228靜思紀念輯

每年這個時候，許多人便會追憶起那段創傷的往事。昨晚讀到What the Buddha Taught第一章的這段，覺得很感動：

In the third century B.C., the great Buddhist Emperor Asoka of India (阿育王), following [the Buddha’s] noble example of tolerance and understanding, honoured and supported all other religions in his vast empire. In one of his Edicts carved on rock, the original of which one may read even today, the Emperor declared:
‘One should not honour only one’s own religion and condemn the religions of others, but one should honour others’ religions for this or that person. So doing, one helps one’s own religion to grow and renders service to the religions of others too. In acting otherwise one digs the grave of one’s own religion and also does harm to other religions. Whosoever honours his own religion and condemns other religions, does so indeed through devotion to his own religion, thinking “I will glorify my own religion.” But on the contrary, in so doing he injures his own religion more gravely. So concord is good: Let’s all listen, and be willing to listen to the doctrines professed by others.’
We should add here that this spirit of sympathetic understanding should be applied today not only in the matter of religious doctrine, but elsewhere as well.
This spirit of tolerance and understanding has been from the beginning one of the most cherished ideals of Buddhist culture and civilization…

By the way, 真不敢相信，印度至今仍有一億人口是賤民(untouchable)，過著非常非常可憐的生活，不能轉換職業、不能接受教育…在這塊曾經培育出佛陀的土地上，如今竟有這麼多子民過著實體地獄般的生活…令人深感無奈更無言。