在禅堂里是选佛的地方，是种功德福田的地方，所谓：

若人静坐一须臾，
胜造恒沙七宝塔。

The Chan Hall is a place where Buddhas are selected; it's a field where we plant blessings, merit, and virtue. As the saying goes,

If a person can sit in stillness for even an instant,
His merit surpasses that of someone who builds as many stupas of the seven treasures as there are sand grains in the Ganges.

为什么要这样说呢？因为在外边所造的塔寺，是有形有相的功德。

Why is this so? Because temples and stupas that are built outside are visible forms of merit and virtue.

在《金刚经》上说：

凡所有相。皆是虚妄。
若见诸相非相。即见如来。

The Vajra Sutra has a line that goes,

All appearances are false and unreal.
If one sees all appearances as no appearances, then one sees the Tathagata.

若能静坐片刻的时间，就有永不磨灭的功德。有人说：“那外边的功德我不做了，我来修内边的功德。”这种思想也是不对的。我们两种都要做，既要修功，又要修德，到功德圆满的时候，福慧具足，就是两足尊了。

If a person can sit in stillness for the briefest time, he creates merit and virtue which will never disappear. At this, someone may say, "I won't create any more external merit and virtue; I'm going to have only inner merit and virtue from now on." It's also wrong to think that way. In fact, you must cultivate both kinds of merit and virtue. When your merit and virtue are perfected and your blessings and wisdom are complete, you will be known as the Doubly-Perfected Honored One.

当知外边所造的寺庙，经过长时间，都会变坏；所建的塔，经过劫火，也会被烧空的。唯独静坐能把自性中的佛法僧三宝修行成功，这是无漏的功德，不怕风雨，不怕劫火，永远存在，所以无相功德胜于有相功德千万倍。

Know, too, that any temple you can build outside will surely decay over time. Any stupa that you can erect will be burned to ashes when the fires blaze at the end of the eon. Only through Chan meditation can you successfully cultivate the Triple Jewel－the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha－of your own nature. The merit and virtue of this cultivation is "merit and virtue free of outflows." It is not endangered by the wind, the floods or fires at the eon's end, or by anything else. This is merit and virtue that lasts forever. So this kind of invisible merit and virtue surpasses visible merit and virtue by a million times over.

在禅堂里，把妄心停下来，现出真心来修道，就有无量功德，否则就无功德。所以才说：“你能静坐片刻的时间，就胜过造恒河沙数那样多的七宝塔，比那功德还要大。”

Here in the Chan Hall, if you can stop your idle thoughts and cultivate the Way with your true mind, then your merit and virtue will be measureless and boundless. But if you cannot do this, you'll have no merit and virtue to speak of. And so the saying goes, "If a person can sit in stillness for even an instant, his merit surpasses that of someone who builds as many stupas of the seven treasures as there are sand grains in the Ganges."

各位来参加打禅七，都是有善根，才遇到这种因缘，共同来参禅。现在要把心清净下来，不可心猿意马，时刻不安静，总想向外跑。那就与道不相应，浪费了七天的光阴，一无所得，辜负当初的发心。要设法控制妄念，令心静下来，所谓：

心清水现月，
意定天无云。

All of us who have come to take part in this Chan Session have good roots. That's why we have the chance to come together to investigate Chan. Now we must make our minds clear and calm, and not let our thoughts run outside like mad monkeys or wild horses, or else we won't get even a moment of stillness. Then we won't have any response in the Way, and we'll have wasted seven days of time. We won't gain anything, and we will have failed to achieve what we initially resolved to do. So we must come up with a method to control our idle thoughts and settle our minds. It is said,

When the heart is pure, the moon appears in the water.
When the mind is in samadhi, then there are no clouds in the sky.

因为这种原因，我们明年（一九八二年）准备举行十个禅七，静坐七十天。今时今日，在全世界可以说找不到连续打十个禅七的道场了。

For this reason we've already decided that next year (1982) we'll convene a ten-week Chan Session and sit in meditation for seventy days. In this day and age, I believe you won't find another Way-place anywhere in the world that holds ten consecutive weeks of Chan meditation.

万佛圣城要将末法改变为正法，所以我们拼命修行，用功办道。如果有人想实实在在修行，只有到万佛圣城来，才有机会真正修行。在外边修行，不过在皮毛上打转，敷衍了事。名义上说是打禅七，实际上时间有所不同。万佛圣城打禅七，从早上二点半钟开始行香，到夜里十二点才休息，中间只有一小时的养息香，这是我们打禅七的规矩。

Our goal at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas is to turn the Dharma-ending Age into the Proper Dharma Age. That's why we cultivate as if our lives depended on it; that's why we work hard at cultivating the Way. If you truly want to cultivate the Way, you'll have the opportunity to do so only at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas. At most other places, the cultivation is pretty superficial; they just go through the motions. Perhaps they say they're holding a Chan Session, but their schedules are quite different. At the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, the daily schedule of meditation during the Chan Sessions begins with walking meditation at 2:30 in the morning and continues without pause until midnight. In between, there's only one hour when we are not meditating. This is the rule at our Chan Sessions.

一九八○年禅七 十二月开示