Inspriration from all walks of life
一二四 信 理
有位访客自称，他已无庸追寻真理，因为他在自己的宗教信条里已经找到了真理。大师说：
「从前有个学生，一直无法如愿成为数学家，只因他一味相信数学课本后面所附的标准答案－－气人的是，那些标准答案，竟然都正确无误。」
DOCTRINE
To a visitor who claimed he had no need to search for Truth because he found it in the
beliefs of his religion, the Master said;
“There was once a student who never became a mathematician because he blindly
believed the answers he found at the back of his maths text book — and, ironically, the
answers were correct.”
一二三 痊 愈
有位失意的人前来大师处求助。大师问他：「你真的愿意康复？」
「当然，要不然我怎会来找您？」
「你知道，大多数的人都不是真心求愈。」
「为什么？」
「因为那要付出相当痛苦的代价。他们并不想康复，只想暂时解脱一下而已。」
大师借此告诉弟子：「人们只想要一个由天而降，无须受苦的痊愈，就好像一般人只期待进步，却丝毫不愿改变自己一样。」
HEALING
To a distressed person who came to him for help, the Master said. “Do you really want
a cure?”
“If I did not would I bother to come to you?”
“Oh yes. Most people do.” “What for?”
“Not for a cure. That’s painful. For relief.”
To his disciples the Master said, “People who want a cure provided they can have it
without pain are like those who favour progress provided they can have it without
change.”
一二二 罪
大师的教诲中，最令人不安却又宽慰的一条，莫甚于此言了：天主离罪人远比圣人要近得多。
他的解释如下：高居天廷的天主以一条线与每个人联系。当你犯罪时，自斩此线，于是天主得打一个结，重新把线接好。如此，你自然被拖近祂一些。你每次犯罪，斩断一次线，天主就需要多打一个结，使你愈来愈靠近祂。
SIN
One of the disconcerting — and delightful — teachings of the Master was: God is
closer to sinners than to saints.
This is how he explained it: God in heaven holds each person by a string. When you
sin you cut the string. Then God ties it up again, making a knot — and thereby bringing
you a little closer to him. Again and again your sins cut the string — and with each further
knot God keeps drawing you closer and closer.
一二一 祝 福
一个小杂货商极其沮丧地到大师前诉苦，他的杂货舖对面新开了一家庞大的连锁商店，即将压垮他的生意。他们家世代经营这小舖子，已有百年的历史，一旦失去它，就是绝路一条了，因为除了开店以外，他什么也不会做。
大师说：「如果你对这连锁店的老板心存畏惧，你就会仇视他，仇恨便成了你真正的绝路。」
「那么我该怎么办？」这位杂货商真是心慌意乱到极点。
「每天早上走出你的商店，在人行道上祝福你的商店生意兴荣。然后转过身去，也同样地祝福那家连锁商店。」
「什么！祝福我的对手，那刽子手？」
「你所施予的任何祝福都会变成福气，囘归于你。你所给的任何诅咒，也同样会将你自己导上绝路。」
六个月以后，这位杂货商前来报告近况：正如他最初担心的，他必须关门大吉；然而，他目前正负责经营那家连锁店，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 启 示
邻近寺院的僧侣们起内哄，故前来大师处求请解纷。他们听说大师有一绝招，能使任何团体保持和谐及互爱。
于是大师趁此机会揭示这个祕诀：「不论何时，当你和他人共处，或念及他人时，一定向自己说：我即将死去，这人也快死了。然后利用最后的机会去体会一下自己口中之言的真实性。如果在座的每一位都愿意修练这个方法，人际的尖酸刻薄就会消失，和谐慈悲自然兴起。」
大师说完这番话，就离去了。
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
一位哲学家问大师：「你为什么这么不信任人类的思想能力？思想是我们建造世界的工具。」
「不错，正因为思想能有效地建造世界，以致于你再也无法见到真正的世界。」
大师事后告诉弟子：「思想好比一个萤幕，却非一面镜子，所以你们才会被思想封闭在某个世界里，而看不见真相。」
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 扰
每天弟子们都以各种问题旁敲侧击地向大师请益，大师有时很严肃地答复他们，有时很轻松地谈笑。
有个弟子总是沉默不语地坐着听完每个讨论会。
当别人问她的感受，她说：「我几乎一个字也没听进去，他的沉默让我很分心。」
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 运
大师常教诲弟子：真正的圣德，不在于做什么，而是随缘任运而已。
某些弟子始终难以体会个中奥义，于是大师讲了壹个故事：
从前有一只龙，牠只有一只脚，牠好奇地问蜈蚣：「你走路时，怎么安排这么多只脚？我那唯一的脚已够我忙的了。」
蜈蚣答道：「说实话，我从来没有想到要去安排它们。」
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
「明心见性带给你什么好处？」
「喜乐。」
「什么是喜乐？」
「就是当你失去一切时，仍清楚明了你所失去的只是一个玩具而已。」
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 身临其境
弟子们请求大师给予一个供他们模仿的灵修典型，大师却说：「嘘！听！」
当他们静听寺外的夜声，大师轻轻地哼着一句有名的俳句：
「早夭的生命，无法领会蝉儿的歌声。」
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.”