Master Ti Guang – Correctly Understanding Karma
Original Chinese Language Article By: http://bodhi.takungpao.com
(Translated by Adrian Chan-Wyles PhD)
(Translated by Adrian Chan-Wyles PhD)
Translator’s Note: Master Ti Guang [体光] (1924-2005) gave this Dharma-talk when he was 75 years old in around 1999. Master Ti Guang’s biography has been translated into English and can be found on the RHACS site. He was a disciple of Master Xu Yun (1840-1959), and the monk who was with Xu Yun when he died. In fact it was Master Ti Guang who was given Xu Yun’s last instructions. Another interesting fact is that Master Ti Guang was an accomplished martial arts practitioner who once bettered Ch’an Master Hai Deng (1902-1989) – a very famous Shaolin Temple martial arts expert. All Ch’an Buddhists are expected to realise enlightenment ‘here and now’ without any hesitation. Although what Master Ti Guang has to say is directly toward Ch’an Buddhist monks, nevertheless, as the examples of Vimalakirti, Layman Pang (and his family), and the Sixth Patriarch Hui Neng demonstrate – everyone who follows the Ch’an Dharma must consider meditation a matter of life and death, and never settle into the rut of an easy or pleasant existence. The Ch’an Guild of Hui Neng (CGHN) is an illusion designed to facilitate the breaking of the ridge-pole of ‘karma’ nothing else. The ridge-pole of karma is difficult to uproot because delusion in the mind and body is the product of endless cycles of ignorant conditioning. The Ch’an practitioner is expected to realise enlightenment ‘here and now’ simply because this is his or her function. This effort requires the gathering and strengthening of inner qi energy for the final ‘breakthrough’ in the mind that pierces the obscuring layer of deluded thought, and directly perceives the empty (and all-embracing) mind ground. The only method that builds-up inner qi energy is by controlling the senses through a rigorous self-discipline – in this case Master Ti Guang refers not only to the Vinaya Discipline, but also to the Bodhisattva Discipline which all lay and monastic Chinese Buddhists are sworn to uphold. This is the Ch’an method that freed Hui Neng due to his previously ‘good’ karmic roots, but it is the responsibility of all Ch’an practitioners to plant these roots for themselves, or enlightenment simply will not be attained or be attainable.
ACW 7.3.2016
When you eat rice, it does not belong to you, it belongs to the Buddhadharma. You do not own this food because you did not produce it with your own labour. When you eat rice, drink boiled water, or eat any meal, everything is done for by someone else, why are you like this? To conceal what you are doing, you claim that this living on the labour of others is your good karma – huh! How can you speak or not speak about cause and effect when you do not even understand it? You probably calculate over a year how many good deeds you have done, and compare this with how many bad deeds you have done, as if you are an accountant working in a worldly business – how much money have spent – how much have you saved? As you are a follower of the Buddhadharma, how can you understand karma in this incorrect way? How can others learn from you if your practice is not correct? This is a serious issue! You cannot mislead people with a false teaching. We are Ch’an Buddhist monastics who follow very strict Vinaya Discipline rules of correct behaviour, and if you do not teach the Buddhadharma properly, you are guilty of violating the Vinaya Discipline. By teaching people incorrectly, you are guilty of ‘stealing’ the truth from them and defaming the Buddhadharma. If you do not purify your mind, then the body and mind will be influenced by obstructive and dense qi energy (which is delusion). If this is the case, a person cannot be re-born in the Western Paradise, and instead (through your corrupt thinking and instruction) will be re-born as a cow or a horse.
