Daoism Series 14
要飯聖人採訪
Interview with the Beggar Sage
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什么是道？
What is the Dao?
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道德经说道不可以说，它无形无相，无情无名，用我们好理解一点的话来说：道就是自然界的规律；也是宇宙之中的规律。大到整个宇宙，宇宙外面的宇宙，外面更远的宇宙，没边；小到原子、分子、质子、夸克；现在不是有一个词叫上帝粒子；还有，里面还有，是叫其大无外，其小无内。不管以任何一种形式它都在道内，有行的，和无形的都在。
The Dao De Jing says that the Dao cannot be named. It is without form and without appearance, without sentiments and without name. To discuss it, let us use a few words only which we understand well.
The Dao is precisely the rules of the natural world; it is also the laws within the universe. Its greatness reaches the entire universe, and the universes beyond this universe, as there are no borders. Its smallness reaches atoms, molecules, electrons, and quarks. Is there not a word nowadays called the God Particle? There are further [particles which are even smaller] inside it. It is said of the Dao that:
Its Greatness has no outside.
Its minuteness has no inside.
No matter what type of form and shape, it is always within the Dao. Both form and substance, as well as the formless, are all within it.
我们为什么要有慈悲和爱？
Why do we need to possess compassion and love?
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如果我们人没有了慈悲，那么这个世界一个首先就是杀戮多、伤害多、战争多。那么我们作为我们一个宇宙里面的一个生命，如果每天生活在这个环境里面，就无法生存。爱，有小爱和大爱的区别，如果我们都没有的爱，我们家庭，没有父母的爱，夫妻的爱，对兄弟的爱，对子女的爱都没有了，我们还不如动物。所以有了爱，我们才有了丰富多彩的社会生活。才有了真诚，不是假的是真的，诚：诚心，人和人的关系才有了真诚，才有了美好。那么大爱呢？不是一个家庭的问题，不是一个家族、不是一个种族、不是一个国家，再大点就是整个地球的人类众生，再大一点就是银河系，更多的银河系，更大的爱就称为慈悲了。
First of all, if people had no compassion, there would be more massacres, injuries and wars in this world. For each of us, as we have one life within our one universe, if we lived in such an environment every day, there would be no way that we could survive.
With regard to love, there is a difference between minor Love and great Love. [With regard to minor love,] if we were all without love, and our families and homes were without the love of father and mother, without the love of husband and wife, without the love of siblings, without the love of sons and daughters, then we would be inferior to the animals. Therefore, only when there is love, can we have an enriching and magnificent lifestyle in society and only then can there be authentic, rather than false, sincerity. With regard to sincerity, only with a sincere Heart-Mind can personal relationships possess authentic sincerity, and only then can there be happiness.
Great Love, [on the other hand,] does not concern just one family, or one ethnic group or country. It is larger in scale and concerns all living beings of the human race across the entire Earth, and on an even larger scale it concerns the galaxy and even the galaxies beyond it. This Greater Love is called ‘Compassion’.
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Post-Scriptum:
This full interview will appear in the appendix of Purple Cloud Press’ forthcoming publication of 《The 49 Barriers of Cultivating the Dao》 by Xing De/Li Shi Fu, a manual for refining one’s Inner Nature based on Liu Yi Ming’s 50 Barriers. Li Shi Fu is abbot of Five Immortals Temple (www.fiveimmortals.com).
