【文化释说英文有声书】第五篇 先让心出家 （二）上

现在出家人少了,大家把出家看得不可思议,但人心的走向其实 更加不可思议,或许我们可以先让心出家。

There are fewer people who renounce the household life now as everyone sees it as something which is inconceivable. However, what is more unfathomable in fact is the direction that the human mind can take. We should perhaps, let our mind renounce the household life.

我是 1994 年出家,1996 年闭关,1999 年出关,出关之后我师父 叫我弘扬佛法,跟大家分享人生的这种感悟。

I sought renunciation in 1994 and went into retreat in 1996. When I came out of my retreat in 1999, my master asked me to propagate the Dharma so that I could share with everyone such a life experience.

2004 年,台湾有一位高僧海涛法师到我寺院,邀请我出国弘法, 我想了四个月。我那时候想,我生在中国,中国这么大够我溜达了, 哪还用出国。

In 2004, a renowned master from Taiwan, Master Haitao, visited my monastery and asked me to travel abroad and propagate the Dharma – over which I thought for four months. I was thinking then: I have been born in China which is so big such that I will never run out of places to wander; do I still need to travel overseas?

他那边一直催,我们外面去走走,我却想了四个月,最后去跟我师父汇报。我问师父:“有一位法师邀请我出国弘法,我应不应该去?” 师父听后,一拍桌子说:“去!我们佛弟子哪有缘去哪里。”

He was persistent in his request to ask me to travel abroad to see the world. After thinking for four months, I reported this to my teacher. I asked, ‘Teacher, there is a master who has invited me to go abroad and propagate the Dharma; should I go?’ Upon hearing this and with a thump on the desk, he said, ‘Go! Wherever it is that we have a karmic connection to, we –the disciples of the Buddha – shall go.’

当时我已经管了两个寺庙了,一个寺庙资产好几个亿,三百多亩地;一个寺庙在山里面,也差不多七八十亩地,也价值几千万。那有 什么呢?两个庙哪个是你的?不要管这些,去、去。

At that time, I was already in charge of the running of two monasteries - the assets of one of which amounted to a few hundred million RMB with land it owned measuring over three hundred mu. The land of the other monastery which was in the mountains measured about 70 to 80 mu in size and was worth about scores of million RMB. So what? Is either one of the monasteries yours? Ignore these…go, go!

那时候,我师父八十多岁了。他老人家 1933 年出家,日本鬼子侵略中国的时候,师父一边是出家人,一边做医疗队、救护队队长, 到前线救死扶伤,抬担架冲锋陷阵救人,救我们的游击队。

My master was already over 80 years old then. He had sought renunciation in 1933 at the time of the Japanese invasion of China. While a monastic, he was also involved in medical relief work. He was the leader of a medical relief team who had saved lives and attended to the injured at the frontlines – rushing into battlegrounds with stretchers to rescue our guerrillas.

解放之后,有一段时间破除迷信,在那段时间里就是砸寺院,叫出家人还俗,但是我师父那个时候坚持不还俗。后来也受到一段时间的不公正待遇,被关在劳改农场,一关就是二十年。

There was a period of time after the communist takeover during which the campaign to eradicate superstitious beliefs was started – monasteries were being torn down and monastics were ordered to return to the household life. My master was adamant at that time never to become a householder again. He was subsequently treated unfairly for quite some time after which he was incarcerated in a farming labour camp. The incarceration lasted 20 years.

我常常因为这个事情问我师父。关了二十年还要批斗,还要游街, 每次游街都戴大高帽,大高帽尖尖的,上面写着“迷信大王”。我说 你只要说不相信佛,回家就是了,只要说不相信佛随时就放你走。我师父那时候说:我不抽烟、不喝酒,脑袋清楚的不得了,我们信的都是千万年不变的大道理。

I used to always ask my master about this. On top of his incarceration, he still had to be criticized openly and shamed on the streets, being made to don big pointed hats with the characters meaning ‘great king of superstition’ written on them. I told him that if he could have just said that he did not believe in the Buddha, he would have been able to be let off any time. My master told me then, ‘I was not smoking, and neither was I drunk; my mind could not be any clearer, and that which we believe in is the great truth which is immutable for millions and millions of years.’

只要是人类文明在,佛的道理都是立于天地之间的。我就问师父,

你受的这样的待遇,你是怎么想的呢?你难道不怨恨吗?你们知道我 师父怎么回答吗?他老人家说我一点都不怨恨,因为我们佛教相信有 生死轮回,有因果报应。

As long as human civilization prevails, the truth of the Buddha will exist in universe. I then asked my master, ‘Master, when you had been treated that way, what went through your mind - did you not feel hatred?’ Do you know how my master replied me?  He said he was not the least bit vengeful because in Buddhism, there is the belief in rebirth, and in the concept of karmic causes and results.

我师父说,因为我过去做人的时候害过别人,冤枉过别人。所以我这辈子遭人冤枉,受这个苦,但是我们修行人不怕苦。所以大家看, 做人的心态很重要。

My master explained that because he had harmed and wronged others in his previous human existences, he had to be wronged by others and go through the suffering in his present lifetime as a result. However, as a monastic, he was not fearful of suffering. Look at that everyone – it is very important that we have the correct mind-set as a human being.   

刚才片子里看到我师父了,一看他如同佛一样,一身庄严,面容慈祥,满具佛相。不知我们在座的有没有到寺院去见过佛像,佛像慈 眉善目、两耳垂肩。

In the film just now, we saw that my master looked like the Buddha. With a solemn demeanour and a kind, compassionate look, he was replete with the features of a Buddha. Has any of you seated here been to the monastery before to look at the images of the Buddha in which the Buddha is seen to have compassionate brows and kind eyes, and earlobes so long that they seem to reach the shoulders?

