Compassion and the Bodhisattva Path 慈悲與菩薩道

D19 Dharma and the West · 佛法與西方哲學Ethics and Practice · 倫理與修行Advanced · 高級about 30 min

慈悲

mettā, karuṇā Pāli　maitrī, karuṇā Sanskritloving-kindness and compassion

The verdict · 判定

Closest: Schopenhauer, who made compassion the sole basis of morality and explained it by the unreality of the wall between self and other. Singer shares the scope and the demand. The likeness to Schopenhauer ends at his metaphysics of one Will, at his lack of any method, and at the pairing of compassion with wisdom that the bodhisattva path requires.

最接近的是叔本華；他把悲當作道德唯一的基礎，並且用「自他之間那道牆並不真實」來解釋它。辛格共有的是範圍與要求。跟叔本華的相似，到三個地方為止：他那套「唯一意志」的形上學、他沒有任何方法，以及菩薩道所要求的悲智雙運。

中文翻譯Every paragraph has a Chinese translation. Tap 中譯▾ under a paragraph to open that one, or use Show Chinese · 顯示中譯 at the top to open them all. 每一段都有中譯：點段落下方的「中譯」只開那一段，或按上方的「顯示中譯」一次全部打開。

1 · What the Dharma says · 佛法怎麼說

A boundless heart 無量的心

The early discourses describe four states of mind that they call divine abidings or immeasurables: loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity. Loving-kindness is the wish that beings be happy, and compassion the wish that they be free of suffering. The practitioner is to spread each in turn in every direction: “above, below, across, everywhere, all around, they spread a heart full of love to the whole world—abundant, expansive, limitless, free of enmity and ill will” (Dīgha Nikāya 13). The Discourse on Love gives the measure: “Even as a mother would protect with her life her child, her only child, so too for all creatures unfold a boundless heart.” Three features stand out. The object is all beings, animals included. The state is to be cultivated, as a skill is. And it comes in a set of four, in which equanimity steadies the other three.

早期經典描述了四種心境，稱之為「梵住」或「無量心」：慈、悲、喜、捨。慈是願眾生安樂；悲是願眾生離苦。修行者要把每一種依次向每一個方向遍布出去：「上、下、橫、遍一切處，以充滿慈的心遍滿整個世界，廣大、無量、無怨、無瞋」（《長部》13）。〈慈經〉給了它的尺度：「就像一位母親用生命保護她的孩子、她唯一的孩子，對一切眾生也要這樣展開無量的心。」有三個特徵很突出。對象是一切眾生，連動物在內。這種心境是要「修」出來的，像修一門技能。而且它是四個一組；其中「捨」穩住了其餘三個。

The Mahāyāna made compassion the center of the whole path. Its ideal is the bodhisattva, who seeks awakening in order to free others and takes a vow that the Chinese tradition puts in four lines beginning: “Sentient beings are numberless; I vow to free them.” The Vimalakīrti Sūtra gives the ideal its most famous sentence. The layman Vimalakīrti is ill, and when asked the cause he replies: “Because all sentient beings are ill, I am ill. When the illness of all sentient beings is ended, my illness will be ended.” It is like parents with an only son, he says: when the son falls ill, the parents fall ill.

大乘把悲放在了整條道路的中心。它的理想是菩薩：為了度脫他人而求覺悟，並且發一個誓願；中國的傳統把它寫成四句，第一句是：「眾生無邊誓願度。」《維摩詰經》給了這個理想最著名的一句話。居士維摩詰病了；被問到病因時，他回答：「以一切眾生病，是故我病；若一切眾生病滅，則我病滅。」他說，這就像只有一個兒子的父母：兒子病了，父母也跟著病。

The same texts insist that compassion without wisdom is incomplete and can be harmful. A helper who believes that there is a solid “I” rescuing a solid “them” will be proud when he succeeds, crushed when he fails, and attached to those he helps. The bodhisattva is to act with full commitment while seeing that giver, gift, and receiver are all empty of fixed nature. Compassion and wisdom are compared to the two wings of a bird.

