《懂得差異，才有平等》《There could be equanimity, only when you know the differences among things.》

Last night at the "Conversation with Buddha" Taipei class, a student asked me, "If emptiness means all things are neutral, should we treat all things equal?"

昨天「與佛對話」台北班上課時，一位學員問我：「空性既然是表示一切事物都是中性的，那麼我們是不是對一切事物平等的對待？」

I answered, "You can understand emptiness only when you know the differences among things. When you know the differences among things, you would not treat them with "the same mode", which is real equanimity."

我回答：「瞭解它們的差別性才能夠真正的體認空性，瞭解差別性才會不用「同一個模子」去對待，這才是真正的平等。」

You know that there are men who have no feelings for beautiful women, and women who are not attracted to handsome men. So you know the "emptiness" of "beautiful women and handsome men". Open our vision to differences can free us. At that moment, as you are not blinding yourself, you can treat all the differences as they are. You will send roses to someone who like roses. You will try speaking English to someone who can only understand English. That is equanimity.

你知道也有男人會對美女沒有感覺，也知道也有女人對帥哥不會動心，那麼你就認識了「美女帥哥」的「空性」。打開我們的視野去面對差別性，自己反而會解脫。而這個時候，既然你不會蒙蔽自己，就會如其本是對待這一切的差別。喜歡玫瑰花的人，你會送他玫瑰花，只聽得懂英語的人，你會試著講英語，這才是平等心。

To a deeper level, "impermanence" is just different appearances of the same thing. If when you see the different appearances of the same thing, your knowledge and understanding make you imbalance in your heart, then it comes reincarnation.

而講得更深一些，「無常」不過就是差別相而已，遇到了差別相，因為你的見解，讓你的心生出了不平衡，那就會輪迴。

譯者：閒遊