the ceremonial practices of their earlier Andite forebears in that the father still functioned as a priest and the mother as a priestess, and the family hearth was still utilized as an altar.
94:1.2 (1027.3) 那时，吠陀教派在婆罗门导师兼祭司阶层的主管下经历了成长和变形，他们逐渐接管了对不断扩展的崇拜仪式的控制权。当撒冷传教士深入到印度北部时，彼时的三十三位雅利安神祗之合并正顺利进行着。		94:1.2 (1027.3) The Vedic cult was then in process of growth and metamorphosis under the direction of the Brahman caste of teacher-priests, who were gradually assuming control over the expanding ritual of worship. The amalgamation of the onetime thirty-three Aryan deities was well under way when the Salem missionaries penetrated the north of India.
94:1.3 (1027.4) 这些雅利安人的多神论代表了他们较早期一神论因其分裂为部落单元，而每一部落都有其尊崇之神而引起的一种退化。美索不达米亚安德族人原初一神论和三位一体论所产生的这种退化，在基督之前第二个千年早期几个世纪中经历了再合成的过程。许多神祗被组织进了由天界之主特尤斯、狂暴的空界之主因陀罗以及地界之主、较早期三位一体概念的残余象征、三头火神阿耆尼三位联合领导下的万神殿之中。		94:1.3 (1027.4) The polytheism of these Aryans represented a degeneration of their earlier monotheism occasioned by their separation into tribal units, each tribe having its venerated god. This devolution of the original monotheism and trinitarianism of Andite Mesopotamia was in process of resynthesis in the early centuries of the second millennium before Christ. The many gods were organized into a pantheon under the triune leadership of Dyaus pitar, the lord of heaven; Indra, the tempestuous lord of the atmosphere; and Agni, the three-headed fire god, lord of the earth and the vestigial symbol of an earlier Trinity concept.
94:1.4 (1027.5) 明确的单一主神教发展为一种演变出来的一神论铺平了道路。阿耆尼，这位最古老的神祗，经常被尊为整个万神殿的父首。有时被称为生主，有时又被称为梵天的神祗之父原理，在婆罗门祭司后来与撒冷导师的神学争斗中被湮没了。梵则被构想为激活整个吠陀教万神殿的能量-神性原理。		94:1.4 (1027.5) Definite henotheistic developments were paving the way for an evolved monotheism. Agni, the most ancient deity, was often exalted as the father-head of the entire pantheon. The deity-father principle, sometimes called Prajapati, sometimes termed Brahma, was submerged in the theologic battle which the Brahman priests later fought with the Salem teachers. The Brahman was conceived as the energy-divinity principle activating the entire Vedic pantheon.
94:1.5 (1028.1) 撒冷传教士宣扬麦基洗德的唯一神，即天上的极高者。这一描述与作为万神之源而逐渐出现的父性-梵天观念并非完全不相容，但撒冷的教义是非仪式性的，因此与婆罗门祭司阶层的教条、传统和教导截然相反。婆罗门祭司永远无法接受通过信仰获得神助而无需仪式惯例和祭献典礼的撒冷救赎教导。		94:1.5 (1028.1) The Salem missionaries preached the one God of Melchizedek, the Most High of heaven. This portrayal was not altogether disharmonious with the emerging concept of the Father-Brahma as the source of all gods, but the Salem doctrine was nonritualistic and hence ran directly counter to the dogmas, traditions, and teachings of the Brahman priesthood. Never would the Brahman priests accept the Salem teaching of salvation through faith, favor with God apart from ritualistic observances and sacrificial ceremonials.
94:1.6 (1028.2) 于印度而言，对麦基洗德信任神并藉由信仰得到救赎这一福音的拒绝，标志着一个极其重要的转折点。撒冷传教士们对所有古代吠陀诸神信仰的放弃贡献极大，但吠陀教的祭司领袖们，却拒绝接受麦基洗德有关唯一之神和单一信仰的教导。		94:1.6 (1028.2) The rejection of the Melchizedek gospel of trust in God and salvation through faith marked a vital turning point for India. The Salem missionaries had contributed much to the loss of faith in all the ancient Vedic gods, but the leaders, the priests of Vedism, refused to accept the Melchizedek teaching of one God and one simple faith.
94:1.7 (1028.3) 婆罗门采选了他们时代的圣籍，试图要与撒冷导师们相争，这种编纂，如同后来的修订一样，作为最为古老的圣籍之一《梨俱吠陀》而流传至今。第二、第三和第四集《梨俱吠陀》相继而生，因为婆罗门试图令其崇拜和祭献仪式具体化、形式化，并将其固化到那些日子的各个民族身上。由于撷取的是最优秀的，这些圣籍在观念之美好和洞察之真确方面，可与任何其他具有类似品质的文本相媲美。但随着这一上等的宗教被印度南部成千上万的迷信、教派和仪式所熏染时，它就逐步变为凡人所曾发展出来的最为庞杂的神学体系，对《吠陀经》的检视将会展示出所曾构想出的有关神灵的一些最高等和最低劣观念。		94:1.7 (1028.3) The Brahmans culled the sacred writings of their day in an effort to combat the Salem teachers, and this compilation, as later revised, has come on down to modern times as the Rig-Veda, one of the most ancient of sacred books. The second, third, and fourth Vedas followed as the Brahmans sought to crystallize, formalize, and fix their rituals of worship and sacrifice upon the peoples of those days. Taken at their best, these writings are the equal of any other body of similar character in beauty of concept and truth of discernment. But as this superior religion became contaminated with the thousands upon thousands of superstitions, cults, and rituals of southern India, it progressively metamorphosed into the most variegated system of theology ever developed by mortal man. An examination of the Vedas will disclose some of the highest and some of the most debased concepts of Deity ever to be conceived.
2. 婆罗门教 ^top		2. Brahmanism ^top
94:2.1 (1028.4) 随着撒冷传教士往南深入到了达罗毗荼人的德干半岛，他们遇到了一种不断增强的等级体系，即雅利安人在面临次级型桑吉克种族的崛起浪潮时，为防止种族身份的丧失而采取的计划。由于婆罗门祭司阶层是这一体系的本质，这一社会秩序极大阻碍了撒冷导师们的进展，这一等级体系未能挽救雅利安种族，但它却成功令婆罗门长久保存了下来，后者继而在印度将其宗教霸权维持到了当今时代。		94:2.1 (1028.4) As the Salem missionaries penetrated southward into the Dravidian Deccan, they encountered an increasing caste system, the scheme of the Aryans to prevent loss of racial identity in the face of a rising tide of the secondary Sangik peoples. Since the Brahman priest caste was the very essence of this system, this social order greatly retarded the progress of the Salem teachers. This caste system failed to save the Aryan race, but it did succeed in perpetuating the Brahmans, who, in turn, have maintained their religious hegemony in India to the present time.
94:2.2 (1028.5) 而此时，伴随吠陀教因拒绝更高真理而逐渐衰落，雅利安人的教派也遭受了来自德干半岛的渐增侵袭。在拼命来阻止种族灭绝和宗教湮没浪潮的努力中，婆罗门阶层试图将自身抬升到所有其他阶层之上。他们教导向神祗祭献本身是完全灵验的，并教导在其效力方面也是完全令人叹服的。他们宣称，在宇宙的两个基本神圣原理中，一个是婆罗门神祗，另一个则是婆罗门祭司阶层。在玉苒厦(Urantia)其他民族中间，没有祭司擅自将自身抬升到其诸神之上，将其诸神应有的荣耀归到自身之上。但他们将这些放肆的宣称弄得如此离谱，以至整个岌岌可危的体系在来自周边欠发达文明的低劣教派大量涌入之前便土崩瓦解了。庞大的吠陀教祭司阶层自身踟蹰不前，陷入到惰性悲观的暗流之下，他们本身自私愚蠢的专横也将这股暗流带到了整个印度之上。		94:2.2 (1028.5) And now, with the weakening of Vedism through the rejection of higher truth, the cult of the Aryans became subject to increasing inroads from the Deccan. In a desperate effort to stem the tide of racial extinction and religious obliteration, the Brahman caste sought to exalt themselves above all else. They taught that the sacrifice to deity in itself was all-efficacious, that it was all-compelling in its potency. They proclaimed that, of the two essential divine principles of the universe, one was Brahman the deity, and the other was the Brahman priesthood. Among no other Urantia peoples did the priests presume to exalt themselves above even their gods, to relegate to themselves the honors due their gods. But they went so absurdly far with these presumptuous claims that the whole precarious system collapsed before the debasing cults which poured in from the surrounding and less advanced civilizations. The vast Vedic priesthood itself floundered and sank beneath the black flood of inertia and pessimism which their own selfish and unwise presumption had brought upon all India.
94:2.3 (1029.1) 这种对自我的过份专注，必定会导致一种对自我在相续化身为人、畜、草木的无尽循环中非进化性永存的恐惧。在所有本已纠缠到逐渐出现的一神论之上的熏染信仰中，再没有像这种来自达罗毗荼人所在德干半岛的轮回信仰 -- 即灵魂转世的教义这样令人窒息的了。这种令人厌烦、毫无变化的反复轮回循环信仰，令苦苦挣扎的凡人丧失了他们长久珍视的、曾是较早期吠陀教信仰的在死中找到解脱及灵魂提升的希望。		94:2.3 (1029.1) The undue concentration on self led certainly to a fear of the nonevolutionary perpetuation of self in an endless round of successive incarnations as man, beast, or weeds. And of all the contaminating beliefs which could have become fastened upon what may have been an emerging monotheism, none was so stultifying as this belief in transmigration—the doctrine of the reincarnation of souls—which came from the Dravidian Deccan. This belief in the weary and monotonous round of repeated transmigrations robbed struggling mortals of their long-cherished hope of finding that deliverance and spiritual advancement in death which had been a part of the earlier Vedic faith.
94:2.4 (1029.2) 紧随这种在哲学上令人消沉教导之后的，便是通过与一切造物的总灵梵绝对合一，沉浸到一如当中而获得从自我当中的永恒解脱之教义。凡世的欲望和人类的抱负被全然劫掠走了，并几近被毁掉了。两千多年来，印度的上乘智者试图从所有的欲望中解脱出来，从而为那些后来几近将许多印度民众束缚到灵性无望之枷锁中的教派及教导敞开了大门。在所有文明中，吠陀-雅利安人为其拒绝撒冷福音付出了最为惨重的代价。		94:2.4 (1029.2) This philosophically debilitating teaching was soon followed by the invention of the doctrine of the eternal escape from self by submergence in the universal rest and peace of absolute union with Brahman, the oversoul of all creation. Mortal desire and human ambition were effectually ravished and virtually destroyed. For more than two thousand years the better minds of India have sought to escape from all desire, and thus was opened wide the door for the entrance of those later cults and teachings which have virtually shackled the souls of many Hindu peoples in the chains of spiritual hopelessness. Of all civilizations, the Vedic-Aryan paid the most terrible price for its rejection of the Salem gospel.
