大老板里就有观世音菩萨的化现
大家想想，观音菩萨要度我们多不容易啊，祂现佛身有多好看，三十二相，八十种好，有众菩萨围绕多自在，可祂又要现声闻身。声闻身就比较苦了，一个人在山林树下入定，托钵也是让众生种福田，结一个解脱的缘。现天王身也好看，坐在座上有天兵天将护卫，但又要现比丘、比丘尼身。你看我们比丘、比丘尼在社会上常常被人看不起，说是受了刺激才来出家的。有时候也现优婆塞、优婆夷身，虽然现在恢复宗教政策了，但是大家对宗教没有正确的观念，宗教政策往往落实不了。过去是“士农工商”，“士”排在第一位，因为比丘叫乞士，地位是很高的，优婆塞、优婆夷叫居士，地位也是很高的，现在是“商”排在第一位。大家都不知道佛法是什么了，对学佛的人有种种的误解，观世音菩萨就化现不同的身份去广度一切人。
现在的社会许多人都喜欢当老板，那么大老板里就有观世音菩萨的化现。日本有一个老板招工，一个大学生去面试，老板其他什么都不问，就问他：有没有给你爸爸妈妈洗过脚？这下给问住了，长到二十几岁还真没给爸爸妈妈洗过脚。老板就说: 回去给你爸爸妈妈洗个脚再来面试。他爸爸早就去世了，妈妈一个人守寡把他拉扯大，培养他读书到大学。这天回来要给妈妈洗脚，妈妈就说：孩子，以前都是我给你洗脚，今天你为什么一定要给我洗脚啊？他说：这是任务。结果，挽起妈妈的裤角看到一双枯瘦的脚，脚底都是老茧。他洗着洗着泪水就流下来了，想想妈妈培养自己多不容易啊，往日自己不懂事、不理解、不听话的事一一浮现出来，感恩之情油然而生。找到了这种感觉，第二天再去面试，老板问他洗过脚了没有？他说，洗过脚了，并把他的感受说了一遍，老板就录用了他。这个日本老板为什么特别重视这个呢？这就是做人最基本的道理，要知道感恩，这个老板就像观世音菩萨的化身一样，教他做好人。 做好人跟文凭的高低不成正比，研究生或博士生的人格未必一定高，但是人们现在往往不重视这些了。
Eternal （Lecture on the Guan Yin Bodhisattva Universal Door）
By Master Chuanxi
Let’s reflect upon how difficult it is for Guan Shi Yin Bodhisattva to teach and save all of us. Undoubtedly, it is easy for Him to appear as a Buddha who has thirty-two signs of perfection and eighty minor marks of excellence, and how pleasant it is to be surrounded by numerous Bodhisattvas. However, Guan Shi Yin Bodhisattva appears as a sravaka, who lives a tough life and meditates under trees in mountains, holding a begging bowl in order to make beings cultivate the field of blessedness and plant a seed for their future liberation. Similarly, it is good for Him to appear as a Lord of the Heaven so that He can always be guarded by powerful protectors there. However, Guan Shi Yin Bodhisattva sometimes also appears as a monk or nun who is often despised by society.
Some people doubt that monks or nuns leave their home and are tonsured because they cannot face the pressure in life. As we mentioned above, Guan Shi Yin Bodhisattva sometimes appears as an upasaka or upasika, too. However, due to people’ prejudice towards religion, the religious policies which have been restored in China, cannot be carried out properly. As mentioned above, ‘Shi’ enjoyed the highest social status among “shi, farmer, worker and businessman” in the past. Monks, nuns, upasakas, and upasikas were highly respected as members of ‘Shi’. Regrettably, now businessmen tend to be most admired. The majority of society lacks knowledge of Buddhism and has wrong understandings about it. Therefore, Bodhisattva has to take on different transformations to teach as many different people as possible.
In the modern world, lots of people like to be bosses. Some big bosses are the embodiment of Guan Shi Yin Bodhisattva. There was a boss in Japan who asked job seekers whether they had ever washed their parents’ feet. When a graduate failed to give a positive answer, the boss required the graduate to wash his parents’ feet before he came back for an interview. The graduate’s father had passed away long time ago and his mother brought him up alone until he completed his undergraduate studies. When he washed his mother’s feet that night, she asked him curiously, ‘Son, it was me who used to wash your feet daily when you were small. I don’t know why you do the same to me today?’ The graduate replied: ‘This is a task of my interview. ’
After rolling up his mother’s trousers, he saw her skinny legs while the soles of the feet were full of calluses. While washing his mother’s feet, his tears started to run down his cheeks as he recalled all the difficulties his mother encountered when she brought him up and his misbehaviours of the past. The next day, he told the boss what he felt. As a result, the boss hired him. Why did the boss reward such qualities? Because gratitude is a fundamental virtue throughout one’s life. The boss is like a transformation of Guan Shi Yin Bodhisattva, teaching his employees to be good men. Being a good man has nothing to do with the levels of a education degree. A person’s degree like master’s or doctor’s does not reflect his moral personality, as these two do not grow correspondingly. However, not many people pay attention to this in modern society.
——摘自《永恒的甘露》传喜法师开示录
爱出者爱返，福往者福来。随喜转载，功德无量。
