夙兴夜寐为谁忙？
众生难度颇堪伤；
迷诸尘劳性颠倒，
耳提面命化无方。

Rising up early in the morning,
going to bed late at night,
for whom are we busy?
Living beings are hard to save:
it's pretty sad.
Confused by the wearisome dust,
their natures are upside-down.
Boxing their ears and commanding them directly,
there is still no way to teach them.

夙兴，是早起；夜寐，是夜眠，有很多人兢兢业业，早起夜眠，为的是什么？究竟是为我忙呢？还是为你忙呢？还是为他忙呢？这个问题，我相信很多人都无法回答，甚至于有人索性就说：“无事忙！”

Getting up early in the morning and going to bed late at night, many people are busy all day doing all kinds of work. For the sake of whom? In the last analysis, is the person busy for the sake of himself? Is he busy for your sake? Or is he busy for the sake of others? I believe that a lot of people can't come up with a satisfactory answer to this question; even to the point that some people make a point of flippantly saying “busy doin’ nothin’.”

啊！那可奇怪了。然而却偏偏有人去做连自己也不清楚的事；譬如商人，他们一天到晚都想着自己的“生意”，弄到睡也睡得不安眠，这就是夙兴夜寐为“钱”忙，乃至于士、农、工、商，凡是想成功的，便会不由自主地要“朝起早，夜眠迟”了。

Ha! That's strange. But indeed, there are people who do things without really knowing why. For example, some people spend every waking moment intent upon their business, almost to the point of perpetual insomnia. This is being busy from morning till night for the sake of money. And so it is with scholarship, farming, laboring, business: if we want any accomplishment, then we can't do as we please or be our own boss, but instead we must get up early and retire late.

《诗经》里有这么一段：

鸡既鸣矣，朝既盈矣，
匪鸡则鸣，苍蝇之声。

As a passage from the Book of Odes says,

The cock has already crowed!
The morn is already full!
Oh, that's not that cock that's crowed
It's just the buzzing of a fly.

这几句话，如果照普通的口气来说，就是“鸡好像已经啼了吧！现在已是早上了吗？啊！原来不是鸡在啼，只不过是苍蝇的声音罢了！”这段《诗经》是形容古代的贤明君主。你看，身为皇帝，晚上尚且不得好睡，整晚惦记着只要天亮了便应临朝理事，以致神经过敏地把苍蝇的声音听为鸡在鸣叫，这就是夙兴夜寐为“民”忙了。所谓“一人有庆，兆民赖之。”若是遇着了这样贤明的仁君，老百姓就可以过着刀枪入库、马放南山的幸福生活。那么，身为君主的，难道可以不夙兴夜寐地为人民谋幸福吗？

In ordinary language, we could paraphrase the poem, “It seems that the cock has already crowed. Is it morning already? Oh! That wasn't the cock crowing, it was just the sound of a fly buzzing.” This is describing one of the virtuous and wise emperors of old. As an emperor, he didn't sleep easily at night. The whole night long, he thought of nothing but the dawn, when he could get on with the day's business. In his anxiety for the night to pass, he rested so fitfully that he started at the sound of a buzzing fly and mistook it for the cock's crow. This is an instance of being busy from morning till night for the sake of the people. It is said, “If there is a single man with blessings, the masses will put their trust in him.” If there is a humane ruler who is worthy and intelligent, the populace will be able to put away their weapons, let their horses out to the pasture, and live in peace. However, the emperor himself must rise early and retire late, working for the prosperity of the people. How can he not do that?

至于我们修道的人，也要夙兴夜寐，既不是为利忙，也不是为名忙，而是为“法”忙。我们要“夙兴夜寐，以事诸佛。”要朝起早、夜眠迟地日日礼佛诵经，表示我们是个忠实、诚挚的佛教徒，并不是口是心非，能说而不能做的。

We who cultivate the Way should also be busy from morning till night, not for the sake of profit, nor for the sake of fame, but for the sake of the Dharma. We should “serve the Buddhas without laxness in the morning and evening.” We should get up early in the morning and go to bed late at night, and every day bow to the Buddhas and recite sutras to display our devotion and sincerity as Buddhist disciples. It should not be that we say the right things but our hearts are false. It should not be that we can talk but not practice.