94:2.5 (1029.3) 等级本身并不能使雅利安人的宗教文化体系长存下来，随着德干半岛的次等宗教渗入北方，在那里便发展出了一个充满绝望和无望的时代。正是在这些黑暗的时代期间，不杀生的教派兴起了，自那以来它便持续下来。坦率地说，许多新的教派都是无神论的，宣称所能获得的拯救只能通过人自身独立的努力才会实现。但在所有这一切不幸的哲学中间，有不少可以追溯到麦基洗德乃至亚当教导受到曲解的残余部分。		94:2.5 (1029.3) Caste alone could not perpetuate the Aryan religio-cultural system, and as the inferior religions of the Deccan permeated the north, there developed an age of despair and hopelessness. It was during these dark days that the cult of taking no life arose, and it has ever since persisted. Many of the new cults were frankly atheistic, claiming that such salvation as was attainable could come only by man’s own unaided efforts. But throughout a great deal of all this unfortunate philosophy, distorted remnants of the Melchizedek and even the Adamic teachings can be traced.
94:2.6 (1029.4) 这些时期是后来印度教信仰的诸多经书、即梵书和奥义书的编纂时期。由于拒绝了通过个人信仰体验唯一神的个人类宗教的教导，并被来自德干半岛的众多低劣消沉教派和信条所熏染，再加上其神人同形同性论和转世学说，婆罗门的祭司阶层经历了一场反对这些败坏信仰的激烈反应；曾有过一场寻求和发现真正实相的明确努力。婆罗门开始将印度的神祗观念去神人同形同性化，但如此一来他们就犯了将神的观念去人格化的严重错误，他们呈现出来的不再是一个有关天堂之父的崇高灵性理念，而是一个有关无所不包之绝对者（如来）遥远且形而上的观念。		94:2.6 (1029.4) These were the times of the compilation of the later scriptures of the Hindu faith, the Brahmanas and the Upanishads. Having rejected the teachings of personal religion through the personal faith experience with the one God, and having become contaminated with the flood of debasing and debilitating cults and creeds from the Deccan, with their anthropomorphisms and reincarnations, the Brahmanic priesthood experienced a violent reaction against these vitiating beliefs; there was a definite effort to seek and to find true reality. The Brahmans set out to deanthropomorphize the Indian concept of deity, but in so doing they stumbled into the grievous error of depersonalizing the concept of God, and they emerged, not with a lofty and spiritual ideal of the Paradise Father, but with a distant and metaphysical idea of an all-encompassing Absolute.
94:2.7 (1029.5) 在他们保留自我的努力中，婆罗门拒绝了麦基洗德的唯一神，此时他们发现自己所持有的是有关梵的假说，即那一模糊而虚幻的哲学性自我，那一非人格性的无力之它，这使得印度的灵性生活变得无依无靠，一蹶不振，从那个不幸的时代一直到二十世纪。		94:2.7 (1029.5) In their efforts at self-preservation the Brahmans had rejected the one God of Melchizedek, and now they found themselves with the hypothesis of Brahman, that indefinite and illusive philosophic self, that impersonal and impotent it which has left the spiritual life of India helpless and prostrate from that unfortunate day to the twentieth century.
94:2.8 (1029.6) 正是在奥义书撰写的时期，佛教在印度兴起了。不过，尽管它成功存在了一千年，它却无法与后来的印度教相抗衡；尽管它拥有一种更高的德性，但它早期对神的描述甚至不如印度教那样明确，后者提供了更少的人格性神祗。佛教最终在一群好战伊斯兰教信徒的猛攻面前在印度北部让路了，后者怀有其清晰的、将安拉当作宇宙之至高神的观念。		94:2.8 (1029.6) It was during the times of the writing of the Upanishads that Buddhism arose in India. But despite its successes of a thousand years, it could not compete with later Hinduism; despite a higher morality, its early portrayal of God was even less well-defined than was that of Hinduism, which provided for lesser and personal deities. Buddhism finally gave way in northern India before the onslaught of a militant Islam with its clear-cut concept of Allah as the supreme God of the universe.
3. 婆罗门教的哲学 ^top		3. Brahmanic Philosophy ^top
94:3.1 (1030.1) 尽管婆罗门教的最高层面很难说是一种宗教，但它的确是凡人心智对哲学和形而上学领域最为高贵的触及之一。印度人的心智已经开始去发现最终的实相，直到它已对神学的几近每一层面都做了思考以后才停下来，除了本质的二元宗教概念以外：即拥有一切宇宙受造物的万有之父的存在，以及这些受造物在寻求臻至永恒上父时他们在宇宙中扬升经历的事实，上父要求他们臻于完美，一如他那般完美。		94:3.1 (1030.1) While the highest phase of Brahmanism was hardly a religion, it was truly one of the most noble reaches of the mortal mind into the domains of philosophy and metaphysics. Having started out to discover final reality, the Indian mind did not stop until it had speculated about almost every phase of theology excepting the essential dual concept of religion: the existence of the Universal Father of all universe creatures and the fact of the ascending experience in the universe of these very creatures as they seek to attain the eternal Father, who has commanded them to be perfect, even as he is perfect.
94:3.2 (1030.2) 在梵这一概念方面，那些时代的智者们真正抓住了某个无所不在之绝对者的观念，因为这一假定同时又被认定为创造能量和宇宙反应。梵被构想为超越所有的定义，仅能通过对所有有限品质的相继否定才能得以理解。确切说来，它是对一个绝对存在、甚至是无限存在的信仰，但这一概念在很大程度上缺少人格属性，因此无法为个体的笃信宗教者所体验到。		94:3.2 (1030.2) In the concept of Brahman the minds of those days truly grasped at the idea of some all-pervading Absolute, for this postulate was at one and the same time identified as creative energy and cosmic reaction. Brahman was conceived to be beyond all definition, capable of being comprehended only by the successive negation of all finite qualities. It was definitely a belief in an absolute, even an infinite, being, but this concept was largely devoid of personality attributes and was therefore not experiencible by individual religionists.
94:3.3 (1030.3) 梵-那罗延被构想为绝对者，即无限的它是，潜在宇宙的原生创造潜能，以静态和潜态遍存于整个永恒当中的万有性自我。假若那些时代的哲学家们能在神祗概念上做出进一步的提升，假若他们能将梵构想为联合性的和创造性的，作为一个可为受造的进化存有们所接近的人格，那么这样一种教导或许会成为玉苒厦(Urantia)上最为先进的神灵画像了，因为它将已涵盖了总体神灵运作的前五个层次，并或许有可能已预见到了剩下的两个层次。		94:3.3 (1030.3) Brahman-Narayana was conceived as the Absolute, the infinite IT IS, the primordial creative potency of the potential cosmos, the Universal Self existing static and potential throughout all eternity. Had the philosophers of those days been able to make the next advance in deity conception, had they been able to conceive of the Brahman as associative and creative, as a personality approachable by created and evolving beings, then might such a teaching have become the most advanced portraiture of Deity on Urantia since it would have encompassed the first five levels of total deity function and might possibly have envisioned the remaining two.
94:3.4 (1030.4) 在某些层面，作为一切受造物存在之全体总计的一体万有性总灵，引导了印度的哲学家们非常接近于有关至高存在者的真理，但这一真理对他们却毫无价值，因为他们未能演化出任何一个合理或是理智的个人途径去臻至其理论上的梵-那罗延一神论目标。		94:3.4 (1030.4) In certain phases the concept of the One Universal Oversoul as the totality of the summation of all creature existence led the Indian philosophers very close to the truth of the Supreme Being, but this truth availed them naught because they failed to evolve any reasonable or rational personal approach to the attainment of their theoretic monotheistic goal of Brahman-Narayana.
94:3.5 (1030.5) 因果永续的业力原理，也十分接近至高者之神灵临在身中所有时空行为之反响性合成的真理；但这一假定从未替个体笃信宗教者考虑臻至神灵的同等性个人途径，而仅替万有性总灵考虑了对所有人格的最终吞噬。		94:3.5 (1030.5) The karma principle of causality continuity is, again, very close to the truth of the repercussional synthesis of all time-space actions in the Deity presence of the Supreme; but this postulate never provided for the co-ordinate personal attainment of Deity by the individual religionist, only for the ultimate engulfment of all personality by the Universal Oversoul.
94:3.6 (1030.6) 婆罗门教的哲学也非常接近对于思想调整者内驻的认知，仅因对真理的误解而变得有所扭曲。灵魂是梵之内驻这一教导本应会为一种先进的宗教铺好道路，倘若这一概念未被下列信仰所彻底玷污，即除了这位万有一体者的内驻以外不存在任何人类个体性。		94:3.6 (1030.6) The philosophy of Brahmanism also came very near to the realization of the indwelling of the Thought Adjusters, only to become perverted through the misconception of truth. The teaching that the soul is the indwelling of the Brahman would have paved the way for an advanced religion had not this concept been completely vitiated by the belief that there is no human individuality apart from this indwelling of the Universal One.
94:3.7 (1030.7) 在自我灵魂与总灵相融合的教义中，印度的神学家们未能考虑到某种人性之物、某种新鲜独特之物、某种源于人的意志与神的意志结合之物的续存。灵魂回归到梵的教导，与调整者回归到万有之父怀抱的真理密切相似，不过有某个不同于调整者之物也续存了下来，即凡人人格的灵质性对应物。而这一至关重要的观念，却从婆罗门教哲学中彻底缺席了。		94:3.7 (1030.7) In the doctrine of the merging of the self-soul with the Oversoul, the theologians of India failed to provide for the survival of something human, something new and unique, something born of the union of the will of man and the will of God. The teaching of the soul’s return to the Brahman is closely parallel to the truth of the Adjuster’s return to the bosom of the Universal Father, but there is something distinct from the Adjuster which also survives, the morontial counterpart of mortal personality. And this vital concept was fatally absent from Brahmanic philosophy.
