5月19日

諸相非相
東晉 鳩摩羅什 譯 ( 344~413 )

凡所有相皆是虛妄，
若見諸相非相，即見如來。

──選自《金剛經》

【案】一對新婚夫妻，原本感情和睦。為了慶祝結婚
周年，先生請太太到地窖取酒，太太打開酒缸時，猛然
大驚，發現先生竟在酒缸裡藏了美女。她氣呼呼地責備
先生：「怎麼酒缸中藏著女人？」先生否認，親自跑去檢查
看見藏在酒缸裡的其實是個男人！於是兩人爆發衝突，
吵的不可開交，只好找來師父評理。師父瞭解原委後，
拿起石頭將酒缸打破，酒缸一破，酒水傾瀉而出，剎時
裡面的男人、女人都沒有了。

所以說：「凡所有相皆是虛妄。」生活中，如果我們
時常執取假相，執幻為真，自然煩惱叢生。《金剛經》
主要講述「空」的思想，「空」是正見，是緣起，能讓
我們看見真相，不被眼瞞。

May 19

All Marks as No Marks
Translated into Chinese by Kumarajiva (344 - 413, Eastern Jin Dynasty)
English translation: You Zai and Siew-Hsiang Chow

All with marks are false and empty.
If one sees all marks as no marks
Then one sees the Tathagata.

── from Vajracchedika Prajnaparamita Sutra (Diamond Sutra)

PARABLE: A newly-wed couple originally lived in harmony.
To celebrate their anniversary, the husband asked his wife to get some
wine from the cellar. But when the wife opened the wine jar, she was
shocked to find a beautiful lady her husband hid inside the jar.

She angrily asked her husband, “Why is there a woman hidden in the
jar?” Her husband denied such a statement and went to examine the jar
himself, but instead saw a man hidden in the jar! As a result, the couple
had an unresolvable dispute that they finally decided to ask a Venerable
to be the judge.

After understanding the entire incident, the Venerable shattered the
jar with a stone. The wine bursted forth and both the woman and man
inside were gone.

Hence, it is said that “all with marks are false and empty.” In daily
life, afflictions arise when we are attached to form and take delusions
to be real. The Diamond Sutra is mainly a discussion on “emptiness.”
Emptiness is Right View, Dependent Origination, and can help us to
realize the Truth without being kept in the dark.