0:00

So here's a question. Which recording artist sang the most Buddhist song in the history of popular music? Now obviously, there's no officially correct answer to that question. But if you want to know someone that I think should at least be in the running for that title, that is, believe it or not, this guy.

那么，问题是这样的：在流行音乐历史上，哪一个recording艺术家，唱了最多的佛教歌曲？现在很显然，这个问题没有官方的正确答案。但是如果你想知道最符合这个答案的歌手，我相信，不管你信不信，是他。

0:17

That's right. Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones, who famously sang the lyric, I can't get no satisfaction. Now if you've read much Buddhist scripture, you probably don't recall running into that phrase and that's because I don't think it's there. But it does capture a lot of the spirit of what is called The First Noble Truth. And that's what we're going to talk about in this segment of lecture one, along with the Second Noble Truth. Together, they constitute the Buddha's diagnosis of the human predicament. Then later we'll be talking about the Third and Fourth Noble Truths, which embody the Buddha's prescription, his cure for what ails us. These, these Four Noble Truths are foundational to Buddhist thought.

对的。滚石乐队的Mick Jagger，以那句歌词而出名：我永不满足。如果你读了佛教的scripture，你可能不会想起这个短语，因为我觉得它不会在佛教里出现。但是它却是抓住了被称为第一真谛的精髓。这就是我们在第一讲这一部分要谈论的内容，以及第二真谛。

0:59

The Buddha delivered them in a famous sermon at Deer Park shortly after attaining enlightenment, which in turn happened after he had meditated under a Bodhi tree for a very long time.

佛陀在获得菩提树下冥想很长一点时间，获得启示后，很快就在鹿园的一次著名的讲道中传授了这些真谛。

1:09

Now, I should stop here and admit that we don't really know whether what I just said is true.

我应该停下来，承认，我们并不真的知道，我所说的是否是真的。

1:16

We don't know if the Buddha delivered that sermon, or what he said at it. If he did, we don't know whether he sat under a Bodhi tree. So far as we know, the story of the Buddha, and what he said, was not written down for a very long time after he lived. So, whenever you hear me say the Buddha said this, the Buddha thought that, strictly speaking what I mean is according to Buddhist scripture, the Buddha said this, the Buddha thought that. What we do know is that the Buddha's teachings were being promulgated, well more than two millennia ago, centuries before the time of Jesus, who of course is another foundational religious figure whose sayings we can't really pin down with confidence. Of course, as a matter of faith people may believe that any given foundational religious figure said various things, and that's fine with me. But as a matter of historical scholarship, we just can't be sure. So the First Noble Truth, the one that I'm suggesting has a kind of Mick Jagger aspect, is usually translated into English as The Truth of Suffering. But a lot of scholars think that suffering is really not an adequate translation of the word the Buddha used. It's not that the word is wrong, it's just that it doesn't capture the full breadth of what may have originally been meant by the word. So, maybe we should take a look at the word itself. And for this purpose, and at the risk of seeming like a relic from a simple era, I'm going to make use of a black board and an analog information technology known as chalk.

我们不知掉佛陀是否真的有过那次布道，或者他真的说了关于真谛的东西。如果他这么做过，我们不知道，他是否是真的坐在菩提树下获得启示的。至今我们知道的，佛陀的故事，他说的话，在他过世后很长一点时间里没有被写下来。所以，无论你什么时候听到我说，佛陀这样说，佛陀那样想，严格意义上讲，我的意思是，根据佛教经典，佛陀这样说，佛陀那样想。我们知道的是，佛陀教授的东西大概在两千年前发表。比基督早几百年，基督是另一个宗教人物，他教授说，我们不能真正的毫不动摇。当然，作为一种信仰，人们可能相信，任何已知的宗教人物，说了不同的东西，我对此无所谓。但是作为一个历史学术问题，我们就是不能确信。所以我所指的第一真谛，有点儿像Mick Jagger的那种类型，在英语里常被翻译为“受苦的真谛”。但是很多学者认为，受苦并不足以表达出佛陀要表达的全部意思。不是说这个词是错的，只是说，它没有抓住那个词原本所包含的全部意义。所以，也许我们应该看看那这个词。为了这个目的，冒着看起来像历史遗迹的风险，我将使用一块黑板，还有一个类似信息技术：粉笔。

