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經曰：「若人欲了知，三世一切佛，應觀法界性，一切唯心造。」我們一切眾生，有若干種心，如來悉知悉見。古人說：「三點如心佈，彎勾似月牙，披毛從斯起，作佛也由它。」那麼，為甚麼說「一切唯心造」呢？就中國這個「心」字來講，
「心」字寫出來，三點就像星星在天空裏排佈一樣。「彎勾似月牙」，還有一個彎彎勾，好像一個月牙。月牙，有的時候就月圓了，有的時候就月虧了，就是陰虧。也就像我們人的心，有的時候他有善意，有的時候他的習氣又來了，他的狂心野性也就現出來了。明明是好的事情，他不要去做；明明是壞的事情，他偏偏要做。
我也舉一個例子來和大家研究這個「心」。我年輕的時候，也不是很善良的人，那時候，喜歡惡作劇，惡作劇也就是給人一些麻煩。
我記得我做沙彌的時候，大約十九歲，因為我十五歲開始讀書，十六歲讀一年，十七歲讀一年
，一共讀了二年半。中國的風俗，每逢過年時，都寫對聯，有的寫吉祥話，有的寫格言。那時我
學佛了，也就好像喝醉酒似地，閉著眼睛寫了「智慧如海」。因為是過年，這個時候寫「智慧如海」，他們就給我貼到牆壁上。
當時有一位師兄弟，也是沙彌，也不知道他看了是寫得好呢？也不知是看了覺得寫得不好呢？他就念了一遍又一遍，也不知道是他看了我好像喝醉似地，寫得狂狂的那幾個狂字。總之，他念了幾十遍「智慧如海」，我就說：「你業力如海。」他一聽「業力如海」，就大發脾氣。原來他在念「智慧如海」四個字時，好像入定似地，現在也就出定了。出定後大發脾氣要打我，我說：「你業力如海，還有下回分解，你沒有聽清楚。我說『業力』，有
『善業如海』，也有『惡業如海』。假如我若指著你是『善業如海』，你又發甚麼脾氣？』我這麼一說，也不知道是怎麼搞的，他的脾氣就消了，也沒有氣了。由這一點，我們研究這個「人心」，一字之差可以發大脾氣；一字之差，也會生歡喜心。大家可以想一想，是誰叫我們這樣的。
還有一次，也是一件很頑皮的事情，也是在做沙彌時，我拿著一卷紙走路，這一卷紙裏頭甚麼字也沒有。有一個沙彌就喊著說：「你這卷紙上是寫甚麼字，我要看一看。」他說著就搶我這卷紙，要看這要面的字。我當時若告訴他沒有字嘛
，相信他也不一定信我。我就說：「我這個不能給你看，因為我這卷紙是賣你的契紙。我把你賣給人了。賣給人就要和人簽合同，這是一張契紙。他聽了一臉不高興說：
「你有甚麼權力把我賣了？ 」我說：「我就有權力把你賣了。」他就搶著要看。我說：「就憑我是一個出家人，我就要賣你。」他說：
「那不行。」我說： 「我告訴你 ，你自己也要承認，我有權力賣你。」他說： 「奇怪！你把我賣給誰了？
」我說：「我把你賣給佛了。」他聽了就沒有話說，悄聲靜氣地過了一會兒，他又說：
「那就可以了。」你看，就這麼稍微差一點點，也就可以，也就不可以，這究竟是怎麼回事？
待續
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The Sutra says,
If people wish to understand,
The Buddhas of the three periods of time,
They should contemplate the nature of the Dharma-realm:
Everything is made from the mind.
All the different thoughts that we living
beings have are completely known and seen by the Thus Come
Ones. The ancients had a verse:
Three dots like a cluster of stars,
A hook like the crescent moon:
Furred creatures come from it;
Buddhas are made from it too.
Why is "everything made from the mind"?
If you look at the way the Chinese character for "mind" (心)
is written, it has three dots like stars lined up in the
sky, and a hook like the crescent moon. Sometimes the moon
is full, and at other times it wanes. It is just like our
mind. Sometimes we have good intentions, but at other times
our habits take over and the wild side of our nature shows
itself, so that we neglect to do what is clearly good and
insist on doing what is obviously evil.
As we are now investigating the mind, let
me give a personal example. When I was young, I wasn't a
very good person. I liked to play practical jokes. By that I
mean I gave people trouble. I started school when I was
fifteen and continued going to school when I was sixteen and
seventeen, so I studied for a total of two and a half years.
When I was nineteen, I became a
Shramanera [novice monk]. It is customary in China to write
scrolls for the lunar new year. Usually people wrote
auspicious phrases or mottos. Since I had begun to study
Buddhism, I closed my eyes and wrote in a drunken fashion,
"Wisdom like the sea." It was the new year, so the scroll
was hung up on the wall. One of my fellow novices saw it,
and I don't know whether he thought it was good or not, but
he recited it over and over. Maybe he was struck by my mad
brush strokes that were written as if I were drunk. After he
had recited, "wisdom like the sea" several dozen times, I
said, "Your karma is like the sea!" When he heard that, he
was furious. He had been in a kind of trance while reciting
"wisdom like the sea," but now suddenly he came out of the
trance and blew his top and wanted to hit me.
"Your karma is like the sea," I said,
"but you haven't heard my explanation yet. It could be that
your good karma is like the sea, or that your bad karma is
like the sea. If I said that your good karma is like the
sea, what's there to get mad about?" When I said that, I
don't know what happened, but his temper vanished. So we can
see that the human mind is such that changing one word can
make all the difference. It can mean the difference between
making someone angry and making him or her happy. Now let us
all think about it. What is it that makes us act this way?
There was another time when I got into
mischief. This, too, happened when I was a Shramanera. I was
carrying a roll of blank paper and walking down the road.
Another Shramanera shouted, "What's written on that roll of
paper you're holding? Let me see." Then he tried to grab the
paper from me to see what was written on it. If I had told
him that there was nothing on it, he might not have believed
me. And so I said, "I can't show you this paper, because
it's a contract in which I am selling you to someone else."
When he heard that, he got upset. "What
right do you have to sell me?" he demanded.
"I really do have the right to sell
you," I said.
He tried to snatch the paper from me. I
said, "Since I am a monk, I have the right to sell you."
"I don't buy that," he said.
"I'll tell you, and then even you
will agree that I have the right to sell you."
'That's real funny! Whom have you sold me
to?" he asked.
"To the Buddha!" I said.
When he heard that, he could say nothing.
After a spell of silence, he said, "Then it's okay."
So you see, such a tiny change make the
difference between what was okay and what was not. What
happened here, ultimately?
~ To be continued
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