同樣這些經典堅持：沒有智慧的悲是不完整的，而且可能有害。一位相信「有一個堅實的『我』在拯救堅實的『他們』」的助人者，成功時會驕傲，失敗時會被壓垮，並且會執著於自己所幫助的人。菩薩要全心投入地去做，同時看出施者、所施之物與受者，都空無固定的自性。悲與智，被比作鳥的雙翼。

2 · In standard form · 寫成標準形式

Śāntideva’s argument from the absence of a self 寂天由無我出發的論證

3 · The nearest Western views · 西方最接近的說法

Three philosophers on feeling for others 三位談「對他人的感受」的哲學家

The same foundation · 同樣的地基

Arthur Schopenhauer 叔本華1840

Schopenhauer wrote a prize essay arguing that compassion is the only source of actions with moral worth. Self-interest explains most of what we do. Now and then a person acts purely to relieve another’s suffering, and in that moment, he says, the difference between myself and the other “is no longer an absolute one.” He calls this “the great mystery of Ethics.” His explanation is metaphysical. Individuals are separate only as appearances, and in reality all are one. The compassionate person has seen through the separation without knowing it. He found his view confirmed in the Indian texts then reaching Europe, kept a statue of the Buddha in his study, and was the first major Western philosopher to call himself a Buddhist in sympathy.

叔本華寫了一篇應徵論文，論證悲是具有道德價值的行為的唯一來源。自利解釋了我們所做的大部分事情。偶爾，一個人純粹為了解除別人的苦而行動；他說，在那一刻，我與對方之間的差別「不再是絕對的」。他把這稱為「倫理學的大奧祕」。他的解釋是形上學的。個體只是作為「表象」才彼此分離；在實在裡，一切是一。有悲心的人不自覺地看穿了這個分離。他發現，當時正傳到歐洲的印度文獻印證了他的看法；他在書房裡擺了一尊佛像，並且是第一位自稱同情佛教的重要西方哲學家。

The same reach and demand · 同樣的範圍與要求

Peter Singer 辛格1972

Singer shares the bodhisattva’s scope. His principle extends to every being that can suffer, which has made him the leading philosophical advocate for animals, and it sets no limit of distance. He shares the demand as well: the argument of the pond, followed through, asks for a life given largely to the relief of others. What differs is the engine. Singer’s is argument. He does not ask anyone to feel more, and he is wary of feeling, since sympathy is partial and easily misled. He asks people to act on a principle they already accept. The Buddhist tradition agrees that the scope is everyone and holds that an argument alone will not carry a person there.

辛格共有菩薩的範圍。他的原則延伸到每一個會受苦的存在者（這使他成為在哲學上為動物發聲最主要的人），而且不設距離的限度。他也共有那份要求：池塘的論證，貫徹到底，要的是一個大半用來解除他人苦難的人生。不同的是引擎。辛格的引擎是論證。他並不要求任何人感受得更多；他對感受是有戒心的，因為同情是偏私的，而且容易被誤導。他要人們照著一條自己本來就接受的原則去做。佛教的傳統同意範圍是每一個；卻主張，單靠一個論證，載不動一個人走到那裡。

The opposing view · 對立的看法

Friedrich Nietzsche 尼采1887

Nietzsche began as Schopenhauer’s disciple and became the sharpest critic of the morality of compassion. Pity, he argued, doubles the suffering in the world, since the one who pities now suffers too. It is often a hidden form of contempt, which enjoys the other’s weakness and its own superiority. And a culture that makes pity its highest value teaches people to regard suffering as the worst thing, when strength and greatness have always been formed by it. He named Buddhism, with respect, as the most consistent religion of the weary. A Buddhist reader will find that much of his attack lands on something the tradition also rejects. It distinguishes compassion from the grief that drags the helper down and from the pride of the rescuer, and calls these its near enemies.

尼采起初是叔本華的門徒，後來成了「悲憫的道德」最犀利的批評者。他論證：憐憫使世界上的苦加倍，因為憐憫的人現在也在受苦了。它往往是輕蔑的一種隱蔽形式，享受著對方的軟弱與自己的優越。而一個把憐憫當作最高價值的文化，教人把苦當成最壞的東西；然而力量與偉大，向來就是由苦塑造出來的。他帶著敬意，點名佛教是「疲憊者」最前後一致的宗教。佛教的讀者會發現，他的攻擊有很大一部分，打中的是這個傳統同樣拒絕的東西。這個傳統把悲，跟「把助人者拖下水的憂傷」以及「施救者的驕傲」區分開來，並且把後兩者稱為悲的「近敵」。

4 · Verdict · 判定

Who is closest, and where the likeness ends 誰最接近，相似到哪裡為止

Schopenhauer is the closest. He alone among the major Western philosophers makes compassion the foundation of ethics, extends it to animals, and grounds it in the claim that the boundary between self and other is not finally real. Singer shares the range and the seriousness and replaces the feeling with a principle. Mozi and Mencius, met in the companion lesson, divide the Buddhist position between them: Mozi has its scope and Mencius its account of how care grows.

