文學中的山水清音

       有個印度學生問我一個哲學問題，他的大意是說﹕「出生時雙手空空，死後也兩手空空。我們現在擁有的一切，都是神給予的，故失去，也沒什麼可悲的。」他要我概括以上的說法。於是我做如下的回答﹕

        我們兩手空空而來，也兩手空空而去，死後根本帶不走任何東西；但歷史不會忘記優秀人物，尤其是對社會和國家有貢獻的優秀人物。

        不要只想不切實際的虛無世界，只要我們活著，就試圖好好過活，並且做「對人有益的事情」。孔夫子說：「不知生，焉知死?」

         我的觀點是：『輪迴說』只是神話故事，故「把注意力放在真實世界，這比把注意力放在不切實際的世界還重要。」再者，我們可以有宗教信仰，但不要盲信。信仰可以產生力量，但力量的執行者是人，不是神。假如您不努力學習，根本就不會成功；就算天天拜神，也於事無補。

When we born, we just empty-handed. When we die, we cannot take anything with us. But history will not forget the outstanding people, especially people who contribute to society and country.

Do not think only unrealistic thing. When we are alive, just try to live a good life and just done the meaningful things for other people.

 Confucius said that “Without knowing the meaning of living, how can you know about death?”

My view is that reincarnation was just fairy tales. We must pay attention to the reality of life. That’s more important than the unreal world. Therefore people can have faith, but cannot have blind faith. Faith can give strength. But the real thing is that people perform. Not God. So if you do not work hard to study, it will impossible to have success. Even if you worship every day, it’s no useless.

P.S.這個印度學生受我影響，這兩天竟然開始看論語、孟子，並時時和我討論孔、孟思想, 實在很難得。