Even if you steal even a small piece of paper whilst living in a great temple – you will fall into the re-birth of a cow or a horse. This is the disastrous effect of generating corrupt causes that lead to negative effects. Once on Mount Baohua there was a mule who in a previous life had been an assistant Bhikshu in a Ch’an temple. Mount Baohua has a large number of rice-fields and storehouses around it – this is where this mule lived and work. In fact, so obedient in his work was this mule that he needed very little prompting from his human masters. He spent his life in a constant cycle of eating grass on the mountain and then carrying bags of rice for the humans to eat. This mule was trapped in this cycle of (limited) existence because of teaching the Buddhadharma incorrectly (in a manner that did not penetrate the basis of delusion and uproot all suffering that transcended the cause and effect of karma) when he was a human-being – huh! I live in Louyang at the White Horse Temple (白馬寺 - Bai Ma Si) and that too is surrounded by many fields that grow wheat and corn. These fields are worked by two mules, and two oxen (which I have regularly fed) whose job it was to pull the waterwheel round and round all day long. The black-coloured mule – when it was tied to the wheel, got tired after working for hours, and when his body was covered in sweat, he stood still and would not move. A Bhikshu named Shen Xiu (神修和尚 – Shen Xiu He Shang) who was in charge of the field-cultivation, went to this mule, gently patted his head, and asked him why he was not moving despite the fact that he had been watered and fed? This was a special mule who could talk and he answered: ‘In a past life, when I was a Ch’an Buddhist monastic, I did not understand cause and effect and expected everyone else to do everything for me whilst I made no effort on their behalf – now I find it very hard to do the work, even though I have already eaten the food and drank the water provided by others, and does not belong to me!’ You see, this is exactly the effect of not understanding the concept of karma correctly that will follow you from one existence to the next!
The idea of tea still being poured into a cup that is already full, originates with Patriarch Zhaozhou (趙州) who lived in Hebei province, during the Tang Dynasty. Some say the old master attained initial enlightenment at age 8 years old, whilst others say he was initially enlightened at 18 years old, anyway, no matter when it was, the fact is that he did eventually attain full enlightenment. For 30 years he expanded his conscious awareness by not sullying his mind with mixed or sullied intentions. He focused his mind fully to transcend the illusion of life and death and completely break the root of ignorance that is the basis of cyclic karma. He applied himself to uproot all of delusion completely from his mind, and did not sit there trying to compare good deeds with bad deeds over the year! You cannot control karma because as Buddhist monastics, your job is to thoroughly uproot greed, hatred and delusion here and now – and teach others to do the same – there is no other way for Ch’an Buddhist monastics, because karma cannot be compromised with. If you think life and death are real, and stupidly persist to live in the duality measuring ‘good’ against ‘bad’, you will never attain perfect enlightenment. Through effective meditation, and following the Vinaya Discipline, you must completely uproot the ignorant essence of all karma and transcend life and death. If you do not do this, how will you ever achieve true enlightenment? Realise this; you are Ch’an monks, and Ch’an meditation involves the complete transcendence of all duality. When you sit in a Ch’an Week Retreat, do you chant the Buddha’s name? Do you read the sutras? Do you pray to the Buddha to relieve your suffering? Why do you do all these things when you are supposed to be meditating? In the Ch’an Hall you are expected to gain enlightenment for the welfare of all beings – as Ch’an Buddhist monastics, this is your only job. However, many think that the Ch’an Hall is just a place to go where you are paid in steam buns – so after 49 days of effort, in reality all you have done is eaten a lot of buns! When you are this way, you eat the work of others, but you do not earn what you eat, because as Ch’an Buddhist monastics, you are not doing your jobs properly! To sit in a Ch’an Week Retreat should be considered a life or death struggle! When you sit you must be prepared to die! There is no other way for a Ch’an Buddhist monastic as humanity is relying on you to do your allotted task in life. The steam buns should be an irrelevance that merely keep your body functioning for the purpose of further meditation. This is generating true good karma that uproots ignorance. If you spend your time superstitiously comparing petty ‘good’ things with irrelevant ‘bad’ things, then nothing changes for you or anyone else, and the cycle of ignorance continues unabated. If you do not meditate correctly, then think of this; even if you eat buns and die – you will not escape your own suffering, how could you?