2:52

This is the word that is typically translated as suffering, and as you can see I've written it twice with two different spellings. The reason for that is that one is the Sanskrit version and one is in Pali, an ancient language closely related to Sanskrit. The reason this is worth talking about a little is because this is true of key Buddhist terms in general. As you read about Buddhism, you may encounter them in one language or in the other. And in some cases it really matters because that might keep you from even recognizing the term. So, for example, if you ran into this term,

这就是常被翻译成“受苦”的词。你能看到，我写了两次，用两种不同的拼写。原因是，一种是Sanskrit版本，一种是Pali版本，另一种跟Sanskrit很接近的古老语言。这个原因值得说一下，因为一般来说，这是最关健的佛教词汇。当你看佛教经典，你可能会在这种或那种语言里遇到它们。在某种情况下，它真的重要，因为它阻碍了你认出这个术语来。比如，你可能碰到这个词“

3:29

Nibbana, you might say what is that? Whereas if you ran into it in this form, Nirvana, you would probably have a slightly clearer idea. Sorry about my handwriting.

Nibbana，你可能说这是什么？无论你在哪里看到这个字形，你很可能会有一点清楚的概念。抱歉，我写的不好。

3:46

Nirvana means of course, liberation, liberation from suffering and that is what you get, in theory, if you follow the Four Noble Truths all the way to the end. And there's one other very important term that can appear in either language and is also related to the Four Noble Truths. And that is, in probably the form you'll see it most commonly, dharma.

Nirvana的意思是解放，从受苦中解放，理论上，如果你从头到尾跟随四真谛，你就能得到解放。这里还有另一个很重要的术语，出现在语言，或者与四真谛相关的东西上面，这是你将看到最频繁的字形：dharma

4:14

Or if you see it in the Pali, it is dhamma. And it's a very interesting and rich word with a lot of meanings. We don't have time to go into all of them. I want to mention a couple, though. Probably the most common meaning of dharma is to refer to the Buddha's teachings and by extension, the path that the Buddha said we should tread. Okay. But there is a more fundamental meaning of dharma. It refers to kind of the truth about the way the universe is structured or about the, the natural and moral law that structures the universe, that is the truth that is reflected in the Buddha's writings and in his teachings and the, the truth whose implications are spelled out in his teachings but it's the truth itself, not, not just the Buddhist teaching about the truth. So, in other words, you could say that dharma means both, the truth about the way things are and then in, in the other sense of the term, the truth about the way we should live in recognition of the way things are, that is the, the path that is spelled out in the Buddha's teachings. So this is kind of reminiscent of that William James quote we heard earlier, where James said that the essence of religion is the belief that there is an unseen order and the our supreme good lies in harmoniously adjusting ourselves to that order. So dharma in the, in the second sense, in the fundamental sense of the term, is the unseen order.

或者，你将看到Pali语写的dhamma。这是一个很有趣，也有丰富意义的词汇。这些词汇我们没时间全部都讲。我想提到两个。dharma最常见的意思是指，佛教教义。扩展的讲，是佛陀讲的我们应该走的路。但这里有一个更基本的意思，它指宇宙构造方式的真相，或者是构造宇宙的自然的、道德的法则，佛陀著作中提到的真相。在他的讲座中，在他讲授真相意义的讲座中，真相自身，不仅仅是佛陀关于真相的讲座。所以，换句话说，你能说，dharma意思是两种真理，关于事物运行方式的真理，还有其他意思，关于我们应该辨别事物运行方式，以这种方式生活的真理，真实佛教讲义中所谈论真理的方式。有点让人联想起William James引用的那句话，之前我们听过：宗教的本质，是信仰一种看不见的秩序，我们的至善依赖于根据这个秩序和谐地调整自己。所以dharma，在第二个意义上，在基础意义上，就是那个看不见的秩序。

6:04

And then it is spelled out to us in the first sense of the term dharma, in the Buddha's teachings. And also there, we find out how to harmoniously adjust ourselves to the unseen order, and, and thereby realize our supreme good, which is Nirvana.

