法界佛教总会，成立于一九五九年，该会的前身，就是中美佛教总会。自从成立之后，每一年都举行佛七和禅七数次；但是都在无声无息中过去了，很少人知道法界佛教总会所属的金山圣寺在打佛七或禅七。因为我们对外不宣传，不攀缘，而是老老实实在修行。假如有人知道我们打禅七，愿意来参加，我们是欢迎之至！但是我们绝对不到外边化缘，叫人帮助，对人家说：“我们金山圣寺在打禅七，有一些无心道人在那儿修行，你们应该来供养，那就功德无量了。”我们从来就没有做过这样的宣传。

The Dharma Realm Buddhist Association was established in 1959. Its predecessor was the Sino-American Buddhist Association. Every year since its founding we have conducted Buddha Recitation Sessions and Chan Meditation Sessions. The sessions, however, have passed by without notice, and without fanfare. Rarely do people pay attention to the recitation and meditation sessions going on at Gold Mountain Monastery. This is because we don't advertise or exploit opportunities. We simply mind our own business and honestly cultivate. When someone finds out about the session and requests permission to join, he or she is certainly welcome! All the same, we resolutely do not beg, solicit offerings, or seek help. We don't say, "Gold Mountain is holding a Chan session. Several piritual adepts who have tamed their minds' will be attending. If you come make offerings to them, there will be limitless merit and virtue." We have never done any publicity to promote ourselves in this way.

在中国打佛七的时候，善男信女所乐捐的功德香油钱，足够道场一年的开销，有时还有盈余。在打禅七时，有很多善士发心供养来结缘，所以这个法缘，源源而来，米、面、油、酱等等，收入很多。

In China, when a Chan session was held, the donations contributed by the faithful laity during the session were enough to cover the monastery's operating expenses for an entire year. Sometimes the revenue exceeded a year's proceeds. During the session, the participants would often take the initiative to make offerings and establish good affinities with the assembly by donating great quantities of rice, noodles, oil, miso, soy sauce, dried foods and so forth.

在美国，佛教刚开始，一切要往好的方向去做，要将过去的陋习铲除，所谓“好的开始，就是成功的一半。”我们不采取任何方法来化缘，所以这种缘就没有了。如果会用方法，也许会化得更多。

Now in America, where Buddhism has just begun, we want to reform the bad practices of the past. As the saying goes, "A good beginning is halfway to success." Because we refuse to employ any tricks to beg, we haven't created those particular affinities. If we had any schemes for bringing in offerings, it's likely we could improve on the situation in China and attract even more supplies and money than they did.

我们为什么不去化缘？因为我们要老老实实认真修行，听佛菩萨的安排。佛菩萨和天龙八部、护法善神，看我们用功修道，自然会有感应；如果我们不认真修行，就是有人来供养，也应该生大忏悔心。

所谓：

三心不了水难消，
五观若明金也化。

Why don't we solicit offerings? Because our first priority is to genuinely and honestly cultivate the Way and, in so doing, to simply accord with whatever the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas have arranged for us. When the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, the gods, dragons, and the eightfold pantheon of Dharma-protectors and good spirits see us working hard and walking the Way, they spontaneously respond to our efforts. If we fail to sincerely cultivate, however, and donors still come to make offerings, we should feel deeply ashamed. It's said,

If you have not put the three thoughts to rest,
     then plain water is hard to swallow.
Yet if you can understand the five contemplations,
     then even gold will digest.

我们要是存有过去心、现在心、未来心，这三种心不能了，那么施主即使只供养一杯清水，也难消受。如果能把五观的道理明白了，就是吃金子（金，譬如珍贵的食物），也能消受得起。什么是五观？

If we hang on to thoughts of the past, the present, and the future and don't put them to rest, then if a donor offers us even a glass of plain water, we will find it difficult to drink. But if we can understand the principles underlying the five contemplations, then even gold (and this means the most delicious vegetarian delicacies) will be digested without problems. What are the five contemplations?

（一）计功多少，量彼来处。
（二）忖己德行，全缺应供。
（三）防心离过，贪等为宗。
（四）正事良药，为疗形枯。
（五）为成道业，应受此食。

1. Consider the effort it took to bring this food to where it is eaten.
2. Calculate your own merit and virtue. Are they sufficient for you to accept this offering?
3. Guard your mind against transgressions, of which greed is the major cause.
4. See the food as medicine, taken to prevent the body from wasting away.
5. Accept the food only so that you can succeed in your cultivation of the Way.

今天晚上开始打禅七，我们金山圣寺的禅七，和中国各大丛林的禅七不同。他们打禅七是“打食七”，在晚上一定要吃麻油包子，就是镇江的金山圣寺和扬州的高旻寺也不例外。有很多禅和子，专门到有麻油包子吃的寺庙去打禅七，哪个地方包子好吃，就到哪里去打禅七。他们不选择寺庙而选择包子的大小，所以有的寺庙以麻油包子又大又香为号召。并不是我毁谤出家修道人放不下吃，的确是如此。

Our Chan Meditation Session will begin tonight. The Chan ses-sions held at Gold Mountain Monastery are different from those held in the great Chan halls of China. Their Chan sessions were actually great feasts. Each night of the session, every participant ate a huge sesame-oil dumpling. Even the famous Way-places such as Gold Mountain Monastery in Zhejiang and Gao Min Monastery in Yangzhou were not exceptions to this rule. When it was time for the session, many of the old-hand meditators would show up only at the doors of the monasteries that were known to serve sesame-oil dumplings. Wherever the dumplings were the best, that's where they would go to attend the sessions. The criterion for choosing which session to attend was not the quality of the session, but the size of the dumplings! Some places earned a reputation based solely on their oversized, tasty, stuffed dumplings. I'm not slandering left-home cultivators by falsely making them out to be gluttons. This is a statement of fact!

