續前期：August 19, 1975年8月19日星期二晚

恆賢：

有一樁事很有趣，就是露西的主人果宗那時正懷著果芳；而在果芳出生前不久露西就失蹤了。沒人知道牠到哪兒去了，沒人走丟牠；牠就是忽然不在了，不久果芳就出世了。你可別驟下結論，我也從來沒見過果芳蹲在地上玩自己的腳丫子。我沒看過她玩那把戲，所以這裡邊或者沒有什麼關係，這就是露西的故事。因為剛才說的種種緣故，這狗今天不在這兒，不過牠確實是讓我們唸佛治好的傷。當然，重要的是牠不是一個人唸佛治好的，而是很多人唸佛治好的。當我給另外那隻住在美國佛萊斯諾的北京狗——名叫阿丘的唸誦時，牠至今還是活的——我知道那是佛菩薩的力量，使得那咒語和佛名號起作用，可是我們不是經常很清楚這點。有人會唸具大威神力的咒語時，會錯認為是自己的力量起的作用，而不自量力地顯耀出來時是會很危險的。

在中國就曾有過這樣的事。有一位比丘很有修行，人稱「活羅漢」。他的本事就是以大悲咒給人治病。什麼病、什麼人他都治得好。一次有很多法師聚集在普陀山參加傳戒典禮；禮成後，許多人沒法回去自己的廟上。這位「活羅漢」使出了許多驚人的本事，以大悲咒給人醫病，弄到許多錢；又給每一個人，或者買車票，或者包下船，送每一個人回去，如此的炫耀。那時上人也在法會上，看出這個「活羅漢」就快死了，所以上前跟他講：「你叫『活羅漢』吧？你能醫別人的病；你自己的病你醫好沒？」

「我什麼病？」那活羅漢問。

「你得這個求名的病，將來你就會得求利的病，再不久你就墮落了。」上人說。

這個羅漢也算有修行；也日中一食，夜不倒單，有點神通，知道不平常。可奇怪，他立即拜倒在地，不是求上人不讓他墮落；是求如果他墮落，則上人定必救他。上人一向滿眾生願，見他意誠，所以就答應了，說：「好，你墮落時，我來救你。」

幾年後，許多法師們離開大陸赴香港、臺灣等地。你猜怎麼了？就在香港街上上人又碰到了那位「活羅漢」！只是他已不是比丘，而是在家裝扮，還俗了！換言之，墮落了。

上人說：「你那『活羅漢』怎麼了？」

他說：「就因為你說的話太準了，你說的話太神了；就因為你說我會墮落，所以我就墮落了。」

上人說：「那我說過假如你墮落我會來救你；我來救你了，你可以回去再當比丘。」

「我現在沒錢了。」在中國出家得要花很多錢的；你要是想出家又沒錢，那是不成的。

上人說：「那沒關係；我給你錢，你可以出家。」他就又出家了。

你以為他這次可學乖了，可是他又在香港跟一個在家人搞上了。那在家人想找個比丘作招牌，幫他弄事業。起先那人找上我們上人，上人當然是不會跟他合作招搖撞騙，可是這個原來的「活羅漢」就跟他合夥了。合夥了，那在家人就稱他為「活菩薩」，又向他頂禮，又怎麼怎麼的，可是不久這個「活羅漢」就不見了。所以隨便拿咒語的力量給人治病來牟利是很危險的。

一般是以唸咒或唸佛名的功德迴向給人幫助人；迴向功德是普賢菩薩十大願之一。這十大願是早課時必誦的。

第一願是禮敬諸佛；不是只禮敬一尊佛，而是禮敬所有的佛。當然更不是禮敬刻成了佛像的一塊木頭或是石頭，而是表示皈命十方三世一切諸佛。

待續

Continuedfrom last issue: Tuesday, August 19, 1975 (evening)

Heng Hsien:

An interesting thing about Lucy is that her owner, Upasika Guo Cong, was expecting Guo Fang at the time. Shortly before Guo Cong's daughter was born, Lucy just disappeared. She didn't get lost; nobody lost her. She just wasn't there anymore and very shortly after that Guo Fang was born. Now, don't draw any conclusions from that necessarily,because I've never seen Guo Fang pull that trick of sitting down on her haunches and playing around with her paws, so there may not be a connection. At any rate, that's the story of Lucy. Lucy isn't here today due to those causes and conditions, but she was very much cured by the power of people's recitation of the Buddha's name. The important thing in this, of course, is the power of not of one person but of lots of people. When I was reciting for the other dog—Ah Choo was her name and she's actually very much alive at the present—I knew that it was the power of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas that worked through the invocation of the mantra and the Buddha's name. People aren't always clear about this. However, it's easy when you have an extremely power­ful mantra in your grasp to figure that it's you doing it and somehow get confused and maybe show off a little bit. This can be very dangerous.

This happened to someone in China. There was a Bhikshu who had a lot of cultivation and he was known as the "Living Arhat." His specialty was using the Great Compassion Mantra to cure people, and he could cure anybody of any disease. One time a lot of Dharma Masters were assembled at Putuoshan in China for a precept ceremony. After the ceremony was over, many of them had no way to get back to their home temples.The Living Arhat did a lot of flamboyant curing with the Great Compassion Mantra, amassed a lot of money, and rather conspicuously bought everybody tickets or chartered a boat to get everyone back to their temples. At that time the Master was part of the assembly and he saw that the Living Arhat was due to die pretty soon himself, so he went up to him and said, "You're called the Living Arhat, aren't you? You can cure other people's illnesses, but have you cured your own?"

"What illness do I have?" asked the Arhat.

"Now you've got the illness of seeking for fame, and in the future, you're going to contract the illness of seeking for profit. In fact, it won't be long before you fall," said the Master. Now the Arhat had some cultivation. He never lay down to sleep and ate only one meal a day, and he had this power, and he recognized that something was going on. But it was very strange: he immediately bowed down to the Master and pleaded with him, not to keep him from falling, but that when he did fall, to come and save him. So, since the Master grants people's wishes and the man was sincerely asking to be saved when he fell, the Master said, "Alright, when you fall I'll save you."

Years passed, and Dharma Masters had to leave the mainland and flee to Hong Kong and Taiwan and so on. After a passage of time, what should happen but, on the streets of Hong Kong, the Master ran into the "Living Arhat," except that he was no longer a Bhikshu. He was dressed as a layman. He had gone back to lay life; in other words, he had fallen. The Master said, "Well, what happened to your Living Arhat?"

The man said, "It's just because everything you say is so effective. Your words are magical. It's just because you said I was going to fall that I've fallen."

The Master said, "Well, I promised you that if you fell, I'd save you, so I'll save you. So you can go back to being a Bhikshu now."

"Well, I haven't got any money," said the man. Now, in China,you had to pay a lot of money to leave home. If you wanted to leave home and you were broke, you were out of luck.

The Master said,"That's OK, I'll give you money and you can leave home." And so the man did. You would think the man learned his lesson, but he got involved with a layman in Hong Kong who was looking for a Bhikshu as a drawing card for his establishment. The layman at first approached our teacher, who would have no part in being used as an advertising gimmick. But this former Living Arhat took him up on the deal. So the layman set him up as a "Living Buddha,"bowing to him as such. It wasn't very long before the "Living Arhat" just disappeared. So it's very dangerous to play around with the mantras and the curing power behind them for one's own personal benefit.

What is generally done in order to aid people is to transfer the merit from recitation of the mantras or recitation of the Buddha's name for other people's benefit. Transferring merit is one of the Ten Great Vows of the Bodhisattva Samantabhadra, and these vows are recited every morning by people who do Morning Recitation.

The first vow is to worship and respect all Buddhas. This is done by bowing to all the Buddhas, not just one Buddha. It certainly doesn't mean bowing to blocks of wood or pieces of stone that are carved to represent Buddhas. Rather, it means taking refuge with all the Buddhas of the ten directions and three periods of time.

To be continued