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一二一　祝　福

一個小雜貨商極其沮喪地到大師前訴苦，他的雜貨舖對面新開了一家龐大的連鎖商店，卽將壓垮他的生意。他們家世代經營這小舖子，已有百年的歷史，一旦失去它，就是絕路一條了，因為除了開店以外，他什麼也不會做。

大師說：「如果你對這連鎖店的老板心存畏懼，你就會仇視他，仇恨便成了你真正的絕路。」

「那麼我該怎麼辦？」這位雜貨商真是心慌意亂到極點。

「每天早上走出你的商店，在人行道上祝福你的商店生意興榮。然後轉過身去，也同樣地祝福那家連鎖商店。」

「什麼！祝福我的對手，那劊子手？」

「你所施予的任何祝福都會變成福氣，囘歸於你。你所給的任何詛咒，也同樣會將你自己導上絕路。」

六個月以後，這位雜貨商前來報告近況：正如他最初擔心的，他必須關門大吉；然而，他目前正負責經營那家連鎖店，而且生意比以前更好。

BENEVOLENCE

A grocer came to the Master in great distress to say that across the way from his shop
they had opened a large chain store that would drive him out of business. His family had
owned his shop for a century — and to lose it now would be his undoing, for there was
nothing else he was skilled at.

Said the Master, “If you fear the owner of the chain store, you will hate him. And
hatred will be your undoing.”

“What shall I do?” said the distraught grocer?

“Each morning walk out of your shop onto the sidewalk and bless your shop, wishing
it prosperity. Then turn to face the chain store and bless it too.”

“What? Bless my competitor and destroyer?”

“Any blessing you give him will rebound to your good. Any evil you wish him will
destroy you.”

After six months the grocer returned to report that he had had to close down his shop
as he had feared, but he was now in charge of the chain store and his affairs were in better
shape than ever before.

一二０　啟　示

鄰近寺院的僧侶們起內鬨，故前來大師處求請解紛。他們聽說大師有一絕招，能使任何團體保持和諧及互愛。

於是大師趁此機會揭示這個祕訣：「不論何時，當你和他人共處，或念及他人時，一定向自己說：我卽將死去，這人也快死了。然後利用最後的機會去體會一下自己口中之言的真實性。如果在座的每一位都願意修練這個方法，人際的尖酸刻薄就會消失，和諧慈悲自然興起。」

大師說完這番話，就離去了。

REVELATION

The monks of a neighbouring monastery asked the Master’s help in a quarrel that had
arisen among them. They had heard the Master say he had a technique that was
guaranteed to bring love and harmony to any group.

On this occasion he revealed it: “Any time you are with anyone or think of anyone you
must say to yourself I am dying and this person too is dying, attempting the while to
experience the truth of the words you are saying. If every one of you agrees to practise
this, bitterness will die out, harmony will arise.”

Having said that, he was gone.

一一九　思　想

一位哲學家問大師：「你為什麼這麼不信任人類的思想能力？思想是我們建造世界的工具。」

「不錯，正因為思想能有效地建造世界，以致於你再也無法見到真正的世界。」

大師事後告訴弟子：「思想好比一個螢幕，却非一面鏡子，所以你們才會被思想封閉在某個世界裏，而看不見真相。」

THOUGHT

“Why are you so wary of thought?” said the philosopher. “Thought is the only way we
have for organizing the world.”

“True. But thought can organize the world so well that you are no longer able to see
it.”

To his disciples he later said. “A thought is a screen, not a mirror; that is why you live
in a thought envelope, untouched by Reality.”

一一八　喧　擾

每天弟子們都以各種問題旁敲側擊地向大師請益，大師有時很嚴肅地答覆他們，有時很輕鬆地談笑。

有個弟子總是沉默不語地坐着聽完每個討論會。

當別人問她的感受，她說：「我幾乎一個字也沒聽進去，他的沉默讓我很分心。」

NOISE

Each day the Master would be inundated with questions that he would reply to
seriously, playfully, gently, firmly.

One disciple always sat through each session in silence.

When someone questioned her about it, she said, “I hardly hear a word he says. I am
too distracted by his silence.”

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.”