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《上人法雨》

 

VENERABLE MASTER'S DHARMA RAIN

山僧師吼演正法 貧道身窮志不窮
The Mountain Monk Proclaims the Proper Dharma with a Lion's Roar;
In the Tao of Poverty, the Body Is Poor But Not the Mind.

鄰虛塵 記錄 Transcribed by Lin Su-chen

南無薩怛他 蘇伽多耶 阿羅訶帝 三藐三菩陀寫(三稱)

窮和尚刻苦自在

各位善知識:我是一九六二年從香港到日本,從日本輾轉到美國來,到現在已經三十多年了。可是這三十多年還是依然故我,乏善可陳,沒有什麼成就,也沒什麼建樹,還是我這麼一個窮和尚在這兒。在美國這兒,也沒有掘到金,人家到美國來都來掘金的,可是啊!我沒有掘到。不是沒有掘著,我根本不歡喜這個,所以還是一個窮和尚。不單我是窮和尚,而且跟著我出家的這些男的、女的,男的也是小的窮和尚,女的呢,是小的窮比丘尼。這麼多年來,在萬佛城大家都這麼刻苦自在,修行佛法。

攜法西來轉法輪

最初我到美國,禮拜六、禮拜天兩天講說佛法。因為美國這兒多數都是去做工,平時講經恐怕沒人聽,所以那時候就我一個人,每個禮拜六我講兩次,禮拜天講兩次;中午講一次,晚間講一次。由六二年到六八年,這個期間有的時候打佛七,有三、二十個人,有的時候打禪七,有三、二十個人,都是人不多。最初講經啊!三個人聽經:這一個人啊!就坐在那地方聽經;一個人哪!就躺到那個地方聽經;另外一個人呢,也不是躺著,也不是坐著,怎麼樣呢?把這個腿啊,人這個身躺到這個 floor,躺在這個地板上,可是這個兩隻腳啊,就搭到這個桌子上,是這麼樣子來聽經,你們見過沒見過?雖然如此,我還是那麼不厭其煩地給他們講經,結果啊!一點一點的人就多了。

等六八年暑假的時候,學生都放暑假,這個時候就有人要求我講《楞嚴經》。由這個時候就開始講《楞嚴經》,九十六天講了九十五天,中間這一個禮拜,只放半天假,只是禮拜六上午放假,下午還照常講經。一開始,一天我講一次,講了半個多月,我算計算計這部經的時間,這九十六天講不完。於是乎一天就講兩次,講了一個時期又算計算計還講不完,講兩次也講不完。以後就講三次,每一次兩個鐘頭,三次講來講去還是不能講完。於是乎就每一天講四次,最後是一天講四次 lecture(講經)。

那麼才像坐火箭似的,這《楞嚴經》九十六天講完了。為什麼要講那麼久呢?因為那個時候也翻譯,我講中文也沒有什麼人懂,就有四、五個人懂得中文,其餘的三十多個人,都是只懂得英文,不懂得中文,所以要翻譯。中間有一個時期翻譯的人還罷工了。啊!他也不來,他也不來,互相地罷工。沒有法子,我自己就翻譯。我根本也不會講英文,但是就聽到他們講的,我記住了幾句。我記住幾句,翻譯幾句;記不住的,教他們自己去研究去,啊!我雖然很愚癡的,但是我也有的是方法。這一天我自己自講、自翻譯完了之後,有四、五個給我做翻譯的,他們輪著翻譯,他們四、五個人來車輪戰。我就是我自己,他們要每天換一個。這樣子我自己翻譯,把他們嚇壞了,再也不敢罷工了。所以美國人他習慣就是罷工,不懂得旁的。這一下我自己自講、自翻譯,他們覺得罷工沒有用了。他罷工也得不到什麼,所以都不罷工了。這算把《楞嚴經》講完了,九十六天的放假期間,講了九十五天。這是我一個人的時候,我就這樣。我一個人也教過書,教三十多個學生。每一個一天一天地教,也沒有說是換一個老師。現在也是差不多的學生,就要有四、五個老師來換著教。我想!他們都是教什麼呢,在那兒?我不懂,這事不要說它了。

