Many things in this world find neither an answer nor a proper explanation. For example, why should two become a couple among the billions of people on earth Why don”t they love each other even though they live together everyday, and yet one of them falls in love with someone else at the first sight Why do the members of a family quarrel daily but still stay unhappily together Why can”t they get married in spite of the fact that they are a perfect match to each other Why should one toil so much for the other Why should the love-infatuated always be deserted by the heartless .....
People remain puzzled in spite of their great effort to understand the endless questions, so they invented the all-embracing word---“predestination”. In order to be more precise, different combinations were derived from it: love predestination, sinful predestination, evil predestination, and kind predestination etc., hence we have the sayings like: “Predestination will definitely bring you together despite the great distance while without predestination, you”ll never know each other even though you are standing fact to face” “A distant couple is tied up with the thread of predestination” and even the phrases and expressions like “the god of marriage”, “predestination without luck”, “luck without predestination”, “Coming across each other is a kind of predestination”, “Enemies are bound to meet on a narrow road”, “They shall not marry each other unless they are predestined lovers”. If people still can not find answers, they turn to “reincarnation” for help. Lin Daiyu is always in tears just for repaying for the water Jia Baoyu had given her when she was a plant in her previous life in A Dream of the Red Mansions .
In fact, the so-called “predestination” is often a kind of coincidence or chance encounter, even a kind of accident. If you don”t meet this person, you”ll surely meet some one else. But people insist on adding some colors of emotions or superstition, thus generating various religious factions, the main theories of which are no more than that of “reincarnation”, “heaven and hell” and “the ever-lasting soul” etc.
But does anyone know anything about his previous life or his after life What could he do even if he knew them If he can”t grasp the present life, what”s the benefit of commenting on the visionary after life Giving up today is the same as giving up tomorrow, for they are closely connected. How absurd it is to work like the horse or cattle in the present life in order to be above others in the next life.
Have you ever seen emperor Qinshihuang reincarnate Have you ever heard of Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty going into another life Where is now Monk Xuanzang of the Tang Dynasty (What we know is the Big Wild Goose Pagoda) Where is the Monkey King (The Flower and Fruit Mountain does exist, though) And where can we find those great emperors such as Yao , Shun Yu and the influential philosophers like Confucius, Laozi and Zhuangzi
How many heavens do we find Are they also divided into the oriental and the occidental world Is God a Chinese or westerner Which is the greatest religion among Buddhism, Daoism, Christianity, Catholicity and Islamism All religions advocate doing good deeds and not killing, but why do they keep contending against each other, even fighting and killing among themselves Is the paradise the same one in all religions There”s only one sun in the sky, and there should be only one emperor in a country, but do all religions believe in the same God, or do they have different gods of their own If all of us expected God”s help, wouldn”t God be too busy and too tired
Does God respect science If not, why does he allow computers and telecommunications to run rampant If it is God who created human beings, then doesn”t He feel out of control of what the human being are doing now (the nuclear weapons and bio-chemical weapons, etc.)
We human beings have an origin, and is it the same with God Does God get married Is God hereditary, or is it the same ever-lasting one
We have all those questions but who can answer them .
Predestination needs us to strive for; friendship needs us to maintain; good will needs us to treasure and future needs us to create. There is no Savior, nor Goddess of Mercy who once saved people in the past but cannot do anything to help the people at the present. The world is developing too fast.
People have to work together and associate with each other. Talking about predestination, it”s just a kind of explanation about what has happened, and I”m afraid nobody can predict it before hand. From ancient times till the 1980” s, once getting married, the couple had to stick to each other for their whole life. Can we say it is because of their life-long predestination It is just because of the marriage system. In the western countries, life-long marriage is rare. Can we say it is because their predestination makes it so It is actually the result of human nature. The color of love could be attached to predestination, but not the color of superstition.
