Induction

The term agnostic was fittingly coined by the 19th-century British scientist Thomas H. Huxley, who believed that only material phenomena were objects of exact knowledge. He made up the word from the prefix a-, meaning “without, not,” as in amoral, and the noun Gnostic. Gnostic is related to the Greek word gn?, “knowledge,” which was used by early Christian writers to mean “higher, esoteric knowledge of spiritual things”; hence, Gnostic referred to those with such knowledge. In coining the term agnostic, Huxley was considering as “Gnostics” a group of his fellow intellectuals—“ists,” as he called them— who had eagerly embraced various doctrines or theories that explained the world to their satisfaction. Because he was a “man without a rag of a label to cover himself with,” Huxley coined the term agnostic for himself, its first published use being in 1870.

Friday, November 23, 2012

1000遍 延命十句觀音經 4/12/2011

此經係《高王觀音經》的精簡本，同出於古人的夢中傳授。《高王觀音經》早在東魏時代即已傳出，《延命十句觀音經》則出於劉宋元嘉二十七年（西元四五○年）。據趙宋時代四明志磐於西元一二六九年撰成的《佛祖統紀》卷三十六所載：「元嘉二十七年，王玄謨北征失利，蕭斌欲誅之，沈慶之諌曰：『佛貍（魏世祖小子）威震天下，豈玄謨所能當，殺戰將，徒自弱耳。』乃止。」不僅未遭刑戮，後來官至開府，年八十二，壽終正寢。王玄謨如何得此際遇？乃由於受誅之前，夜夢異人，告以若誦《觀音經》千遍，可免死難，並口授經文十句：
觀世音，南無佛，與佛有因，與佛有緣，佛法相緣，常樂我淨，朝念觀世音，暮念觀世音，念念從心起，念念不離心。（《大正藏》卷四九．三四五頁中～下）
這部《觀音經》，雖出於古人的夢中感得，並非傳譯自印度，以其僅僅十句，已具足三寶及觀音的持名念法，故迄趙宋乃至清初，仍受到佛教界的普方傳誦。特別是相當於中國清初的日本江戶時代的白隠禪師（西元一六八五～一七六八年），為了弘揚此經，蒐羅資料，編寫了一部《延命十句觀音靈驗記》。近代的日本著名禪匠原田祖岳，也寫了一部《延命十句觀音經講話》。（本文原收錄於《佛教入門》－法鼓文化出版）
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