当你站在永恒的生命线上

Section 4

Living the Dharma in Everyday Life

记者：

法师您看啊，我发现您的一个特点，您在弘法的时候，都讲得通俗易懂，很生活化、很实践化，这样的弘法方式是不是让人更容易接受？

Journalist: You see, Master, I notice this as something special about you – when you are propagating the Dharma, you always make it commonsensical and easy to understand, lively and very practical. Is this way of propagating the Dharma more easily accepted?

传喜法师：

真理无处不在，既在空气中，也在水中，更在我们生活中。怎么样在生活中分享智慧，去领悟其中的大道？ 最好的方法就是在微细之中去领悟大道。中国传统文化也好，佛教文化也好，在这上面有相似性。首先我们自己要去实践，实践之后品出味道，我们再相互交流的时候就会比较顺畅。佛法就在我们的日常生活中，只要用心去感受，就能时刻关照着你的心灵，升华着你的智慧。

Master Chuan-xi: The truth is everywhere – it is in the air, in the water, and even more so, it is in our daily lives. How can we share our wisdom with others in our everyday lives and be able to understand the Great Dao within? The best way to be enlightened to the Great Dao is through the minute details. This is something similarly found in Chinese traditional culture and Buddhism. We have to first put it into practice. When we have gotten used to the taste of the experience of practice, we will be better at sharing with others. The Dharma is in our everyday life. You just need to be mindful of it in order to experience it, and you will be able to let your spiritual self be illuminated and your wisdom enhanced.

记者：

大众更能够接受，一听就明白。

Journalist: People are more able to accept this, and they will immediately understand.

传喜法师：

我讲《道德经》的时候分享过，什么是道？道就像交通法规，德好像遵守交通法规，我这样一讲，好多人恍然大悟，这就是道德啊！道就是交通规则，德就是遵守交通规则。

Master Chuan-xi: During my talk on Dao De Jing, I did share with everyone this: What is the Dao? The Dao道 is like the traffic rules, and virtue 德to abide by these rules. Many people experienced a moment of sudden realization when I put it across to them this way. This is precisely what morality 道德 is! The Dao is the traffic rules, and virtue to abide by these rules.

记者：

你这样一说大家都能明白。那如果从课本上、从电视上看很多人讲授，一开始就是长篇大论，那大家都很难理解，您这两句话大家都豁然开朗了。

Journalist: Everyone is able to understand when you put it as such. If one is to learn this from the school books or hear it from many of those who teach on television, in either of which there will always be lengthy and grand arguments from the start, then everyone finds it difficult to understand. For you, with these two sentences, everyone is able to have an expansion of perspective and clarity of thought.

传喜法师：

包括去山东讲《观澜知源》，或许这个话题比较教条化，但是为什么要讲？我做了一个比喻，趵突泉如果淤塞了，对济南来说，这个地标性景致是不是就没有了？大家一听就都明白了，原来研究传统文化这么好。如果传统文化的源头淤塞了，这是民族和国家的巨大损失。

Master Chuan-xi: This includes the talk on Searching for the Source of a Water by Observing its Ripples in Shandong. Perhaps that theme was drier. However, why did we talk about it? I made an analogy. I conjectured that if Bao Tu Spring were to be choked, then the scenic area of Ji Nan will lose its status as a geographical icon. Everyone could immediately understand upon hearing this, realizing that it is very beneficial to study traditional culture. If the source of our traditional culture were to be chocked, it will be a great loss for our people and our nation.

我们希望大家知道，儒释道跟我们的生命和生活息息相关。生为炎黄子孙，如果我们没有儒释道文化的修养，是匪夷所思的。所以大家听起来有味道了，我们又讲得很简单。原来，谁是心的主人很重要。我们心在想什么？是想低级的，还是想高级的？是想生灭的，还是想永恒的？

We hope everyone will understand that Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism have a vital connection to our lives and the way we live. As descendants of Emperors Yan and Huang, it would be unthinkable for us to not be cultivated by the three religions. That was why everyone was interested in that talk, and we also spoke in very simple terms. As it turns out, it is very important to know who is the master of the mind. What do our minds think? Is it thinking of something inferior or something admirable? Is it thinking of something which is subject to birth and death, or something eternal?

我们的文化是道的文化，是不生不灭的文化，但是我们却活在生灭的世界里，背道而驰。只要我们把违背道的方面调整一下，符合于道，我们生命不就转凡成圣了吗？

Our culture is the culture of the Dao, one which is not subject to birth and death. However, it is in a world that is subject to birth and death we live – this is something that goes against the Dao. If only we could change the direction we are in from that which is being opposed to the Dao to that which points towards it - are we not able to then transform ourselves from a mere mortal into a sagely one?

记者：

您讲到这呢，我似乎找到一个答案。就是说，这两天我们来到咱们寺院啊，看到人络绎不绝，出来的进去的，不停地在来不停地在走。我就一直在想，为什么会有这么多人？原来时因为您的弘法方式让所有人都能接受。可以总结说，到您这来学佛修佛，是快乐的学佛，快乐的修佛。

Journalist: As you come to this, I seem to have found an answer. I wish to say that during these two days that I am in our monastery, I could see unending streams of people coming and going, and moving around non-stop. That prompted me to wonder: why are there so many people? It turns out it is because everyone could accept the way you propagate and spread the Dharma. It can be concluded that those who have come to your place to study and practice Buddhism are happily doing their study and practice here.