What you must understand as Ch’an Buddhist monastics, is that when there is a steady supply of food and drink for you to eat, which you have not planted, cultivated, harvested, stored or transported, you are quite literally living for free on the labour of others. This is fine if you are doing the job they expect you to do – that is exert the greatest effort to achieve full enlightenment and relieve suffering in the world – but when you settle into a mundane existence, simply moving from one day to the next pointlessly trying to add-up what you think are ‘good’ or ‘bad’ karmic events, you are not only deluding yourself and profaning the Buddhadharma, but you are betraying ordinary beings who work hard in the fields and sweat on your behalf! As Ch’an Buddhist monastics, it is your responsibility to transcend the (deluded) duality of ‘life’ and ‘death’ and in so doing, lead others to this sublime state. Are you really fulfilling the only task you have when mindlessly living off on the labour of others without bothering to ‘pay’ them for their work? Huh! How can you deceive humanity like this? When others selflessly provide food and water for you – what they provide belongs entirely to the Buddhadharma and never to you! If you think like this, then you are stealing from the Buddha himself! Huh! Your only job as a Ch’an Buddhist monastic is the solving of the riddle of life and death – nothing more! It is not to enjoy an easy life of leisure at the expense of others (and their suffering)! As we all expect to have realised full enlightenment – I ask you, are you already enlightened? No? Why not? Why have you not fulfilled your allotted task? After-all, the poor people have already paid you in advance for your supposed effort! There is an instruction in the (Vegetarian) Dining Hall (齋堂 – Zhai Tang) which states: ‘If the mind is ‘stilled’ so that no thought arises, then the true gold of reality will manifest. If the mind is stirred by a ‘thought’ of consuming food and water, then the mind in the past, present and future will not be freed.’
If you think about gaining food all the time, this is more deluded ‘thought’ generated in the mind, and no matter how much you meditate, the mind cannot be ‘stilled’ in the past, present or future. The Brahmajala Sutra (梵網經 – Fan Wang Jing) is very strict on this issue. The food and water you consume belong to the nation – that is, to the people – it does belong to you because you are just a worthless Ch’an Buddhist monastic! If you eat this food but do not make any effort in your self-cultivation, then you are committing ‘theft’ and are a ‘dishonest’ follower of the Buddhadharma. If you do not do as you are supposed to as a Ch’an Buddhist monastic, then you are guilty of breaking the moral law that governs the behaviour of Ch’an Buddhist monastics, and when you die, you will take re-birth in a lower realm. This is criminal behaviour that betrays the nation by stealing the food that is collectively produced. All you have to do as a Ch’an Buddhist monastic, is earn this food through diligent self-cultivation, and realise full enlightenment. The Buddhist path is very strict indeed, and when you take your vows, there is a karmic consequence if you do not follow them correctly. You will be re-born as a hungry ghost (or any of the 5000 devils), or perhaps a domestic or wild animal, so why take this risk? Use wisdom and follow your vows correctly and do not be lazy. Without the Vinaya Discipline there can be no breakthrough to the underlying and empty mind ground. Vows, when followed properly, create the inner and outer conditions for enlightenment to be achieved – no Vinaya Discipline – no Buddhist enlightenment, it is that simple. You have a grave responsibility as Ch’an Buddhist monastics, and you are expected to set a good example for the laity to follow, as this ensures stability in society. Make no mistake about it, the Buddhadharma is a very strict teaching indeed!
