Month: December 2023

二一八　絕　望

「明心見性能造就出何等人物？」

大師說：

「以天下為任，却不阿黨相附。

隨遇而安，一無固定行止。

物來則取，

人去不留。

已逝者，不咎不悔，

未來者，不憂不懼。

招之卽來，

揮之卽去。

勁若海上飆風，

弱如風中飄絮，

柔若水邊浮葦；

又如一樽終日輾轉不語的磨石。

平等愛物，

一如天覆地載，毫無私曲。

這些都是明心見性的境界。」

一位年輕的弟子聽了不禁哭道：「這種指導只適用於死人，怎麼可能用在我們活人身上！」便斷然離去，義無反顧。

REJECTION

“What kind of a person does Enlightenment produce?”

Said the Master:

“To be public-spirited and belong to no party,
to move without being bound to any given course,
to take things as they come,
have no remorse for the past,
no anxiety for the future.

to move when pushed,

to come when dragged.

to be like a mighty gale.

like a feather in the wind,

like weeds floating on a river.

like a mill-stone meekly grinding,

to love all creation equally

as heaven and earth are equal to all

— such is the product of Enlightenment.”

On hearing these words one of the younger disciples cried, “This sort of teaching is
not for the living but for the dead,” and walked away, never to return.

二一七　人　性

大師願意宣講有關「世界末日」的消息，日傳千里，遠近皆知。於是羣衆蜂擁而至，坐在寺前廣場上聆聽。

大師上座不到一分鐘卽圓滿結束。他所說的只是：

「那卽將毀滅人類的事情是：
不顧天理的政治，
不具仁愛的進步，
無須辛勞的財富，
不甘寂寞的求知，
不能超然無畏的宗教，
沒有靈明覺性的膜拜。」

HUMANITY

Much advance publicity was made for the address the Master would deliver on The
Destruction of the World and a large crowd gathered at the monastery grounds to hear
him.

The address was over in less than a minute. All he said was:

“These things will destroy the human race: politics without principle, progress without
compassion, wealth without work, learning without silence, religion without fearlessness
and worship without awareness.”

二一六　天　才

有位作家來到寺院，想寫一本關於大師的書。

「人們說你是個天才，是嗎？」他問。

「可以這麼說。」大師毫無愧色。

「什麼稟賦使你成為天才？」

「認識的能力。」

「認識什麼？」

「繭中之蝶，卵中之鷹，以及人人皆具佛性。」

GENIUS

A writer arrived at the monastery to write a book about the Master.

“People say you are a genius. Are you?” he asked.

“You might say so.” said the Master, none too modestly.

“And what makes one a genius?” “The ability to recognize.” “Recognize what?”

“The butterfly in a caterpillar: the eagle in an egg; the saint in a selfish human being.”

二一五　淨　化

大師一再強調：他不曾教過一法，也不曾做過一事。

弟子們歷經多年才漸漸了解那「學而無學，無修而修」的智慧。

真正的造詣不是源自有心的修練，而是「放下卽是」。

PURIFICATION

The Master insisted that what he taught was nothing, what he did was nothing.

His disciples gradually discovered that Wisdom comes to those who leam nothing,
unlearn everything.

That transformation is the consequence not of something done, but of something
dropped.

二一四　悟

大師曾經如此解釋開悟：它不是來自某種修練，而是一種豁然開朗：

「假如你們在座的，都被咒力催眠了，相信這間房子內有一隻老虎，你們在極端畏懼中，盡一切所能地抵抗、逃避，或是馴服牠，以保全生命。一旦咒力解除，你們什麼也不需做卽能徹底改變，輕鬆自在。」
「所以，了悟才能解除魔咒，咒力一旦消失，人卽能脫胎換骨，導入無為之境。無為乃是真正的力量：你能隨心所欲，因為這已不是你在做這一切了。」

MAYA

This is how the Master once explained the fact that enlightenment came, not through
effort, but through understanding:

“Imagine all of you are hypnotized to believe there is a tiger in this room. In your fear
you will try to escape it, to fight it to protect yourselves from it to placate it. But once the
spell is broken there is nothing to be done. And you are all radically changed:

So understanding breaks the spell, the broken spell brings change, change leads to
inaction, inaction is power: you can do anything on earth, for it is no longer you who do
it.”

