人人皆有贪心；贪财、贪色、贪名、贪食、贪睡，贪而无厌没有停止的时候。看见美丽的颜色，美丽的形相，悦耳的音声，香甜的美食等等，就着迷了，必定要设法得到手才肯罢休。为一时的享受，就用不正当的手段来争取，结果造成终生的遗憾，这是多么可惜啊！所以古人说：“知足常乐，能忍自安。”诚哉斯言也！

Everyone is greedy—greedy for wealth, sex, fame, food and sleep. We are insatiable and there's no end to our greed. When we see pretty colors and forms, hear pleasant music, smell the aroma of good food, and so forth, we become obsessed by a mad pursuit of these things. For the sake of momentary pleasures, we do things that we may regret for the rest of our lives. How pitiful! The ancients said, "By being content, one is always happy. By being patient, one is naturally at ease." How true this is!

小朋友！读书的时候，要努力读书；游戏的时候，要尽量游戏，不可偏在一边，要平均发展，对身心才有益处。佛家说：“不偏空有二边，是为中道。”你们要保守中庸之道，不要太过，不要不及，要恰到好处。

Young friends! When it's time to study, study diligently; when it's time to play, put down everything else and play. Your mental and physical development should be balanced; don't stress one and neglect the other. A Buddhist principle says, “What does not go to the two extremes of emptiness and existence is known as the Middle Way.” You should follow the Middle Way. Do everything just right; don't go too far, and don't come up short.

读书时，不要想我为什么要读书？哦！为赚钱。为什么要赚钱？哦！为享受，为满足物质的享受。这就是舍本逐末，舍近求远，把做人的根本都忘了。怎么样孝顺父母？怎么样恭敬师长？怎么样敦品立德？怎么样做个好人？统统都忘了。

When you are studying, don't think, “I'm studying because I want to make money and enjoy myself.” If you think that way, you are renouncing the fundamental to pursue the trivial, and forsaking what is near to seek far away. You are forgetting the foundation of being a person. You are forgetting how to be filial to your parents, how to respect your teachers and elders, how to develop integrity, and how to be a good person.

所以世界坏的病源，就是从欲望无止境而来的。人人能不争、不贪、不求、不自私、不自利、不妄语，那世界就没有苦恼了。各位同学们！我们要把万佛圣城的六大宗旨做为处世的目标，深深去体验，深深去了解，就能和一般世俗人不同，也不争名，也不夺利，能这样就没有一切的烦恼和痛苦了。你们将来要担当起移风易俗的责任，把坏的世界改变成好的世界。怎么样改变呢？用仁义礼智信这五常来改变世界，成为新天地，这叫做“安天立地”。

Our ceaseless desires have caused the world to go bad. If everyone can refrain from fighting, being greedy, seeking, being selfish, pursuing personal gain, and telling lies, then the world's suffering and afflictions will disappear.

Fellow students! If you can take the Six Great Principles of the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas as your goals for living in this world, and you can deeply understand and absorb them, you will be different from ordinary worldly people. If you neither contend for fame nor try to usurp profit, you won't experience any affliction or suffering.

In the future, you must take on the responsibility of reforming society's tendencies, and transform this evil world into a good one. You must use the five virtues of humaneness, righteous-ness, propriety, wisdom, and faith to build a new world. This is called “establishing heaven and earth.”

一九八三年十月十六日开示