94:3.8 (1031.1) 婆罗门教哲学已近似于许多宇宙事实，并已接近众多宇宙真理，不过它也时常犯下错误，未能区分像绝对性、超越性和有限性这几个层次的实相。它未能考虑到，在绝对层次上可能是有限虚幻之物，在有限性层次上却可能是绝对真实的。它也未认识到万有之父的本质人格，他在从进化受造物与神的有限体验层次往上到永恒之子与天堂之父的无限体验层次都是可以亲身接触到的。		94:3.8 (1031.1) Brahmanic philosophy has approximated many of the facts of the universe and has approached numerous cosmic truths, but it has all too often fallen victim to the error of failing to differentiate between the several levels of reality, such as absolute, transcendental, and finite. It has failed to take into account that what may be finite-illusory on the absolute level may be absolutely real on the finite level. And it has also taken no cognizance of the essential personality of the Universal Father, who is personally contactable on all levels from the evolutionary creature’s limited experience with God on up to the limitless experience of the Eternal Son with the Paradise Father.
4. 印度教 ^top		4. The Hindu Religion ^top
94:4.1 (1031.2) 在印度，随着多个世纪的过去，民众又多少回到了吠陀经古老的仪式中，因为它们已被麦基洗德传教士的教导所改变，并被后来的婆罗门祭司阶层所具体化了。这一在该世界宗教中最为古老且最具世界性的宗教，在因应佛教、耆那教以及后来出现的伊斯兰教和基督教影响的过程中经历了进一步的改变。但在有关耶稣的诸多教导抵达之时，它们已变得如此的西方化，以至成了一种“白人的宗教”，因此对于印度人的心智来说是奇怪而陌生的。		94:4.1 (1031.2) With the passing of the centuries in India, the populace returned in measure to the ancient rituals of the Vedas as they had been modified by the teachings of the Melchizedek missionaries and crystallized by the later Brahman priesthood. This, the oldest and most cosmopolitan of the world’s religions, has undergone further changes in response to Buddhism and Jainism and to the later appearing influences of Mohammedanism and Christianity. But by the time the teachings of Jesus arrived, they had already become so Occidentalized as to be a “white man’s religion,” hence strange and foreign to the Hindu mind.
94:4.2 (1031.3) 当前，印度的宗教体系，描述了四个逐渐递减的神祗与神性层次：		94:4.2 (1031.3) Hindu theology, at present, depicts four descending levels of deity and divinity:
94:4.3 (1031.4) 1. 梵，即绝对者，无限者，它是。		94:4.3 (1031.4) 1. The Brahman, the Absolute, the Infinite One, the IT IS.
94:4.4 (1031.5) 2. 三相神，即印度教的至高三位一体。在这一组合中，第一成员梵天被构想为是由梵 -- 即无限者所自创出来的。倘若它未与泛神论的无限者紧密同一，那么梵天可能会构成万有之父概念的基础。梵天也与命运相同一。		94:4.4 (1031.5) 2. The Trimurti, the supreme trinity of Hinduism. In this association Brahma, the first member, is conceived as being self-created out of the Brahman—infinity. Were it not for close identification with the pantheistic Infinite One, Brahma could constitute the foundation for a concept of the Universal Father. Brahma is also identified with fate.
94:4.5 (1031.6) 对第二和第三成员湿婆和毗湿奴的崇拜，兴起于基督后第一个千年。湿婆是生死之主，生育之神，毁灭之主。毗湿奴则由于其定期化身为人的信仰而极受欢迎。以此方式，毗湿奴变得真实而活在了印度人的想象之中。湿婆和毗湿奴各自被某些人视为高于一切。		94:4.5 (1031.6) The worship of the second and third members, Siva and Vishnu, arose in the first millennium after Christ. Siva is lord of life and death, god of fertility, and master of destruction. Vishnu is extremely popular due to the belief that he periodically incarnates in human form. In this way, Vishnu becomes real and living in the imaginations of the Indians. Siva and Vishnu are each regarded by some as supreme over all.
94:4.6 (1031.7) 3. 吠陀及后吠陀时代的神祗。雅利安人的许多古神，诸如阿耆尼，因陀罗，苏摩，作为次于三相神三成员的神而存续下来。众多额外之神自吠陀时代印度的早期以来就兴起了，这些神也被收进了印度的万神殿中。		94:4.6 (1031.7) 3. Vedic and post-Vedic deities. Many of the ancient gods of the Aryans, such as Agni, Indra, and Soma, have persisted as secondary to the three members of the Trimurti. Numerous additional gods have arisen since the early days of Vedic India, and these have also been incorporated into the Hindu pantheon.
94:4.7 (1031.8) 4. 半神：超人、神人、英雄、恶魔、鬼怪、邪灵、妖精、妖怪、小鬼，以及近代教派中的圣人。		94:4.7 (1031.8) 4. The demigods: supermen, semigods, heroes, demons, ghosts, evil spirits, sprites, monsters, goblins, and saints of the later-day cults.
94:4.8 (1031.9) 尽管印度教长久以来未能令印度人活跃起来，但与此同时它又常是一个宽容的宗教。其巨大优势在于下述事实，即它已证明为玉苒厦(Urantia)所出现的最具适应性、最无定形的宗教。它有几近无限制改变的能力，并具有异常灵活的调整范围，从对理性之梵高等半一神论的思考，到低劣受压迫阶级无知信奉者彻头彻尾的物神崇拜和原始教派做法。		94:4.8 (1031.9) While Hinduism has long failed to vivify the Indian people, at the same time it has usually been a tolerant religion. Its great strength lies in the fact that it has proved to be the most adaptive, amorphic religion to appear on Urantia. It is capable of almost unlimited change and possesses an unusual range of flexible adjustment from the high and semimonotheistic speculations of the intellectual Brahman to the arrant fetishism and primitive cult practices of the debased and depressed classes of ignorant believers.
94:4.9 (1032.1) 印度教存续了下来，因为它在本质上是印度基本社会构造中一个不可或缺的部分。它没有任何可被扰乱或破坏的庞大等级；它被编织进了民众的生活模式中。它拥有一种应对不断变化环境的适应性，这一点优于所有其他教派，它对许多其他宗教展示出了一种宽容接纳的态度，佛祖乔达摩乃至基督本身都被宣称为毗湿奴的化身。		94:4.9 (1032.1) Hinduism has survived because it is essentially an integral part of the basic social fabric of India. It has no great hierarchy which can be disturbed or destroyed; it is interwoven into the life pattern of the people. It has an adaptability to changing conditions that excels all other cults, and it displays a tolerant attitude of adoption toward many other religions, Gautama Buddha and even Christ himself being claimed as incarnations of Vishnu.
94:4.10 (1032.2) 今日，在印度极为需要的是对耶稣教福音的描述 -- 神的父性身份和所有人类的子民身份以及随之而来的兄弟情谊，后者可在充满爱心的侍奉和社会服务中得以亲身实现。在印度，哲学框架是存在的，教派结构是现成的；唯一需要的是原初人子福音中所描绘的有活力之爱所激发出的火花，后者摆脱了那些易于将迈克尔的生命赠与当成是一种白人宗教的西方式教条和教义。		94:4.10 (1032.2) Today, in India, the great need is for the portrayal of the Jesusonian gospel—the Fatherhood of God and the sonship and consequent brotherhood of all men, which is personally realized in loving ministry and social service. In India the philosophical framework is existent, the cult structure is present; all that is needed is the vitalizing spark of the dynamic love portrayed in the original gospel of the Son of Man, divested of the Occidental dogmas and doctrines which have tended to make Michael’s life bestowal a white man’s religion.
5. 中国对真理的追求 ^top		5. The Struggle for Truth in China ^top
94:5.1 (1032.3) 随着撒冷传教士穿越亚洲，传播极高神和因信得救的教义，他们也吸纳了所历众多国家的许多哲学和宗教思想。但麦基洗德及其继承者们所委托的导师们并未有负所托；他们的确深入到了欧亚大陆的所有民族中，正是在基督前第二个千年的中期，他们到达了中国。在叙府（今四川宜宾）的一百多年里，撒冷人保有其总部，并在那里培训中国导师，后者则在黄种人的整个领域内教导。		94:5.1 (1032.3) As the Salem missionaries passed through Asia, spreading the doctrine of the Most High God and salvation through faith, they absorbed much of the philosophy and religious thought of the various countries traversed. But the teachers commissioned by Melchizedek and his successors did not default in their trust; they did penetrate to all peoples of the Eurasian continent, and it was in the middle of the second millennium before Christ that they arrived in China. At See Fuch, for more than one hundred years, the Salemites maintained their headquarters, there training Chinese teachers who taught throughout all the domains of the yellow race.
94:5.2 (1032.4) 中国兴起的最早形式的道教正是这种教导的直接结果，它是一种与今日具有那一名称的宗教迥然相异的宗教。早期或是原型的道教，是以下各种因素所组成的一种复合物：		94:5.2 (1032.4) It was in direct consequence of this teaching that the earliest form of Taoism arose in China, a vastly different religion than the one which bears that name today. Early or proto-Taoism was a compound of the following factors:
94:5.3 (1032.5) 1. 残留的星朗顿教导，它们持久保留了上帝、即天神的观念。在星朗顿时代，中国人无形中变为了一神论的；他们将其崇拜专注在唯一真理之上，后来被称为天灵，宇宙支配者。黄种人从未完全丧失这种早期的神灵观念，尽管在随后的数个世纪中，许多从属神和灵不知不觉间潜入了他们的宗教。		94:5.3 (1032.5) 1. The lingering teachings of Singlangton, which persisted in the concept of Shang-ti, the God of Heaven. In the times of Singlangton the Chinese people became virtually monotheistic; they concentrated their worship on the One Truth, later known as the Spirit of Heaven, the universe ruler. And the yellow race never fully lost this early concept of Deity, although in subsequent centuries many subordinate gods and spirits insidiously crept into their religion.
94:5.4 (1032.6) 2. 包含了一位极高造物主神灵的撒冷教，他会应人的信仰而将其惠助赐予到人类身上。但到了麦基洗德传教士们深入到黄种人的地域之时，其原初讯息已与玛可文塔时代的简单撒冷教义大不相同了，这一点是再真实不过了。		94:5.4 (1032.6) 2. The Salem religion of a Most High Creator Deity who would bestow his favor upon mankind in response to man’s faith. But it is all too true that, by the time the Melchizedek missionaries had penetrated to the lands of the yellow race, their original message had become considerably changed from the simple doctrines of Salem in the days of Machiventa.