看不见的秩序，在dharma这个术语的第一个意思里，在佛教的教义里，我们会发现，怎样调整自己，以与那个看不见的秩序相协调，然后因此实现至善，即Nirvana。

6:25

if, again, we, we make it all the way through the, the Four Noble Truths and follow them, and their implications, precisely which Brings us back to duhkka. Ok now as I said, a lot of scholars think that the translation of duhkka as suffering is not, not wholly adequate, and if you ask well, what other senses of the term might we add?

我们再讲四真谛，跟随它们，跟随它们的含义，准确地带我们回到duhkka。现在，像我说过的，许多学者认为duhkka翻译成受苦，并不足以表达。那你会问：我们可能会往这个词汇里添加什么意思呢？

6:53

Well the answer is, and here's a clue,

答案是，这里线索。

7:00

that's right, the most commonly nominated supplementary translation of duhkka, supplementary to suffering, is unsatisfactoriness in life. And one virtue of adding this sense to the meaning of duhkka is that it makes the First Noble Truth sound a little bit more plausible. Because you know, the First Noble of Truth emphasizes the pervasiveness of suffering. One way it's often paraphrased in English is life is suffering. And, you know, the Buddha never quite says that in so many words, as far as I know, life is duhkka, but it, that line does capture the, the sense of things. That, that this duhkka thing is a pervasive part of life.

对，duhkka的翻译，最常见的补充含义是，受苦的补充是，生活中的不满足。把这个意思添加到duhkka的一个优点是，它让第一真谛听起来有点儿似是而非。因为你真知道，第一真谛强调受苦的普遍性，它常常被英语转述为：人生就是受苦。但是，这个意思确实抓住了这些东西的意思，那就是，duhkka是生活无处不在的部分。

7:46

And you know, that you may just, that may not make any sense to you. Right? I mean, there have obviously been times in your life when you felt, you know, you were not suffering. But if you add this sense of unsatisfactoriness to the word, it makes a little more sense I think. So, just to give you an example, let's take one of my favorite things; powdered sugar donuts. Okay, I don't eat them all that often, I'm proud to say, but that does sometimes takes some self restraint, you know. I'm talking about, you may have see them, in these little 6 packs of donuts at a convenience store, each one small enough to pop into your mouth. And if you asked me, while I'm eating one of these, am I suffering? The answer is, I would say no, are you kidding, obviously not. I'm not suffering. On the other hand, it probably is true that, you know, just about as soon as I start swallowing the one donut, I'm already thinking about that next donut, already kind of yearning for another donut at some level.

你知道，这可能对你没什么意义。对吗？我是说，这很显然，有你的生活中，有很多次，你感到你没有在受苦。但是你把这个“不满足”的意思加进去之后，我觉得它确实说得通。所以，给你一个例子，让我拿我最喜欢的东西举例子，甜甜圈。我很自豪地说，我并不经常吃，但是，有时候确实需要一点自制力。你知道我说的意思，你可能会看到甜甜圈，在那个便利店里有6层甜甜圈，每个都足够小，小到弹到嘴里。如果你问我，当我吃甜甜圈时，我是在受苦吗？答案是，我会说没有，你是在开玩笑吗？显然没有，我没有在受苦。另一方面，这也可能是真的：你知道的，我一开始吞咽甜甜圈，我已经开始在想下一个甜甜圈，在某种意义上，我已经在渴望另一个甜甜圈了。

8:47

And the fact that I want another donut means that in a literal sense, I didn't get satisfaction. If you get satisfaction, you don't want any more. Right?

我想要另一个甜甜圈的事实，在字面意义上，我没有得到满足。如果你得到满足，你不会想要更多，对吗？

8:57

So this, you know, this, this, this lends some credibility to the First Noble Truth, the idea that there's always a kind of undercurrent of yearning no matter what we get. You know, whether it's donuts or money or sex. You know, feels good, but eventually the time comes when the thrill wears off, you want some more.

