Month: December 2023

一一七　佳　運

大師常教誨弟子：真正的聖德，不在於做什麼，而是隨緣任運而已。

某些弟子始終難以體會個中奧義，於是大師講了壹個故事：

從前有一隻龍，牠只有一隻腳，牠好奇地問蜈蚣：「你走路時，怎麼安排這麼多隻腳？我那唯一的腳已夠我忙的了。」

蜈蚣答道：「說實話，我從來沒有想到要去安排它們。」

TRUST

The Master would frequently assert that holiness was less a matter of what one did
than of what one allowed to happen.

To a group of disciples who had difficulty understanding that, he told the following
story:

There was once a one-legged dragon who said to the centipede. “How do you manage
all those legs? It is all I can do to manage one.”

“To tell you the truth.” said the centipede. “I do not manage them at all.”

一一六　悟　心
「明心見性帶給你什麼好處？」
「喜樂。」
「什麼是喜樂？」
「就是當你失去一切時，仍清楚明瞭你所失去的只是一個玩具而已。」

REALIZATION

“What did Enlightenment bring you?”

“Joy.”

“And what is Joy?”

“The realization that when everything is lost you have only lost a toy,”

一一五　身臨其境

弟子們請求大師給予一個供他們模仿的靈修典型，大師却說：「噓！聽！」

當他們靜聽寺外的夜聲，大師輕輕地哼着一句有名的俳句：

「早夭的生命，無法領會蟬兒的歌聲。」

PRESENCE

When the disciples asked for a model of spirituality that they could imitate, all that the
Master said was, “Hush! Listen.”

And as they listened to the sounds of the night outside the monastery, the Master
softly intoned the celebrated haiku:

“Of an early death showing no awareness the cicada sings.”

　　　　一一四　天堂

有個弟子腦中總是關切死後的情形，大師對他說：「為何要為往後的事浪費寶貴的光陰？」
「我們怎能不想呢？」
「當然可以。」
「如何做到？」
「但哪裏有天堂？」
「活於當下現前的天堂？
「就在當下一刻。」

HEAVEN

To a disciple who was obsessed with the thought of life after death, the Master said,
“Why waste a single moment thinking of the hereafter?”

“But is it possible not to?”

‘Yes.’

“How?”

“By living in heaven here and now.”

“And where is this heaven?”

“It is here and now.”

一一三　自　然

一位演說家口沫橫飛地向人們解釋：當前世界只需要由龐大的軍備經費中撥出極小的一部分，就能解決所有人類的生活問題。

弟子們聽了這番演說後的第一個反應就是：「人類怎麼會變得如此愚蠢？」

大師面色凝重地說：「因為人們學會了讀白紙黑字，而失去了閱讀無字天書的藝術。」

「什麼是無字天書，請給我們一個實例。」

但大師不給實例。

一天，大師終於拗不過他們的追問，便說：「鳥鳴蟲噪都在宣告真理；花紅草綠，都在為我們指示人生之道：好好地聽，好好地看，這才是真正的學習之道。」

NATURE

A lecturer explained how a fraction of the enormous sums spent on arms in the
modem world would solve all the material problems of every member of the human race.

The inevitable reaction of the disciples after the lecture was, “But why are human
beings so stupid?”

“Because,” said the Master solemnly, “people have learnt to read printed books. They
have forgotten the art of reading unprinted ones.”

“Give us an example of an unprinted book.” But the Master wouldn’t give one.

One day in response to their persistence, he said: “The songs of birds, the sounds of
insects are all trumpeting forth the Truth. The grasses and the flowers are all pointing out
the Way. Listen! Look! That is the way to read!”

一一二　入　世

大師雖對自己的弟子很慈悲，但也毫不隱瞞地表示他更偏愛住在「世界」中的人，基於寺院中的弟子，也就是指那羣成家立業的商人、農人等等。

當弟子們質詢此事，他答覆道：「在行動中的修持，遠超過退隱的修行。」

INVOLVEMENT

The Master white being gracious to all his disciples, could not conceal his preference
for those who lived in the “world” — the married, the merchants, the farmers — over those
who lived in the monastery.

When he was confronted about this he said, “Spirituality practised in the state of
activity is incomparably superior to that practised in the state of withdrawal.”

　　　111　閉　塞

一羣大學院士來訪，大師極度慇懃地招待他們，却從不正面答覆他們的問題，也不加入他們的神學研討。

弟子們知道大師內具深意。他說：「你怎能向井底之蛙談論浩瀚的大海？你怎能向被困鎖在自己的槪念中的人談論超凡之境？」

RESTRICTION

The Master was exceedingly gracious to University dons who visited him but he
would never reply to their questions or be drawn into their theological speculations.

To his disciples who marvelled at this, he said, “Can one talk about the ocean to a frog
in a well — or about the divine to people who are restricted by their concepts?

一一０　解　脫

「我如何才能得到解脫？」

「先去找出誰束縛了你。」大師說。

一週後，弟子返囘覆命：「沒有人束縛我。」

「那麼有什麼好解脫的？」

弟子頓然醒悟，自此卽變得自在灑脫了。

LIBERATION

“How shall I get liberation?”

“Find out who has bound you,” said the Master.

The disciple returned after a week and said, “No one has bound me.”

“Then why ask to be liberated?”

That was a moment of enlightenment for the disciple who suddenly became free.

一０九　幻　滅

一位弟子懇求大師指示智慧之道。大師說：「不妨試試這個方法：閉起你的眼睛，觀想自己和一切生物都從懸崖的邊緣被拋出去；每當你想攀住一樣東西，阻止自己下墜時，心裏明白那東西本身也正向下墜落……。」

這弟子嘗試這個方法，立刻身心蕩然，脫胎換骨。

MORTALITY

To a disciple who begged for wisdom the Master said, “Try this out: close your eyes
and see yourself and every living being thrown off the top of a precipice. Each time you
cling to something to stop yourself from falling, understand that it is falling too...”

The disciple tried it out and never was the same again.

一０八　賭　注

大師談論的主題是「生命」。

一天，他提到一位飛行員的經歷。這位飛行員在第二次世界大戰期間專門載運工人由中國到緬甸的叢林中修路。這段航行漫長又單調，所以工人就聚在一起賭牌，由於他們都是一貧如洗，無錢可賭，於是就用自己的生命做賭注－－輸家應不帶降落傘，跳出飛機外。

「多麼可怕的事！」弟子聽了驚嚇萬分。

「確實可怕。」大師說：「但這種賭法才過癮。」

當這一天卽將消逝，大師說：「當你用自己的生命做賭注時，你才是道道地地的活過。」

ADVENTURE

The theme of the Master’s talk was Life.

One day he told of meeting a pilot who flew labourers from China into Burma during
World War II to work on jungle roads. The flight was long and boring so the labourers
would take to gambling. Since they had no money to gamble with, they gambled with
their lives — the loser jumped out of the plane without a parachute!

“How terrible!” said the horrified disciple?

“True.” said the Master.” But it made the game exciting.”

Later in the day he said. “You never live so fully as when you gamble with your
lives.”