Now, after having said all this and made the danger clear for all to see, what should you do if you have not already comprehended enlightenment? What should you do if you eat the food and have not realised the empty essence of your mind? In that case you will be like a clay Buddha image immersed in a fast flowing river, which is then smashed to pieces by the surging current because you have no insight and will be unable to defend yourself from the hellish karma you are producing! As you have come here to receive Ch’an instruction from me, and can say that life is difficult for a Bodhisattva, but you must try your hardest to clear your mind and realise enlightenment. The effort to attain enlightenment is the ‘right effort’ of Buddhism, and this prepares the way for full enlightenment – this is the generation of good karma – here and now. This is how you build good virtue and moral strength and rescue yourself from the state of being a clay Buddha image. I became a Ch’an Buddhist Bhikshu when I was 14 years old – and now I am 75 years old. I have eaten the food and drank the water given to me by others for 60 years now! As I am old and you are young, you can see that I have consumed far more than yourselves. I have led a very diligent life upholding the Vinaya Discipline and clearing my mind through meditation, and this is exactly what you must do! Huh! I must say that although I have been strict with you, I must confess that I am not as good as you. Now we must go back and rest, but first we must pay our respects to the Universal Buddha – Shakyamuni!
©opyright: Adrian Chan-Wyles (ShiDaDao) 2016.
ACW 7.3.2016
When you eat rice, it does not belong to you, it belongs to the Buddhadharma. You do not own this food because you did not produce it with your own labour. When you eat rice, drink boiled water, or eat any meal, everything is done for by someone else, why are you like this? To conceal what you are doing, you claim that this living on the labour of others is your good karma – huh! How can you speak or not speak about cause and effect when you do not even understand it? You probably calculate over a year how many good deeds you have done, and compare this with how many bad deeds you have done, as if you are an accountant working in a worldly business – how much money have spent – how much have you saved? As you are a follower of the Buddhadharma, how can you understand karma in this incorrect way? How can others learn from you if your practice is not correct? This is a serious issue! You cannot mislead people with a false teaching. We are Ch’an Buddhist monastics who follow very strict Vinaya Discipline rules of correct behaviour, and if you do not teach the Buddhadharma properly, you are guilty of violating the Vinaya Discipline. By teaching people incorrectly, you are guilty of ‘stealing’ the truth from them and defaming the Buddhadharma. If you do not purify your mind, then the body and mind will be influenced by obstructive and dense qi energy (which is delusion). If this is the case, a person cannot be re-born in the Western Paradise, and instead (through your corrupt thinking and instruction) will be re-born as a cow or a horse.
Even if you steal even a small piece of paper whilst living in a great temple – you will fall into the re-birth of a cow or a horse. This is the disastrous effect of generating corrupt causes that lead to negative effects. Once on Mount Baohua there was a mule who in a previous life had been an assistant Bhikshu in a Ch’an temple. Mount Baohua has a large number of rice-fields and storehouses around it – this is where this mule lived and work. In fact, so obedient in his work was this mule that he needed very little prompting from his human masters. He spent his life in a constant cycle of eating grass on the mountain and then carrying bags of rice for the humans to eat. This mule was trapped in this cycle of (limited) existence because of teaching the Buddhadharma incorrectly (in a manner that did not penetrate the basis of delusion and uproot all suffering that transcended the cause and effect of karma) when he was a human-being – huh! I live in Louyang at the White Horse Temple (白馬寺 - Bai Ma Si) and that too is surrounded by many fields that grow wheat and corn. These fields are worked by two mules, and two oxen (which I have regularly fed) whose job it was to pull the waterwheel round and round all day long. The black-coloured mule – when it was tied to the wheel, got tired after working for hours, and when his body was covered in sweat, he stood still and would not move. A Bhikshu named Shen Xiu (神修和尚 – Shen Xiu He Shang) who was in charge of the field-cultivation, went to this mule, gently patted his head, and asked him why he was not moving despite the fact that he had been watered and fed? This was a special mule who could talk and he answered: ‘In a past life, when I was a Ch’an Buddhist monastic, I did not understand cause and effect and expected everyone else to do everything for me whilst I made no effort on their behalf – now I find it very hard to do the work, even though I have already eaten the food and drank the water provided by others, and does not belong to me!’ You see, this is exactly the effect of not understanding the concept of karma correctly that will follow you from one existence to the next!
