“善有善报”与“善不受报”——佛教善恶“因果”观辨析

On the Difference between Two Buddhist Views of Good and Evil

谈善论恶乃是佛教的永恒主题。在中国佛教中,存在着两种完全不同的善恶"因果"观,一是注重"果"的"善有善报,恶有恶报",二是注重"因"的"诸恶莫作,众善奉行";其中有着"决定论"意味的"善有善报,恶有恶报"其实是中国本土儒家文化以及民间习俗中的"因果报应"思想在佛教中的反映,属于中国化的善恶"因果"观;而"诸恶莫作,众善奉行"则是基于印度佛教的"缘起论",是原汁原味的印度佛教善恶"因果"观。依据印度佛教的这种善恶"因果"观,东晋竺道生进一步提出了"善不受报"的思想。依据"善不受报"以及作为其理论基础的佛教"缘起论",一个人只管行善而不要去追求行善的回报,然而就是这种不求回报的行善才能得到最大限度的回报。

The view of good and evil is an eternal theme in Buddhism. In Chinese Buddhism, there are two different views of good and evil： one view highlights the effects of people＇s behavior, which can also be called ＂karma＂. doing good will cause good to return and doing bad will lead to bad. The other view focu- ses the causes of people＇s behavior, which calls on the human being to cease from doing every form of evil and to do what are good. If given a deep thought, it can be concluded that the first view, of a little deter- ministic meaning, is the reflection of the karma retribution of the Confucian culture and folk custom on Buddhism which belongs to localized view of good and evil, while the second view is based on the Indian Buddhism＇s doctrine of conditioned co-arising, which is authentically Indian Buddhism＇s view of good and evil. According to the second view, Zhu Daosheng, a famous monk in East Jin Dynasty, came up with the thought of doing good without asking for return, a person tries to do what are good without paying atten- tion to the return of being a good person. However, the very no-asking-for-return is the biggest return for the person who does what are good and automatically leads to the greatest benefit, being enlightened.