得大势，乃往古昔，过无量无边不可思议阿僧祇劫，有佛名威音王如来。其佛灭后，像法之中，有一增上慢比丘，势力甚大。尔时有一菩萨比丘，名常不轻。得大势，以何因缘，名常不轻？是比丘，凡有所见，若比丘比丘尼，优婆塞优婆夷，皆悉礼拜赞叹，而作是言：我深敬汝等，不敢轻慢，所以者何？汝等皆行菩萨道，当得作佛。而是比丘，不专读诵经典，但行礼拜，乃至远见四众，亦复故往礼拜赞叹，而作是言：我不敢轻于汝等，汝等皆当作佛。
逐句解释
常不轻菩萨——「我不敢轻于汝等，汝等皆当作佛」
「常不轻菩萨」是《法华经》最感人的人物之一。他的名字来自他的行为：他见到任何人——比丘、比丘尼、居士、女居士——都会合掌礼拜，说：「我不敢轻视你们，因为你们都在行菩萨道，都将成佛。」他的整个修行，就是这一句话和这一个礼拜。
Never Disparaging Bodhisattva (常不轻) received his name from his practice: whenever he met any person — monk, nun, layman, or laywoman — he would bow to them and say: "I deeply respect you. I would not dare hold you in contempt. Why? Because you are all practising the bodhisattva path and will attain Buddhahood."
The practice of Never Disparaging Bodhisattva is the Lotus Sutra's most radical statement about how to treat other beings. His entire spiritual practice consists of a single gesture and a single sentence, repeated without variation to every person he meets. He does not select the worthy; he bows to everyone. He does not require evidence of their practice; he sees the seed of Buddhahood in all of them, and acts accordingly. This is the practical application of the sutra's central teaching: if every being will become a Buddha, then every being deserves the respect due to a future Buddha — right now, exactly as they are.
他被毁骂、投石——仍然礼拜，从远处说
人们不接受他的礼拜，有的嘲笑他，有的辱骂他，有人甚至用杖棒和石头打他。但常不轻菩萨从不反击、从不怨恨——他只是走远一点，继续从远处合掌说：「我不敢轻于汝等，汝等皆当作佛。」攻击他的人骂他「狂人」，他仍然礼拜。这种坚持不是固执，而是不可动摇的慈悲。
People mocked him, insulted him, struck him with staffs and stones. Never Disparaging did not retaliate. He would simply move to a distance and continue calling out his salutation: "I would not dare hold you in contempt — you will all become Buddhas!" Those who struck him called him crazy. He still bowed to them.
The violence directed at Never Disparaging is not incidental; it is the test. His practice is only meaningful because it is maintained under assault. Anyone can respect people who respect them back; it takes a different order of realisation to continue bowing to someone who is throwing stones at you. The fact that he moves to a distance — to avoid being struck — while continuing his salutation is a detail of quiet wisdom: he is not a masochist seeking punishment, nor is he a pushover who has no self-preservation. He is someone who has simply decided that the truth about every being's Buddha-nature is more important than any particular person's current behaviour toward him.
临命终时，得闻《法华经》，寿命延长，广为说法
常不轻菩萨在临终时，忽然从虚空中听到了威音王佛所说的《法华经》，当下全部受持。他的寿命因此延长，继续为众生广说《法华经》，那些曾经迫害他的人，最终也因此获益，踏上了成佛之路。这个转折充满了慈悲的讽刺：迫害者，最终成为受益者。
As Never Disparaging approached death, he heard the voice of Many Treasures Buddha reciting the Lotus Sutra from empty space, received it completely, and his lifespan was extended. He then spent many more years teaching the sutra — and those who had beaten and mocked him eventually received the teaching from him and attained Buddhahood.
The denouement is theologically perfect. The people who attacked him are not punished; they are educated. Their violence against him did not disqualify them from the Dharma — nothing does. And the teacher who brings them to the Dharma is the very person they abused. Never Disparaging's years of bowing to them, of insisting on their future Buddhahood even as they threw stones, was itself a form of planting seeds. The seeds germinated. When the sutra was eventually taught directly, those beings were ready to receive it — in part because of the long, strange preparation of being respected by someone they treated with contempt.
常不轻菩萨，即是释迦牟尼前身
佛陀最后揭示：常不轻菩萨正是他自己的前身。正是这种「礼敬一切众生」的修行，奠定了他成佛的基础。这个揭示意味深长：成佛的关键，不是苦行或智识，而是对每个生命不可动摇的尊重与信任。见到每个人的佛性——即便他们还不知道——就是菩萨行。
The Buddha reveals: Never Disparaging Bodhisattva was none other than myself in a past life. It was through that practice of bowing to every being and affirming their future Buddhahood that I laid the foundation for my own awakening.
This final revelation reframes the entire chapter as autobiography. The practice of Never Disparaging — so simple, so repetitive, so apparently naive — is identified as the decisive practice of a future Buddha. Not the mastery of abstruse philosophy, not heroic asceticism, not miraculous powers. Bowing. Saying "you will become a Buddha" to every person you meet, and meaning it, no matter how they respond. The teaching is stark in its implication: if you want to know what a Buddha does, this is it. See the seed of awakening in every face. Act accordingly. Do not stop, no matter what.
总结 · Summary
常不轻菩萨的故事是《法华经》最动人的篇章之一。他没有博学的教义，没有神奇的法力——他只有一个礼拜和一句话：「我不敢轻于汝等，汝等皆当作佛。」他在嘲笑、辱骂、石头中，从未停止。最后，他自己成了佛，那些打过他的人也因他的持续尊重而最终得度。佛陀揭示：这就是他自己的前身。成佛的根本，是不可动摇地尊重每一个众生的佛性。
The story of Never Disparaging Bodhisattva is perhaps the most beloved in the entire Lotus Sutra. His practice is disarmingly simple: bow to everyone, tell them they will become Buddhas, and keep doing it no matter how they respond. Mocked, beaten, and called crazy, he never retaliates and never gives up. His persecutors eventually become his students, and he eventually becomes — as the Buddha reveals — Shakyamuni himself. The teaching is the story: the path to Buddhahood runs through unconditional respect for the Buddha-nature in every being. Not wisdom, not power, not knowledge. Seeing clearly what is true about others, and acting on that vision with absolute consistency.