况且礼佛，又包含了专一其心，恭敬其身的意思，并且礼佛更能消除业障，所谓“佛前顶礼，灭罪恒沙。”罪，幸亏是无形的，若是有形的东西，便会把恒河沙那么多的世界都充满了，所以，我们要夙兴夜寐地去礼佛、念佛，为求消灭罪障，为法忙。

When we bow to the Buddhas, we should concentrate single-mindedly and show respect with our bodies. Bowing to the Buddhas can eradicate obstructions which result from offenses. It is said“To bow before the Buddhas can eradicate offenses as numerous as the grains of sand in the Ganges.” It is a good thing offenses are formless. If they were solid objects they would fill up worlds as numerous as the Ganges’ sands. Therefore, from morning till night, we should bow to the Buddhas and recite the Buddhas’ names to eradicate our obstructions from offenses, and we should be busy for the sake of the Dharma.

可是众生的品性，是极其难测的，譬如他欢喜吃甜的，给他酸的便不高兴；欢喜酸的而给他甜的，他也不高兴。诸如此类，若是不认识众生的性，就无法去度众生了。可是佛有智慧，他能够熟知众生的根性，所以便能随类应化，时常奔走跋涉，不辞劳苦地去度众生。不过众生并不因此而感动，反而不肯接受佛、菩萨的度化，所以说：“众生难度颇堪伤”，伤就是悲伤，为了众生的愚昧颠倒而悲伤；佛菩萨是常常生大悲心的。

But living beings’ dispositions are extremely difficult to fathom. For instance, if they like to eat sweets and you give them something sour, it makes them unhappy. But on the other hand, if you give sweet things to people who like to eat sour things, then they get upset. That's the way they all are. If you don't understand each individual's disposition, you will have no way to save people. Only the Buddha's wisdom is sufficient to be familiar with living beings’ basic natures, and because of that, the Buddha can offer teaching that is appropriate to each one. He constantly travels and roams about, accepting toil and suffering in order to save living beings. But even that doesn't suffice to move living beings. They still will not accept the teachings of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. So it is said, “Living beings are hard to save: it's pretty sad.” “Sad” means deep regard to the point of grief. Because living beings are so stupid and upside-down, the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas constantly give rise to hearts of great compassion on their behalf.

为什么众生会这样难度呢？“迷诸尘劳性颠倒”，这就是一个答案。因为众生在无量劫里头深染六尘，于是便在苦海中，头出头没，辗转沈沦，弄得颠颠倒倒，以苦为乐，以非为是。譬如现在的人，明明知道服装太时髦了，就不庄严，也会生出不良的后果来，可是呢？人人都明知故犯，互相比赛竞争，却不知道“苦海无边，回头是岸。”又譬如战争中所用的武器，人类不但不把它消灭，反而“精益求精”，努力寻求发明一些愈多愈妙的杀人武器。你说！这不是颠倒是什么？

Why are living beings so hard to save? “Confused by the wearisome dust, their natures are upside-down.” That's one answer. Because throughout limitless eons, living beings have become deeply stained by the six defiling objects, the six dusts, they constantly bob around in the sea of suffering, sinking, thrashing, totally upside-down. They take suffering for bliss and the false for the true. Thus people of today become so caught up in “fashion,” that even when the current styles are unattractive and may lead to undesirable reactions, they still compete to stay in fashion. People don't know that the sea of suffering is boundless, but a turn of the head is the other shore. Take military weapons for instance: not only do people fail to get rid of them, they seek to break their own records. Great effort is exerted as they seek to invent new weapons for killing people─the more outrageous the better. If that isn't upside-down, what is?

为了众生的颠倒，一切圣人、善知识都苦口婆心地谆谆劝导我们这般可怜的众生，像长辈提着小辈的耳朵来当面训导一样，可是呢？众生却置若罔闻，甚至还千方百计地隐瞒自己的罪过，不被师长们知晓，这真是“耳提面命化无方”了。

In order to put an end to living beings’ upside-downness, sages and wise advisors earnestly admonish us and repeat their exhortations over and over in order to guide us pitiful creatures. They are like elders who pull on the ears of their youngsters and admonish them directly. But living beings ignore those messages as if they hadn't even heard them, to the point that they employ thousands of methods and hundreds of schemes to hide away their offenses so their teachers and elders won't find out about them. This is truly a case of “boxing their ears and commanding them directly, there is still no way to teach them.”

啊！众生犯罪的本领，可谓至矣！尽矣！连佛、菩萨也感到难以化度我们这般可怜的众生，你说这不是很值得悲哀吗？

Ah! The talent living beings have for committing offenses is truly endless! Even the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas feel it is hard to save us pitiful creatures. What a sad situation!

一九五八年六月十六日上午开示