所以我在萬佛城提倡老師要盡義務,不拿薪水。現在我們小學,我提倡不拿薪水,中學也不拿薪水,大學暫時還沒有盡義務。大學是很費力的,或者給錢,不過給的錢比外邊給的錢少,多了我也沒有。

我從六八年到兩、三年以前吧,兩年的樣子,多數都是講經說法,有人我也講,沒有人我也講。那時候講經在金山寺,最初講這個《楞嚴經》是在 Chinatown Waverly Street 那兒,是在三樓。那個地方就有五十呎長,二十五呎寬,我在那地方講經。禪堂就有六、七、八十人,在那兒住的人就有五十多個,怎麼住呢?這五十呎乘二十五呎,去這個門口,去廚房、廁所,然後那個廳裡頭地方不是很大,就是五十多個人在這個廳裡住。人沒有地方住了,就在這個 roof,就是天頂上,在 roof 上邊弄這麼一個四方的木頭 box(箱子),坐到那裡頭,外邊用膠布一擋,下雨也不怕,就在那裡頭住。那時候人這麼苦幹,要在那兒聽經,在那兒學習佛法。也曾經一連氣打過十個禪七,有三十多個人也都沒打過禪七,沒打過,三十多個人打,到最後就剩兩個人。那時候我看人太多了,地方太小了,我得想法子找大的地方,於是乎就找到十五街舊的金山寺。搬到那個地方,我給它起個名字叫 ice box,叫雪櫃。什麼叫雪櫃?沒有暖氣。以後有人看著我們冷得那個樣子,像雪櫃似的,就有人發心來裝暖氣。裝了 gas heater(暖氣)裝了兩個,兩個 gas heater 裝上,還單出個這裝的錢,以後用的錢他沒給。沒有法子!我沒有這筆錢!所以暖氣也不敢開。裝上幾年,就大概開了一次。開了一次就受不了了。現在萬佛城 gas(煤氣)、電一個月就要四、五千塊錢,你說這眞是要命。我本來不願和你們大家說的,不過既到這個地方,我要告訴你們,現在這麼好的房子,比那的房子也是好得多,樣樣都比那時候好;可是現在有的人還是怕冷,他要用 heater。我們那時候,誰也不敢用 heater,為什麼?要錢嘛!

待續

Na Mwo Sa Dan Two Su Chye Dwo Ye E La He Di San Myau San Pu Two Sye (3x)

The Poor Monk Takes Suffering As It Comes

All Good and Wise Advisors: In 1962 I went from Hong Kong to Japan, and then from Japan I came over to America. It's been over thirty years now. But in these thirty-some years, I am still the same, and I have nothing unusual to talk about, I haven't accomplished anything, or established anything. I'm still just a poor monk here in America. I haven't dug up any gold! Other people came to America to mine for gold, but as for me, I haven't dug up any. I haven't dug up any, because I have no wish for it, so I'm still a poor monk. Not only am I a poor monk, all those men and women who left home with me -- the men are poor little monks, and the women are poor little Bhikshunis. In all these years at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, everyone has taken the suffering as it comes, cultivating the Buddha dharma.

Bringing the Dharma to the West and Turning the Dharma

Wheel When I first came to America, I lectured on the Dharma on Saturdays and Sundays. Most of the people in the United States have jobs, and if I lectured on the Sutras during the usual times there might have been no one to listen. In that period, there was only I, giving lectures twice a day every Saturday and Sunday, once in the afternoon and once in the evening. This was from 1962 to 1968. Sometimes we would have a Buddha's Name Recitation Session and twenty or thirty people would come. Sometimes we held a Chan Meditation Session and twenty or thirty people would attend. There were never a lot of people. When I first started lecturing on the Sutras, three people would come to listen. One person would be sitting there to hear the lecture. Another one would lie down to listen. And the other person would be neither lying down nor sitting up. How was this? His body would be reclining on the floor, or on the couch, but his two feet would be propped up on the table. That's the way he listened to the Sutra lecture. Have you all ever seen anything like that? Although it was this way, I didn't let it bother me, and still lectured on the Sutras for them. As a result, the number of people gradually increased.

