佛喻啟蒙──從《百喻經圖畫書》故事的「迷」與「悟」探討佛教經典對兒童教育的啟覺義涵=Enlightenment of Buddhist Parables ──An Investigation on How a Buddhist Classic Enlightens and Inspires Children Education from the Perspective of “Obsession” and “Enlightenment” of stories in Hundred Parables Sutra Picture Book
Buddhist culture was originated from the ancient India, and was spread from India to China via Western Regions in the Western and Eastern Dynasties. It significantly affects Chinese culture and has become an inseparable from Chinese cultural thinking. Buddhism is the teaching provided by Buddha, and its religious philosophy aims to help all people prove the existence of their Buddha nature, as well as get rid of sufferings, attain happiness, and reach ultimate nirvana. When Buddha preached general public, he used various skillful means to explain Buddhism to them. It is believed that among the Dharma explained by Buddha to general public, there certainly is Dharma suitable to be explained to children. Buddha’s teaching certainly can be connected to children education. However, how do they closely connect with each other? The courses that enlighten and inspire children’s perception should be where Buddha’s teaching and children education converge. Different from general moral education and life care education, the courses that enlighten and inspire children’s perception aim to inspire children’s Buddha nature and enable them to become spiritual giants who are able to adhere to their purity without being disturbed, get along with all things with equal, merciful, brave, and peaceful attitudes, and deal with people using harmonious, responsible, and flexible methods. In this study, the courses that enlighten and inspire children’s perception are originated from the ideas of Buddha’s teaching – Although a great person passed away, the examples het set will be passed down. Although people nowadays cannot be directly instructed by Buddha, fortunately, the essences of Buddha’s teaching can be found everywhere in Buddhist classics and are accessible to anyone. The author was inspired by “Education of Perception” advocated by founder of Huafan University, Ven. Hiu Wan, to conduct this study investigating courses that enlighten and inspire children’s perception using its framework and spirt as the ideal blueprint. To perform specific discussions closer to practical teaching, this study further explored on the appropriateness of use of “Buddhist Parables” as teaching materials in the courses that enlighten and inspire children’s perception. Moreover, this study selected Hundred Parables Sutra Picture Book as the sample to perform analysis directly. Hundred Parables Sutra Picture Book was compiled by many writers of children’s literature by rewriting the Buddhist parables in Hundred Parables Sutra. It includes a total of 40 stories which are comprehensible to children, interesting, suitable for children’s self-reading, and suitable for triggering learning motivation during the implementation of courses that enlighten and inspire children’s inspiration. The author used the “Four Noble Truths” – suffering, origin of suffering, cessation of suffering, and path to the cessation of suffering – as the framework to analyze and investigate 40 stories of silly people in Hundred Parables Sutra Picture Book to uncover the explicit and implicit metaphors in Hundred Parables Sutra Picture Book, as well as the meanings about how obsession and enlightenment inspire perception. Hopefully, the spirit of the time of B
