"Just because we do not perceive something, it is not correct to say it doesn't exist."

《你可以不怕死》（一行禅师著，胡因梦译）Part 4

Nothing Is Born, Nothing Dies
没有任何事物被创生，没有任何事物被毁灭

A French scientist, whose name is Lavosier, declared, "Rien ne se cree, rien ne se perd." "Nothing is born, nothing dies." Although he did not practice as a Buddhist but as a scientist, he found the same truth the Buddha discovered.

一位名叫拉瓦锡（Lavoisier）［2］的法国科学家曾经声明：“没有任何事物被创造出来，没有任何事物被毁灭。”（Rien ne se crée，rien ne se perd.）虽然他并不是佛教修行人而是一位科学家，他发现的真理与佛陀发现的真理却是相通的。

Our true nature is the nature of no birth and no death. Only when we touch our true nature can we transcend the fear of non-being, the fear of annihilation.

我们真正的本性是不生不灭的，只有洞察到我们真正的本性，才能转化对不存在和灭绝的恐惧。

The Buddha said that when conditions are sufficient something manifests and we say it exists. When one or two conditions fail and the thing does not manifest in the same way, we then say it does not exist. According to the Buddha, to qualify something as existing or not existing is wrong. In reality, there is no such thing as totally existing or totally not existing.

佛陀说，当条件充足时，事物就会示现出来，于是我们就说它是存在的。依照佛陀的看法，判定某个东西存在不存在，其实是一种错误的想法。事实上，没有任何一个东西是完全存在或完全不存在的。

We can see this very easily with television and radio. We may be in a room that has no television or radio. And while we are in that room, we may think that television programs and radio programs do not exist in that room. But all of us know that the space in the room is full of signals. The signals of these programs are filling the air everywhere. We need only one more condition, a radio or television set, and may forms, colors and sounds will appear.

观察一下电视机和收音机，我们很容易就明白这个道理了。我们也许正在一个没有电视机或收音机的房间里，待在这个房间里，我们很可能会认为电视节目或广播节目都不存在。但是我们要知道，房间里其实充满着各种讯号，那些节目的讯号充满了整个大气。我们只要再多一个条件，譬如一台收音机或电视机，那么各式各样的影像、色彩及声响就会出现。

It would have been wrong to say that the signals do not exist because we did not have a radio or television to receive and manifest them. They only seemed not to exist because the causes and conditions were not enough to make the television program manifest. So at that moment, in that room, they do not exist. Just because we do not perceive something, it is not correct to say it doesn't exist. It is only our notion of being and non-being that makes us think something exists or doesn't exist. Notions of being and non-being cannot be applied to reality.

如果没有一台可以收讯和显像的电视机或收音机，便说这些讯号不存在，这样的想法是错误的。它们看起来好像不存在，是因为让电视节目显现出来的条件不足，所以我们待在那个房间里的那段时间，才会说它们是不存在的。若是未觉知到某个事物，就说它不存在，这样的想法是不正确的。只有一件事会真的令我们产生困惑迷茫，那就是对存在与不存在下论断。对存在与不存在下论断，会使我们深信某个东西是存在的，或者某个东西不存在。对存在与不存在的论断，完全无法适用于实相