Inspriration from all walks of life
一八三 琴瑟合鳴
有個人的婚姻發生問題，前來請益，大師說：「你應該學習聽從你的妻子。」
這人老實地遵照指示行事。一個月後他囘覆大師：他已學會聽從他老婆的每一句話了。
大師微笑着說：「現在，你囘去聽從你老婆沒有說出來的每個字。」
AT-ONE-MENT
When a man whose marriage was in trouble sought his advice, the Master said. “You
must leam to listen to your wife.”
The man took this advice to heart and returned after a month to say that he had learnt
to listen to every word his wife was saying.
Said the Master with a smile, “Now go home and listen to every word she isn’t
saying.”
一八二 宗教制裁
有天，一位門徒提到釋迦、耶穌及默罕穆德在世時，都被當代人列為強盜或異端之輩。
大師說：「除非有上千個忠誠信徒同聲指認他為褻聖者，否則他還不配自視得到至高的真理。」
PERSECUTION
A disciple was one day recalling how Buddha. Jesus, Mohammed were branded as
rebels and heretics by their contemporaries.
Said the Master, “Nobody can be said to have attained the pinnacle of Truth until a
thousand sincere people have denounced him for blasphemy.”
一八一 無 限
大師幾乎絕口不論天主或是神聖的事情。他說：「對於天主，我們只知道，我們所知道的一切簡直微不足道。」
有一天，他提到一位想盡辦法要拜他為師的人：「他來到我門下學習，結果他什麼也沒學到。」
只有少數門徒明瞭：大師所要教的，是無法學的，也無法教。所以人們確實無法從他那裏學到什麼。
INFINITY
It was impossible to get the Master to speak of God or of things divine. “About God.”
he said, “we can only know that what we know is nothing.”
One day he told of a man who deliberated long and anxiously before embarking on
discipleship. “He came to study under me; with the result that he leamt nothing.”
Only a few of the disciples understood: What the Master had to teach could not be
leamt. Nor taught. So all one could really learn from him was nothing.
一八０ 反 對
開創風氣者常飽經他人評論而受盡挫折。大師說：「仔細聽取批評的內容，那可能正是你的朋友難以啟齒的。」
他又說：「不要被那些批評打垮。你要知道，自古沒有人為批評家雕塑銅像的。被塑像的常是那些飽受批評的人。」
OPPOSITION
To a pioneering spirit who was discouraged by frequent criticism the Master said,
“Listen to the words of the critic. He reveals what your friends hide from you.”
But he also said. “Do not be weighed down by what the critic says. No statue was ever
erected to honour a critic. Statues are for the criticized.”
一七九 人性弱點
大師教給那些爭吵不休的夫妻一個無爭之道。
他說：「你只能向對方要求他施予恩惠，不能視此為你應有的權益。」
紛爭立卽中止。
一七八 有 省
有囘，弟子們聚在一起討論讀書的利益，有些人認為這是浪費時間，有些人則難以苟同。
於是他們請教大師，他說：「你曾否讀過一本書，列在正文下面的小字註解，有時也如正文一般激發讀者不少靈感？」
弟子們頷首同意。
大師接着說：「生活就好比那正文。」
DISCLOSURE
The discussion among the disciples once centred on the usefulness of reading. Some
thought it was a waste of time, others disagreed.
When the Master was appealed to, he said. “Have you ever read one of those texts in
which the notes scrawled in the margin by a reader prove to be as illuminating as the text
itself?”
The disciples nodded in agreement.
“Life.” said the Master, “is one such text,”
一七七 名 相
大師對時髦的新發明，童心未泯地好奇不已。當他看到一個可以放入口袋的迷你計算機，情不自禁地讚嘆一番。
過後，他說出相當中肯的一句話：「好像許多人的口袋裏都有這個迷你計算機，可是口袋裏却沒有多少錢值得計算。」
一週之後，有位訪客來請教授徒之道。他說：「讓他們分清本末。最好是先攢足夠的錢，然後才計數它；最好是先有具體的經驗，再去設立名相解說。」
DEFINITIONS
The Master had a childlike fascination for modern inventions. He could not get over
his amazement at the pocket calculator when he saw one.
Later he said, good-naturedly. “A lot of people seem to have those little pocket
calculators, but nothing in their pockets worth calculating!”
Weeks later when a visitor asked him what he taught his disciples, he said, “To get
their priorities right: better have the money than calculate it: better have the experience
than define it.”
一七六 欲振乏力
當大師收納某些人為弟子而拒絕其他人時，弟子們始終不能明白他那幾近專橫的態度。
直到有一天，他們聽見大師說：「不要企圖教一隻豬唱歌，這不僅是浪費時間，還會激怒了那隻豬。」弟子們才若有所悟。
FRUSTRATION
The disciples could not understand the seemingly arbitrary manner in which some
people were accepted for discipleship and others were rejected.
They got a clue one day when they heard the Master say. “Don‘t attempt to teach a pig
to sing. It wastes your time. And irritates the pig-”
一七五 壓 力
大師常是隨着個人成長的步調，任其自然發展，他從不在旁催迫。他曾說過這樣的比喻：
有個人看見一隻蝴蝶正在破繭而出，他捺不住性子，所以輕輕地向繭吹氣，這股暖氣確實加速了出繭的過程，可是出來的不是蝴蝶，而是有一雙零亂翅膀的怪蛾。」
大師總結一句：「我們不應為別人催生，否則我們會造成流產的悲劇。」
OPPRESSION
The Master always left you to grow at your own pace. He was never known to “push”.
He explained this with the following parable:
A man once saw a butterfly struggling to emerge from its cocoon, too slowly for his
taste, so he began to blow on it gently. The warmth of his breath speeded up the process
all right. But what emerged was not a butterfly but a creature with mangled wings.
“In growth.” the Master concluded, “you cannot speed the process up. All you can do
is abort it.”
一七四 致命傷
大師以他的德高望重，對宗教却抱着隱隱的敵意。這常使弟子們困惑不已，他們一向把宗教及靈修視為一事。
「當前的宗教所強調的，不外是懲罰與賞報，令人滋生起畏懼與貪慾之心。而這兩樣東西正是靈修的致命傷。」
他接着感傷地說：「這簡直是火上加油，為虎作倀。」
DESTRUCTION
For all his holiness, the Master seemed vaguely opposed to religion. This never ceased
to puzzle the disciples who unlike the Master, equated religion with spirituality.
“Religion as practised today deals in punishments and rewards. In other words, it
breeds fear and greed — the two things most destructive of spirituality.”
Later he added ruefully. “It is like tackling a flood with water: or a burning barn with
fire.”