94:5.5 (1032.7) 3. 印度哲学家们的梵-绝对者观念，外加摆脱所有邪恶的愿望。或许在撒冷教往东传播的过程中最为巨大的外在影响是由持有吠陀信仰的印度导师们所施加的，他们将其梵 -- 即绝对者 -- 的观念注入到了撒冷人的救赎思想中。		94:5.5 (1032.7) 3. The Brahman-Absolute concept of the Indian philosophers, coupled with the desire to escape all evil. Perhaps the greatest extraneous influence in the eastward spread of the Salem religion was exerted by the Indian teachers of the Vedic faith, who injected their conception of the Brahman—the Absolute—into the salvationistic thought of the Salemites.
94:5.6 (1033.1) 这种复合性信仰作为宗教哲学思想方面的一种潜在影响而传遍了黄种人和棕种人的地域。在日本，这种原型道教被称为神道教，在这一远离巴勒斯坦撒冷城的国度，人们了解到了玛可文塔 • 麦基洗德的化身，他驻留于世上是为了让神的名字不致被人类所忘怀。		94:5.6 (1033.1) This composite belief spread through the lands of the yellow and brown races as an underlying influence in religio-philosophic thought. In Japan this proto-Taoism was known as Shinto, and in this country, far-distant from Salem of Palestine, the peoples learned of the incarnation of Machiventa Melchizedek, who dwelt upon earth that the name of God might not be forgotten by mankind.
94:5.7 (1033.2) 在中国，所有这些信仰后来被不断发展起来的祖先崇拜教派所混淆和掺和了。但自从星朗顿的时代以来，中国人再未陷入到祭司权术的无助奴役中。黄色种族是最先从野蛮桎梏中解脱出来而进入有序文明的，因为它是最先从对诸神的卑怯恐惧中实现某种自由、乃至未曾像其他种族那样惧怕死者鬼魂的种族。中国遭遇到了失败，是因为她在其早期摆脱了祭司后未能进展；她陷入了一个几近同样灾难性的错误当中，即对祖先的崇拜。		94:5.7 (1033.2) In China all of these beliefs were later confused and compounded with the ever-growing cult of ancestor worship. But never since the time of Singlangton have the Chinese fallen into helpless slavery to priestcraft. The yellow race was the first to emerge from barbaric bondage into orderly civilization because it was the first to achieve some measure of freedom from the abject fear of the gods, not even fearing the ghosts of the dead as other races feared them. China met her defeat because she failed to progress beyond her early emancipation from priests; she fell into an almost equally calamitous error, the worship of ancestors.
94:5.8 (1033.3) 但撒冷人并非徒劳无功。正是在其福音的基础上，公元前六世纪中国的伟大哲学家们构建起了他们的教导。老子和孔子时代的道德氛围和精神情操，从更早时代撒冷传教士的教导中逐渐形成。		94:5.8 (1033.3) But the Salemites did not labor in vain. It was upon the foundations of their gospel that the great philosophers of sixth-century China built their teachings. The moral atmosphere and the spiritual sentiments of the times of Lao-tse and Confucius grew up out of the teachings of the Salem missionaries of an earlier age.
6. 老子和孔子 ^top		6. Lao-Tse and Confucius ^top
94:6.1 (1033.4) 大约在迈克尔到来前的六百年，在长久离开肉身的麦基洗德看来，他在世上教导的纯粹性正因被广泛吸纳进更古老的玉苒厦(Urantia)信仰中而遭受了过度的威胁。曾有一度看来他作为迈克尔先驱者的使命可能有失败的危险。在基督前六世纪，通过灵性代理者们一场非同寻常的协调，连行星监督者们都对之不甚完全了然，玉苒厦见证了一场多样宗教真理的极为罕见呈现。通过几位人类导师的代理，撒冷福音得以重申和再兴，许多内容如其当时所呈现的，一直持续到了这一著作所在的时代。		94:6.1 (1033.4) About six hundred years before the arrival of Michael, it seemed to Melchizedek, long since departed from the flesh, that the purity of his teaching on earth was being unduly jeopardized by general absorption into the older Urantia beliefs. It appeared for a time that his mission as a forerunner of Michael might be in danger of failing. And in the sixth century before Christ, through an unusual co-ordination of spiritual agencies, not all of which are understood even by the planetary supervisors, Urantia witnessed a most unusual presentation of manifold religious truth. Through the agency of several human teachers the Salem gospel was restated and revitalized, and as it was then presented, much has persisted to the times of this writing.
94:6.2 (1033.5) 这个充满灵性进展的独特世纪，是以整个文明世界的伟大宗教、道德和哲学导师为特征的。在中国，两位杰出的导师就是老子和孔子。		94:6.2 (1033.5) This unique century of spiritual progress was characterized by great religious, moral, and philosophic teachers all over the civilized world. In China, the two outstanding teachers were Lao-tse and Confucius.
94:6.3 (1033.6) 当老子宣称道是万物之唯一最初起因时，他是在撒冷传统的观念上直接构建的。老子是一个极具灵性眼光的人。他教导过：“人的永恒命运是与道永久合一，道即至高之神和万有之君。”他对终极起因的理解是最为眼光敏锐的，因为他写道：“统一出自于绝对之道，从统一之中出现了宇宙二元性，从这一二元性当中三位一体跃然而出，而三位一体是所有实相的最初源头。”“所有实相永远处于宇宙势和实的平衡之中，这些都由神性之灵所永恒调和。”		94:6.3 (1033.6) Lao-tse built directly upon the concepts of the Salem traditions when he declared Tao to be the One First Cause of all creation. Lao was a man of great spiritual vision. He taught that man’s eternal destiny was “everlasting union with Tao, Supreme God and Universal King.” His comprehension of ultimate causation was most discerning, for he wrote: “Unity arises out of the Absolute Tao, and from Unity there appears cosmic Duality, and from such Duality, Trinity springs forth into existence, and Trinity is the primal source of all reality.” “All reality is ever in balance between the potentials and the actuals of the cosmos, and these are eternally harmonized by the spirit of divinity.”
94:6.4 (1033.7) 老子也对以德报怨的教义作了一番最早的陈述：“善生善，但对于真善之人，恶也会生善。”		94:6.4 (1033.7) Lao-tse also made one of the earliest presentations of the doctrine of returning good for evil: “Goodness begets goodness, but to the one who is truly good, evil also begets goodness.”
94:6.5 (1033.8) 他教导受造物向造物主的回归，并将生描绘为一个人格从宇宙潜势中的浮现，而死则像是该受造物人格的归家。他关于真正信仰的观念是不同寻常的，他也将它比作“一个赤子的心态”。		94:6.5 (1033.8) He taught the return of the creature to the Creator and pictured life as the emergence of a personality from the cosmic potentials, while death was like the returning home of this creature personality. His concept of true faith was unusual, and he too likened it to the “attitude of a little child.”
94:6.6 (1034.1) 他对神之永恒意图的理解是清晰的，他说：“绝对神灵不争而善胜；他不胁迫人类，但却总善于回应其真正的愿望；神之意志永怀耐心，永怀其必然表达。” 而对于真正的笃信宗教者而言，他则表达了施比受更为有福这一真理：“善人不求保留真理，而是要把这些财富赠与其同伴，因为那才是真理的实现。绝对之神的意志总是利益而非损害；真正信徒的意图也总是有所作为而非强争。”		94:6.6 (1034.1) His understanding of the eternal purpose of God was clear, for he said: “The Absolute Deity does not strive but is always victorious; he does not coerce mankind but always stands ready to respond to their true desires; the will of God is eternal in patience and eternal in the inevitability of its expression.” And of the true religionist he said, in expressing the truth that it is more blessed to give than to receive: “The good man seeks not to retain truth for himself but rather attempts to bestow these riches upon his fellows, for that is the realization of truth. The will of the Absolute God always benefits, never destroys; the purpose of the true believer is always to act but never to coerce.”
94:6.7 (1034.2) 老子有关不抵抗以及有为和强争之间差异的教导，后来被歪曲成了“无观、无为、无想”的信仰。但老子却从未教导过这类谬误，尽管其不抵抗的陈述已在中华民族爱好和平的进一步发展中成了一个要素。		94:6.7 (1034.2) Lao’s teaching of nonresistance and the distinction which he made between action and coercion became later perverted into the beliefs of “seeing, doing, and thinking nothing.” But Lao never taught such error, albeit his presentation of nonresistance has been a factor in the further development of the pacific predilections of the Chinese peoples.
94:6.8 (1034.3) 但在二十世纪玉苒厦(Urantia)流行的道教，与这位古老哲学家的高尚情操和宇宙观念鲜有共同之处。他教导了他所感悟的真理：即对绝对之神的信仰是那一将重塑世界的神圣能量之源，人类藉此会扬升到与道的灵性合一，后者即诸宇宙的永恒神灵和绝对造物主。		94:6.8 (1034.3) But the popular Taoism of twentieth-century Urantia has very little in common with the lofty sentiments and the cosmic concepts of the old philosopher who taught the truth as he perceived it, which was: That faith in the Absolute God is the source of that divine energy which will remake the world, and by which man ascends to spiritual union with Tao, the Eternal Deity and Creator Absolute of the universes.
94:6.9 (1034.4) 在公元前六世纪的中国，孔子（孔夫子）是一位略年轻于老子的同代人。孔子将其教义建立在黄种人漫长历史中较好的道德传统之上，他也多少受到了撒冷传教士们残留传统的影响。他的主要工作在于编汇古代哲人的至理名言。在其有生之年他是一个备受冷落的导师，但他的著作和教导自那以来却在中国和日本施加了一种极大的影响。孔子设立了一种新的常规来代替萨满，因为他将道德放在了魔法的位置上。但他构建得太好了；他建立了一套出于秩序的新崇拜活动，并确立了一种对祖先行为的敬重，这一点在本著作问世之时仍备受中国人尊崇。		94:6.9 (1034.4) Confucius (Kung Fu-tze) was a younger contemporary of Lao in sixth-century China. Confucius based his doctrines upon the better moral traditions of the long history of the yellow race, and he was also somewhat influenced by the lingering traditions of the Salem missionaries. His chief work consisted in the compilation of the wise sayings of ancient philosophers. He was a rejected teacher during his lifetime, but his writings and teachings have ever since exerted a great influence in China and Japan. Confucius set a new pace for the shamans in that he put morality in the place of magic. But he built too well; he made a new fetish out of order and established a respect for ancestral conduct that is still venerated by the Chinese at the time of this writing.
