Category: 慧眼禅心

一六八　差　距

一座「趣味公园」的园主向大师叙述他矛盾的处境：当孩子们在他的公园内开怀作乐时，他常感到忧闷不堪。
「你宁愿拥有公园呢，还是拥有乐趣？」大师问。
「两样都要。」

大师无言以对。
事后有人问起此事，大师引用一位浪子对地主所讲的一番话：「你拥有土地所有权，他人却享有大地。」

The owner of a "fun park" described his contradictory feelings to the master: whenever children laughed and played joyfully in his park, he often felt deeply troubled.
"Would you rather have the park or the joy?" the master asked.
"I want both," the owner replied.

The master was left speechless.
Later, when someone asked the master about this, he quoted a wanderer's words to a landowner:
"You hold the deed to the land, but others enjoy the earth."

一六七　活于真实

大师似乎非常珍惜自己的生命，活得极其充实；同时，当他责斥政府的暴虐，或率领弟子照顾蔓延传染病的村民时，人人都看得出，他是在玩命。

「真正的智者对死亡一无所惧。」他曾说。

有囘，弟子问他：「一个人怎能如此轻易地交付自己的生命呢？」

「当天色已经破晓，有谁会躭心烛光将逝呢？」

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　自我空虚

有个弟子为明心见性锲而不舍，终致病倒床榻。大师说：「光明可以捕捉，但不是用手；见性也可以获得，但不是用你的蛮力。」

弟子大惑不解：「你不是教我们应专致于自我空虚之道吗？我正是照你的指示做啊！」

「所以你就拼着老命地空虚自己？！」大师大笑不止。

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　鸢飞鱼跃

「什么是一个人最高明的作为？」

「静坐冥思。」

「可是我们很少看见大师自己静坐冥思。他常在家务事及田里来囘奔波，或是接待访客，从事写作等等。他甚至还负责整理寺内图书这类琐事呢！」

「你为什么把所有时间都耗在工作上呢？」

「当一个人工作时，他未必不在静坐冥思啊！」

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　归

「一个人最高明的行动是什么？」

「是静坐冥思。」

「这不是导向无为吗？」

「它是无为。」

「那么无为胜有为囉？」

「无为是有为之动能。离开这源头，所有的行为都是死的。」

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　

有位作家请大师一语道出现代世界的面貌。

大师毫不迟疑地说：「人们对于宇宙的知识愈来愈丰富，对于自我的认识却愈来愈浅。」

有个天文学家，他简直被近代发现的天文奇观震慑迷住了，大师立即说：「宇宙内充满了亿万奇妙的东西，恒星也好，电波球体也好，即使是黑洞也好，最神奇的，莫过于自己了。」

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!”

一六二　成　长

有个人常抱怨自己能力不足。大师说：「你的能力确实有限，可是你是否发现你今天已经能做十五年前你认为不可能做到的事情？究竟是什么改变了？」

「我的才能改变了。」

「不对，是你改变了。」

「这不是同一囘事吗？」

「不同，若你认定自己如此这般，你就是如此这般。当你的想法改变，你也就改变了。」

DEVELOPMENT

To a disciple who complained of his limitations, the Master said, “You are limited
indeed. But have you noticed you can do things today that you would have thought
impossible fifteen years ago? What changed?”

“My talents changed.”

“No. You changed.”

‘Isn’t that the same thing?”

“No. You are what you think you are. When your thinking changed, you changed.”

一六一　愚　昧

每当有人问起大师的开悟经验，他总是沉默不语。但弟子们仍挖空心思想问出个名堂来。

他们所打听出来的资料，只有一次：当大师的幼子问起他父亲开悟时的感受，大师的答复是：「一个笨蛋。」

当这孩子探问原因，大师答道：「这就好比一个人攀上梯子，捣烂窗户，费九牛二虎之力爬进屋子之后－－才发现屋子的大门正敞着。」

INSANITY

On the question of his own enlightenment the Master always remained reticent, even
though the disciples tried every means to get him to talk.

All the information they had on this subject was what the Master once said to his
youngest son who wanted to know what his father felt when he became enlightened. The
answer was, “A fool.”

When the boy asked why the Master had replied. “Well, son, it was like going to great
pains to break into a house by climbing a ladder and smashing a window — and realizing
later that the door of the house was open.”

一六０　莽　撞

大师一向主张人必须向自己学习－－自我教育，而不应一味听信他人的权威。这话有时也会出纰漏。有一位弟子因而坚持试用迷幻药进入神秘境界，甚至说：「人应该冒险，因为人只能在尝试及错误中学习。」

大师不能不再告诉他另一个故事－－钉子与螺丝：

「当你不知道在这木板上该用钉子或是螺丝时，有一个方法，就是钉个钉子进去。如果木板裂了，你就知道应该用螺丝才对。」

RECKLESSNESS

The Master always insisted that we must Seam by ourselves — teach ourselves — rather
than depend on other people’s authority. This had its limits, of course, as when a bright
young fellow was convinced he ought to try drugs as a means to mysticism — and “take
the risk, for one can only learn by trial and error.”

That moved the Master to tell the old story of the nail and the screw:

“Here is one way to find out whether what you need in a plank is a nail or a screw:
Drive the nail in. If it splits the plank — you kn ow you needed the screw.”

一五九　沉　着

「有没有方法测出自己的定力？」

「有许多方式。」

「试擧一例。」

「只要省察一下，你在一天之内心灵激荡起伏了多少次。」

SERENITY

“Are there ways for gauging one‘s spiritual strength?”

“Many.”

“Give us one.”

“Find out how often you become disturbed in the course of a single day.”