(２８)为了让各位更清楚了解涅槃，我们应想想这个问题：
“低等动物能证得涅槃吗？”

28) Now to give you a clearer and deeper under- standing of this subject, we shall consider the question

28) “Can the lower animals attain nibbāna?”

　　佛陀用“般涅槃”(parinibbayati)”、“已般涅槃”(parinibbuto)这二个字，谈到动物经训练直到野性消除(泰本巴利藏第１３册，１７６页)。一条狗、一只大象、一匹马或任何动物，若被训养和好好训练之后，不再难以驾御，我们可以用“已般涅槃”这个字。同样的字，也可以用在阿罗汉(arahant)或烦恼止息的人身上，这二个字适用于完全熄灭三毒火——完全冷静的人。佛世时所用的巴利文里，“般涅槃”这个字也可以这么用：当引用于人类时，指的是烦恼的止息或阿罗汉境界；引用于低等动物时，指的是野性消除；引用于火时，指的是余烬熄灭‘冷却。饭或粥煮好后，装入碗里冷却，也用“般涅槃”这个字。

　　“般涅槃”是个很平常的字，日常生活中人们用它表示热的东西变冷了，不伤人了。动物也可以得到涅槃，我们别不如动物，也不应该把涅槃转交到死后，而应当从涅槃中得到利益，否则把佛陀最有价值的东西变成废物，那真是愚蠢至极啊！

　　让我们以它的衍生字“已般涅槃”(parinibbuto)，重新研读“涅槃”(nibbana)、“般涅槃”(parinibbana)，这样将会激起我们去接触涅槃的勇气与毅力，而不会像目前一样，一听到涅槃就想睡觉、就害怕，或只是感到无聊而立刻退缩。

IN ONE OF his discourses, the Buddha uses the words parinibbāyati and parinibbuto in reference to animals that have been trained until their self-assertiveness has been eliminated. For a dog, an elephant, a horse, or anything whatever that is trained until it is tame and no longer unruly, we can use the word parinibbuto, the same word used regarding an arahant (one who has eliminated the defilements completely). These two words are applicable to one who has put out the fires completely, a person who is completely cooled down. In the Pali language as spoken at the time of the Buddha, the word “parinibbāna” could be used in this way, also. When applied to a human being, it meant the achieving of the extinction of defilements, or arahantship (spiritual perfection). When applied to a lower animal, it meant attaining the extinction of self-assertiveness. Applied to a fire, it referred to the going out and becoming cool of the embers. In speaking of boiled or steamed rice which had been served into a bowl and had become cool, the word used was parinibbāna. It was an ordinary word, used in a general way for everyday worldly things, to indicate something become cool, something rendered harmless.

So we ought to take good advantage of nibbāna and not remain worse off than the beasts to which words like these also can be applied. Don’t put it off until death comes. That is the height of stupidity, wasting the Buddha’s invaluable gift. Let us study afresh the terms “nibbāna” and “parinibbāna” with its derivative “parinibbuto”. Then there will arise the courage and ardour for the job of penetrating to and attaining that which is called “nibbāna”. Let us not shrink back like those people who on hearing the word “nibbāna” become drowsy, apprehensive, or just bored.

　　我要邀请各位男女青年朋友们多关心“涅槃”这个字。涅槃就是消除一切毒害，甚至男女情欲也要消除，就像是动物被训练到危险的野性消除一样，那是完全的清凉。让我们成为完全冷静的人，没有任何事可以惹火我们，烧恼我们，不要再无知地制造热恼，就能获行涅槃。由“现证涅槃”或“现法涅槃”做起，我们就能够逐渐达到真实涅槃的境界。

I ask all of you to interest yourselves in the word “nibbāna”. The getting rid of harmful influences, even the passing of one’s youth, may be called a sort of nibbāna. Just as with animals which have been trained until their dangerous self-assertiveness has been eliminated, these are parinibbuto, that is, coolness, complete coolness. So let us be completely cool people who have nothing that can set fire to us and burn us. Let us not thoughtlessly produce heat, but rather win the prize that is nibbāna. To begin with the kind known as sandi..hika-nibbāna or di..hadhamma-nibbāna, then by degrees we can work up to the level of real nibbāna.