我们以前以为《西游记》里面如来佛祖是演员化妆,拿面捏出来的耳朵,我们总想佛耳朵怎么可能这么大?但是你见到我师父,你就相信人的耳朵真能长得那么大,我师父耳朵就是两耳垂肩。

I used to think that the earlobes of the Buddha in the television series Journey to the West was a result of the actor’s make-up who shaped them using flour. We always think to ourselves, ‘How can the Buddha’s earlobes be so big?’ However, if only you have seen my master, you would believe that it is possible for ears to grow to that size. My master’s earlobes were exactly almost touching his shoulders.

一个小伙子才30多岁,他讲了自己的体验。首先他说:“师父, 你来救救我吧,救救我。”

A chap who was just a little over 30 years of age once told me about his personal experience. He first told me, ‘Master, please save me…save me, please.’

那天什么人都不在,他就跟我在一起,他说要老实讲给我听。他十分认真地跟我讲:“我这一辈子,读小学的时候就逃课,逃课就开始离家出走。先是小偷小摸,后来就偷自行车,十几岁就和大家一起偷, 偷了之后就卖钱,三文不值两文。卖了之后,那么小的年纪就吃喝嫖 赌,开始学抽烟、喝啤酒、赌博、吸毒,从小偷又到了大偷。”他 20 岁还没到就被关起来了,结果放出来没多久又进去了,再出来之后, 想好也不行了。他说有一股力量控制了他,想做好人都不行,那股力 量逼着他做坏事,甚至当着警察面做坏事,这股力量就是要让他进监 狱。他这才发现,他控制不了自己,有一股邪恶的力量控制着他。

No one else was around on that day, only him and me. He told me that he would be frank with me. In an extremely serious manner, he told me, ‘This was what I have done my whole life: I played truant when I was in primary school, and as soon as I had started to do that, I ran away from home.’ ‘I began to steal petty stuff and then bicycles later on.’ ‘Together with others, I stole since I was more than ten years of age and we tried to sell the things we had stolen for whatever prices we could fetch.’ ‘We spent our proceeds on meals, prostitution, cigarettes, alcohol, gambling and narcotics.’ ‘From a petty thief, I had become a big-time burglar.’ He was first put into prison before he had turned 20. Not long after being released, he was jailed again. The second time he had been released, he was unable to turn over a new leaf even if he had wanted to. He said that there was a force which was controlling him, preventing him from being wholesome even if he had wanted to. He said that that force made him do bad things against his will, even making him commit crime in front of the police. This force wanted him to end up in prison. It was then that he realized that it was due to that evil force that he had no control over himself.

现实中,心灵也可能自己树起狭隘的、恶的牢狱,只不过身体仍然自由,没有被拘束。如果放任做恶,牢狱的门就真的为你打开了。

In reality, it is possible that one’s spiritual self may have set up a cramped and unwholesome prison for oneself; although the physical body is still free from any restrictions. If you commit evil acts, then the door of that prison will open for you.    

我一听,不是我给他讲佛法,而是他给我讲佛法了。这是他的亲身体验啊,他是没读过几年书的人,不懂这些东西的。他不仅讲他自己,他还说: “这社会上你看看,多少人 三十岁就死了,八十岁拉出去埋掉而已。”

Having listened to him, it was as if he was speaking on the Dharma to me, and not I to him. This was his personal life experience; he could not have known all this otherwise as he had only a few years’ of school. Not only did he speak of himself, he went on, ‘Look at this society now: how many have died at the age of 30 plus? It is only in their eighties that they are being buried.’

所以我们中国有一句话叫 “行尸走肉”。虽然活着,“魂” 都不在身上了,魂不附体了, 这是非常可悲的。

That is why we have this saying in China: ‘living corpse and walking dead’. Although one is alive, one’s soul is no longer in one’s body – this is something which is very pathetic.

所以学佛就是必须要做自己命运的主人,我的命我自己要做主,不能够随波逐流。自己要做自己命运的主人,是要抗争的, 与恶抗争,怀德向善。一个人要想死,别人根本保护不了他。

As such, one must become the master of one’s own destiny if one is to practice Buddhism – I am the master of my own life, and I must not go wherever the current flows. To become the master of one’s destiny, one must take up arms to fight against evil, cultivate virtues, and seek wholesomeness. Nobody is able to save someone bent on seeking death.

有一个大富大贵的富家子弟,富二代,开法拉利的。每天吸毒吸到什么程度?不单单自己吸,还买了大量的毒品请别人吸,来来来一起吸、一起吸。就这样吸毒,吸到后来怎么样了?毒品吸多了之后会 迷幻的,迷幻了怎么样?自己从楼上跳下去了。

There was a son of a very wealthy and prosperous family who drove a Ferrari. He took drugs on a daily basis, so much so that not only did he consume them himself, but he also bought large amounts so that he could invite others to join him in taking the drugs. It went on like this for quite a while until finally, he developed hallucinations from the prolonged drug use. What happens when one becomes hallucinated? He was so hallucinated that he jumped down a building and killed himself.  

不要说生命中的其他,比如财富多寡,单就说人的相貌吧,中国人常说相随什么转?相随心转,什么样的心就有什么样的相貌。心灵 会改变人的相貌,也会改变人的命运。

Let us not mention the other things in life, like whether a person possesses great or little wealth, and talk only about a person’s appearance. We Chinese often talk about ‘the world is but a reflection of our mind’. What we have in our mind determines the kind of appearance we possess. One’s spiritual state of being can alter one’s appearance; it can also alter one’s destiny.  

慧日国际佛学HRIB

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