Name: 印度教的主要思想 (The Key Ideas of Hinduism)
Uploaded: 2025-08-05T18:12:57.000Z
Duration: 3 min 41 s

Most world religions and philosophies make the cardinal error of supposing that what they see as the meaning of life should, by virtue of its importance, apply to everybody, irrespective of age, circumstance or position.

世界上大多數宗教和哲學都犯了一個最大的錯誤，那就是認為他們所認為的生命意義，由於其重要性，應該適用於所有人，不論年齡、環境或地位。

so/ such/ neither/ nor 倒裝句型

So proud are these religions and philosophies of their insight into existence, they can't help but accord them universal and dogmatic application.

這些宗教和哲學以其對存在的洞察力而自豪，它們會情不自禁地賦予這些洞察力以普遍性和教條式的應用。

But Hinduism is a great deal more supple and imaginative.

但印度教卻更加靈活，更富有想象力。

Hinduism too has a sense of how a good life should be lived but, crucially, the religion never assumes that the rules should apply across the board.

印度教也有關於如何過上美好生活的意識，但至關重要的是，印度教從不認為這些規則應該適用於所有人。

Rather, Hinduism cuts up populations into segments, and then differentiates right conduct according to four life stages, collectively called ashramas.

相反，印度教將人口劃分為若干部分，然後根據四個人生階段（統稱為 "阿修羅"）來區分正確的行為。

The first of these ashramas is termed Brahmacharya and covers the period of life when one is a child and a student.

第一種修行方式被稱為 "梵行"（Brahmacharya），涵蓋了人的童年和學生時期。

Here, however serious life might be overall, one is allowed to play, to be tender and to give free reign to the imagination.

在這裡，無論整體生活多麼嚴肅，人們都可以盡情玩耍，盡情撒嬌，盡情發揮想象力。

Then, more arduously, comes another life stage, one when one becomes a grihasta or householder.

然後，更艱苦的是另一個人生階段，即成為格里哈斯塔（grihasta）或家庭主婦的階段。

This is the time for maximal involvement in practical matters.

這是最大限度地參與實際事務的時刻。

There might be little time for prayer or contemplation.

It's the moment for building up capital, for buying a house, developing a profession and having a family of one's own.

這是積累資金、買房、發展職業和組建家庭的時刻。

This stage might last twenty years or more.

這個階段可能會持續二十年甚至更久。

But, eventually, practical obligations do recede.

但是，實際的義務終究會退去。

Children grow up and leave home and it's then time to become a vanaprastha or forest walker.

孩子們長大成人，離開家，這時候就該成為 vanaprastha 或森林行者。

That is, someone who can increasingly surrender practical tasks and reorient themselves to the spiritual realm by going for walks, ideally and rather poetically, in mango forests.

也就是說，一個人可以越來越多地放棄實際工作，通過在芒果林中漫步，理想地、頗具詩意地在芒果林中漫步，將自己重新定位到精神領域。

Then, lastly, when we are truly done with business and when family life has ceased to make all but the most minor calls on us, we are, to follow Hinduism, allowed to enter the last stage of sannyasa, where we renounce worldly goods, don a simple robe and wander the world in search of ultimate sources of enlightenment, charity and spiritual friendship.

最後，當我們真正完成了事業，家庭生活也不再對我們產生任何影響時，按照印度教的說法，我們就可以進入最後一個階段--三尼沙，在這一階段，我們放棄世俗生活，穿上簡單的袍子，漫遊世界，尋找啟迪、慈善和精神友誼的終極源泉。

We may not agree with every detail of the way Hinduism carves up a life, but we can admire the imaginative way in which the religion seeks to align its teachings with the particular demands of society, the body and the family across time.

我們可能不同意印度教對生活的每一個細節的詮釋，但我們可以欽佩印度教以富有想象力的方式使其教義與不同時代的社會、身體和家庭的特殊需求相一致。

It would, knows Hinduism, be as absurd to entice an eighteen-year-old to do yoga for six hours a day while contemplating the absolute as it would be to spend all one's time in business meetings as a seventy-year-old.

印度教認為，讓一個十八歲的孩子每天做六個小時的瑜伽，同時思考 "絕對"，就像讓一個七十歲的老人把所有時間都花在商務會議上一樣荒謬。

There is a time for moksha, the striving to liberate oneself from the cycle of eternal life and then there is a time for artha, when we must head to the office and sound serious during company presentations.

有的時候，我們努力從永恆的生命輪迴中解脫出來；有的時候，我們必須去辦公室，在公司演講時嚴肅認真。

Both are, in their respective contexts, equally legitimate and equally important.

在各自的背景下，兩者都同樣合法，同樣重要。

Hinduism reminds us that there is no simplistic, unitary goal to life.

印度教提醒我們，人生沒有簡單、單一的目標。

We shouldn't ask ourselves what the right way to live is per se.

我們不應該問自己什麼才是正確的生活方式。

As Hinduism knows, it all depends on where on the journey of life we happen to be.

正如印度教所知，這完全取決於我們在人生旅途中的位置。