汝爱我心 我怜汝色——由五百世情缘引发的一部佛经

今天道场在诵《大佛顶首楞严经》，这个经典的缘起就是一场生生世世的爱情故事而引发的。谁跟谁的呢？说的是阿难尊者跟摩登伽女。

The Shurangama Sutra is today being recited in this place of practice. The originating conditions giving rise to this sutra came from an everlasting love story. Whose love story was that? We are talking about that between Venerable Ananda and Matangi’s daughter.

那天在祇树给孤独园，舍卫城的国王波斯匿王为了超度他的爸爸，就修斋供佛。为了纪念自己的父母，超度父母、帮助父母而供佛斋僧，这是第一功德，供养三宝。

One day at Jetavana Vihara, Prasenajit, the emperor of Shravasti, set up a meal-offering ceremony dedicated to the Buddha for the deliverance of his deceased father. Making offerings to the Three Jewels is the foremost virtuous merit to perform for the purpose of remembering one’s parents and to help them obtain deliverance.

波斯匿王亲自带着国王大臣们来请佛应供，叫“请佛宫掖”，然后还有一位大富长者也供僧。国王要供、大富长者也要供，文殊菩萨就带着一批菩萨到那位长者家应供。然后阿难尊者“先受别请”，他早就被别人预订好了，阿难尊者也去应供。

Emperor Prasenajit brought his senior ministers with him to personally invite the Buddha to accept the offering. This is known as ‘inviting the Buddha into the inner palace’. Then, a wealthy elder also wanted to make an offering. As offerings were being made by the King as well, Bodhisattva Manjusri led a retinue of Bodhisattvas to the home of the wealthy elder to accept the invitation. Venerable Ananda ‘had previously accepted an invitation by someone else’. He had, earlier on, been invited by someone else. As such, he had gone to accept the offering. 

这里面有一个问题，佛经讲到：“既无上座及阿阇黎。”我们出家人特别是女众不可以一个人出去，至少两个人。我们男众也是这样，最好要有同参一起走，可以遮掉很多的那些不好的缘。

There is a problem here. It is mentioned in the sutras that a monastic is not allowed to travel without an elder or an acharya (spiritual teacher) with him or her.  This is especially so for the nuns. There must be at least two people traveling together. For the male monastics as well, it will be ideal for us to travel together with fellow practitioners. This is to prevent unwholesome conditions from arising.

所以阿难尊者就碰到冤亲债主了，哪一位？摩登伽女。摩登伽女一眼看到阿难尊者之后怎么样？就一见钟情了。

And so Ananda met his karmic debtor. Which one? The daughter of Matangi. What happened when Matangi’s daughter first laid eyes on Venerable Ananda? It was love at first sight.

她妈妈怎么样？不管是人的妈妈也好，狗的妈妈也好，鸡的妈妈也好，都是爱子啊！对摩登伽女再非理性的要求，妈妈都觉得我要满足她，三千年前的妈妈是这样，现在的妈妈也是这样。请问，妈妈造业不造业？妈妈造业。凡夫的爱情后果很严重，不要说男女的爱情，凡夫的母子之情、母女之情后果也很严重。

How was her mother? It does not matter if one is the mother of a human, a dog or a chicken – all mothers love their offspring. No matter how unreasonable the requests from her daughter are, Matangi would always feel that she must satisfy her. The mothers of three thousand years ago were like that, and so are the mothers now. Let me ask if the mother was committing unwholesome deeds? Yes, she was. The love of ordinary worldlings leads to serious consequences. Let us not talk about the love between men and women, the worldly love between mothers and sons and daughters could also lead to severe consequences.

所以《楞严经》就是从这里面开始的。我前面讲这个妈妈为了帮助女儿，还有学先梵天咒，外道的咒语。她也念咒，结果把阿难尊者给念糊涂掉了，差一点就让她女儿满愿了……

That was how the Shurangama Sutra came about. The mother whom I mentioned earlier had learned the mantra of Brahma - a mantra of the heretics - in order to help her daughter. She recited the mantra to confuse Venerable Ananda and almost succeeded in fulfilling her daughter’s wishes.

世间有邪法，佛有正法；世间有邪咒，佛有密咒。

This world has its unwholesome ways while the Buddha has the Right Dharma; there are evil mantras in the world while the Buddha has tantric mantras.

这个时候讲道理不行。咒就是什么？不分别，咒就是佛的威德力，马上起作用。

It is useless to talk sense at this time. What is a mantra? It is non-discernment and it is the power of the Buddha’s virtuous might. It gets effective instantly.

这个时候佛陀怎么样？佛陀从头顶涌现大千叶宝莲，这时候就显现出法身佛的状态来，念着楞严咒，放着大光明。然后文殊菩萨，文殊菩萨是指什么？般若，般若是观照，它也是代表法，持着咒力光明，刹那之间到了阿难尊者面前。

At that moment, what did the Buddha do? A large precious lotus flower with a thousand petals emerged from the top of the Buddha’s crown. That was when the Dharmakaya (Absolute or Truth Body) of the Buddha was manifested. While the Surangama Mantra was being chanted, bright light was emitted. Then Bodhisattva Manjusri, who represents prajna (wisdom) and the contemplation of reality, abided in the luminosity of the power of the mantra and appeared before Venerable Ananada within a split second.

众生邪咒把阿难尊者迷了，现在佛的咒来再让阿难尊者醒了。醒了还会不会做坏事？醒了之后还会不会堕落？赶快向佛陀的方向跑。我们要不要向佛陀的方向跑？天天要“南无佛、南无佛”！

Whilst the evil mantra of myriad beings captivated Venerable Ananda, the mantra of the Buddha enabled him to wake up. Would one still engage in unwholesome deeds when one is already awake? Would one still fall into decadence when one is already awake? Quickly run towards the Buddha. Do we not want to run towards the Buddha? We need to chant ‘Namo Buddha, Namo Buddha’ everyday!