94:6.10 (1034.5) 孔子的道德说教是基于世道乃是天道之扭曲映像的理论；世间文明的模式是上天永恒秩序的映像反射。孔子学说中潜在的神观念几近完全从属于对天道、即宇宙模式的强调。		94:6.10 (1034.5) The Confucian preachment of morality was predicated on the theory that the earthly way is the distorted shadow of the heavenly way; that the true pattern of temporal civilization is the mirror reflection of the eternal order of heaven. The potential God concept in Confucianism was almost completely subordinated to the emphasis placed upon the Way of Heaven, the pattern of the cosmos.
94:6.11 (1034.6) 老子的教导在东方已几近失传，但孔子的著述却自那以来构成了近三分之一玉苒厦人(Urantian)道德教化构架的基础。这些儒家的训诫，尽管长久保留了过去的精华，但对于中国人的探索精神却多少又是有害的，后者造就了那些备受尊崇的成就。这些教义的影响并未被秦始皇帝的专横努力以及墨翟的教导所成功击败，墨翟宣称一种并非基于伦理之责、而应基于对神之爱的兄弟情谊。他试图重新燃起古时对崭新真理的探求，但他的教导在孔子门徒有力反诘面前失败了。		94:6.11 (1034.6) The teachings of Lao have been lost to all but a few in the Orient, but the writings of Confucius have ever since constituted the basis of the moral fabric of the culture of almost a third of Urantians. These Confucian precepts, while perpetuating the best of the past, were somewhat inimical to the very Chinese spirit of investigation that had produced those achievements which were so venerated. The influence of these doctrines was unsuccessfully combated both by the imperial efforts of Ch’in Shih Huang Ti and by the teachings of Mo Ti, who proclaimed a brotherhood founded not on ethical duty but on the love of God. He sought to rekindle the ancient quest for new truth, but his teachings failed before the vigorous opposition of the disciples of Confucius.
94:6.12 (1034.7) 正像众多其他精神和道德导师一样，孔子和老子最终都被其处在中国那些灵性黑暗时代的追随者们所神灵化了，这些时代介于道教信仰衰微和印度的佛教传教士到来之间。在这些灵性衰颓的世纪期间，黄种人的宗教退化到了一种可悲的神学当中，其中充斥着魔鬼、神龙和邪灵，这一切都标志着未开化凡人心智中恐惧的回归。而中国，一度曾由于一个先进的宗教而走在人类社会的前沿，之后由于暂时未能在神之意识发展的真正道路上继续前进而落后了，这一意识对于真正的进展是不可或缺的，不仅对个体凡人而言是如此，对于一个时空类进化星球上以文化和社会进步为特征的错综复杂文明而言也是如此。		94:6.12 (1034.7) Like many other spiritual and moral teachers, both Confucius and Lao-tse were eventually deified by their followers in those spiritually dark ages of China which intervened between the decline and perversion of the Taoist faith and the coming of the Buddhist missionaries from India. During these spiritually decadent centuries the religion of the yellow race degenerated into a pitiful theology wherein swarmed devils, dragons, and evil spirits, all betokening the returning fears of the unenlightened mortal mind. And China, once at the head of human society because of an advanced religion, then fell behind because of temporary failure to progress in the true path of the development of that God-consciousness which is indispensable to the true progress, not only of the individual mortal, but also of the intricate and complex civilizations which characterize the advance of culture and society on an evolutionary planet of time and space.
7. 乔达摩•悉达多 ^top		7. Gautama Siddhartha ^top
94:7.1 (1035.1) 与中国老子和孔子同时代的另一位伟大真理导师出现在印度。乔达摩•悉达多出生在基督前六世纪印度北部的尼泊尔省。他的追随者后来令其看起来他是一个极其富有统治者的儿子，但事实上，他是一个小酋长王位的既定继承人，后者以容忍的方式统治着喜马拉雅山脉南麓一个小而闭塞的山谷。		94:7.1 (1035.1) Contemporary with Lao-tse and Confucius in China, another great teacher of truth arose in India. Gautama Siddhartha was born in the sixth century before Christ in the north Indian province of Nepal. His followers later made it appear that he was the son of a fabulously wealthy ruler, but, in truth, he was the heir apparent to the throne of a petty chieftain who ruled by sufferance over a small and secluded mountain valley in the southern Himalayas.
94:7.2 (1035.2) 在六年徒劳无功的瑜珈修行后，乔达摩创建出了那些后来发展为佛教哲学的理论。悉达多对不断发展的等级体系作了坚决但却徒劳的斗争。这位年轻的先知王子身上所具有的崇高诚挚和独特无私，极大地吸引着那些日子的人们。他贬低那种通过身体折磨和个人痛苦来寻求个体救赎的做法。他还劝诫其追随者们将其福音带到全世界。		94:7.2 (1035.2) Gautama formulated those theories which grew into the philosophy of Buddhism after six years of the futile practice of Yoga. Siddhartha made a determined but unavailing fight against the growing caste system. There was a lofty sincerity and a unique unselfishness about this young prophet prince that greatly appealed to the men of those days. He detracted from the practice of seeking individual salvation through physical affliction and personal pain. And he exhorted his followers to carry his gospel to all the world.
94:7.3 (1035.3) 在印度的混乱和极端宗教做法中间，乔达摩较为理智且较为中庸的教导如同一种清新的慰藉出现了。他声讨过诸神、祭司及其祭献，但他也未能感知到一体遍在者的人格。由于不相信个体人类灵魂的存在，乔达摩理所当然地对由来已久的灵魂转世信仰作了英勇的斗争。他做出了高尚的努力以将人类从恐惧中解救出来，让他们在巨大的宇宙中感到安心自在，但他未能指给他们通往天堂 -- 即扬升凡人那一真正无上家园的道路，以及通往永恒存在之不断扩展服务的道路。		94:7.3 (1035.3) Amid the confusion and extreme cult practices of India, the saner and more moderate teachings of Gautama came as a refreshing relief. He denounced gods, priests, and their sacrifices, but he too failed to perceive the personality of the One Universal. Not believing in the existence of individual human souls, Gautama, of course, made a valiant fight against the time-honored belief in transmigration of the soul. He made a noble effort to deliver men from fear, to make them feel at ease and at home in the great universe, but he failed to show them the pathway to that real and supernal home of ascending mortals—Paradise—and to the expanding service of eternal existence.
94:7.4 (1035.4) 乔达摩是一位真正的先知，假如他留意了隐士格达德的指引，他或许已然通过复兴因信得救的撒冷福音这一灵感而唤醒整个印度。格达德是通过一个从未遗失过麦基洗德教士传统的家族而得其所传的。		94:7.4 (1035.4) Gautama was a real prophet, and had he heeded the instruction of the hermit Godad, he might have aroused all India by the inspiration of the revival of the Salem gospel of salvation by faith. Godad was descended through a family that had never lost the traditions of the Melchizedek missionaries.
94:7.5 (1035.5) 乔达摩在贝那勒斯创建了他的学院，正是在其第二年，一个学生宝檀将撒冷传教士有关麦基洗德与亚伯拉罕订立圣约的传说告知了其导师；尽管乔达摩并没有一个有关万有之父的清晰概念，但他对因信得救还是采取了一种进步的立场 -- 即单纯的相信。他在其追随者面前就是如此宣称的，并开始将其学生以六十人一组的方式派出去向印度民众宣称“自由救赎的喜讯；即所有的人，不分贵贱，都可通过信仰公平正义而获得极乐。”		94:7.5 (1035.5) At Benares Gautama founded his school, and it was during its second year that a pupil, Bautan, imparted to his teacher the traditions of the Salem missionaries about the Melchizedek covenant with Abraham; and while Siddhartha did not have a very clear concept of the Universal Father, he took an advanced stand on salvation through faith—simple belief. He so declared himself before his followers and began sending his students out in groups of sixty to proclaim to the people of India “the glad tidings of free salvation; that all men, high and low, can attain bliss by faith in righteousness and justice.”
94:7.6 (1035.6) 乔达摩的妻子相信了她丈夫的福音，也是一个尼姑团体的创建者。他的儿子成了他的继承者，并极大地扩展了这一教派；他把握了这种因信得救的新观念，但在其后来岁月中对单靠信仰而获神恩的撒冷福音有所动摇，在其晚年他的遗言是，“争得你自己的救赎”。		94:7.6 (1035.6) Gautama’s wife believed her husband’s gospel and was the founder of an order of nuns. His son became his successor and greatly extended the cult; he grasped the new idea of salvation through faith but in his later years wavered regarding the Salem gospel of divine favor through faith alone, and in his old age his dying words were, “Work out your own salvation.”
94:7.7 (1036.1) 在获得宣扬的鼎盛期，乔达摩普遍救赎、没有祭献、苦行、仪式和祭司的福音对其时代而言是一种充满革新、惊世骇俗的教义，它出人意料的类似于一场撒冷福音的复兴。它给千百万无望的灵魂带来了救助，尽管在后来的多个世纪中它被无理地曲解了，但它仍作为千百万人的希望而存续了下来。		94:7.7 (1036.1) When proclaimed at its best, Gautama’s gospel of universal salvation, free from sacrifice, torture, ritual, and priests, was a revolutionary and amazing doctrine for its time. And it came surprisingly near to being a revival of the Salem gospel. It brought succor to millions of despairing souls, and notwithstanding its grotesque perversion during later centuries, it still persists as the hope of millions of human beings.
94:7.8 (1036.2) 乔达摩所教导的真理，要比具其名的现代教派中所幸存下来的真理远多出许多。现代佛教不再是乔达摩•悉达多的教导了，正如基督教不再是拿撒勒耶稣的教导了一样。		94:7.8 (1036.2) Siddhartha taught far more truth than has survived in the modern cults bearing his name. Modern Buddhism is no more the teachings of Gautama Siddhartha than is Christianity the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.
8. 佛教的信仰 ^top		8. The Buddhist Faith ^top
94:8.1 (1036.3) 要成为一名佛教徒，只需通过念诵皈依文：“我皈依佛陀；我皈依佛法；我皈依僧团。”来公开表达其信仰即可。		94:8.1 (1036.3) To become a Buddhist, one merely made public profession of the faith by reciting the Refuge: “I take my refuge in the Buddha; I take my refuge in the Doctrine; I take my refuge in the Brotherhood.”
94:8.2 (1036.4) 佛教源于一个历史人物，而非源于一个神话。乔达摩的追随者们称他为天人师，意为师父或导师。尽管他未对自身或其教导做出任何超人性的声称，但他的弟子们很早便开始称他为觉悟者，即佛陀；后来称为释迦牟尼佛。		94:8.2 (1036.4) Buddhism took origin in a historic person, not in a myth. Gautama’s followers called him Sasta, meaning master or teacher. While he made no superhuman claims for either himself or his teachings, his disciples early began to call him the enlightened one, the Buddha; later on, Sakyamuni Buddha.
