Inspriration from all walks of life
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。
一七八 有 省
有囘，弟子们聚在一起讨论读书的利益，有些人认为这是浪费时间，有些人则难以苟同。
于是他们请教大师，他说：「你曾否读过一本书，列在正文下面的小字注解，有时也如正文一般激发读者不少灵感？」
弟子们颔首同意。
大师接着说：「生活就好比那正文。」
DISCLOSURE
The discussion among the disciples once centred on the usefulness of reading. Some
thought it was a waste of time, others disagreed.
When the Master was appealed to, he said. “Have you ever read one of those texts in
which the notes scrawled in the margin by a reader prove to be as illuminating as the text
itself?”
The disciples nodded in agreement.
“Life.” said the Master, “is one such text,”
一七七 名 相
大师对时髦的新发明，童心未泯地好奇不已。当他看到一个可以放入口袋的迷你计算机，情不自禁地赞叹一番。
过后，他说出相当中肯的一句话：「好像许多人的口袋里都有这个迷你计算机，可是口袋里却没有多少钱值得计算。」
一周之后，有位访客来请教授徒之道。他说：「让他们分清本末。最好是先攒足够的钱，然后才计数它；最好是先有具体的经验，再去设立名相解说。」
DEFINITIONS
The Master had a childlike fascination for modern inventions. He could not get over
his amazement at the pocket calculator when he saw one.
Later he said, good-naturedly. “A lot of people seem to have those little pocket
calculators, but nothing in their pockets worth calculating!”
Weeks later when a visitor asked him what he taught his disciples, he said, “To get
their priorities right: better have the money than calculate it: better have the experience
than define it.”
一七六 欲振乏力
当大师收纳某些人为弟子而拒绝其他人时，弟子们始终不能明白他那几近专横的态度。
直到有一天，他们听见大师说：「不要企图教一只猪唱歌，这不仅是浪费时间，还会激怒了那只猪。」弟子们才若有所悟。
FRUSTRATION
The disciples could not understand the seemingly arbitrary manner in which some
people were accepted for discipleship and others were rejected.
They got a clue one day when they heard the Master say. “Don‘t attempt to teach a pig
to sing. It wastes your time. And irritates the pig-”
一七五 压 力
大师常是随着个人成长的步调，任其自然发展，他从不在旁催迫。他曾说过这样的比喻：
有个人看见一只蝴蝶正在破茧而出，他捺不住性子，所以轻轻地向茧吹气，这股暖气确实加速了出茧的过程，可是出来的不是蝴蝶，而是有一双零乱翅膀的怪蛾。」
大师总结一句：「我们不应为别人催生，否则我们会造成流产的悲剧。」
OPPRESSION
The Master always left you to grow at your own pace. He was never known to “push”.
He explained this with the following parable:
A man once saw a butterfly struggling to emerge from its cocoon, too slowly for his
taste, so he began to blow on it gently. The warmth of his breath speeded up the process
all right. But what emerged was not a butterfly but a creature with mangled wings.
“In growth.” the Master concluded, “you cannot speed the process up. All you can do
is abort it.”
一七四 致命伤
大师以他的德高望重，对宗教却抱着隐隐的敌意。这常使弟子们困惑不已，他们一向把宗教及灵修视为一事。
「当前的宗教所强调的，不外是惩罚与赏报，令人滋生起畏惧与贪欲之心。而这两样东西正是灵修的致命伤。」
他接着感伤地说：「这简直是火上加油，为虎作伥。」
DESTRUCTION
For all his holiness, the Master seemed vaguely opposed to religion. This never ceased
to puzzle the disciples who unlike the Master, equated religion with spirituality.
“Religion as practised today deals in punishments and rewards. In other words, it
breeds fear and greed — the two things most destructive of spirituality.”
Later he added ruefully. “It is like tackling a flood with water: or a burning barn with
fire.”
一七三 老 化
「天哪，你变得这么老了！」大师和他少年时的朋友聊了一阵后，禁不住如此叹息。
「谁也无法避免变老啊，不是吗？」他的朋友自嘲一番。
「是的，谁也避免不了。」大师同意他的话：「但人必须避免老化！」
INFLEXIBILITY
“Heavens, how you’ve aged!” exclaimed the Master after speaking with a boyhood
friend.
“One cannot help growing old can one?” said the friend.
“No, one cannot,” agreed the Master, “but one must avoid becoming aged.”