The Metaphysical Foundations of Buddhism
在《菩萨之脑：自然化的佛教》一书中，哲学家欧文·弗拉纳根探讨了一个主流的精神传统能否与彻底的科学世界观相协调。弗拉纳根摒弃超自然主义，提出了一种既保持伦理严肃性、又丰富存在主义内涵的佛教，同时又与当代科学和哲学完全兼容。在下文的节选中，他探讨了佛教如何通过否认造物主和永恒自我的存在，与有神论传统截然相反。他借鉴了缘起论和无我论等形而上学概念，指出这些教义不仅在佛教思想中具有内在意义，而且与现代科学对意识和宇宙的理解也产生了共鸣。
Buddhism originated in 500 BCE when Siddhartha Gautama, or simply Buddha, gave his inaugural address at Deer Park, near the outskirts of Benares, India (now called Varanasi). Depending on how one understands the orthodox Vedic or Indic spiritual tradition of that time, Buddhism was either a complete break with that tradition or a development of it.1 Buddhism rejects the caste system on ethical grounds. More interesting to those who think of religion as requiring belief in divinity, Buddhism rejects both the idea of a creator God and an immutable, indestructible soul (atman), on logical and empirical grounds.
佛教起源于公元前500年，当时悉达多·乔达摩（Siddhartha Gautama），简称佛陀，在印度贝拿勒斯（现称瓦拉纳西）郊区附近的鹿野苑发表了就职演说。根据人们对当时正统吠陀或印度精神传统的理解，佛教要么是对传统的彻底突破，要么是对传统的发展。1 佛教基于伦理道德的考量拒绝种姓制度。对于那些认为宗教要求信仰神性的人来说，更有趣的是，佛教基于逻辑和经验的考量，拒绝造物主上帝和永恒不灭的灵魂（阿特曼）的概念。
This article is excerpted from Owen Flanagan’s book “The Bodhisattva’s Brain: Buddhism Naturalized.”
That said, traditional Buddhism is chock full of ghosts, spirits, devils, deities, heaven and hell realms, and rebirths according to karmic laws that govern the universe. Even if contemporary secular Westerners see Buddhism as compatible with Enlightenment philosophy, many Asian Buddhists, especially the Tibetan variety, do not.
本文摘自欧文·弗拉纳根的著作《菩萨的大脑：佛教的自然化》。
话虽如此，传统佛教充斥着鬼神、精灵、魔鬼、神灵、天堂和地狱，以及根据宇宙因果律轮回的轮回。即使当代世俗的西方人认为佛教与启蒙哲学相容，但许多亚洲佛教徒，尤其是藏传佛教徒，却不这么认为。
Buddhism rejects the reigning Vedic conception of Brahman as the prime mover,2 and it also rejects the idea that each individual houses an unchanging self or soul. Beyond this, many familiar Indian ideas are retained and developed in Buddhism — although, in certain quarters, and only recently, with hesitancy. This legacy includes the deep importance of the appearance-reality distinction, the idea of reward for virtuous action (karma), the idea that suffering (dukkha) defines the human predicament (samsara) and that liberation is possible (nirvana) through enlightenment (panna; Sanskrit: prajna, bodhi) and virtue (sila, karuna), as well as the ideas of reincarnation or rebirth.
佛教摒弃了吠陀占主导地位的梵天作为本原动力的观念，2 也否定了每个个体都拥有一个永恒不变的自我或灵魂的观念。除此之外，许多为人熟知的印度思想在佛教中得以保留和发展——尽管在某些领域，而且只是在最近才有所保留。这些传统包括：表象与实在之分的深刻重要性，善行有报（业力）的观念，苦难（dukkha）定义了人类的困境（轮回），通过觉悟（panna；梵语：prajna，bodhi）和美德（sila，karuna）可以获得解脱（涅槃），以及轮回或重生的观念。
Let me stick with the two metaphysical beliefs that Buddhism rejects: a creator God and a permanent self or soul. First, Buddhism sees right through the familiar problems with cosmological and design arguments for the existence of God. Such arguments beg the question of the origin of the creator or designer. To say that the prime mover always was or is self-creating and self-sustaining is to accept the infinite regress of causes (this one a causa sui) that such arguments are designed to make evaporate, which they reject as a possibility. If God always is and shall be, then God itself is infinitely regressive.
让我继续讨论佛教所否定的两个形而上学信念：造物主上帝和永恒的自我或灵魂。首先，佛教能够看透宇宙论和设计论证中关于上帝存在的常见问题。这些论证回避了造物主或设计者的起源问题。说原动力过去或现在总是自我创造、自我维持，就等于接受了因果的无限倒退（此处指“自因”），而这些论证的目的正是要消除这种可能性，并拒绝承认这种可能性。如果上帝永远存在且将永远存在，那么上帝本身就是无限倒退的。
When the Dalai Lama listens to the story of the Big Bang occurring 14 billion years ago, he says fine “but not, of course, the first Big Bang.” This response is hardly a rejection of our theory of the Big Bang. The Dalai Lama sees the Big Bang theory as itself inadequate because it is not deeply causal enough. Some scientists themselves are now wondering if a better story doesn’t involve less of a singular, original bang than an origin for this universe that involves an open wormhole from another parallel universe, with these other universes or their ancestors — possibly comrades in a vast, even infinite, multiverse — being beginningless.
当达赖喇嘛聆听140亿年前发生的大爆炸的故事时，他说“好吧，但当然不是第一次大爆炸”。这种回应并非对我们大爆炸理论的否定。达赖喇嘛认为大爆炸理论本身就不充分，因为它缺乏足够深刻的因果关系。一些科学家现在也在思考，一个更好的故事是否不应该只涉及单一的、最初的爆炸，而应该涉及这个宇宙的起源，这个起源涉及来自另一个平行宇宙的开放虫洞，而这些其他宇宙或它们的祖先——可能是浩瀚甚至无限的多元宇宙中的同伴——是无始的。
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