我们金山圣寺没有吃麻油包子的规矩，就是连小吃也没有。

At Gold Mountain Monastery, we haven't established sesame-oil dumplings as the drawing card of our Chan sessions. We don't serve snacks at all!

在中国打禅七时，有很多居士来供众：这一炷香，你供养四个桂圆；那一炷香，他供养两个花生糖，或者饼干，或者锅粑。总之，每炷香都有人来供养，令无心道人生出贪吃的心来，吃得肚子满满的，无法静坐。我们这里什么都没有，所以我们和他们不同。

At the Chan sessions in China, many laypeople made offerings to the assembly. After the first hour of meditation, one layman might give each participant four longan fruits. After another hour, another layman might distribute two pieces of peanut candy to each meditator, or maybe cookies or rice-crackers. There would be some kind of offering every hour. Those "spiritual adepts who have tamed their minds" became rather greedy for food. Their bellies were so stuffed that they simply couldn't sit still in meditation. At our place, you won't find such offerings; we are different from them.

我们从早晨两点三刻开始行行坐坐，坐坐行行，到晚上十二点钟休息。我们是修苦行，是苦干，是苦炼，行人所不能行的事情。可是如果不将“生死”二字挂在眉梢上，反而觉得睡眠不够，坐在那里，正好入睡觉三昧；如果是这样子，永远不会有所成就。

Each day in our Chan sessions, we rise at 2:45 a.m. to begin our daily regimen of walking and sitting, sitting and walking, and we continue like this until midnight. This is an ascetic path; it's hard training. We call it "doing what people are unwilling to do." You must suspend the three words "birth and death" right between your eyebrows and forget that you haven't slept long enough. Don't enter the "sleeping samadhi" right there on the meditation bench, or else success in Chan will forever elude you.

我们要“舍死忘生”地来打禅七，要认真用功打七，必须要得到自己应得的才受用。不要随波逐流，看人行我也行，看人坐我也坐，看人睡我也睡，这样是不行的，徒然浪费时间，对自己毫无益处。

In this meditation session we must "renounce death and forget about life." We must truly and earnestly work hard at meditation. Make a determined resolve to get your rightful share of results from your work. Don't simply follow the crowd, sitting when you see others sitting, walking when your neighbors do, and sleeping when you see others sleeping. That kind of practice won't work. It will only waste your time, without bringing you any benefit.

我在以前曾经参加过几个地方的禅七，在任何地方都没有被监香者打过香板，为什么？因为我不睡觉，白天在禅堂里坐，晚上也在禅堂里坐，一天二十四小时都坐在禅堂，也不知道什么叫休息？什么叫睡眠？就是一秒钟的时间，也不随便放过，时刻用自己应该用的功夫，时刻把功夫提起来。

In my younger years, I participated in several Chan sessions in a variety of places, but never once was I hit by the hall monitor's stick. Why not? Because I never slept during the entire session. I sat in meditation during the day, and I also meditated through the night. I sat in the Chan hall twenty-four hours a day. The words "rest" and "sleep" were not part of my vocabulary. Without wasting a single moment, I worked relentlessly at my investigation, constantly applying my efforts to it.

你们各位都是善根深厚的人，都是聪明有智慧的人，应该把这事情看重了，不可敷衍了事。尤其今年的禅七，一定要有人开悟；如果没有人开悟，等打完禅七，每个人要打一百个香板。你们觉得能受得了一百个香板的话，就不要开悟；要是觉得受不了，那么就要开悟。若是有人害怕被打香板，现在还没有开始打禅七，可以退出。既然参加，一定要有始有终，不可以退出。禅堂的规矩是已经告了生死假，就是有人死了，只能将尸体放在坐单底下，不许往外抬。况且又没有人死，那更不可以随便退出去。

All of you have abundant and deep good roots. You are all clever and wise. You should give this matter serious consideration and not be casual in the least. In this year's Chan Session, there has to be someone who attains enlightenment. If no one is enlightened by the end of the session, then each of you will be dealt one hundred blows with the stick. If you feel you can take a hundred blows, then you don't have to get enlightened. If you feel that you can't endure such a beating, then you'd better get enlightened. If you fear the taste of the stick, you can still run away before the session begins. Once it begins, you must stay until the end. You can't withdraw early. According to the rules of the Chan hall, you've already said good-bye to birth and death. Even if someone dies during the session, we can only toss his corpse under the bench. No one is allowed to remove the corpse from the hall. And if nobody dies, then even less can you quit and skip out as you please.

我们在这里要立生死的门庭，不是生就是死，不是死就是生。

We've built a "life and death" threshold to cross. If you don't live, then you'll die. If you don't die, then you'll live.

舍不了死，就换不了生；
舍不了假，就成不了真。

If you can't renounce death,
     then you won't experience real life.
If you can't renounce what's false,
     you'll never accomplish anything true.

这是金山圣寺的门庭。所以今年的禅七，大家要努力再努力，无论如何，要认清自己的本来面目。如果不认识自己的本来面目，那么谁也不要想走出金山圣寺的大门，就把你关在监牢里。这是今年大概的规定，希望大家遵守规矩。

This is Gold Mountain Monastery's threshold. And in this year's Chan Session, you all must be extra-vigorous. At all costs, you must recognize your original face. If you don't clearly recognize your original face, then you shouldn't dream of slipping out the front door of the monastery. If you try that, we might lock you up in jail instead. That sums up this year's rules, and I hope everyone will honor them.

一九七四年一月六日开示于
三藩市金山圣寺