The idea of tea still being poured into a cup that is already full, originates with Patriarch Zhaozhou (趙州) who lived in Hebei province, during the Tang Dynasty. Some say the old master attained initial enlightenment at age 8 years old, whilst others say he was initially enlightened at 18 years old, anyway, no matter when it was, the fact is that he did eventually attain full enlightenment. For 30 years he expanded his conscious awareness by not sullying his mind with mixed or sullied intentions. He focused his mind fully to transcend the illusion of life and death and completely break the root of ignorance that is the basis of cyclic karma. He applied himself to uproot all of delusion completely from his mind, and did not sit there trying to compare good deeds with bad deeds over the year! You cannot control karma because as Buddhist monastics, your job is to thoroughly uproot greed, hatred and delusion here and now – and teach others to do the same – there is no other way for Ch’an Buddhist monastics, because karma cannot be compromised with. If you think life and death are real, and stupidly persist to live in the duality measuring ‘good’ against ‘bad’, you will never attain perfect enlightenment. Through effective meditation, and following the Vinaya Discipline, you must completely uproot the ignorant essence of all karma and transcend life and death. If you do not do this, how will you ever achieve true enlightenment? Realise this; you are Ch’an monks, and Ch’an meditation involves the complete transcendence of all duality. When you sit in a Ch’an Week Retreat, do you chant the Buddha’s name? Do you read the sutras? Do you pray to the Buddha to relieve your suffering? Why do you do all these things when you are supposed to be meditating? In the Ch’an Hall you are expected to gain enlightenment for the welfare of all beings – as Ch’an Buddhist monastics, this is your only job. However, many think that the Ch’an Hall is just a place to go where you are paid in steam buns – so after 49 days of effort, in reality all you have done is eaten a lot of buns! When you are this way, you eat the work of others, but you do not earn what you eat, because as Ch’an Buddhist monastics, you are not doing your jobs properly! To sit in a Ch’an Week Retreat should be considered a life or death struggle! When you sit you must be prepared to die! There is no other way for a Ch’an Buddhist monastic as humanity is relying on you to do your allotted task in life. The steam buns should be an irrelevance that merely keep your body functioning for the purpose of further meditation. This is generating true good karma that uproots ignorance. If you spend your time superstitiously comparing petty ‘good’ things with irrelevant ‘bad’ things, then nothing changes for you or anyone else, and the cycle of ignorance continues unabated. If you do not meditate correctly, then think of this; even if you eat buns and die – you will not escape your own suffering, how could you?
What you must understand as Ch’an Buddhist monastics, is that when there is a steady supply of food and drink for you to eat, which you have not planted, cultivated, harvested, stored or transported, you are quite literally living for free on the labour of others. This is fine if you are doing the job they expect you to do – that is exert the greatest effort to achieve full enlightenment and relieve suffering in the world – but when you settle into a mundane existence, simply moving from one day to the next pointlessly trying to add-up what you think are ‘good’ or ‘bad’ karmic events, you are not only deluding yourself and profaning the Buddhadharma, but you are betraying ordinary beings who work hard in the fields and sweat on your behalf! As Ch’an Buddhist monastics, it is your responsibility to transcend the (deluded) duality of ‘life’ and ‘death’ and in so doing, lead others to this sublime state. Are you really fulfilling the only task you have when mindlessly living off on the labour of others without bothering to ‘pay’ them for their work? Huh! How can you deceive humanity like this? When others selflessly provide food and water for you – what they provide belongs entirely to the Buddhadharma and never to you! If you think like this, then you are stealing from the Buddha himself! Huh! Your only job as a Ch’an Buddhist monastic is the solving of the riddle of life and death – nothing more! It is not to enjoy an easy life of leisure at the expense of others (and their suffering)! As we all expect to have realised full enlightenment – I ask you, are you already enlightened? No? Why not? Why have you not fulfilled your allotted task? After-all, the poor people have already paid you in advance for your supposed effort! There is an instruction in the (Vegetarian) Dining Hall (齋堂 – Zhai Tang) which states: ‘If the mind is ‘stilled’ so that no thought arises, then the true gold of reality will manifest. If the mind is stirred by a ‘thought’ of consuming food and water, then the mind in the past, present and future will not be freed.’
