Inspriration from all walks of life
二一六 天 才
有位作家来到寺院，想写一本关于大师的书。
「人们说你是个天才，是吗？」他问。
「可以这么说。」大师毫无愧色。
「什么禀赋使你成为天才？」
「认识的能力。」
「认识什么？」
「茧中之蝶，卵中之鹰，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 净 化
大师一再强调：他不曾教过一法，也不曾做过一事。
弟子们历经多年才渐渐了解那「学而无学，无修而修」的智慧。
真正的造诣不是源自有心的修练，而是「放下即是」。
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
大师曾经如此解释开悟：它不是来自某种修练，而是一种豁然开朗：
「假如你们在座的，都被咒力催眠了，相信这间房子内有一只老虎，你们在极端畏惧中，尽一切所能地抵抗、逃避，或是驯服牠，以保全生命。一旦咒力解除，你们什么也不需做即能彻底改变，轻松自在。」
「所以，了悟才能解除魔咒，咒力一旦消失，人即能脱胎换骨，导入无为之境。无为乃是真正的力量：你能随心所欲，因为这已不是你在做这一切了。」
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 仁者无惧
「什么是爱？」
「一无所惧。」大师说。
「人们通常畏惧什么？」
「爱。」大师道。
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
「磨难能促人成长，甚至开悟。」大师道。
他作了如下解说：
有只鸟儿每天栖息在荒原中的一株枯树上。一天，一阵狂风刮倒这株枯树，可怜的鸟儿只能飞到百里之外，另觅栖身之处－－终于牠来到了一座森林，林中结满了累累果实。
大师做了简要的结论：「这棵枯树存在一天，这只鸟儿就不肯放弃牠栖身之处而高飞远翔。」
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
大师对于神圣的宗教知识及教育一向抱着存疑态度，常常鼓励科学、艺术或其他方面的研究，所以他顺理成章地接受国立大学的邀请，前去演讲。
他提早一小时抵达学校，浏览校园，观摩教学设备，对那些向所未闻的现代化设备，赞叹有加。
而他的演讲一如惯例，还不到一分钟就结束了。他说：
「如果灵心慧眼不在其中，所有的实验室、图书馆、厅堂、回廊、拱门以及丰富的讲学都形同虚设。」
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 虚 荣
大师时常提醒弟子，人的圣德，如同美貌一般，是浑然天成而不自觉的。他喜欢引用下面的诗句：
玫瑰，它适时绽放。
无缘无由；
也无意妆扮，
为赢得我的夸赞。
他又引用谚语：「当人认清自己不过尔尔，方堪称为圣。」
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 洒脱自在
大师为了保持轻松自然的家风，不愿弟子们过度认真，包括对他的教导在内，他喜欢讲他自己的故事：
「我的第一个弟子为了修行，心力憔悴不堪；第二个弟子勇猛精进练习我传授的方法，差点把自己逼疯了；第三个弟子终日沉浸于静坐默观中，变得呆若木鸡；只有第四个弟子保持了自己的身心平衡。」
「他怎么做到的？」在座的人都异口同声地问。
「大槪是因为，他是唯一拒绝遵照我的方法去做的人。」大师一语惊座。
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.
二０八 虚 心
一位颇具声望的灵修指导者向大师吐露：「我无法祈祷，也无法了解圣经，更无法做到我教别人的灵修方法……」
「何不把这一切都抛掉？」大师欣慰地说。
「这怎么可能？我一向被视为有圣德者，又有一大堆徒众跟随在后。」
事后，大师叹息道：「当今所谓之圣德，已经有名无实了；唯有天才，可称得上是有实却无名。」
UNOBTRUSIVENESS
A man of spiritual repute came to the Master and said, “I cannot pray, I cannot
understand the scriptures. I cannot do the exercises that I prescribe to others...”
“Then give it all up.” said the Master cheerfully.
“But how can I? I am supposed to be a holy man and have a following in these parts.”
Later the Master said with a sigh: “Holiness today is a name without a reality. It is
only genuine when it is a reality without a name.”
二０七 食 谱
「你在寻找什么？」大师问那前来请益的学者。
「生命。」学者答道。
大师说：「如果你要生命，就得先死于文字。」
学者央求他进一步的解释。他说：「你已经陷入了困境、迷失了方向。因为你所渴望的是实质的生命，却心满意足地仰赖文字维生。要知道，菜单不能喂饱你，食谱也不能解你饥渴。」
FORMULATIONS
“What is it you seek?” asked the Master of a scholar who came to him for guidance.
“Life.” was the reply.
Said the Master, “If you are to live, words must die.”
When asked later what he meant, he said. “You are lost and forlorn because you dwell
in a world of words. You feed on words you are satisfied with words when what you need
is substance. A menu wilt not satisfy your hunger. A formula will not slake your thirst. “