五蕴皆空 脱一切烦恼 -- 【编辑室】

五蕴，是佛家对世间一切生灭现象所作的简单归纳和说明。《心经》提出了“色不异空，空不异色；色即是空，空即是色。受想行识，亦复如是”，正说明了佛家所说的“五蕴”的概要。这是一个让人难以理解的名像，就是佛家所说的“空”与“有”的辩证概念。

有与空相对而存在，一般人总以为“有”与“空”是对立的，他们认为“有”不是“空”，有在空外。《心经》则阐述了有与空的关系，说明“有空不二”的道理。“色不异空，空不异色；色即是空，空即是色”，事实上，是在说明物质世界里的有与空是不二的，“有”是缘起有，世间一切有的现象，无不是众缘所生。也就是说：任何一种有现象的存在，都是由众多条件和合，由各式各样的条件决定它的存在性，当决定它存在的条件不存在时，于是就为空。空有不对立，是一体的。所谓空，不必在有之外，也不必事物毁灭了才谈空；有是缘起有，有的当下就是自性空，有空一体。同样，将此运用到其它受蕴、想蕴、行蕴、识蕴都能成立，于是便有了“受想行识，亦复如是”。

《心经》里所提出的“照见五蕴皆空”，是说世间的一切生灭现象并非实有，而是空的。空不是什么都没有，而是说五蕴的‘有’，并非有如我们所执的实在性，‘有’是假有，因此，空，是对‘有’的实质的透视，即：有是指名义上的有，你认为有就有，空也是指名义上的空。空，是破除我们对‘有’的错误执著，倘能照见五蕴皆空，人类自然能够度脱一切烦恼痛苦。举例说明：当我们在努力时，在没有取得实质性的突破时，利用“五蕴皆空”就能帮助我们摆脱困难，让我们清楚“有和空”是相对的，不必为有和空而苦恼，只要珍惜经历过程中的快乐便是了。

The Great Nuns

【Editorial】

In this issue, we have collected some stories of early nuns in Buddhist history who became masters of their own rights. They are extraordinary women, particularly adept, powerful, articulate, fearless and persistent. They form a lineage from the time of the Buddha starting with the first nun Maha Pajapati, the step-mother of Prince Siddhartha.

Nuns are the second of the four members of the Buddhist Sangha, the others being monks, lay men and lay women. To be properly ordained in some traditions, a nun must be ordained first by a quorum of monks and then a second time by a quorum of nuns. In Theravada lands the nun’s lineage died out around the turn of the first millennium and traditionalists do not believe that it can or should be revived because there are no nuns to ordain new nuns. However, the nuns’ lineage continues in most Mahayana countries, and in places like Mainland China, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and the Western countries, nuns are a dynamic and respected presence within the Buddhist community.

They form a lineage from the time of the Buddha.

In 1987 through the efforts of Sakyadhita (Daughters of the Buddha) an International Buddhist Women Association, the bhikkhuni line was revived. Sakyadhita International Conferences have been held in Bodhgaya (1987), Bangkok (1991), Colombo (1993), Ladakh (1995), Phnom Penh (1998), Lumbini (2000), Taipei (2002), Seoul (2004), Kuala Lumpur (2006), Ulaanbaatar (2008), Ho Chi Minh City (2009-2010) and the upcoming one from June 12 to 18 in Bangkok.

Reading the stories of these women, we are humbled by their perseverance, their courage, their lack of bitterness in circumstances which are much more difficult than those Buddhist women face today.

http://www.sakyadhita.org/home/events.html