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All religions have to confront the key question-how can the infinite, the boundless, be apprehended? How can we, humans, draw near to the other, God? Some aim to achieve it through chanting, some through words alone, but most faiths have found images useful to focus human attention on the divine. In this week's programmes, I'll be looking at how, a little under two thousand years ago, great religions used the visual as a route to prayer. Is it more than an extraordinary coincidence that at about the same moment Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism all start showing Christ, Hindu gods and the Buddha in human form? Coincidence or not, all three religions established then artistic conventions which are still very much alive today.
所有宗教都需要面對一個關鍵問題，即如何理解永恒與無限，人類又如何親近神？有的宗教采用了吟誦的方式，有的則完全依賴文字，大部分宗教都認識到，神像能讓凡人感受神的力量。本期節目當中，我會帶領大家了解了解2000多年前偉大宗教對朝圣者的意義所在。在大約兩千年前，幾大宗教都開始用神像來傳道。基督教、佛教和印度教幾乎在同一時期采用人類的形象來表現本教神靈。這難道僅僅是巧合？不管真相如何，三大宗教都在這一時期創造出了流傳至今神的形象。
Around 1,800 years ago, Buddhism had already been in existence for centuries. The historical Buddha was a prince of the Ganges region in North India in the fifth century BC, who abandoned his royal life to become a wandering ascetic, wanting to comprehend and therefore to overcome the roots of human suffering. After many experiences he finally sat under a pipal tree and meditated without moving for 49 days until, at last, he achieved enlightenment-freedom from greed, hate, and delusion. At this moment, he became the Buddha-the "Enlightened" or the "Awakened One". He passed on his dharma (his way, his teaching) to monks and to missionaries who eventually travelled across the vast expanses of Asia. As the Buddhist message spread north, it passed into the region known as Gandhara, the area in what is now north-eastern Pakistan, around Peshawar, in the foothills of the Himalayas.
188年前，彼時佛教已經存在了數百年。據佛教文獻記載，佛陀曾是公元前15世紀北印度迦毗羅衛國的一位王子，他放棄了王族生活，成為一名苦行僧，想參透人生的苦痛與無常，助人脫離苦海。在漫長的苦行生活之后，他在一棵菩提樹下打坐，悟道49天后終于開悟，脫離了人生的貪、嗔、癡。從那一刻起，他便成了佛陀，意為“覺者”或“悟者”。 他向僧侶傳授自己的佛法，僧侶們再將其傳向亞洲各地。佛法在向北傳播的途中來到了今巴基斯坦東北部的犍陀羅，即喜馬拉雅山山腳的白沙瓦附近。
