釋迦牟尼佛在往昔時，曾經「三祇修福慧，百劫種相好」。所以才成就三十二相、八十種好，莊嚴其身，無有等倫。

我們修道人，必須修福慧。如何修法？多做功德事，凡是對眾生有利益的事，盡力而為之，這是修福。讀誦經典，研究佛理，所謂「深入經藏，智慧如海」，這是修慧。淺言之，多立功德，就有福報；聽經說法，就有智慧，這是自然的道理。

In the past, Shakyamuni Buddha “cultivated blessings and wisdom for three asamkhyeyas of eons, and planted the seeds for good appearance for a hundred kalpas.” And so he attained the Thirty-two Hallmarks and Eighty Subsidiary Characteristics as peerless physical adornments. Cultivators must cultivate blessing and wisdom. How? By doing meritorious works. We should do our best to do any and every deed that brings benefit to living beings. This is cultivating blessings. When we study and recite Sutras and investigate the principles of the Buddhadharma, “deeply entering the Sutra Treasury to attain wisdom like the sea,” we are cultivating wisdom. To put it simply, if we do a lot of meritorious deeds, we’ll have blessings; if we listen to Sutra lectures and speak the Dharma, we’ll have wisdom. It’s a very natural principle.

福慧是栽培而來的，若不栽培，始終沒有福慧。修道人，不要以為福小而不為，更不能以為惡小而為之。若能天天惜福、修福、種福，將來定有大福報。否則，福從何來？慧由何生？想福想慧，如同癡人說夢，妄想中之妄想，永遠不能成事實。所謂「緣木求魚」，這是癡人的思想，無有是處！

Blessings and wisdom come from cultivation. If you don’t cultivate, you’ll never have any blessings or wisdom. Cultivators shouldn’t feel that they can get away with an evil deed, however slight it may be; nor should they neglect doing a good deed even if it is small. If you can cherish, cultivate, and plant blessings day after day, you’ll certainly have great blessings in the future. If you don’t do that, where could blessings and wisdom come from? If you merely wish for blessings and wisdom without doing anything, you’re just foolishly indulging in idle fantasies that will never come true. It’s like looking for fish in trees－something that could never be.

一九八一年六月四日開示