幻象的原因
本译文由人工智能辅助工具生成，可能存在不准确之处。如需查阅权威文本，请参考英文原文。
AI-translated. May contain errors. For accurate text, refer to the original English.
中文
幻相之因
"幻相（摩耶）的成因是什么？"——这个问题已被追问了三千年之久；而唯一的回答是：当世人能够提出一个合乎逻辑的问题时，我们便会作答。这个问题本身就是自相矛盾的。我们的立场是：绝对者仅在表面上变成了这相对的世界，无条件者仅在摩耶中变成了有条件的存在。当我们承认无条件者的存在时，我们便同时承认了绝对者不可能被任何其他事物所作用。它是无因的，这意味着它自身之外的任何事物都无法对它施加作用。首先，如果它是无条件的，它就不可能被任何其他事物所影响。在无条件者之中，不可能存在时间、空间或因果。承认了这一点，你的问题便成了："是什么原因使那不可被任何事物所导致的东西发生了变化，变成了这个世界？"你的问题只有在有条件的领域中才能成立。然而你将它从有条件的领域中抽离出来，却想在无条件的领域中追问。只有当无条件者变为有条件者，时间、空间和因果出现之后，这个问题才能被提出。我们只能说，无明（Avidya）制造了幻相。这个问题本身是不可能成立的。没有任何事物能够作用于绝对者。没有原因。这并非说我们不知道，或者说我们无知；而是它超越了知识的范畴，无法被降低到知识的层面。"我不知道"这几个字可以在两种意义上使用。一种意义是，我们处于知识之下；另一种意义是，那事物处于知识之上。X射线如今已为人所知。其成因本身尚有争议，但我们确信终将了解它们。在这里，我们可以说我们对X射线"尚不了解"。但对于绝对者，我们不可能了解。在X射线的情形中，虽然它们处于知识的范围之内，我们只是尚未认识它们。但在另一种情形中，它远远超出知识的范围，以至于认知本身不再适用。"凭借什么手段才能认识那认识者？"你永远是你自己，无法将自己客体化。这正是我们的哲学家用以证明不朽的论证之一。如果我试图设想自己已经死去，我必须想象什么？是我站在那里，俯视着自己——俯视着某具尸体。因此，我无法将自己客体化。
English
THE CAUSE OF ILLUSION
The question — what is the cause of Mâyâ (illusion)? — has been asked for the last three thousand years; and the only answer is: when the world is able to formulate a logical question, we shall answer it. The question is contradictory. Our position is that the Absolute has become this relative only apparently, that the Unconditioned has become the conditioned only in Maya. By the very admission of the Unconditioned, we admit that the Absolute cannot be acted upon by anything else. It is uncaused, which means that nothing outside Itself can act upon It. First of all, if It is unconditioned, It cannot have been acted upon by anything else. In the Unconditioned there cannot be time, space, or causation. That granted your question will be: "What caused that which cannot be caused by anything to be changed into this?" Your question is only possible in the conditioned. But you take it out of the conditioned, and want to ask it in the Unconditioned. Only when the Unconditioned becomes conditioned, and space, time, and causation come in, can the question be asked. We can only say ignorance makes the illusion. The question is impossible. Nothing can have worked on the Absolute. There was no cause. Not that we do not know, or that we are ignorant; but It is above knowledge, and cannot be brought down to the plane of knowledge. We can use the words, "I do not know" in two senses. In one way, they mean that we are lower than knowledge, and in the other way, that the thing is above knowledge. The X-rays have become known now. The very causes of these are disputed, but we are sure that we shall know them. Here we can say we do not know about the X-rays. But about the Absolute we cannot know. In the case of the X-rays we do not know, although they are within the range of knowledge; only we do not know them yet. But, in the other case, It is so much beyond knowledge that It ceases to be a matter of knowing. "By what means can the Knower be known?" You are always yourself and cannot objectify yourself. This was one of the arguments used by our philosophers to prove immortality. If I try to think I am lying dead, what have I to imagine? That I am standing and looking down at myself, at some dead body. So that I cannot objectify myself.
文本来自Wikisource公共领域。原版由阿德瓦伊塔修道院出版。