本論文探討早期佛教中對「愛」的看法及用法。以不同宗教對「愛」的見解來點出為何早期佛教對「愛」的看法是相當不同。是因為大部分的第一印象就是佛陀所宣講的十二緣起支的第八支，也就是緣取、有、生、老病死的「愛」支，所以讓《阿含經》中「愛」是屬於被佛陀所斥責的，並教導如何斷除這個「愛」，進而使「愛」讓人有負面的感覺？但是，另一方面，從經典裡又可以看到佛陀教導在家眾如何培養對自己、夫妻之間、父母子女間及朋友之間的「愛」的情況，看起來又像是佛陀贊同的「愛」。為了釐清這種矛盾的情形，本文從《雜阿含經》與《長阿含經》著手，從漢譯經典裡先找出有出現「愛」的詞彙及其出現的上下文，再對照巴利文經典，找出「愛」的巴利原文大部分是taṇhā，針對原意為「渴望(craving)、渴(thirst)」引申為「貪」的taṇhā來探討為何翻譯為「愛」。不同於《雜阿含經》/《相應部》的結果，從《長阿含經》的整理結果可以看到，正面及負面的字彙比《雜阿含經》/《相應部》多樣化了許多，發現了正面的愛是絕大部分都是與待人處世有關的，而負面的愛則是跟佛陀的教法內容描述有關，也就是這些正面的愛是跟快樂/喜悅有關的，而那些負面的愛，是跟享樂有關的，是會導致苦果的那一類的愛。接著，並搭配當代學者們的不同語言著作對「愛」的看法，得到英文皆用love，巴利原文為mettā，也就是中文常用的慈悲。再從「愛」、「渴望」與「慈悲」的定義上面得到他們之間的關聯，也就是被漢譯為「愛/貪愛」的原文是taṇhā，而其巴利文原意為craving(渴望)或thirst(渴)，也就是中文「貪」的意思；而被漢譯為「慈悲」的原文是mettā，其巴利文原意是to love (愛)，也就是中文「愛」的意思，也可延伸有「同理心」的意思。最後，本論文經口考老師們的建議，題目稍作修改為《佛陀「愛」？「不愛」？探索漢譯《阿含經》中的「愛」》。
This dissertation aims to delineate the ideas and contexts of “love” in early Buddhism and to explain why concepts of “love” in early Buddhism are very different from other religions’ concepts of love. General impressions on this issue center around the eighth chain of the Twelve Nidānas or Dependent Origination, namely cravings/ longings/ desires (Pāli: Taṇhā). Therefore, in Chinese Āgama, we read how “love” was refuted by Buddha, who taught the way to separate oneself from this “love” and entertain negative feelings towards it. However, in other scriptures, we also see how Buddha taught householders how to cultivate “love” towards self, spouse, parents, brothers and sisters, and friends; it would seem Buddha support the concept of “love.” To clarify this seeming paradox, this dissertation examines Chinese Āgama, locates the term and contexts of “love” in Chinese Buddhist scriptures, and compares these entries to the scriptures in Pāli. We find the Pāli term used in the original scriptures and translated as “love” is generally Taṇhā, which means craving and thirst and has the connotation of greed. Examination Chinese Āgama of shows that positive and negative description of love multiply; essentially, positive descriptions are generally about dealing with people while negative descriptions are more related to Buddha’s teachings. In other words, positive sense of love is about happiness and joy while negative sense of love is about seeking pleasure, which will lead to pain. The next step is to see how contemporary scholars talk about “love” in their works of different languages. To sum up, we can say the Chinese translation of love/ greedy love derives from Taṇhā, which in Pāli refers to craving or thirst and connects to the Chinese connotation of greed. The Chinese translation of compassion derives from mettā, which in Pāli refers to love and has the connotation of empathy. Finally, following the suggestion from the defense committee members, we changed the title of this dissertation into “ To Love? or Not to Love?” in Terms of the Buddhist Perspective according to Chinese Āgama
