無論做什麼事，要有忍耐心，慢慢去做，不可著急，要知道羅馬不是一天建成的。同理，教育一個學生，不是一天、兩天就能教他明白，須有長遠的心，教他怎樣做好人，怎樣把人格的基礎立好；而不是教育學生怎樣得到好的工作，多賺一些錢，自己來享受，這種教育法，是功利主義。

To do any job successfully takes patience. You must proceed slowly and not rush things. Rome was not built in a day. By the same token, in educating students, you cannot expect them to understand in just a couple of days. It takes perseverance to teach them how to be good people and how to develop a good character. We’re not interested in teaching students how to get a good job and make more money so that they can enjoy themselves; that kind of education is based on utilitarianism.

萬佛聖城的教育方針，是教育學生，怎樣學習仁義道德。將來到社會服務，無論在哪個崗位上，均能本著仁義道德去做事，絕不同流合污，無損人利己的行為。

The City of Ten Thousand Buddhas aims to educate students to be humane, just, and ethical, so that in the future when they enter the society, regardless of their posts, they will base their work on humaneness, justice, and ethical virtue. They certainly won’t follow unwholesome trends or benefit themselves at the expense of others.

切記，不要沽名釣譽，不要學那些偽君子、假慈善家，做一點事，就到處賣廣告，自我宣傳。我們要學習真正的德行，躬行實踐。我們的教育方法與一般教育方法迥異，不是打倒他人的教育，樹立自己的教育；也不是和人鬥爭或和人比賽，而是站在教育的立場上來教育第二代。不管他人做得對不對，只要我們所行所做，行得正，不違背自己的良心，那就夠了。

Remember, we should never seek for fame and reputation. We don’t want to imitate those hypocrites and phony philanthropists who go around promoting themselves and advertising every little bit of work they do. We should study genuine virtue and put it into practice. Our way of education is totally different from the ordinary way. It’s not that we’re knocking over other educational systems to establish our own; nor are we contending or competing with anyone. We’re just interested in educating the next generation for the sake of education. We’re not concerned about whether others are doing it right or not. All we want is to make sure that we do things properly and not in a way that goes against our conscience.

一九八四年四月廿五日開示