In the summer of 1968 when school students were on vacation, someone requested me to lecture on the Shurangama Sutra. Therefore I began giving lectures on the Shurangama Sutra. In a span of ninety-six days, I spoke for ninety-five days. During this period I took only a half-day break each week. On Saturdays, I took a break in the morning, and lectured as usual in the afternoon. At the start, I gave one lecture a day. But after lecturing for over half a month, I figured that I wouldn't be able to finish lecturing the Sutra in ninety-six days. Therefore, I lectured twice a day for a while. Then I thought I still wouldn't be able to finish, even with two lectures per day. After that I gave three lectures a day, each lecture lasting two hours. But even then, I still couldn't finish, so in the end I lectured four times a day.

That was like traveling at rocket-speed. I finished lecturing the Shurangama Sutra in ninety-six days. Why did it take so long? It is because there was also translation then. I lectured in Chinese, but hardly anyone, only four or five people, understood Chinese. The others, over thirty people, only understood English, not Chinese, so we had to translate. At one point, the translators actually went on strike. Oh! None of them showed up. They all went on strike simultaneously. I had no other recourse but to translate myself. I didn't even know how to speak English, but I had picked up a few sentences from listening to them speak. I would translate the sentences I remembered. What I didn't remember, I would tell them to study on their own. Hah! Although I'm very stupid, I still have plenty of ways. I lectured and translated for myself that time. After that, the four or five people who translated for me would take turns translating. Although there was just one of me, those four or five people would translate in shifts, with a different person everyday. When I translated for myself, they were so badly intimidated that they never dared to go on strike again. Going on strike is an American habit--that's all they know how to do. But that time when I lectured and translated on my own, they felt it was no use to go on strike; they could not get anything from it, so they didn't go on strike anymore. Thus the lecture on the Shurangama Sutra was completed. In the ninety-six days of vacation, I lectured for ninety-five days. That was the period when I was on my own. On my own, I have also been a teacher for more than thirty students. I taught them everyday. There was no such thing as teachers taking turns. Now for the same number of students, four or five teachers are needed to take turns teaching them. I really wonder what they are teaching. That's something I don't understand, so I won't discuss it anymore.

At the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, I advocate that teachers teach voluntarily, without receiving a salary. In our elementary schools I am now promoting the policy of not taking salaries. In our middle schools the teachers don't receive salaries either. For the time being, the university does not have volunteer faculty, because it takes a lot of energy to teach at the university level. The teachers may be paid, but their salaries are lower than at other places. There isn't any more money to pay them.

From 1968 until two or three years ago, I frequently lectured on the Sutras and spoke the Dharma. I lectured whether or not there were people. I was lecturing on the Shurangama Sutra at Gold Mountain Monastery. At first the lectures were at the place on Waverly in Chinatown, on the third floor, which was fifty feet by twenty-five feet. Sometimes during my Sutra lectures, there would be sixty, seventy, or eighty people in the Chan Hall. Over fifty people were living there. How did they live? After the doorway, kitchen and toilet were subtracted from the fifty by twenty-five feet space, it was not very big in the hall. Yet we had fifty-some people to accommodate. When the living space ran out, people would go up on the roof and set up a wooden box for sitting. After they covered the box with plastic, the rain was no longer a problem, and they could live inside it. Ah! Back then people really suffered a lot in order to listen to the Sutra lectures and study the Buddhadharma there. Once we even held a ten-week Chan meditation session; in one breath we held ten continuous weeks of Chan. These thirty-some people had never been in a Chan session before. Ah! Thirty-some people participated, but only two were left by the end. Then I noticed that there were too many people and too little space, and thought about finding a bigger place. I found the place on Fifteenth Street which was the former Gold Mountain Monastery. After we moved there, I nicknamed it "the icebox". Why was it called that? Because there was no heat. Later on, someone saw us freezing there, like in an icebox, and volunteered to install heaters. Two gas heaters were installed, but he only paid for the heaters, and didn't give us any money to pay for the gas. There was no way--I didn't have the money to pay for the gas, so I didn't dare to turn on the heaters. Several years after the installation, we had probably only turned it on once. After that one time, we couldn't take it anymore. At the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas now, the gas and electricity bill is four or five thousand dollars a month. Wouldn't you call that outrageous? Originally I didn't want to tell you all, but since come to this point, I will tell you. Now we have such fine housing, much better than before. Everything is better than what we had then. However, now some people are still afraid of the cold, and want to use heaters. Back then, none of us dared to use a heater. Why? Because it cost money!

To be continued

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