94:8.3 (1036.5) 乔达摩的最初福音是基于四圣谛之上：		94:8.3 (1036.5) The original gospel of Gautama was based on the four noble truths:
94:8.4 (1036.6) 1. 苦圣谛。		94:8.4 (1036.6) 1. The noble truths of suffering.
94:8.5 (1036.7) 2. 苦集圣谛。		94:8.5 (1036.7) 2. The origins of suffering.
94:8.6 (1036.8) 3. 苦灭圣谛。		94:8.6 (1036.8) 3. The destruction of suffering.
94:8.7 (1036.9) 4. 苦灭道圣谛。		94:8.7 (1036.9) 4. The way to the destruction of suffering.
94:8.8 (1036.10) 由此与苦及解脱教义紧密相联的，是八正道的哲学：即正见、正思维、正语、正业、正命、正精进、正念和正定。乔达摩的意图并不是试图摧毁在逃脱苦难过程中的所有努力、愿望和情感；相反，他的教导旨在向凡人描绘要将所有希望和渴求全部系于世俗目标和物质目的上的无益性。不是说应当避免同胞之爱，而是说真正的信徒也应当看到该物质世界与永恒来世的关联以外。		94:8.8 (1036.10) Closely linked to the doctrine of suffering and the escape therefrom was the philosophy of the Eightfold Path: right views, aspirations, speech, conduct, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and contemplation. It was not Gautama’s intention to attempt to destroy all effort, desire, and affection in the escape from suffering; rather was his teaching designed to picture to mortal man the futility of pinning all hope and aspirations entirely on temporal goals and material objectives. It was not so much that love of one’s fellows should be shunned as that the true believer should also look beyond the associations of this material world to the realities of the eternal future.
94:8.9 (1036.11) 乔达摩教法的道德戒律有五条：		94:8.9 (1036.11) The moral commandments of Gautama’s preachment were five in number:
94:8.10 (1036.12) 1. 不杀生。		94:8.10 (1036.12) 1. You shall not kill.
94:8.11 (1036.13) 2. 不偷盗。		94:8.11 (1036.13) 2. You shall not steal.
94:8.12 (1036.14) 3. 不邪淫。		94:8.12 (1036.14) 3. You shall not be unchaste.
94:8.13 (1036.15) 4. 不妄语。		94:8.13 (1036.15) 4. You shall not lie.
94:8.14 (1036.16) 5. 不饮酒。		94:8.14 (1036.16) 5. You shall not drink intoxicating liquors.
94:8.15 (1036.17) 还有几条额外或是次要的戒律，它们的遵守对于信奉者而言则是可选的。		94:8.15 (1036.17) There were several additional or secondary commandments, whose observance was optional with believers.
94:8.16 (1036.18) 悉达多很难相信人类人格的不朽性；他的哲学仅考虑了一种功能上的延续性。他从未清晰定义过他本想要将什么包含在涅槃的教义中。从理论上来说，它在凡世生存期间可被体验到的事实会表明它并未被看作是一种彻底湮灭的状态。它意味一种充满无上开悟和超然极乐的状态，在这当中所有将人束缚到物质世界的桎梏都已被打破；有了对诸多凡世生活愿望的摆脱，以及对再次体验投生之全部危险的解脱。		94:8.16 (1036.18) Siddhartha hardly believed in the immortality of the human personality; his philosophy only provided for a sort of functional continuity. He never clearly defined what he meant to include in the doctrine of Nirvana. The fact that it could theoretically be experienced during mortal existence would indicate that it was not viewed as a state of complete annihilation. It implied a condition of supreme enlightenment and supernal bliss wherein all fetters binding man to the material world had been broken; there was freedom from the desires of mortal life and deliverance from all danger of ever again experiencing incarnation.
94:8.17 (1037.1) 根据乔达摩的原初教导，救赎要通过人类的努力而实现，而非靠神助；因信得救或是向超人力量祈祷也是没有位置的。乔达摩试图最大限度减少印度的迷信，努力让人们从魔法救赎的公然宣称中脱离出来。在作此努力的过程中，他为其继承者们大敞其门去错误阐释其教导、并去宣称所有冀有所成的人类奋斗都是可厌而可悲的。他的追随者们忽略了这样一个事实，即最崇高的幸福是与理智而热情地追求有价值的目标相互关联的，这样的成就才构成了出色自我实现方面的真正进展。		94:8.17 (1037.1) According to the original teachings of Gautama, salvation is achieved by human effort, apart from divine help; there is no place for saving faith or prayers to superhuman powers. Gautama, in his attempt to minimize the superstitions of India, endeavored to turn men away from the blatant claims of magical salvation. And in making this effort, he left the door wide open for his successors to misinterpret his teaching and to proclaim that all human striving for attainment is distasteful and painful. His followers overlooked the fact that the highest happiness is linked with the intelligent and enthusiastic pursuit of worthy goals, and that such achievements constitute true progress in cosmic self-realization.
94:8.18 (1037.2) 悉达多教导中的伟大真理，是他对一个绝对公平之宇宙的宣称。他教导了由凡人所创立的最佳无神论哲学；它是理想的人道主义，并极为有效地移除了迷信、魔法仪式以及对鬼魂或魔鬼恐惧的土壤。		94:8.18 (1037.2) The great truth of Siddhartha’s teaching was his proclamation of a universe of absolute justice. He taught the best godless philosophy ever invented by mortal man; it was the ideal humanism and most effectively removed all grounds for superstition, magical rituals, and fear of ghosts or demons.
94:8.19 (1037.3) 佛教原初福音中的一大弱点，是它并未产生一种充满无私社会服务的信仰。佛教僧团长久以来并不是一种信奉者们的友爱关系，而是由学生和老师形成的社团。乔达摩禁止他们收受钱财，并由此寻求去阻止等级趋势的发展。乔达摩自身是极为友善的；的确，他的生活要比他的说教更为伟大。		94:8.19 (1037.3) The great weakness in the original gospel of Buddhism was that it did not produce a religion of unselfish social service. The Buddhistic brotherhood was, for a long time, not a fraternity of believers but rather a community of student teachers. Gautama forbade their receiving money and thereby sought to prevent the growth of hierarchal tendencies. Gautama himself was highly social; indeed, his life was much greater than his preachment.
9. 佛教的传播 ^top		9. The Spread of Buddhism ^top
94:9.1 (1037.4) 佛教之所以昌盛过，是因为它通过信仰佛、即觉悟者而提供了救赎。它比任何其他一种在整个东亚所发现的宗教体系都更为代表了麦基洗德真理。但作为一种宗教，佛教直到它被低种姓的君主阿育王以自卫方式所信奉时才变得广为传播，后者仅次于埃及的阿肯那顿，是介于麦基洗德和迈克尔之间最为卓越的民众统治者之一。通过其佛教传教士的宣传，阿育王建立了一个伟大的印度帝国。在二十五年的时间里，他培训并派出了一万七千多名传教士前往整个已知世界的最边远地区。在一代人时间里，他使佛教成了半个世界中的主导宗教。它很快在西藏、克什米尔、锡兰、缅甸、爪哇、暹罗、高丽、中国和日本确立了起来。一般来说，它是一种大大优于那些它所取代和提升的宗教。		94:9.1 (1037.4) Buddhism prospered because it offered salvation through belief in the Buddha, the enlightened one. It was more representative of the Melchizedek truths than any other religious system to be found throughout eastern Asia. But Buddhism did not become widespread as a religion until it was espoused in self-protection by the low-caste monarch Asoka, who, next to Ikhnaton in Egypt, was one of the most remarkable civil rulers between Melchizedek and Michael. Asoka built a great Indian empire through the propaganda of his Buddhist missionaries. During a period of twenty-five years he trained and sent forth more than seventeen thousand missionaries to the farthest frontiers of all the known world. In one generation he made Buddhism the dominant religion of one half the world. It soon became established in Tibet, Kashmir, Ceylon, Burma, Java, Siam, Korea, China, and Japan. And generally speaking, it was a religion vastly superior to those which it supplanted or upstepped.
94:9.2 (1037.5) 佛教从其印度家园向整个亚洲的传播，是有关忠诚信徒灵性奉献和传教不懈的动人故事之一。乔达摩福音的导师们在从事其跨越亚洲大陆的使命、将其信仰的讯息带给所有民族时，不仅要勇敢面对陆上商队路线的风险，也要面对中国海上的危险。但这一佛教不再是简单的乔达摩教义了；它成了被奇迹化的福音，使他成了一个神。佛教从其印度高地家园传播得越远，它也就越加变得不像乔达摩的教导了，它逐渐变得更像它所取代的宗教了。		94:9.2 (1037.5) The spread of Buddhism from its homeland in India to all of Asia is one of the thrilling stories of the spiritual devotion and missionary persistence of sincere religionists. The teachers of Gautama’s gospel not only braved the perils of the overland caravan routes but faced the dangers of the China Seas as they pursued their mission over the Asiatic continent, bringing to all peoples the message of their faith. But this Buddhism was no longer the simple doctrine of Gautama; it was the miraculized gospel which made him a god. And the farther Buddhism spread from its highland home in India, the more unlike the teachings of Gautama it became, and the more like the religions it supplanted, it grew to be.
94:9.3 (1038.1) 后来，佛教被中国的道教、日本的神道教以及西藏的基督教所大大影响了。一千年以后，佛教在印度完全凋萎并彻底消亡了。它变得婆罗门化，并在后来卑微地臣服于伊斯兰教。而在东方的大多其他地区，它退化成了一种乔达摩•悉达多再也无法认得的仪式。		94:9.3 (1038.1) Buddhism, later on, was much affected by Taoism in China, Shinto in Japan, and Christianity in Tibet. After a thousand years, in India Buddhism simply withered and expired. It became Brahmanized and later abjectly surrendered to Islam, while throughout much of the rest of the Orient it degenerated into a ritual which Gautama Siddhartha would never have recognized.
94:9.4 (1038.2) 在南部，原教旨主义形式的悉达多教导存续于锡兰、缅甸和印度支那半岛。这便是佛教的小乘部派，它秉持早期自利的教义。		94:9.4 (1038.2) In the south the fundamentalist stereotype of the teachings of Siddhartha persisted in Ceylon, Burma, and the Indo-China peninsula. This is the Hinayana division of Buddhism which clings to the early or asocial doctrine.
