佛教“空性”“空观”思想与中国文艺“空灵”境界

Emptiness and Sanyata in Budhism and the Ethereality in Chinese Arts and Literature

印度佛教的空性思想和空观的修持方法,是佛教的重要内容。空性思想强调事物的缘起性,缘起性即是无自性,无自性则引向空性;空观则是在认识空性的基础上,用以观察事物实相的一种修持方法。缘起性空的思想和大乘后期强调的涅槃佛性论及真如(如来藏)缘起等思想结合,不仅对中国佛教特征的形成影响重大,而且对中国文学艺术的内容和风格也产生了较大影响。以中国诗歌和戏曲为例,可以较清晰地看出这一特点。

The thoughts of Sanyata and the cultivation method of emptiness are important contents of Indian Buddhism.The idea of emptiness requires people to understand the Pratitya-samutpada of all things,which means there is no self nature in the origin,so there is no self-nature because of the emptiness.Sunyata requires that the knowledge of emptiness be transformed into the practice of observing the reality of all things in people’s cultivation.The combination of the thoughts of the origin of emptiness with the theory of Nirvana Buddha nature and the thoughts of the origin of Tathagata not only influenced the formation of the characteristics of Chinese Buddhism,but also has a great impact on the content and style of Chinese literature.This is clearly shown in traditional Chinese poetry and dramas.