有關如來佛祖的10個趣聞(下)

5 Not A ‘Man Of God’

5.並非上帝

A great number of religious founding figures have claimed to be either gods, manifestations of gods, or prophets of gods. The Buddha, on the other hand, never claimed to be a god. He never claimed to be a prophet or an agent of the gods, either. He merely claimed to be a man, convinced of the supreme position of humans. He claimed that knowledge and personal effort, not devotion to the gods, are the true means of salvation.

很多宗教創始人都聲稱自己是上帝、先知或者上帝的化身，但是佛祖卻從未說過自己是上帝。他自稱是一個普通人，相信知識和努力能救贖自我，而非對神的奉獻。

Although he insisted in the equality of all humans, the Buddha has become almost a “super-human” in popular religion.

雖然他堅持衆生平等，但是佛在信衆心中幾乎是一個超人。

4 Not A Vegetarian

4.並非素食主義者

There is a widespread image of the Buddha being a strict vegetarian. This is also a claim with no historical support. Not even the early Buddhist sources mention the Buddha being a vegetarian in any way.

很多人認爲佛陀是一個絕對的素食主義者。這是完全沒有歷史依據的。早期的佛教資料也沒有說過佛陀是一個素食主義者。

Moreover, many accounts describe the Buddha eating meat and also advising on meat broths as a way to treat some illnesses. There are also some accounts mentioning that the last meal of the Buddha was wild boar. Even the earliest followers of the Buddha were not strict vegetarians.

此外，許多書中提及佛陀吃肉，甚至把肉湯當作治病良方。也有書中提到，佛陀最後的晚餐是野豬。甚至早期的佛弟子也不是絕對的的素食主義者。

Vegetarianism became attached to Buddhist practices years after the Buddha passed away.

佛陀去世多年以後，素食主義才變成了佛門戒律。

3 Belief In Previous Reincarnations

3.輪迴

As previously mentioned, during its early days, Buddhism had to “compete” with several traditions that supported their authority by claiming to have originated a long time ago. In order to claim a level of credibility similar to these older traditions, early Buddhists created a number of literary works about “past Buddhas.” The goal was to stress the idea that what the Buddha taught was nothing new but rather a timeless truth.

如上所述，早期的佛教與傳統的權威教派分庭抗衡。爲了證明佛教的傳統源遠流長，早期佛教徒創作了大量“過去七佛”的故事，意在告訴世人如來佛祖教的東西並不是什麼新思想新理論而是永恆的真理。

Interestingly, the general outline of many of these stories is identical: All the past Buddhas sit cross-legged in their mother’s womb. They all take seven steps to the north immediately after birth. They all renounce the world after witnessing an old man, a sick man, a dead man, and a mendicant. They all attain a state of enlightenment seated on the grass. They never die before their teaching is complete. And finally, they all die after eating meat.

這些故事大體相同：諸佛在母胎時便已呈雙腿盤坐之態，出生時皆能向北走七步。他們在目睹了生、老、病、死世間百態後都放下了世俗。他們都坐在草地上證悟到真理。他們都在教學完成之後逝去的。他們最後的晚餐都是肉食。

2 The Buddha As A Deity

2.視如來爲神

How ironic is it that a person who based his teaching on the oneness of mankind and the equality among people eventually came to be regarded as a god? Many of the flexible and tolerant circles of Hinduism, with their ever-growing pantheon of gods and goddesses, consider the Buddha to be a deity, one of the multiple manifestations of the god Vishnu.

一個宣揚人類同一性和平等性的人最終被視爲神，這就有點諷刺了。印度教派別林立，神和女神非常多，他們認爲佛陀神毗溼奴的化身之一。

Even more ironic is the fact that by elevating the Buddha’s status over the human realm, his image did not become more powerful in any way: In a tradition like Hinduism, filled with countless deities, turning the Buddha into a god also made him ordinary, just one more god among thousands.

事實上，即便把佛當做一位神邸，他也並沒有因此變得更神聖。傳統的印度教，有成千上萬的神，如果佛果真是神，也不過是成千上萬神中的一個。

1 The Remains Of The Buddha

1.佛陀的遺骸

The Mahaparinirvana Sutra (an ancient Buddhist text on the last days of the Buddha) describes how his followers cremated the Buddha after he passed away. The remains were divided into eight portions. Each of these portions were sent to eight different states visited by the Buddha during his lifetime. A stupa was erected in each state in order to house the remains. Other sources claim that during the third century BC, Ashoka ordered these eight stupas to be opened, the cremated remains of the Buddha redistributed into a higher number of portions, and more stupas to be built all over the expanding Buddhist world to house the relics.

《大般涅盤經》（佛陀去世前的教誨錄）中描述了佛陀的弟子在他涅槃後將他火化，得到了一塊頭頂骨、兩塊指骨、四顆牙齒、一節中指指骨舍利和84000顆珠狀真身舍利子。摩揭陀國、毗舍離國等八位國王將佛舍利平分八份,建塔安奉。也有說，公元前三世紀，阿育王把這八座佛塔打開取出舍利子，把它們分成許多份，大範圍建塔供養，廣泛傳播佛教。

The Buddhist relic-cult has been an important dimension of Buddhist ritual. Even today, there are several temples and museum that claim to hold “relics” of the Buddha. Two famous examples are the “Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic” in Sri Lanka and the “Buddha Tooth Relic Temple & Museum” in Singapore.

佛教文物是佛教儀式的一部分，一直以來備受追崇。即使在今天，也有一些寺廟和博物館宣稱供奉着佛的“遺物”，像斯里蘭卡的“佛牙塔”、新加坡的“佛牙寺及博物館”。