Predestination is a lovely word which we should treasure and respect. In the present world, we should always follow the win-win or multi-win policy, instead of being single-handed. In order to achieve success, we must gain mass support instead of indulging in self-admiration. We might as well call the communication, the cooperation, the common concerns and the common aspirations of human beings “predestination”.
Translated by Zhang Baodan
中文
人世間有許多東西即沒有答案，也解釋不清。例如幾十億的人類，為什麼就你們倆結為夫妻？為什麼天天在一起沒感情，素不相識的會一見鍾情？為什麼一家人會天天吵架，又吵而不散？為什麼看去很般配的又不能結為連理？為什麼一個為另一個付出的太多？為什麼多情總被無情棄？……
百思不得其解，於是人們創造了“緣”這個包羅萬象、包容萬物的詞彙。為了左右逢緣，人們又派生了“情緣”、“孽緣”、“善緣 ” 、“惡緣”等幾大支脈。諸如：“有緣千里來相會，無緣[你閱讀的文章來自:]對面不相識”，“千里姻緣一線牽”，甚至還創造了“月下佬”、“有緣無份”、“有份無緣”、“相逢即是緣”，“冤家路窄”，“不是冤家不聚頭”等。再解釋不通，那就求助於“前生後世”了。連林黛玉流淚都是為了還前世欠賈寶玉的澆灌之情。
其實所謂“緣份”，經常是一種巧合、偶遇，甚至誤打誤撞。你不遇到這個人，你也會遇到別的人。但人們執意將其加上感情色彩，甚至迷信色彩。由此竟引出了無數的宗教門派。其主要理論無非是“前生後世”之說，“天堂地獄”之說，和“精神不滅”之說。
可是前生誰知道？知道又怎樣？後世誰予知？知道又怎樣？今天在眼前的尚不能把握，還談什麼虛無飄渺的後世？放棄今天，其實無異於放棄明天，因為二者是連續的。為了來世高人一等，寧願今世當牛做馬，是很荒唐的。
誰見過秦始皇轉世？誰聽說過漢武帝托生？唐僧今在哪裡（空餘大雁塔）？孫悟空又在何方（花果山確有其名）？三皇五帝至於今，包括孔子、老子、莊子等諸子，我們還能在哪裡找到他們的身影？
天堂有幾個？是否也分東西方？上帝是中國人、還是外國人？佛教、道教、基督教、天主教、伊斯蘭教……哪個教更正確？哪個教更偉大？各教都主張行善、不殺生，為什麼彼此、甚至內部仍爭鬥不休、甚至打打殺殺？西方極樂世界是各教共享嗎？天無二日，國無二主，上帝是大家一個，還是各教不一？都希望上帝保佑，上帝是否太忙，太累？
上帝是否崇尚科學？如不，怎麼會允許電腦、電訊泛濫？如果是上帝造人，現在人們的所作所為（核武器、化學武器等）是否讓上帝感到失控？
人有起源，上帝是否也有起源？上帝有無婚姻？是世襲，還是千古一帝？
許多問題也只能是問問，誰能作答？
緣份也要爭取，友情也要維護。恩賜也要珍惜，未來全靠創造。沒有救世主。觀世音能救古代人，幫不了現代人。世界發展太快了。
人們總要共事，總要交往。說緣，也只是事後的解釋，事前誰能予料？中國古代，乃至八十年代前，基本上一婚到底，能說就都是一世的緣？不過是中國的婚姻制度使然。而西方很少一婚到底的，你能說就都是緣本膚淺？其實是生活邏輯的自然體現。緣份可以加進感情色彩，但不必添加迷信份額。
“緣份”這個詞是蠻可愛的，要珍惜和維護。當代世界，任何事情都應該是雙贏或多贏，而不應是唯我獨享。事業要成功，就一定要搞浩浩蕩蕩，不能搞孤家寡人。我們不如就把人們這種溝通、這種共識、這種合作、這種情感叫作“緣”。
宋遠利
2002/1/16
英語演講稿《緣predestination》 標籤：奧巴馬開學演講