叔本華最接近。在重要的西方哲學家當中，只有他把悲當作倫理學的地基，把它延伸到動物，並且把它奠基在「自他之間的界線終究不是真實的」這個主張上。辛格共有那個範圍與那份認真，卻用一條原則取代了那份感受。姊妹課裡遇到的墨子與孟子，把佛教的立場一人分走了一半：墨子有它的範圍，孟子有它對「關懷怎麼生長」的說明。

The likeness to Schopenhauer ends at four places. First, the metaphysics. He says that all beings are one Will, which is the Upanishadic teaching of a single self. The Buddhist ground is the opposite: there is no self in anyone, and the boundary fails because neither side of it is a solid thing. Second, the method. For Schopenhauer compassion is a mystery that happens to some people. He thought character fixed for life, and his own was famously quarrelsome. The Buddhist tradition treats compassion as a capacity that practice enlarges, and gives the practices. Third, the company it keeps. Schopenhauer’s compassion stands alone and is steeped in pessimism. Buddhist compassion is one of four immeasurables, joined to gladness at others’ good fortune and steadied by equanimity, and it is paired with wisdom. Fourth, the aim. Schopenhauer’s compassionate person relieves suffering and finally turns away from the world. The bodhisattva turns toward it, and aims at the liberation of beings and not only their relief.

跟叔本華的相似，在四個地方到了盡頭。第一，形上學。他說一切存在者是同一個「意志」；那是奧義書「唯一大我」的教導。佛教的根據正好相反：任何人裡面都沒有我；那條界線之所以不成立，是因為它的兩邊都不是堅實的東西。第二，方法。對叔本華來說，悲是一個發生在某些人身上的奧祕。他認為品格終身不變，而他自己的品格以好爭吵聞名。佛教的傳統把悲當作一種靠修習而擴大的能力，並且給出了那些修法。第三，它的同伴。叔本華的悲是孤立的，並且浸在悲觀裡。佛教的悲是四無量心之一，與「隨喜他人的好事」相連，由「捨」穩住，並且與智慧成對。第四，目標。叔本華那位有悲心的人解除苦難，最後轉身背對世界。菩薩是轉身面向世界；而他的目標是眾生的解脫，不只是解除他們一時的苦。

Side by side · 並排比較

Five accounts of care for others 關於「關懷他人」的五種說明

	The Dharma佛法	Schopenhauer叔本華	Singer辛格	Mozi墨子	Mencius孟子
What is it based on?它建立在什麼上？	The absence of a self on either side, and trained feeling自他皆無我，加上訓練出來的感受	Seeing through the separateness of individuals看穿個體的分離	A principle: suffering is bad wherever it is一條原則：苦不管在哪裡都是壞的	The benefit of all, and the will of Heaven天下之利，與天志	The heart that cannot bear others’ suffering不忍人之心
How far does it reach?它及於多遠？	All sentient beings, across lifetimes一切有情，橫跨多生	All beings that suffer, animals included一切受苦者，含動物	All beings that can suffer一切會受苦的存在者	All people, equally所有人，一律平等	Kin, then people, then creatures, by degrees親、民、物，有等差
Can it be increased?它可以增長嗎？	Yes, by a graded practice可以，靠有次第的修習	No. Character is fixed不可以；品格是固定的	Feeling is beside the point. Act on the principle感受不是重點；照原則去做	By rewards, punishments, and example靠賞罰與榜樣	Yes, by nourishing and extending the sprout可以，靠存養與推擴
What guards it from harm?什麼防止它出毛病？	Wisdom and equanimity智慧與捨	Nothing in particular沒有特別的東西	Evidence about what works關於「什麼有效」的證據	Calculation of benefit對利的計算	Ritual and the order of relationships禮與人倫的次序
What does it aim at?它的目標是什麼？	The liberation of beings from suffering and its causes眾生從苦與苦因當中解脫	Relief, and in the end renunciation of the will解除苦難；最終是否定意志	The least suffering and most well-being最少的苦與最多的福祉	Order, wealth, and peace in the world天下的治、富與安	Humane government and the cultivated person仁政與修身