94:9.5 (1038.3) 不过即便在印度解体以前，中国和印度北部的乔达摩追随者团体就已开始了大乘佛教的发展，即与南部秉持小乘或是“小道”之追求相对比的解脱“大道”。这些大乘教徒从佛教教义固有的社会限制中脱离出来，自那以后这一北传部派便继续在中国和日本发展开来。		94:9.5 (1038.3) But even before the collapse in India, the Chinese and north Indian groups of Gautama’s followers had begun the development of the Mahayana teaching of the “Great Road” to salvation in contrast with the purists of the south who held to the Hinayana, or “Lesser Road.” And these Mahayanists cast loose from the social limitations inherent in the Buddhist doctrine, and ever since has this northern division of Buddhism continued to evolve in China and Japan.
94:9.6 (1038.4) 佛教今日是一个充满活力、不断发展的宗教，因为它成功保留了其信徒的许多最高道德价值。它提倡心静和自持，增加安定和幸福，大为防止悲伤和哀痛。相信这一哲学的那些人，要比许多不相信之人过着更好的生活。		94:9.6 (1038.4) Buddhism is a living, growing religion today because it succeeds in conserving many of the highest moral values of its adherents. It promotes calmness and self-control, augments serenity and happiness, and does much to prevent sorrow and mourning. Those who believe this philosophy live better lives than many who do not.
10. 西藏的宗教 ^top		10. Religion in Tibet ^top
94:10.1 (1038.5) 在西藏可以找到麦基洗德教导与佛教、印度教、道教和基督教相结合而产生的最怪异组合。当佛教传教士们进入西藏时，他们遇到了一种非常类似于早期基督教传教士在欧洲北部部落中间所发现的原始野蛮状态。		94:10.1 (1038.5) In Tibet may be found the strangest association of the Melchizedek teachings combined with Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, and Christianity. When the Buddhist missionaries entered Tibet, they encountered a state of primitive savagery very similar to that which the early Christian missionaries found among the northern tribes of Europe.
94:10.2 (1038.6) 这些心智简单的西藏人不愿完全放弃他们古老的魔法和护符。对当今藏传礼仪中宗教典礼的检视，展现了一个过分发展的光头僧团，他们施行一种精细的仪式，包括钟铃、唱诵、烧香、行进、念经、雕像、护符、图画、圣水、袈裟和细唱。他们拥有严格的教条、成形的教义、神秘的礼仪和特殊的斋戒。他们的阶层包括僧侣、尼姑、方丈和大（达赖）喇嘛。他们向天使、圣徒、圣母和诸神祈祷。他们施行忏悔并相信炼狱。他们的寺院广布，僧堂壮丽。他们保持了一种对神圣仪式的重复，并相信这些典礼会赐予救赎。祈祷文被系缚到转轮上，他们相信随其转动，祈求会变得灵验。在现代时期的民族中间，再没有发现其他民族能去遵守如此多宗教的内容了；不可避免的是，这种累积起来的祷告仪式会变得过于繁琐、极为烦累。		94:10.2 (1038.6) These simple-minded Tibetans would not wholly give up their ancient magic and charms. Examination of the religious ceremonials of present-day Tibetan rituals reveals an overgrown brotherhood of priests with shaven heads who practice an elaborate ritual embracing bells, chants, incense, processionals, rosaries, images, charms, pictures, holy water, gorgeous vestments, and elaborate choirs. They have rigid dogmas and crystallized creeds, mystic rites and special fasts. Their hierarchy embraces monks, nuns, abbots, and the Grand Lama. They pray to angels, saints, a Holy Mother, and the gods. They practice confessions and believe in purgatory. Their monasteries are extensive and their cathedrals magnificent. They keep up an endless repetition of sacred rituals and believe that such ceremonials bestow salvation. Prayers are fastened to a wheel, and with its turning they believe the petitions become efficacious. Among no other people of modern times can be found the observance of so much from so many religions; and it is inevitable that such a cumulative liturgy would become inordinately cumbersome and intolerably burdensome.
94:10.3 (1038.7) 藏人拥有了所有主导性世界宗教的一些内容，除了耶稣教福音的一些简单教导以外：即与神的子民关系，与人的兄弟关系，以及在永恒宇宙中不断上升的公民地位。		94:10.3 (1038.7) The Tibetans have something of all the leading world religions except the simple teachings of the Jesusonian gospel: sonship with God, brotherhood with man, and ever-ascending citizenship in the eternal universe.
11. 佛教哲学 ^top		11. Buddhist Philosophy ^top
94:11.1 (1038.8) 佛教在基督后第一个千年里进入中国，它很好地适应了黄种人的宗教习俗。在祖先崇拜中，他们已长期地向死者祈祷；此时他们也可以为死者祈祷。佛教很快便与逐渐解体之道教的残存礼仪习俗相合并了。这一伴随其礼拜寺庙和明确宗教仪式的新合成性宗教，很快便成了中国、高丽和日本民众广为接受的教派。		94:11.1 (1038.8) Buddhism entered China in the first millennium after Christ, and it fitted well into the religious customs of the yellow race. In ancestor worship they had long prayed to the dead; now they could also pray for them. Buddhism soon amalgamated with the lingering ritualistic practices of disintegrating Taoism. This new synthetic religion with its temples of worship and definite religious ceremonial soon became the generally accepted cult of the peoples of China, Korea, and Japan.
94:11.2 (1039.1) 直到乔达摩的追随者们为了将他塑造成一个神性存有而歪曲了该教的诸多传统和教导之后，佛教才被传到全世界的。尽管从某些方面来说这是很不幸的，但他人世生活的这一神话，正如被大批奇迹所装点的那样，对于北传大乘佛教福音的听众们来说却证明了是极具吸引力的。		94:11.2 (1039.1) While in some respects it is unfortunate that Buddhism was not carried to the world until after Gautama’s followers had so perverted the traditions and teachings of the cult as to make of him a divine being, nonetheless this myth of his human life, embellished as it was with a multitude of miracles, proved very appealing to the auditors of the northern or Mahayana gospel of Buddhism.
94:11.3 (1039.2) 他后来的一些追随者教导，释迦牟尼佛之灵会定期作为一个活佛而重返世间，由此为佛像、寺庙、仪式及假冒 “活佛”的无限长存开辟了道路。由此这一伟大印度抗议者的宗教，最终发现自身却被他所无畏反抗过的、他所英勇声讨过的那些典礼做法和仪式咒语束缚住了。		94:11.3 (1039.2) Some of his later followers taught that Sakyamuni Buddha’s spirit returned periodically to earth as a living Buddha, thus opening the way for an indefinite perpetuation of Buddha images, temples, rituals, and impostor “living Buddhas.” Thus did the religion of the great Indian protestant eventually find itself shackled with those very ceremonial practices and ritualistic incantations against which he had so fearlessly fought, and which he had so valiantly denounced.
94:11.4 (1039.3) 佛教哲学中所取得的伟大进步，在于它对一切真理之相对性的理解。通过这一假设性机制，佛教徒们能够调和并关联其自身宗教典籍中的分歧，以及其自身与许多其他宗教典籍中间的差异。曾被教导过的是，小智得小真，大智得大真。		94:11.4 (1039.3) The great advance made in Buddhist philosophy consisted in its comprehension of the relativity of all truth. Through the mechanism of this hypothesis Buddhists have been able to reconcile and correlate the divergencies within their own religious scriptures as well as the differences between their own and many others. It was taught that the small truth was for little minds, the large truth for great minds.
94:11.5 (1039.4) 该哲学也认为佛（神）性驻于所有人身中；人通过自身努力，可以达到对该内在神性的实现。而这一教导是由一个玉苒厦的(Urantian)宗教所曾做过的有关内驻调整者真理的最为清晰陈述之一。		94:11.5 (1039.4) This philosophy also held that the Buddha (divine) nature resided in all men; that man, through his own endeavors, could attain to the realization of this inner divinity. And this teaching is one of the clearest presentations of the truth of the indwelling Adjusters ever to be made by a Urantian religion.
94:11.6 (1039.5) 但悉达多原初福音的一大局限，正如其追随者们所阐释的那样，即它通过将自我与客观现实相隔离的手段来尝试将人类自我从所有凡俗性局限中彻底解脱。真正出色的自我实现来自与宇宙实相之同一，以及与能量、心智和灵性所组成的、受时空所限的有限宇宙之同一。		94:11.6 (1039.5) But a great limitation in the original gospel of Siddhartha, as it was interpreted by his followers, was that it attempted the complete liberation of the human self from all the limitations of the mortal nature by the technique of isolating the self from objective reality. True cosmic self-realization results from identification with cosmic reality and with the finite cosmos of energy, mind, and spirit, bounded by space and conditioned by time.
94:11.7 (1039.6) 不过，尽管佛教的仪式和外在教规被那些它所经过的地域极大玷污了，这种退化却并非完全如此出现在那些不时接纳了这一思想信仰体系的伟大思想家们的哲学生活中。在两千多年里，亚洲许多最优秀的智者都专注于探明绝对真理和绝对者真理的问题。		94:11.7 (1039.6) But though the ceremonies and outward observances of Buddhism became grossly contaminated with those of the lands to which it traveled, this degeneration was not altogether the case in the philosophical life of the great thinkers who, from time to time, embraced this system of thought and belief. Through more than two thousand years, many of the best minds of Asia have concentrated upon the problem of ascertaining absolute truth and the truth of the Absolute.
94:11.8 (1039.7) 绝对者（如来）这一高等概念的演进，是通过多种渠道的思考和迂回曲折的推理而达到的。对这一充满无限性教义的往上提升，并不如希伯来神学中神之概念的演变那样清晰明确。尽管如此，佛教的智者们在其预想诸宇宙之最初源头的道路上也曾达到过、停留过并穿越过某些宽广的层次：		94:11.8 (1039.7) The evolution of a high concept of the Absolute was achieved through many channels of thought and by devious paths of reasoning. The upward ascent of this doctrine of infinity was not so clearly defined as was the evolution of the God concept in Hebrew theology. Nevertheless, there were certain broad levels which the minds of the Buddhists reached, tarried upon, and passed through on their way to the envisioning of the Primal Source of universes:
94:11.9 (1039.8) 1. 乔达摩传奇。这一概念的基础是有关印度先知王子悉达多的生平史实及教义。随着这一传奇穿越诸多世纪以及亚洲广阔的土地，直至它超越了乔达摩作为觉悟者这一观念地位而开始具有诸多额外属性，它变成了神话。		94:11.9 (1039.8) 1. The Gautama legend. At the base of the concept was the historic fact of the life and teachings of Siddhartha, the prophet prince of India. This legend grew in myth as it traveled through the centuries and across the broad lands of Asia until it surpassed the status of the idea of Gautama as the enlightened one and began to take on additional attributes.
