Inspriration from all walks of life
一八八 无 心
他们师徒一行在外野餐。大师说：「你们想要知道开悟的生活像什么吗？看看那些鸟儿飞过湖面。」
每个人都定睛瞧时，大师发言了：
「牠们投影在水面上，却是如此无心，而湖水也不会恋恋不舍这份际遇。」
INNOCENCE
When out on a picnic the Master said. “Do you want to kn ow what the enlightened life
is like? Look at those birds flying over the lake.”
While everyone watched, the Master exclaimed:
“They cast a reflection on the water that they have no awareness of — and the lake has
no attachment to.”
一八七 默 观
大师常说，唯有沉默能使人潜移默化。
但他从不解释这沉默是什么。若有人问他，他只是笑笑，然后竖起食指紧贴在他紧闭的嘴唇上，使弟子们更是丈二和尚摸不着头脑。
某天，有人问：「人如何才能达到你所说的沉默境界呢？」他才泄漏了一点儿天机。
大师说的这般简单，令弟子们不得不察看他的脸色，看看他是否开玩笑。他却一本正经地说：「不论你在何处，仔细地看，虽然外界并无一物；仔细地听，虽然外界寂静无声。」
CONTEMPLATION
The Master would often say that Silence alone brought transformation.
But no one could get him to define what Silence was. When asked he would laugh,
then hold his forefinger up against his tightened lips — which only increased the
bewilderment of his disciples.
One day there was a breakthrough when someone asked. “And how is one to arrive at
this Silence that you speak of?”
The Master said something so simple that his disciples studied his face for a sign that
he might be joking. He wasn’t. He said. “Wherever you may be, look when there is
apparently nothing to see; listen when all is seemingly quiet.”
一八六 显 露
每有新来弟子投入门下，大师的初步教义总不外乎：
「你可知道有一个人，他永不摒弃你直至你咽下最后一口气？」
「他是谁？」
「就是你。」
「你可知道你所有的问题的答案吗？」
「是什么？」
「就是你。」
「你能猜出你所有的困难的解决办法吗？」
「我不猜了！」
「就是你。」
MANIFESTATION
When a new disciple carne to the Master, this is the catechism he was usually
subjected to:
“Do you know the one person who will never abandon you in the whole of your
lifetime?”
“Who is it?” “You.”
“And do you know the answer to every question you may have?”
“What is it?” “You.”
“And can you guess the solution to every one of your problems?”
“I give up.” “You.”
一八五 明心见性
大师同时强调知识及智慧二者。
他曾如此答复：「知识是来自读书或聆听演说。」
「智慧呢？」
「是来自阅读你自己这本书。」
他又加上一句妙言：「这可不是一件容易的工作呵！因为这本书每分钟都在增订当中。」
ENLIGHTENMENT
The Master was an advocate both of learning and of Wisdom.
“Learning.” he said when asked, “is got by reading books or listening to lectures.”
“And Wisdom?”
“By reading the book that is you.”
He added as an afterthought: “Not an easy task at all, for every minute of the day
brings a new edition of the book!”
一八四 伟 大
大师感叹地说：「这世界的问题都是出自于人类不肯长大。」
「如何才算长大了呢？」弟子问。
「直到有一天他不必为任何原因说谎。」
GREATNESS
“The trouble with the world.” said the Master with a sigh, “is that human beings refuse
to grow up.”
“When can a person be said to have grown up?” asked a disciple.
“On the day he does not need to be lied to about anything.”
一八三 琴瑟合鸣
有个人的婚姻发生问题，前来请益，大师说：「你应该学习听从你的妻子。」
这人老实地遵照指示行事。一个月后他囘覆大师：他已学会听从他老婆的每一句话了。
大师微笑着说：「现在，你囘去听从你老婆没有说出来的每个字。」
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，一位门徒提到释迦、耶稣及默罕穆德在世时，都被当代人列为强盗或异端之辈。
大师说：「除非有上千个忠诚信徒同声指认他为亵圣者，否则他还不配自视得到至高的真理。」
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 无 限
大师几乎绝口不论天主或是神圣的事情。他说：「对于天主，我们只知道，我们所知道的一切简直微不足道。」
有一天，他提到一位想尽办法要拜他为师的人：「他来到我门下学习，结果他什么也没学到。」
只有少数门徒明了：大师所要教的，是无法学的，也无法教。所以人们确实无法从他那里学到什么。
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 对
开创风气者常饱经他人评论而受尽挫折。大师说：「仔细听取批评的内容，那可能正是你的朋友难以启齿的。」
他又说：「不要被那些批评打垮。你要知道，自古没有人为批评家雕塑铜像的。被塑像的常是那些饱受批评的人。」
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 人性弱点
大师教给那些争吵不休的夫妻一个无争之道。
他说：「你只能向对方要求他施予恩惠，不能视此为你应有的权益。」
纷争立即中止。