[宗教精神裡的愛和智慧]
宗教精神，除了「真」和「誠」之外，
精華就在「愛」和「智慧」。
簡言之，「愛」和「智慧」就是宗教精神的核心。
愛與智慧從不斷關懷周遭的世界，
不斷思考人類的處境中誕生。
愛與智慧的世界有如一座高山：
「橫看成嶺側成峰，遠近高低各不同。」
登高山復有高山，所以自然努力向上爬：
「欲窮千里目，更上一層樓。」
由「小我」漸漸進展成「大我」。
初時以為
「不識廬山真面目，只緣身在此山中。」
其後才領悟到愛與智慧的世界如此巨大：
「不登高山，不知天之高也；不臨深壑，不知地之厚也。」
《勸學篇》(荀子)
所以攀登到某一個高度之後，謙卑感悠然而生。
「天高地迥，覺宇宙之無窮；興盡悲來，識盈虛之有數。
關山難越，誰悲失路之人。萍水相逢，盡是他鄉之客。」
《滕王閣序》(王勃)
天主教和基督教的聖經裡有四節金句是這樣說的：
「太初有道，道與神同在，道就是神。」
《約翰福音 1:1》
「神就是愛；住在愛裏面的，就是住在神裏面，神也住在他裏面。」
《約翰一書 4:16》
「神是個靈，所以拜他的，必須用心靈和誠實拜他。」
《約翰福音 4:24》
「敬畏耶和華是智慧的開端，認識至聖者便是聰明。」
《箴言 9:10》
「得智慧，得聰明的，這人便為有福。
因為得智慧勝過得銀子，其利益強如精金，
比珍珠 [或作紅寶石] 寶貴；
你一切所喜愛的，都不足與比較。」
《箴言 3:13-15》
天主教和基督教裡的「神」究竟是甚麼？
我們可以想像一位沒有「道」的神嗎？
如果「道」不成為肉身，如果沒有神蹟，
難道「道」就不再存在了嗎？
難道天主教和基督教裡的「神」就不存在了嗎？
天主教和基督教相信：
神就是「道」，神就是「愛」，敬畏神是「智慧」的開端，
「愛」和「智慧」就是世上的光！
那麼，那些不相信愛和智慧的人，如何修行？
只相信愛，但拒絕智慧的人，如何修行？
只相信智慧，但拒絕愛的人，又如何修行？
對修行者來說，愛和恨必然同時存在，
愛善必然同時恨惡，正如擁抱菁必然同時歧視蕪！
I give you a new commandment :
love one another.
Just as I have loved you,
so you should love one another.
( Jesus Christ )
I know of only one duty, and that is to love.
( Albert Camus )
Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer
to the problem of human existence.
( Erich Fromm )
The final lesson of history could be
summed up in three words : love one another.
( Morton Kelsey )
「愛」之中沒有「虛偽」！
Love takes off masks
that we fear we cannot live without
and know we cannot live within.
( James Baldwin )
說得難聽一點，「愛」和「智慧」根本都是賭博，
所以它們都需要「勇氣」courage，因為賭博會有輸贏。
「愛」不求回報，求回報的只可能是投資和交易，
所以「愛」不可能全知，「愛」亦並非全能，
但「愛」卻是人類的救贖；
「智慧」並非全知，「智慧」並非全能，
但「智慧」，尤其是互相批判而產生的集體「智慧」，
是人類唯一可靠的憑藉。
「愛」和「智慧」的程度越高，賭博的勝算就越大。
There is no safe investment.
To love at all is to be vulnerable.
Love anything, and your heart will
certainly be wrung and possibly be broken.
If you want to make sure of keeping it intact,
you must give your heart to no one,
not even to an animal.
( C. S. Lewis )
所以如果神就是「愛」的話，
堅持神是全知和全能，就是犯了邏輯上嚴重的矛盾，
除非我們修改「愛」的定義！
如果我們謹慎的思考，切身地體驗和修行，
我們就明白「愛」和「智慧」必須手牽手一起作工，
愛之中不可能沒有智慧，智慧之中不可能沒有愛。
「愛」和「智慧」手牽手，就是「道」！
如果我們不明白這一點，就不可能解釋聖經中《約伯記》的故事，
會認為全知的神一定勝券在握，玩弄魔鬼於指掌之間！
換言之，我們必須假設《約伯記》裡記載的神是一個虛偽的神，
而魔鬼亦是愚蠢的魔鬼，不可能和蛇一樣狡猾！
這就是為何數學家和哲學家羅素素認為愛智的人，
必須重視懷疑和批判的精神。
A drop of water is not immortal;
it can be resolved into oxygen and hydrogen.
If, therefore, a drop of water were to maintain
that it had a quality of aqueousness
which would survive its dissolution
we should be inclined to be skeptical.
( Bertrand Russell )
也許文學家 Toni Morrison 解釋「神就是愛」這個概念，
雖然並非哲學家眼中嚴謹的文字，但會比較一般人清晰：
Let me tell you about love, that silly word you
believe is about whether you like somebody
or whether somebody likes you or whether you
can put up with somebody in order to get
something or someplace you want or
you believe it has to do with how your body
responds to another body like robins or bison
or maybe you believe love is how forces or
nature or luck is benign to you in particular
not maiming or killing you but if so doing
it for your own good. Love is none of that.
There is nothing in nature like it.
Not in robins or bison or
in the banging tails of your hunting dogs
and not in blossoms or suckling foal.
Love is divine only and difficult always.
If you think it is easy you are a fool.
If you think it is natural you are blind.
It is a learned application without reason
or motive except that it is God. You do not
deserve love regardless of the suffering you
have endured. You do not deserve love because
somebody did you wrong. You do not deserve
love just because you want it. You can only
earn──by practice and careful contemplations
──the right to express it and you have to
learn how to accept it.
Which is to say you have to earn God.
You have to practice God.
You have to think God──carefully.
And if you are a good and diligent student
you may secure the right to show love.
Love is not a gift. It is a diploma.
A diploma conferring certain privileges:
the privilege of expressing love
and the privilege of receiving it.
How do you know you have graduated？
You don’t.
What you do know is that you are human and
therefore educable, and therefore capable of
learning how to learn, and therefore interesting
to God, who is interested only in Himself
which is to say He is interested only in love.
Do you understand me？
God is not interested in you. He is interested
in love and the bliss it brings to those who
understand and share the interest. Couples that
enter the sacrament of marriage and are not
prepared to go the distance or are not willing
to get right with the real love of God cannot
thrive. They may cleave together like robins or
gulls or anything else that mates for life.
But if they eschew this mighty course,
at the moment when all are judged
for the disposition of their eternal lives,
their cleaving won’t mean a thing.
God bless the pure and holy. Amen.
( Toni Morrison, Paradise )