If you think about gaining food all the time, this is more deluded ‘thought’ generated in the mind, and no matter how much you meditate, the mind cannot be ‘stilled’ in the past, present or future. The Brahmajala Sutra (梵網經 – Fan Wang Jing) is very strict on this issue. The food and water you consume belong to the nation – that is, to the people – it does belong to you because you are just a worthless Ch’an Buddhist monastic! If you eat this food but do not make any effort in your self-cultivation, then you are committing ‘theft’ and are a ‘dishonest’ follower of the Buddhadharma. If you do not do as you are supposed to as a Ch’an Buddhist monastic, then you are guilty of breaking the moral law that governs the behaviour of Ch’an Buddhist monastics, and when you die, you will take re-birth in a lower realm. This is criminal behaviour that betrays the nation by stealing the food that is collectively produced. All you have to do as a Ch’an Buddhist monastic, is earn this food through diligent self-cultivation, and realise full enlightenment. The Buddhist path is very strict indeed, and when you take your vows, there is a karmic consequence if you do not follow them correctly. You will be re-born as a hungry ghost (or any of the 5000 devils), or perhaps a domestic or wild animal, so why take this risk? Use wisdom and follow your vows correctly and do not be lazy. Without the Vinaya Discipline there can be no breakthrough to the underlying and empty mind ground. Vows, when followed properly, create the inner and outer conditions for enlightenment to be achieved – no Vinaya Discipline – no Buddhist enlightenment, it is that simple. You have a grave responsibility as Ch’an Buddhist monastics, and you are expected to set a good example for the laity to follow, as this ensures stability in society. Make no mistake about it, the Buddhadharma is a very strict teaching indeed!
Now, after having said all this and made the danger clear for all to see, what should you do if you have not already comprehended enlightenment? What should you do if you eat the food and have not realised the empty essence of your mind? In that case you will be like a clay Buddha image immersed in a fast flowing river, which is then smashed to pieces by the surging current because you have no insight and will be unable to defend yourself from the hellish karma you are producing! As you have come here to receive Ch’an instruction from me, and can say that life is difficult for a Bodhisattva, but you must try your hardest to clear your mind and realise enlightenment. The effort to attain enlightenment is the ‘right effort’ of Buddhism, and this prepares the way for full enlightenment – this is the generation of good karma – here and now. This is how you build good virtue and moral strength and rescue yourself from the state of being a clay Buddha image. I became a Ch’an Buddhist Bhikshu when I was 14 years old – and now I am 75 years old. I have eaten the food and drank the water given to me by others for 60 years now! As I am old and you are young, you can see that I have consumed far more than yourselves. I have led a very diligent life upholding the Vinaya Discipline and clearing my mind through meditation, and this is exactly what you must do! Huh! I must say that although I have been strict with you, I must confess that I am not as good as you. Now we must go back and rest, but first we must pay our respects to the Universal Buddha – Shakyamuni!
©opyright: Adrian Chan-Wyles (ShiDaDao) 2016.