二一三　仁者無懼

「什麼是愛？」
「一無所懼。」大師說。

「人們通常畏懼什麼？」
「愛。」大師道。

FEARLESSNESS

“What is love?”

“The total absence of fear,” said the Master.

‘What is it we fear?”

And he concluded: “If the withered tree had survived, nothing would have induced the
bird to give up its security and fly.”

‘Love.” said the Master.

二一二　逆　境

「磨難能促人成長，甚至開悟。」大師道。

他作了如下解說：

有隻鳥兒每天棲息在荒原中的一株枯樹上。一天，一陣狂風颳倒這株枯樹，可憐的鳥兒只能飛到百里之外，另覓棲身之處－－終於牠來到了一座森林，林中結滿了纍纍果實。

大師做了簡要的結論：「這棵枯樹存在一天，這隻鳥兒就不肯放棄牠棲身之處而高飛遠翔。」

TRIBULATION

“Calamities can bring growth and enlightenment.” said the Master.

And he explained it thus:

Each day a bird would shelter in the withered branches of a tree that stood in the
middle of a vast deserted plain. One day a whirlwind uprooted the tree forcing the poor
bird to fly a hundred miles in search of shelter — till it finally came to a forest of fruit-
laden trees.

二一一　教　育

大師對於神聖的宗教知識及教育一向抱着存疑態度，常常鼓勵科學、藝術或其他方面的研究，所以他順理成章地接受國立大學的邀請，前去演講。

他提早一小時抵達學校，瀏覽校園，觀摩教學設備，對那些向所未聞的現代化設備，讚嘆有加。

而他的演講一如慣例，還不到一分鐘就結束了。他說：

「如果靈心慧眼不在其中，所有的實驗室、圖書館、廳堂、迴廊、拱門以及豐富的講學都形同虛設。」

EDUCATION

Suspicious as the Master was of knowledge and learning in matters divine, he never
missed a chance to encourage the arts and sciences and every other form of learning. So it
was no surprise that he readily accepted an invitation to address the University
Convocation.

He arrived an hour ahead of time to wander about the Campus and marvel at the
facilities for learning that were quite non-existent in his own day.

Typically, his Convocation speech lasted less than a minute. He said:

“Laboratories and libraries, halls and porch and arch and learned lectures — all shall
be of no avail if the wise heart and the Seeing Eye are absent.”

二一０　虛　榮

大師時常提醒弟子，人的聖德，如同美貌一般，是渾然天成而不自覺的。他喜歡引用下面的詩句：

玫瑰，它適時綻放。

無緣無由；

也無意妝扮，

　　為贏得我的誇讚。

他又引用諺語：「當人認清自己不過爾爾，方堪稱為聖。」

VANITY

The Master frequently reminded his disciples that holiness, like beauty, is only
genuine when unselfconscious. He loved to quote the verse:

She blooms because she blooms,
the Rose:

Does not ask why.
nor does she preen herself
to catch my eye.

And the saying, “A saint is a saint until he knows that he is one.”

二０九　灑脫自在

大師為了保持輕鬆自然的家風，不願弟子們過度認真，包括對他的教導在內，他喜歡講他自己的故事：

「我的第一個弟子為了修行，心力憔悴不堪；第二個弟子勇猛精進練習我傳授的方法，差點把自己逼瘋了；第三個弟子終日沉浸於靜坐默觀中，變得呆若木雞；只有第四個弟子保持了自己的身心平衡。」

「他怎麼做到的？」在座的人都異口同聲地問。

「大槪是因為，他是唯一拒絕遵照我的方法去做的人。」大師一語驚座。

LIGHT-HEARTEDNESS

In keeping with his doctrine that nothing be taken too seriously, not even his own
teachings, the Master loved to tell this story on himself:

“My very first disciple was so weak that the exercises killed him. My second disciple
drove himself crazy from his earnest practice of the exercises I gave him. My third
disciple dulled his intellect through too much contemplation. But the fourth managed to
keep his sanity.”

“Why was that?” someone would invariably ask.

“Possibly because he was the only one who refused to do the exercises.” The Master’s
words would be drowned in howls of laughter.