传喜法师：

因为每个人都有佛性，所以我们学佛。我们的佛性在哪儿迷失了，不知道？通过到寺院里来，跟师父来学习，渐渐找到自己的佛性。不是我给予他们佛性，他们的佛性本来就在那里，不来不去。但是如果没有找到，就是迷失的状态。虽然迷失，但是佛性还在那里。

Master Chuan-xi: It is because everyone has Buddha-nature that we study Buddhism. Where did we lose our Buddha-nature? We do not know. By visiting the monastery and coming here to learn under the master, one will be able to gradually find one’s Buddha-nature back. It is not that the master gives us back our Buddha-nature but that our Buddha-nature has always been there. It comes and goes not. However, it will be in a state where we have lost its bearings if we do not find it. Our Buddha-nature is still there although we have lost its bearings.

许多人在觉醒的时候都会感慨：“这就是我的佛性，这就是我生命里的光明，这就是我生命里不灭的觉性。”甚至说到父母投胎，无论生下来的是男孩还是女孩，实际上，我们的佛性没有生过，没有谁是佛性的父亲或者母亲。你虽然投胎变成了男孩或者是女孩，但是你的佛性并没有男性和女性的区别。哪怕死亡的时候，你告别了这个躯体，这个躯体被送到火葬场烧掉了，但是还有一个东西在，它并不死。就像一个人买股票一样，你买到的股票涨了，你就发了，你买到的股票跌了，你就输了。生命也是这样，你的脚跟站在生灭上，你的生命就是坎坷的，就是凄凉的；如果你的生命站在不生不灭上，站在佛性上，失败都会变得很美丽。因为你站的高度不一样，你站在永恒的生命线上，一切都会变成生命的庄严，你始终都是收获的状态。

At the moment of being enlightened, many people will lament, ‘So this is my Buddha-nature; this is the light in my life, this is the inextinguishable nature for enlightenment in my life.’ It is said that even when we have been born to our parents whether as a boy or a girl, our Buddha-nature in reality has not gone through any birth. There is no one who is the father or the mother of Buddha-nature. Although you have gone into your mother’s womb and then assumed the form of either a boy or a girl, there is no such boy-girl distinction to your Buddha-nature. Even at the moment of death when you take leave of your body which will be sent away to be cremated, this thing that is still there does not experience death. It is like when you play the stock market – you get rich if the stock you buy appreciates in value and lose if it drops in value. Life is also like that. When you are grounded in birth and death, your life will be one of ups and downs, one that will be pathetic. If your life is grounded on birthlessness and deathlessness, you will be grounded on your Buddha-nature and even failures will turn out to be beautiful. This is because your vantage point is different. You are standing on the line of eternal life – everything that happens in your life will only make it more dignified and you will be in a state of harvest from the beginning till the end.

记者：

就像您所说，我们每个人都有佛性，只不过是有的人没发现而已。您通过最直截了当、最简单的方法，让更多的人发现了自己的佛性。

Journalist: Just like what you have said, everyone has Buddha-nature. It is just that for some, it has not been discovered. Through the most direct, most straightforward and simplest way, you have enabled many to find their own Buddha-nature.

传喜法师：

如果发现自己是有佛性的，你肯定要遵循佛性的活法，肯定要戒恶修善。只有戒恶修善，才对得起自己的佛性。

Master Chuan-xi: If you have found your own Buddha-nature, you must lead your life according to it. You have to refrain from evil and do good. It is only when you refrain from evil and do good that you have accorded your own Buddha-nature proper regard.

记者：

现在有很多人，比如咱们说的那些犯罪行为，那些有过恶行的人，其实是什么呢？从我的理解来说，很多罪犯就没有发现自己的佛性所在。那如果说早点修佛，或者通过师父简单易懂的方法让他发现了他的佛性，那可能就不存在这种犯罪暴力了。

Journalist: Nowadays, there are many people who commit crimes and engage in unwholesome deeds. In reality, why is it so? From my understanding, many who commit crimes do so because they have not found their Buddha-nature. If they could have practiced Buddhism earlier on, or could have found their Buddha-nature through the master’s easy-to-understand teachings, it will be likely these kind of criminal and violent acts do not exist.

传喜法师：

一个已经明白佛性的人，会为自己的佛性负责。当一个人迷失了佛性，他会随着自己的欲望去行事。所以，犯罪的动机最初都是因为自私自利，他违背了自己的佛性。你有佛性，他也有佛性，每个人佛性都是当下具足的，并非人有人无。所以将心比心，是回归佛性后的一种理智关照，己所不欲勿施于人。人有这种同理心，才不会把自己不愿意受到的痛苦再施加给别人，而是愿意分享自己的快乐。

Master Chuan-xi: One who has understood Buddha-nature will assume responsibility for his own Buddha-nature. One who has lost his Buddha-nature will do whatever his desires dictate. Therefore, the primary objective to engage in crime is out of the desire to benefit oneself – one is going against his Buddha-nature. You have Buddha-nature, and so does everyone else. Everyone has complete Buddha-nature at any given moment – it is not as if some has it while some do not. Therefore, when we step into another person’s shoes, it is a kind of rational contemplation after having returned to our Buddha-nature – we do not unto others what we desire not done to ourselves. When people empathize with one another, they will not put others through suffering that they themselves do not wish to go through and they will be willing to share with others their own happiness.

记者：

师父，您现在每天不停地在做一个工作，就是让更多的人发现自己的佛性？

Journalist: Master, the job you have been doing endlessly day in day out, is to let many more people discover their Buddha-nature?

传喜法师：

这是我们生命最重要的财富，也是一种责任和承担。

Master Chuan-xi: This is the more important wealth of our lives; it is also a kind of duty and shouldering of responsibility.

“