《呆寶漫遊記》的緣起
文圖／冰果
2004年10月5日的兒童節，我到學校去看孩子的表演。走回來時，一路上腦子裡還在回味著幼兒歡樂的歌舞聲。
不知為什麼，忽然我想起了俄羅斯北奧塞梯共和國別斯蘭市第一中學喪生的兒童，我想到，小孩子如果突然遇到無常的襲擊，是多麼可憐、多麼惶恐，在一片混沌迷亂的境界中，不會再有爸爸媽媽陪在一旁、沒有人能牽著他帶領他走或指引他，如果平素對死亡完全沒有概念，不知何去何從的他就只能隨著境界轉了。
但是跟小孩解釋死亡卻不是容易的一件事。一方面我們不希望引起他的恐懼感，而中陰身的境界對小孩子來說畢竟是深奧了些。於是我想用講故事的方式來帶出中陰身會面臨的境界，並告訴他到時應該怎麼做，至少讓小孩子有一個印象，即使他讀了不當一回事，有一天他真正身歷其境時，或許他會忽然想起這個故事、會知道該做些什麼，因為這個故事就是一個緣份的種子啊。
當然，對於死亡，我自己也不曾經歷過，唯有從師尊所寫的【度過生死的大海】一書，載錄中陰身面臨的種種境界，把師尊給于中陰身最重要的叮嚀慎重的、並盡量用孩童看得懂的語言寫出來。因此這本書最重要的內容，其實都來自師尊。整個過程，就好像有股力量將大綱填進我的腦裡，讓我懂得翻到這些內容，然後借用我給孩子講故事的口說出來。就這樣，我就一筆呵成的寫出了【呆寶漫遊記】這個故事。
父母都深愛孩子，都想這世上把最寶貴的獻給孩子，我心裡認為，既然到頭來人人都難免一死，最最寶貴的禮物莫過於讓他們在這一世結束後就回到摩訶雙蓮池去，不要再回到六道中無休止的輪迴。無常是隨時會降臨的，我們無法牽著孩子的手度過生死的大海，可是至少我們能儘早讓他知道這條路該怎麼走。
感恩師尊，能讓不擅於畫圖的我奇蹟式的完成這套漫畫。慈悲的師尊是多麼關愛孩童，促成這個因緣，讓我們能夠出版兒童漫畫版的《度過生死的大海》，利益無量的眾生。我也衷心感謝《燃燈雜誌社》出版此書，功德無量！謝謝！
November 5th, 2004 was Children’s Day. I went to school to watch the children’s performance. On my way home, the delightful sound of the children singing and dancing was still lingering in my mind.
For no reason, my mind suddenly drifted to the children who died during the hostage situation at Secondary School No. 1 in Beslan, North Ossetia, and I realized how horrifying and pitiful it would be for a child to be struck by the impermanence of life. Drifting in that misty and confused state unaccompanied by father or mother and with nobody to hold his hand or guide him, if he had never wondered about death before, he would probably be very lost and confused by the circumstances.
However, it is not easy to explain “death” to children. On one hand, we do not want to arouse fear, but on the other hand, the circumstances faced by Bardo spirit is certainly too hard to be understood by children. Thus, I was thinking of helping them to understand the world of Bardo spirits by way of story telling. By teaching through stories, children can understand what they should do there and then, or at least have an idea of it. Even if they did not take it seriously, one day, when they actually face the circumstances, they might recall this story and know what they ought to do, as this story sets in as a seed of affinity.
Of course, with regards death, I myself have never experienced it before, and as such, I can only refer to Grand Master’s book [Crossing the Ocean of Life and Death] to point out various circumstances that might be faced by the Bardo spirit and the most important teachings given by Grand Master relating to the Bardo spirit in children’s language. Therefore, the most important contents of this book come from Grand Master. It is as if there is a force which pumps the ideas into my mind, leads me to the contents, and borrows my mouth to pour it out. It is in this manner that I completed this story [THE WONDERING OF DAIBAO].
Parents love their children deeply and wish to give children the most precious things in this world. I myself feel that, since everyone has to face death one day, the most precious gift would be no more than making sure that they could get to Maha Twin Lotus Ponds after this life, and not returning to the six realms for everlasting reincarnation. The impermanence of life may strike at any moment; we cannot hold our children’s hands to cross the ocean of life and death, but at least we can let them know in advance how they should cross it.
I am grateful to Grand Master for enabling me to complete this cartoon despite my lack of artistic talent. Our kind hearted Grand Master loves children so much that he had created this affinity for us to publish the children’s version of [Crossing the Ocean of Life and Death] to benefit countless sentient beings. I also truly appreciate the Enlightenment Magazine who have undertaken the heavy burden of publishing the books, endless merits indeed! Thank you!
這一天，和平日一樣，呆寶和朋友一同踏腳車玩。
今天他是踏得最快的，把大家遠遠的拋在後頭。
他一時得意，沒有注意到已經到了路口。
On this day, Daibao, as usual, went cycling with his friends.
Today he was the fastest, leaving everyone else behind.
He became complacent, and did not notice that he had reached the junction.
Suddenly, a car appeared and with a “bang”, sent Daibao and his bike flying.
奇怪，他真的飛出來了。飛行的感覺還真不錯，不過天色不知道為什麼已經暗了下來。
他轉回頭，看到他的朋友們正團團圍在一輛車子旁，小偉正在大哭、小明嚇得發抖，連他們的爸爸媽媽也來了。
他想起了媽媽，就看到媽媽正在做運動，可是媽媽卻沒看到他。
Strangely enough, he had actually flown up. The feeling of flying wasn’t bad at all, but he wondered why the sky seemed to have turned dark.
He looked back and saw his friends standing around a car. Xiao Wei was crying hard, Xiao Ming was frightened and shivering, and their parents were already there.
He thought of his mother and saw her exercising, but she did not see him.
他看到妹妹在看電視，這時，電視裡的怪獸跑出來了，向他衝過來。他嚇得大叫，沒命的飛奔。
他看到前面有一列火車，真有趣，他從來沒有乘過火車呢。正想飛進去，卻想起了媽媽曾經說過的師尊講的故事：有個人死後，看到火車，一躲進去，卻變成了蜈蚣寶寶。
He saw his sister watching television, and at that moment, the monster in the television escaped from the television screen and chased after him. He screamed and ran for his life.
He saw a train in front of him and it looked like a lot of fun. Daibao had never ridden on a train before. As he was going to fly into it, he suddenly recalled Grand Master’s story that mother had told him: a person died and saw a train, and when he hid himself inside the train, he turned into a baby centipede.
一忽兒，他看到牛魔王拿著藤鞭追過來，他又拔腿便逃。
他看到了飛機！是他最喜歡的噴射機！
He saw a plane! It was his favorite jet plane.
But… no, no, no, if he hid into the plane, he would become a bird! His schoolmates always used elastic bows to shoot them, poor birds!