所以，你知道，这给了第一真谛某些证据。常常有潜藏的渴望，无论我们得到了什么。你知道，不管是甜甜圈，还是钱，还是性。你知道，感觉良好，但最终都会消失，你就会想要更多。

9:19

It just, the pleasure doesn't last. And this, this business of things not lasting is a major theme of the Buddha's. Impermanence is a very common word in Buddhist texts. The idea is that you know, nothing is permanent in the world, certainly not pleasure, and yet we seem to try to cling to things. And here we're actually moving into the Second Noble Truth, which announces the cause of duhkka, the cause of suffering and unsatisfactoriness. And that cause is, it's a word that means something like thirst. It's often translated as craving. And there's a sense of clinging, of trying to hang on. And the Buddha said that, in clinging to things that won't last, you know, we're evincing a kind of delusion. We're just not getting the picture about the impermanence of things. We're not reckoning with the truth about reality.

快乐难以持久。不持久的事情，是佛陀的主题。无常，在佛教文本里是一个常见的词。它的观点是，世界上没什么是永恒不变的。快乐也不例外。然而我们却试图抓住这些东西。这里我们实际上已经在讲第二真谛了，它披露了duhkka（受苦）的原因，受苦和不满足的原因。这个原因是，它的意思有点儿像口渴这类意思。佛陀说过，抓住这些不会持久的东西，我们正在表现一种妄想。我们不会得到无常的事物的图片，我们不会推算出关于现实的真相。

10:15

Now I want to emphasize that the stakes of this go way beyond powered sugar donuts in a couple of senses. First of all, we're not just taking about kind of raw, sensory pleasures, okay? It's gratifying things in general. Getting an A on that next exam. Winning the esteem of your friends. Winning the acclaim of society at large. You know, whatever makes you feel good, eventually that feeling will fade, and you're going to want more. Psychologists refer to this as the Hedonic Treadmill. Hedonic, meaning pleasure seeking, and treadmill, meaning you're not getting anywhere. You keep trying, and keep striving after happiness, you don't get any closer to it. And this refers to the finding that when people do get happier, a new job makes them happier, they win the lottery, as a rule, their happiness before too long returns to its normal level. Okay. Now, there's a second sense in which the stakes are higher than, than powdered sugar donuts. And that is that although it sounds like the first two Noble Truths are all about things that we, that we seek, that we desire. It also covers anxieties and fears. Anxieties about, you know being criticized in public or something, or going to some cocktail party you don't want to go to. The fear of being eaten by a lion or something, you know? And that, you know, that that doesn't, that doesn't sound right that you could include these things under the rubric of craving, right, because you don't, you know, social rejection you don't, you don't want, you want to get away from that. You don't want to get closer to it, and, you know, a charging lion is something that you do not want to embrace, you want to get away from.

现在我想强调，这个的风险在几个意思上都远远强于甜甜圈。首先，我们不只是谈论原始的、感觉的快乐，一般来说，这是可喜的事情。在考试中得了A，获得朋友们的尊重，赢得了社会上大部分人的称赞，任何让你感觉良好的事情，最终都会消逝，然后你想要更多。心理学家把这个称作跑步机式的享乐。享乐，意味着获得了快乐，跑步机，意味着你那里也没有去。你继续尝试，继续为追求幸福而挣扎。你不会离它更近。这涉及到一些这样的发现，当人们感到更幸福是，如一个让人更幸福的新工作，中了大奖，规律是，他们的幸福感很快就会回到正常水平。风险比甜甜圈更高的第二个意思，是，尽管听起来前面两个真谛都是关于我们追寻渴望的事情，但是它也包含了焦虑和恐惧。焦虑，比如说在公众场合被批评，或者去一个你并不想去的鸡尾酒会，恐惧被狮子或者什么其他的动物吃掉。在渴望的标题里把这些事情也包含进去，听起来并不正确，因为你知道，你不想被社会排斥，你不想从那里离开。你想远离它，你不会想拥抱一个饥饿的狮子，你想远离它。

