佛法双语工作坊经典连载：佛说四十二章经第30章

法师讲解：30 欲火远离

Commentary: Staying away from sexual passion

While we have mentioned a lot about the fault of lust in the past, let’s talk about the topic of abortion here. Lust can cause very serious problems, and abortion is the most typical example. It is never an overstatement to say that lust is the main cause of the flooding of abortion. Operative abortion is so common domestically nowadays, and hospitals even advertise their abortion package online! In fact many people have become insensitive to the guilt of operative abortion, as they feel that an operative abortion is nothing more than a “minor surgery”. According to the law, a foetus who is still in the mother's body and has no independent breathing capacity does not have the legal status of a person, so this is equivalent to affirming the legality of the abortion. 

色欲的过患之前讲过很多，这次我们讲讲.堕胎这个话题。色欲可以引起很大的问题，而人流就是一个最有代表性的例子，说色欲是导致人流泛滥的主要原因绝不为过。现在国内人流的手术十分普遍，网上的医院广告还打出套餐的旗号！事实上很多人已对人流的罪过感到麻木，觉得这只是一个“小手术”而已。按照法律，仍然在母体内，没有独立呼吸能力的胎儿并不拥有人的法定地位, 这等于肯定了人流的合法性。

However, from a Buddhist perspective, a life begins at the very moment when an antarabhava (soul) combines with the father’s sperm and the mother’s egg. In Buddhism such a stage is called Pratisamdhi, from where the new living entity begins to experience its karma. According to Chapter 56 of the Maharatnakuta Sutra, the growth of an embryo has to go through a duration of 38 weeks. The scripture has described in detail the weekly development of the embryo. That means starting from the very first week, the new living entity is bound to experience all kinds of karma at any moment. For example, in the first 7-days, the embryo feels that it is lying in a sealed burning pot filled with stinking blood and flesh. In the second 7-days, The embryo feels that it is being tortured in a burning pot filled with excrement, etc. We may want to know that when the capacity of suffering begins, life begins! Therefore from the standpoint of karma, the “minor surgery” is an act of murder, and the persons concerned, both the father and mother, have to bear the consequences of karma!

但从佛教的角度来说，生命从中阴身与父精母血结合的一刻就已经开始，佛教称之为结生，新生命体从此需要承受业报。根据《大宝积经》第五十六卷，胎儿的成长须经过三十八个七天。经文详细讲述了每一周胎儿的变化，即是从第一个七天开始，新生命体无时不刻都在感受着各种业报。比方说在第一个七天，胎儿感觉自己躺在恶臭的血肉中，并好像在一个不透气的热锅里一样。第二个七天，胎儿感觉像在粪秽热锅中饱受煎熬等，须知当业报开始，生命也随之而开始! 所以在因果上说，这个“小手术”就是杀害一条生命。而当事人，包括父母双方，都需要为此背负因果！

讲解 | 释宏添   北京天开寺