你不学佛那是小爱，那是相对的爱，那是狭隘的爱，那是一爱就变恨的爱。我们学佛的爱，不是一家人胜似一家人，同体大悲的爱，无缘大慈的爱，你跟我没关系我也爱你，你看这爱得多广泛。请问我们要什么爱？我们要佛的爱还是要世间凡人的爱？佛的爱。

If you do not practice Buddhism, yours is the lesser love. That is love that is relative, love that is narrow. That is the kind of love that changes into hatred as soon as one starts to love. The love of those of us who practice Buddhism is not more for one family and less for another. It is the love of great universal compassion and great unconditional loving-kindness. I will still love you even though you are not related to me. Look at how expansive this love is. Let me ask what is it that we should love? Do we want the Buddha’s love or the love of worldlings? The Buddha’s love.

阿难尊者险些被迷，摩登伽女也追着阿难到了佛陀的精舍祗树给孤独园。一开始佛就问阿难，“你因为什么跟着我出家的呀？”阿难尊者说，我当时见到佛的时候，光明殊妙，三十二相、八十种好，不是世间的业能够形成的，所以我想跟着您。这也是因为见到佛的相好，他才生起了要出家追随佛陀的心。

Venerable Ananda was almost enchanted and Matangi’s daughter even chased Ananda all the way to the Buddha’s abode at Jetavana Vihara. The Buddha asked Ananda from the very beginning, ‘Why did you follow me in renunciation?’ Venerable Ananda said, ‘When I first saw the Buddha, he was profoundly and wondrously luminous with the Thirty-two Marks of a Great Being and the Eighty Goodnesses. These were not possible with the karmic actions of this world. That was why I wished to follow you.’ It was due to Buddha’s wholesome appearance that the thought of renunciation to follow the Buddha arose in him.

佛也问摩登伽女，“你为什么喜欢阿难尊者？”摩登伽女说，“阿难长得漂亮，长得帅！”“他哪里帅？”“眼睛帅，鼻子帅，嘴也帅！”

The Buddha also asked the daughter of Matangi, ‘Why do you like Venerable Ananda?’ She said, ‘Ananda is really good looking and handsome.’ ‘Which part of him looks good?’ ‘His eyes are handsome, his nose and his mouth too!’

阿难尊者也是王子，佛陀是丈六金身，阿难尊者比佛陀矮一个头，至少两米四五吧。他又是王子，富不富？佛陀三十二相，阿难尊者三十相，帅不帅？但是佛陀说：“阿难尊者把鼻子割下来你要不要？”“哦，这不行的！”

Venerable Ananda was also a prince. The Buddha had a golden body which was six ‘zhang’ (one ‘zhang’ is about ten Chinese feet) long. Venerable Ananda was shorter than the Buddha by a head - at least 2.45 meters. He was also a prince, was he not rich? The Buddha had thirty-two marks of a Great Being while Venerable Ananda had thirty signs. Was he not good looking? However, the Buddha said, ‘If Venerable Ananda’s nose was cut off, would you still want him?’ ‘O, no way!’

摩登伽女为什么一见到他就一见钟情？请问是不是有缘分的？因为阿难尊者他们前世做了五百世夫妻，前世夫妻见面了，就是这样。

Why would Matangi’s daughter fall in with him (Ananda) at first sight? Was this not due to the working of conditions? This is because Venerable Ananda and she had been husband and wife for five hundred lives previously. Being previously husband and wife, they met again – it is like this.

这叫染缘，你要离染污的缘远一点。

This is known as the ‘tainted conditions’. You must keep a distance from such tainting conditions.

“染缘易就，净业难成”。

‘Tainted conditions are easy to form; untainted karma is difficult to be accomplished.’

阿难尊者看到佛的相好，他生起了好乐之心，想追随着佛出家修道；摩登伽女看到阿难尊者也是因为他相好，就生起了爱心，就想嫁给他。也就是说，世间轮回也是因为爱，无爱不生娑婆，“爱河千尺浪，苦海万重波”，轮回的动力，原动力就是一个爱。

When Venerable Ananda saw the wholesome appearance of the Buddha, a sense of happiness arose in him and he wished to follow the Buddha in renunciation to practice the Path. Matangi’s daughter fell in love with Venerable Ananda because of his good looks, and wished to be married to him. There is the cycle of birth and death in this world due to love – the Saha world would not have come into being if not for love. ‘There are thousand foot waves in the river of love and ten thousand repeating ripples in the ocean of suffering.’ The originating driving force behind the cycle of birth and death is love.

然后佛陀跟她讲法，摩登伽女心开意解，她也追随佛陀出家，摩登伽女证阿罗汉果位。就是因为摩登伽女的爱才演开了《大佛顶首楞严经》，请问摩登伽女功德大不大？那是很大的！这种爱情最后因为佛陀的出现才真正有了一个圆满的结局。

Then, the Buddha started teaching her the Dharma. Matangi’s daughter had her mind cleared and gained understanding. She also followed the Buddha and became a monastic. She attained the fruition of arhatship. It is all because of the love of Matangi’s daughter that we speak on the Foremost Surangama Sutra of the Great Buddha’s Crown.  Let me ask you if the virtuous merit of Matangi’s daughter is not great? It is very great! Only with the eventual appearance of the Buddha was there a really perfect and complete ending to a love like this.