Author: voice

一七三　老　化

「天哪，你變得這麼老了！」大師和他少年時的朋友聊了一陣後，禁不住如此嘆息。

「誰也無法避免變老啊，不是嗎？」他的朋友自嘲一番。

「是的，誰也避免不了。」大師同意他的話：「但人必須避免老化！」

INFLEXIBILITY

“Heavens, how you’ve aged!” exclaimed the Master after speaking with a boyhood
friend.

“One cannot help growing old can one?” said the friend.

“No, one cannot,” agreed the Master, “but one must avoid becoming aged.”

一七二　無字天書

大師聲稱他有一本書，記載着人們想要知道有關天主的一切。

從沒有人見過這書，直到有位學者來訪，禁不住他的苦苦哀求，終於從大師那兒掙得此書。他帶囘去迫不及待地翻開，却發現每一頁都是空白的。

「這書根本沒說什麼嘛！」學者極其失望。

「我知道，」大師心平氣和地說：「仔細看看它所暗示的何等豐富！」

INSINUATION

The Master claimed he had a book that contained everything one could conceivably
know about God.

No one had ever seen the book till a visiting scholar, by dint of persistent entreaty,
wrested it from the Master. He took it home and eagerly opened it — only to find that
every one of its pages was blank.

“But the book says nothing.” wailed the scholar.

“I know,” said the Master contentedly. “But see how much it indicates!”

一七一　天　職

大師雖樂於看到科技的進步，却也清楚意識到它的限度。

當一位企業家問起他的職業，他答道：「我從事人類企業。」

「那算什麼企業？」企業家問。

「就以你為例，」大師說：「你致力於製造優良產品，我致力於生產優良人類。」

後來大師告訴弟子：「生活的意義就是造就人類。可是現代人好像只關心改良產品。」

PRECEDENCE

The Master welcomed the advances of technology but was keenly aware of its
limitations.

When an industrialist asked him what his occupation was, he replied, “I’m in the
people industry.”

“And what, pray, would that be?” said the industrialist.

“Take yourself,” said the Master. “Your efforts produce better things; mine better
people.”

To his disciples he later said. “The aim of life is the flowering of persons. Nowadays
people seem concerned mostly with the perfection of things.”

一七０　揭　示

有天，大師問弟子：「天主存在嗎？」
「存在。」弟子異口同聲答道。
「錯！」大師說。
「不存在。」弟子立刻改口。
「也錯。」大師說。
「什麼才是正確答案？」弟子問。
「沒有答案。」
「為什麼？」
「因為沒有問題。」大師說。

事後，大師解釋：「如果超越言詞及槪念的那位，根本「不可說」，你如何能夠提出任何問題？」

DEMONSTRATION

“Does God exist?” said the Master one day. “Yes.” said the disciples in chorus.
“Wrong.” said the Master. “No,” said the disciples. “Wrong again.” said the Master.
“What’s the answer?” asked the disciples. “There is no answer. “ “Why ever not?”

“Because there is no question.” said the Master.

Later he explained: “If you cannot say anything about Him who is beyond thoughts
and words, how can you ask anything about him?”

一六八　差　距

一座「趣味公園」的園主向大師敘述他矛盾的處境：當孩子們在他的公園內開懷作樂時，他常感到憂悶不堪。
「你寧願擁有公園呢，還是擁有樂趣？」大師問。
「兩樣都要。」

大師無言以對。
事後有人問起此事，大師引用一位浪子對地主所講的一番話：「你擁有土地所有權，他人却享有大地。」

一六七　活於真實

大師似乎非常珍惜自己的生命，活得極其充實；同時，當他責斥政府的暴虐，或率領弟子照顧蔓延傳染病的村民時，人人都看得出，他是在玩命。

「真正的智者對死亡一無所懼。」他曾說。

有囘，弟子問他：「一個人怎能如此輕易地交付自己的生命呢？」

「當天色已經破曉，有誰會躭心燭光將逝呢？」

REALITY

While the Master seemed to relish life and live it to the full he was also known to take
great risks, as when he condemned the tyranny of the government, thereby courting arrest
and death; and when he led a group of his disciples to serve a plague-stricken village.

“The wise have no fear of death.” he would say.

“Why would a man risk his life so easily?” he was once asked.

“Why would a person care so little about a candle being extinguished when day has
dawned?”

一六六　自我空虛

有個弟子為明心見性鍥而不捨，終致病倒床榻。大師說：「光明可以捕捉，但不是用手；見性也可以獲得，但不是用你的蠻力。」

弟子大惑不解：「你不是教我們應專致於自我空虛之道嗎？我正是照你的指示做啊！」

「所以你就拚着老命地空虛自己？！」大師大笑不止。

DISAPPEARANCE

To a disciple who strained after enlightenment till he became physically weak, the
Master said, “A ray of light can be grasped — but not with your hands. Enlightenment can
be attained — but not by your efforts.”

The puzzled disciple said. “But did you not tell me to strive to become empty? That is
what I am attempting to do.”

“So now you are full of effort to be empty!” said the Master through his laughter.

一六五　鳶飛魚躍

「什麼是一個人最高明的作為？」

「靜坐冥思。」

「可是我們很少看見大師自己靜坐冥思。他常在家務事及田裏來囘奔波，或是接待訪客，從事寫作等等。他甚至還負責整理寺內圖書這類瑣事呢！」

「你為什麼把所有時間都耗在工作上呢？」

「當一個人工作時，他未必不在靜坐冥思啊！」

CREATIVITY

“What is the highest act a person can perform?”

“Sitting in meditation.”

“But the Master himself was rarely seen to sit in meditation. He was ceaselessly
engaged in housework and fieldwork, in meeting people and writing books. He even took
up the book-keeping chores of the monastery.

“Why then do you spend all your time in work?”

“When one works one need not cease to sit in meditation.”

　一六四　回　歸

「一個人最高明的行動是什麼？」

「是靜坐冥思。」

「這不是導向無為嗎？」

「它是無為。」

「那麼無為勝有為囉？」

「無為是有為之動能。離開這源頭，所有的行為都是死的。」

SURRENDER

“What is the highest act a person can perform?”

“Sitting in meditation.”

‘’Wouldn’t that lead to inaction?”

“It is inaction.”

“Is action then inferior?”

“Inaction gives life to actions. Without it they are dead.”

一六三　

有位作家請大師一語道出現代世界的面貌。

大師毫不遲疑地說：「人們對於宇宙的知識愈來愈豐富，對於自我的認識却愈來愈淺。」

有個天文學家，他簡直被近代發現的天文奇觀震懾迷住了，大師立卽說：「宇宙內充滿了億萬奇妙的東西，恒星也好，電波球體也好，卽使是黑洞也好，最神奇的，莫過於自己了。」

SHALLOWNESS

A journalist one day asked the Master to name one thing that characterises the Modern
World.

The Master unhesitatingly replied, “People every day know more and more about the
Cosmos and less and less about themselves.”

And to an astronomer who held him spellbound with the wonders of modern
astronomy, the Master suddenly said, “Of all the millions of strange objects in the
universe — the black holes and quasars and pulsars — the strangest, unquestionably, is the
self!”