5 · The step the Dharma takes further · 佛法多走的一步

Compassion as a skill, with a guard 作為技能的悲，連同它的護衛

Every Western account treats compassion as something one has or lacks. The Buddhist tradition supplies exercises. One begins by wishing oneself well, then a benefactor, a friend, a stranger, and an enemy, until the wish is the same toward all. In the Tibetan practice called giving and taking one breathes in the suffering of others and breathes out relief. Śāntideva’s exchange of self and other asks the practitioner to take another person’s point of view and look back at himself with that person’s envy or contempt. In the last twenty years these methods have been studied in laboratories, and the results support a distinction the tradition had drawn long before. Feeling another’s pain as one’s own, which researchers call empathic distress, exhausts people and makes them turn away. A warm wish for the other’s relief, which they call compassion, activates different systems and can be sustained. Nurses and aid workers suffer from too much of the first and can be trained in the second.

西方的每一種說明，都把悲當作一個人「有」或「沒有」的東西。佛教的傳統提供的是練習。從願自己安樂開始，再願恩人、朋友、陌生人、怨敵，直到這份願望對所有對象都一樣。在藏傳稱為「自他交換（施受法）」的修習裡，修的人吸進他人的苦，呼出安樂。寂天的「自他相換」，要修行者站到另一個人的立場上，用那個人的嫉妒或輕蔑回頭看自己。過去二十年，這些方法在實驗室裡被研究過；而結果支持了這個傳統老早就作過的一個區分。把別人的痛當成自己的痛去感受（研究者稱之為「同理的苦惱」），會把人耗盡，使人轉身走開。對別人得以解脫的一份溫暖的願望（研究者稱之為 compassion），啟動的是不同的系統，而且撐得久。護理人員與救援人員，苦於前者太多；而後者是可以訓練的。

That is the practical meaning of pairing compassion with wisdom and equanimity. The tradition lists the near enemy of compassion as grief, the state that looks like it and is its failure. It also answers the objection of demandingness in its own way. Singer’s reader faces an endless demand with a finite self to spend. The bodhisattva is taught that the vow has no limit and that the one who takes it should hold no picture of a self that is being used up. Whether that removes the burden or only renames it is a fair question, and the tradition’s answer is that it has to be found out by practice.

這就是「悲要與智慧、與捨成對」的實際意思。這個傳統把悲的「近敵」列為憂傷：那個看起來像它、其實是它的失敗的狀態。它也用自己的方式回答了「太苛求」的反駁。辛格的讀者面對的是一項無止境的要求，可以拿來花用的卻是一個有限的自我。菩薩被教導的是：那個誓願沒有限度；而發這個願的人，不應該抱著「有一個正在被耗盡的自我」的圖像。這是除去了重擔，還是只是替它改了名字？這是一個合理的問題；而這個傳統的回答是：那得靠修習去發現。

6 · How to say it to a Western audience · 對西方人怎麼講

Compassion is not pity 悲不是 pity

Three English words lie close together, and listeners slide between them. Pity looks down. It is felt by the fortunate for the unfortunate and keeps them apart. Empathy feels what the other feels, and can drown in it. Compassion, as the tradition uses karuṇā, is the wish that the other be free of suffering, held steadily and without superiority. It is useful to say this at the start. “Loving-kindness” for mettā is an old missionary coinage that has stuck, and “friendliness” or “goodwill” is plainer and closer to the root. “Bodhisattva” should be explained and not translated. Listeners will hear “saint” or “savior,” and the word means a person on the way to awakening who has resolved to bring others along. The claim that bodhisattvas postpone their own nirvana is common in Western books and is contested by scholars, so it is safer left out.

有三個英文字靠得很近，而聽的人會在它們之間滑來滑去。pity 是往下看的。它是幸運的人對不幸的人的感受，並且使兩者保持距離。empathy 是感受到對方所感受的，而它可能溺在裡面。compassion，照這個傳統使用 karuṇā 的意思，是願對方離苦的那份願望；它被穩穩地持著，而且不帶優越感。一開始就把這一點說出來是有用的。用 loving-kindness 譯 mettā，是早期傳教士造的詞，後來沿用下來了；friendliness 或 goodwill 比較樸素，也更接近字根。bodhisattva 應該解釋，而不是翻譯。聽的人會聽成 saint（聖人）或 savior（救主）；而這個詞的意思是：一個走在覺悟路上、並且決心帶著別人一起走的人。「菩薩延後自己的涅槃」這個說法，在西方的書裡很常見，學者卻有爭議；所以不提比較安全。