12:15

And for that reason, I'm almost kind of surprised that, in the, in the second Noble Truth, we actually don't hear about aversion to things as a problem, because elsewhere in Buddhist texts, there is a lot of emphasis on aversion. And sometimes, it's put on kind of an equal plane with craving, as the source of our troubles. But it is true that, you know, you can phrase these things in a way such that anxieties and fears do fit into the Second Noble Truth as it's stated. So you would say, for example, well, if you fear social criticism, if you have anxiety about that, or if you have anxiety about doing badly at some presentation you're going to give, that's because you're clinging to your social status. You're attached to your social status. That's the problem. It's attachment. Or, if you fear a charging lion, that's because you are attached to your own existence. You cling to, you crave, your own existence. And you know, you may at this point say, wait a second, this, this is where I get off the boat. If Buddhism is telling me I shouldn't be attached to my own existence you know, I'm just not interested in this program.

因为那些原因，我几乎感到惊奇，在第二真谛里，虽然是一个问题，但我们事实上并不厌恶那些事情。但是在佛陀的著作中，许多地方都强调了厌恶。有时候，厌恶被放到鱼渴望同样的位置上，同样作为麻烦的来源。但是，真的是，你知道你能形容这些东西，以这种方式，以至于焦虑和恐惧确实符合第二真谛里所说的。所以你会说，例如，你恐惧社交批评，如果你焦虑这些，或者你对即将发表的演讲感到焦虑，这是因为你紧紧抓住你的社会地位。你依赖你的社会地位。这就是问题，这是依赖。或者，如果你恐惧一头饥饿的狮子，那是因为你依附于你自身的存在。你抓住，你渴望你的自身存在。你知道，对于这些你可能会说，等等，这是我下船的地方。如果佛教在告诉我，我不应该依附于我的自身存在，那我对这些教义就不感兴趣了。

13:37

well. You know, I'm not trying to recruit you, I'm just telling you what the Buddha's diagnosis does explicitly include attachment to your existence as part of the problem. I do want to emphasize that Buddhism doesn't recommend that you cross the street without looking both ways or anything else. You can be a good Buddhist and tend to your own survival as you, as you do now. And as long as I'm emphasizing that Buddhism is not as grim as it may sound sometimes, I would add that the idea isn't, as far as this craving business goes, that we should never be attracted to anything, or that we can never enjoy any pleasures. The question is, whether we're clinging to things. In the, in the next lecture we're going to deal with the Third and Fourth Noble Truths that is the Buddha's prescription.

你知道，我并不是在招募你，我只是试图告诉你，佛陀的诊断确实明确地包括，把依附自身存在当作一个问题。我确实想强调，佛教并不建议你不看两边就横穿马路，或者其他的什么。你能成为一个好的佛教徒，也可以像现在一样存活。只要我在强调，有时候佛教并不是听起来那样严肃。我将补充这个观点不是说，只要这个渴望的东西继续，我们就不应该被任何东西吸引，或者我们永远不能享乐。这个问题是，无论我们是否紧抓住这些东西，在下一讲中，我们将要解决第三和第四真谛，这是佛陀开出的解药。

14:29

But in the next segment of this lecture, we're going to look at kind of the evolutionary psychology of the first two Noble Truths. We're going to drill down into the question of why it is that pleasure evaporates, and why it is that we have so much trouble reckoning with that. Why is the brain built in such a way that pleasure is fleeting. But we really focus a lot more on the pleasure than the fleetingness. [BLANK_AUDIO]

但是在这一讲的下一小节，我们将要看看前两个真谛中有点像进化心理学的东西。我们将要深入这个问题：为什么快乐会消逝，为什么我们很难推算出这个来。为什么大脑被以这个方式建造内置，让快乐稍纵即逝。但是我们确实关注快乐比它的消逝更多。

地址：

https://www.coursera.org/learn/science-of-meditation/lecture/ISGB1/the-first-two-noble-truths