纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 041无量寿佛坐像(6)

（单词翻译）

He's seated cross-legged in the lotus position, a pose used for meditation¹ and, as here, for teaching.

他的莲花坐姿是佛教中冥想与说法时的姿势。

But this statue-and the thousands made later that look so like it-has a purpose.Tibetan Thupten Jinpa, a former monk² and interpreter to the Dalai Lama, explains how you use an image like this one as a help on your journey towards enlightenment:

这尊佛像与后来出现的成千上万的类似佛像都有着同一个目的。曾做过僧人的图登金巴向我们解释佛像如何助人开悟:

"What the religious practitioners³ do is to bring the image of the Buddha⁴-by first looking at the image, and then bringing that image of the Buddha within oneself-in a sort of a mental image.And then reflect upon the qualities of the Buddha-Buddha's body, speech and mind. The image of the Buddha plays a role of recalling in the mind of the devotee, the historical teacher, the Buddha, and his experience of awakening⁵, and also the key events in his life. There are different images, forms of the Buddha, that actually kind of symbolise those events. For example, there is a very famous posture⁶ of the Buddha, which is seated but with his hand in a gesture of preaching. Technically⁷, this hand gesture is referred to as the gesture of turning the wheel of dharma, Dharmachakra.

修行者凝视佛像，佛的形象随之进入他们的心灵。之后他们思考佛的身、语、意。佛像能令信徒想起佛陀，回忆起他的奉献、开悟以及重要事迹。不同形式的佛像实际上就代表了不同的事迹。比如，佛陀有一个很著名的姿势：结跏趺坐，手作说法印。其实严格来说, 这应该叫转法轮印，意为转动佛法之轮。

And this is the hand gesture of our seated Buddha. The Dharmachakra, or Wheel of Law, is a symbol that represents the path to enlightenment, and it's one of the oldest known Buddhist⁸ symbols found in Indian art.

这正是本文中坐佛的手势。法轮象征了通往开悟的道路，是印度艺术中已知最古老的佛教象征。