Original Chinese Language Source Text: http://bodhi.takungpao.com.hk/ptls/club/2015-01/2880668.html
體光老和尚:僧人受信施 不了生死要還巨債
那就是你吃的這個飯是佛教的飯,不是你自己勞動的,吃這個飯,吃這個開水,吃這個菜,都是別人弄的,為什麼弄這個?為了成就你修行,成就你講因果呀!你講不講因果,你懂不懂因果?這三百六十天最後一天,這是算賬的!算算你這三百六十天,你做的是善多還是惡多,比較比較哪一樣多,就跟做買賣一樣,你虧了多少錢,你賺了多少錢?你是一個佛教徒,你是不是正知正見來修行,你是不是講因果?這因果呀,認真的很哪!你一點都錯不了,錯了就不行!這是個警策,我們是佛教徒,對於佛教裏邊的一針一線,不是你的你要拿就是盜竊,犯了盜戒,這社會上哪管這個呢?佛教就是這麼細致,就因為心粗氣,把常住的紙拿一張,一個是生不了西方,再一個還要幫常住轉牛轉馬。
在這個大寺廟裏面背了因果,盜竊了常住的東西,你哪怕拿了常住的一張紙,你變牛變馬也要還常住。這寶華山一個騾子,前身是個副寺,寶華山方圓很多田地,還有倉庫,這騾子啊,很聽話,天天它不要人管,弄點草吃吃就到山裏邊馱米給大家吃,因為虧了常住,要還啊!我在洛陽白馬寺住,白馬寺種了好多田地,種麥,種苞谷,喂了兩個騾子,兩個牛,那時候拉水找騾子拉,這個黑騾子呀,把它套到水車上它就不停,就是怎麼累,一身汗,它都不停,管生產的一個叫神修和尚,就上去拍拍這個騾子說:黑騾子呀,你累成這個樣子,你不能站那裏歇歇嗎?這騾子會說話,它說:我不敢站,我就這樣累、這樣辛苦啊,我還還不了啊!你看這因果,這都是實際啊!
普茶呀,出於唐代,河北趙州祖師,他們老參師父有的說八歲開悟,有的說十八歲開悟,不管怎麼樣啊,他總算開悟了,開了悟還要三十年不雜用心哪!三十年在那死心塌地用功!你象我們,這三百六十天有幾天踏實啊?就是一天也好嘛,是不是修行一天哩?這打禪七,七個七是不是有一個七來念佛啊?念沒念哪?是打妄想啊還是念佛?禪堂裏叫還包子錢,這七七四十九天,你吃包子吃一大堆啊!就是一天吃兩個,也吃百八十來個,不是還包子錢,就考驗你用功沒用功,你這個話頭看的怎麼樣。打七的目的是明心見性,了生死啊,你要見了性,這三百六十天吃常住的飯,這包子錢你就還了,你要沒有見,這個債還在那裏呀!你這麼多的飯錢怎麼辦哪?
這飯是常住的,別人做好了給你吃,菜是別人種的,擔水擔肥累的不得了,出了好多大汗,目的也就是為你了生死啊,為你開悟啊!齋堂裏有句話,一念頓真金易化,三心未了水難消。你不要還吃包子還吃菜,三心未了,你滴水難消!那《梵網經》更嚴格,你犯了戒的人,不能吃國王水,不得國王地上行,五千大鬼常遮其前,鬼言大賊,你犯了戒,不講因果,你就是個罪人,就是畜牲,這個地你不要走了,這是國家的地,水是國家的水,犯了根本大戒,水都不能吃了,你看這個佛教嚴格不嚴格!
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說三心未了水難消,沒有了就趕快用功修行哪!這三百六十天已經過去了,你生死沒了,道業未成,你白白吃了這麼多東西,你要還哪,不還不行,到臨命終時,伽藍菩薩會抓住你,你生西方生不了!見了性的人,所作皆辦,具諸佛法。我們的目的一定要達到,達到什麼呢?明心見性,了生死啊!
說了這麼多,我也沒了生死,也沒開悟,也可以說我呀,泥菩薩過河,自身難保。這現在我說什麼呢?我在這裏住嘛,你們後來出家到這兒來了,我也不得不說說,這泥菩薩來勸勸土菩薩,望大家要好好修行。你說我十四歲出家,今年七十五了,不覺過了六十年,這六十年在這裏吃飯比你們吃的多一點,其它的沒有,對於修行啊,還不如你們,大家回去休息休息,還要拜普佛,拜釋迦牟尼佛。