Sentences you can use 可以直接用的句子

Compassion in Buddhism is a wish, that others be free of suffering. It is not the same as feeling their pain.
佛教裡的悲是一個願望：願他人離苦。它跟「感受到他們的痛」並不是同一回事。
It is one of four qualities that are practiced together: goodwill, compassion, gladness at others’ happiness, and balance of mind.
它是一起修習的四種特質之一：善意、悲、隨喜他人的快樂，以及心的平衡。
The practice starts where care is easy, with yourself and those you love, and widens by steps until no one is left out.
這個修習從關懷容易的地方開始：你自己，與你所愛的人；然後一步一步擴大，直到沒有任何人被遺漏。
A bodhisattva is someone who has decided that their own awakening and the good of others are one project.
菩薩，是一個已經決定「自己的覺悟」與「他人的利益」是同一件事的人。
Compassion needs wisdom the way a bird needs two wings. Without it, the helper burns out or grows proud.
悲需要智慧，就像鳥需要雙翼。少了智慧，助人的人不是耗盡，就是變得驕傲。
Vimalakīrti said: because all beings are ill, I am ill. He did not mean that he was miserable. He meant that he did not stand apart.
維摩詰說：因為一切眾生病，所以我病。他的意思並不是自己很悲慘。他的意思是：他並沒有站在一旁。

Phrases to avoid 要避開的說法

“Buddhists feel pity for all beings.” 「佛教徒憐憫一切眾生。」

Pity implies looking down. Say “compassion” or “care,” and explain that it is a wish for the other’s freedom from suffering.

pity 含有居高臨下的意思。要說 compassion 或 care，並且說明那是願對方離苦的願望。

“Compassion means taking on other people’s suffering.” 「悲就是把別人的苦扛到自己身上。」

That describes empathic distress, which the tradition calls a near enemy. Say that compassion stays steady in the presence of suffering.

那描述的是同理的苦惱；這個傳統稱之為「近敵」。要說：悲在苦的面前保持穩定。

“Non-attachment means not caring.” 「不執著就是不在乎。」

The most common misunderstanding of all. Say that one can care fully for someone without needing them to be a certain way.

所有誤解當中最常見的一個。要說：一個人可以全心關懷某人，而不需要對方非得是某個樣子。

Three languages · 三語對照

The vocabulary, in Chinese, Pāli, Sanskrit, and English 術語：中文、巴利文、梵文、英文

中文	Pāli	Sanskrit	English
慈	mettā	maitrī	loving-kindness, goodwill
悲	karuṇā	karuṇā	compassion
喜	muditā	muditā	sympathetic joy
捨	upekkhā	upekṣā	equanimity
四無量心	appamaññā	apramāṇa	the four immeasurables
菩薩	bodhisatta	bodhisattva	a being bound for awakening
菩提心	—	bodhicitta	the mind set on awakening for the sake of all
自他相換	—	parātmaparivartana	the exchange of self and other
近敵	āsanna-paccatthika	—	near enemy
三輪體空	—	trimaṇḍala-pariśuddhi	the purity of the three spheres: giver, gift, and receiver
方便	upāya	upāya	skillful means
迴向	pariṇāmanā	pariṇāmanā	dedication of merit

Reading check · 理解測驗

Did it land? 讀懂了嗎

1. What is the difference between loving-kindness and compassion?

2. What does Vimalakīrti mean by “because all sentient beings are ill, I am ill”?

3. Why is Schopenhauer judged the closest Western parallel?

4. Where does the Buddhist view differ most from his?

5. Why is “pity” a poor translation of karuṇā?

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Explain the difference between pity, empathy, and compassion in three English sentences, one for each.
用三個英文句子（一個詞一句），解釋 pity、empathy 與 compassion 的差別。
Nietzsche says that pity doubles the suffering in the world. Write a reply of about 120 words from a Buddhist point of view.
尼采說，憐憫使世界上的苦加倍。從佛教的觀點，寫一段大約 120 個英文字的回應。
Describe a time when you helped someone and felt worn out afterward. Was it compassion or its near enemy?
描述一次你幫了別人、事後卻覺得被掏空的經驗。那是悲，還是它的近敵？

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