94:11.10 (1040.1) 2. 诸佛。依据推理，如果乔达摩来到了印度民众中间，那么在遥远之过去和遥远之未来，人类各族必定已经、并无疑将会被赐予其他真理之师。这导致了以下的教导，即有许多佛，数目无量无边，甚至任何人都可以追求成佛 -- 即获得佛的神性。		94:11.10 (1040.1) 2. The many Buddhas. It was reasoned that, if Gautama had come to the peoples of India, then, in the remote past and in the remote future, the races of mankind must have been, and undoubtedly would be, blessed with other teachers of truth. This gave rise to the teaching that there were many Buddhas, an unlimited and infinite number, even that anyone could aspire to become one—to attain the divinity of a Buddha.
94:11.11 (1040.2) 3. 绝对（如来）佛。到佛的数目逐渐接近无限之时，对于那些日子的智者们来说，重新统一这个难以处理的概念便变得有必要了。相应地，开始得以教导的是，所有佛不过是某个更高本体、某个具有无限和无条件存在的永恒者、诸相的某个绝对之源的显现。从此往后，佛教最高形式的神灵概念变得脱离了以乔达摩•悉达多的人类人格，摆脱了将其束缚住的拟人化限制。这一永恒佛的最终概念，可被很好地认同为绝对者（如来），有时甚至被认同为无限的我是。		94:11.11 (1040.2) 3. The Absolute Buddha. By the time the number of Buddhas was approaching infinity, it became necessary for the minds of those days to reunify this unwieldy concept. Accordingly it began to be taught that all Buddhas were but the manifestation of some higher essence, some Eternal One of infinite and unqualified existence, some Absolute Source of all reality. From here on, the Deity concept of Buddhism, in its highest form, becomes divorced from the human person of Gautama Siddhartha and casts off from the anthropomorphic limitations which have held it in leash. This final conception of the Buddha Eternal can well be identified as the Absolute, sometimes even as the infinite I AM.
94:11.12 (1040.3) 尽管这一绝对神灵的观念从未赢得亚洲各民族的极大喜爱，但它却确实使得这些地域的智者们统一了他们的哲学，调和了他们的宇宙论。绝对（如来）佛的概念有是半人格性的，有时则是完全非人格性的 -- 甚至是一种无限的创造力。这些概念尽管对哲学是有益的，但对宗教发展来说却并不是至关重要的。即便是一个拟人化的雅威，也要比佛教或是婆罗门教中一个无限遥远的绝对者具有更大宗教价值。		94:11.12 (1040.3) While this idea of Absolute Deity never found great popular favor with the peoples of Asia, it did enable the intellectuals of these lands to unify their philosophy and to harmonize their cosmology. The concept of the Buddha Absolute is at times quasi-personal, at times wholly impersonal—even an infinite creative force. Such concepts, though helpful to philosophy, are not vital to religious development. Even an anthropomorphic Yahweh is of greater religious value than an infinitely remote Absolute of Buddhism or Brahmanism.
94:11.13 (1040.4) 有时绝对者（如来）甚至被认为是包含在无限我是之中。不过这些推测对于渴望听到许诺话语、听到简单撒冷福音（信神将会确保神恩和永生）的饥渴民众来说， 却是令人失望的慰藉。		94:11.13 (1040.4) At times the Absolute was even thought of as contained within the infinite I AM. But these speculations were chill comfort to the hungry multitudes who craved to hear words of promise, to hear the simple gospel of Salem, that faith in God would assure divine favor and eternal survival.
12. 佛教的神概念 ^top		12. The God Concept of Buddhism ^top
94:12.1 (1040.5) 佛教宇宙论的巨大不足有两方面：它被印度和中国的许多迷信所玷污了，以及它对乔达摩最初作为觉悟者和后来作为永恒佛的升华。正如基督教遭受了对很多错误人类哲学的吸收一样，佛教也带有其人类的胎记。不过在过去的两千五百年间，乔达摩的教导不断演进。对于一个觉悟了的佛教徒而言，佛的概念不再是乔达摩的人类人格，正如对一个觉悟了的基督徒而言，耶和华的概念不再被认为是何烈山的恶灵一样。术语的贫乏，加上古时命名法中的情感保留，对于理解宗教概念演变之真正要义来说时常会引发失败。		94:12.1 (1040.5) The great weakness in the cosmology of Buddhism was twofold: its contamination with many of the superstitions of India and China and its sublimation of Gautama, first as the enlightened one, and then as the Eternal Buddha. Just as Christianity has suffered from the absorption of much erroneous human philosophy, so does Buddhism bear its human birthmark. But the teachings of Gautama have continued to evolve during the past two and one-half millenniums. The concept of Buddha, to an enlightened Buddhist, is no more the human personality of Gautama than the concept of Jehovah is identical with the spirit demon of Horeb to an enlightened Christian. Paucity of terminology, together with the sentimental retention of olden nomenclature, is often provocative of the failure to understand the true significance of the evolution of religious concepts.
94:12.2 (1040.6) 作为与绝对者（如来）相对比的神之概念逐渐开始出现在佛教中。其来源可以追溯到早期小乘和大乘追随者的这种分化。正是在佛教的后来分化中间，有关神与绝对者（如来）的双重概念最终成熟了。神的概念逐步地，逐个世纪地演变，直至伴随日本良忍、法然上人和亲鸾的教导，这一概念才最终开花结果而形成了对阿弥陀佛的信仰。		94:12.2 (1040.6) Gradually the concept of God, as contrasted with the Absolute, began to appear in Buddhism. Its sources are back in the early days of this differentiation of the followers of the Lesser Road and the Greater Road. It was among the latter division of Buddhism that the dual conception of God and the Absolute finally matured. Step by step, century by century, the God concept has evolved until, with the teachings of Ryonin, Honen Shonin, and Shinran in Japan, this concept finally came to fruit in the belief in Amida Buddha.
94:12.3 (1041.1) 在这些信奉者中间受到教导的是，灵魂在经历死亡之际，可以选择在进入终极存在即涅槃之前享受在极乐世界逗留。据宣称，这一新的救赎，是通过信仰西方极乐世界之神阿弥陀佛的神性慈悲和爱心照顾而获得的。在他们的哲学中，阿弥陀佛教徒信守一种超越了一切有限凡俗理解之外的无限实相；在他们的宗教中，他们秉持对大慈大悲阿弥陀的信仰，他如此关爱这个世界，以致不会让一个怀着真正信仰和纯洁心灵呼唤其名号的凡人受苦，不会让其无法达至充满无上喜乐的极乐世界。		94:12.3 (1041.1) Among these believers it is taught that the soul, upon experiencing death, may elect to enjoy a sojourn in Paradise prior to entering Nirvana, the ultimate of existence. It is proclaimed that this new salvation is attained by faith in the divine mercies and loving care of Amida, God of the Paradise in the west. In their philosophy, the Amidists hold to an Infinite Reality which is beyond all finite mortal comprehension; in their religion, they cling to faith in the all-merciful Amida, who so loves the world that he will not suffer one mortal who calls on his name in true faith and with a pure heart to fail in the attainment of the supernal happiness of Paradise.
94:12.4 (1041.2) 佛教的伟大力量在于它的信徒可以从所有宗教中自由选择真理；这种选择的自由是玉苒厦(Urantia)信仰鲜有的典型特征。在这一方面，日本的神道教成了世界上最为进步的宗教团体之一；它复兴了乔达摩追随者古老的传教士精神，并开始派导师前往其它民族。这种从所有一切来源撷取真理的意愿，在基督后二十世纪前半叶的宗教信奉者中间出现，的确是一种值得称赞的趋势。		94:12.4 (1041.2) The great strength of Buddhism is that its adherents are free to choose truth from all religions; such freedom of choice has seldom characterized a Urantian faith. In this respect the Shin sect of Japan has become one of the most progressive religious groups in the world; it has revived the ancient missionary spirit of Gautama’s followers and has begun to send teachers to other peoples. This willingness to appropriate truth from any and all sources is indeed a commendable tendency to appear among religious believers during the first half of the twentieth century after Christ.
94:12.5 (1041.3) 佛教本身正在经历着二十世纪的复兴。通过与基督教相接触，佛教的社会层面得到了极大的增强。学习的渴望已在僧团的僧侣们心中重新燃起，对这一信仰的教育普及无疑将会在宗教演进方面引起新的进步。		94:12.5 (1041.3) Buddhism itself is undergoing a twentieth-century renaissance. Through contact with Christianity the social aspects of Buddhism have been greatly enhanced. The desire to learn has been rekindled in the hearts of the monk priests of the brotherhood, and the spread of education throughout this faith will be certainly provocative of new advances in religious evolution.
94:12.6 (1041.4) 在撰写本文之时，亚洲大部都将其希望寄于佛教。这一在过去黑暗时代中英勇持续下来的高尚信仰，能否会再次接受有关得以扩展的宇宙实相之真理，就像这位伟大印度导师的弟子们曾聆听他对新真理的宣讲那样？这一古老信仰能否会再次响应它所长久探寻的有关神与绝对者（如来）这些新概念的鼓舞激励？		94:12.6 (1041.4) At the time of this writing, much of Asia rests its hope in Buddhism. Will this noble faith, that has so valiantly carried on through the dark ages of the past, once again receive the truth of expanded cosmic realities even as the disciples of the great teacher in India once listened to his proclamation of new truth? Will this ancient faith respond once more to the invigorating stimulus of the presentation of new concepts of God and the Absolute for which it has so long searched?
94:12.7 (1041.5) 整个玉苒厦(Urantia)都在等待着有关迈克尔之励人向上讯息的宣布，这一宣布不会被十九个世纪以来与各个进化性来源宗教相接触所累积起来的教义和教条所拖累。将耶稣福音之鲜活灵性实相、而非有关耶稣的福音呈献给佛教、基督教、印度教乃至所有拥有信仰之民族的时刻就要到来了。		94:12.7 (1041.5) All Urantia is waiting for the proclamation of the ennobling message of Michael, unencumbered by the accumulated doctrines and dogmas of nineteen centuries of contact with the religions of evolutionary origin. The hour is striking for presenting to Buddhism, to Christianity, to Hinduism, even to the peoples of all faiths, not the gospel about Jesus, but the living, spiritual reality of the gospel of Jesus.
94:12.8 (1041.6) [由内巴顿(Nebadon)的一位麦基洗德所呈献。]		94:12.8 (1041.6) [Presented by a Melchizedek of Nebadon.]