我第一次遇見上人是在俄勒岡州的森林裡，在史密斯河北岸，邊遠之境。那時晨霧尚清新，人跡亦罕至。此中情景，遇見中國聖人，是最恰當不過的了。
當時在那個佛根地正舉行著法會，法會進行到一半的時候，我的朋友開車來邀我參加。她這樣做可真是我的福氣，因為在這之前，我已經對自己的生活方式很不滿了，想回到健康的生活方式，卻因缺乏耐性和自律而失敗。我和這個朋友雖然對東方思想有共同的興趣，但過的卻是放縱的西方生活。
記得初進農場時，我有一種強烈的衝動想要清洗乾淨自己，因此我們在途中的一座橋上停下，我去河邊清洗了一下。到達農場時，大約有三十多人正坐在一個臨時搭的大帳篷內聽上人說法，幾位比丘尼正在翻譯著。一開始我很失望，上人講的不是英文，可是隨著翻譯的進行，我逐漸意識到這些內容已深深地進入我的心田。上人的話很平凡、很簡單，但涵意深沉，可滌心垢。
上人那天說的是五戒的意義，正是我需要聽的。因為對我來說，心靈上的追求必須從這些戒上做起。從那以後，我多年欲除而不得的很多壞毛病，都很自然地去除了。 在隨後幾年我聆聽上人教誨，以及我和家人在萬佛聖城工作生活的時間裡，我身心上得到種種的幫助。我們的積習逐漸改變，上人無限的慈悲與耐心，是我們對甚深佛法理解的不斷增長之良導。哪管眾生疑多信少善根薄，上人開演正道的願力永無邊。
上人教導我們生活要簡樸，貪心才會被不斷覺悟的佛性替代。他教導我們要淨化所攝取之物，長養慈悲，生出身心自有的健康；他教導我們不飲酒，不吸毒，如此我們的靈性得以清明。他還教導我們不要利用或濫用他人，直至身心最細微處來修清淨行。他教導我們如何教育孩子，和培養他們的無私意識及深化他們純潔的信仰。他教我們要尊敬長輩，要樹立堅固的家庭結構乃強國之基這一觀念。上人的諸多教誨，使我們懂得了如何通過一種簡樸和自律的生活，去得到一種真正的內在自由。上人無有休止，如是教化四方。
我相信在這個世界上，得上人教化之益者，當是不計其數。他不但改變了弟子，其慈悲被澤所有希望發現他們自性的各種宗教人士。我感受到上人教導了我們最純正、最直接、最完整的開悟自性的方法。通過參加法會與聽經，我們的理解力會突飛猛進，我們的身心會有深遠的改變。蒙上人教誨的芸芸眾生，有如是之多，我一點不驚奇。
我對上人利生的志願之感激，實難言喻。塵世生活亦逼使我不斷地將我對佛法的理解，應用到生活中。我亦不忘將我所知，分享他人，這是一種義務，也是一種榮譽。雖然如此，我感覺上人時時在我們身邊，幫助並鼓舞我們勇往前進。 |
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I first met the Venerable Master Hua in the woods of Oregon, on the banks of the North Fork of the Smith River. It seemed an appropriate place to meet a Chinese Sage, in the outermost corner of the country, where the land had not been trod upon too heavily and the morning mists were still relatively pure.
A session was taking place at Buddha Root Farm, and halfway through, a friend had driven to my home to invite me to it. It was my great fortune that she did so, as I had become dissatisfied with the life I was leading and my attempts to return to a healthier way were being undermined by my own lack of patience, and lack of personal discipline. We had shared interested in eastern thought, but both of us had led very indulgent, western lives.
I remember that when I arrived at the farm, I had an overwhelming impulse to get clean, and we stopped at the bridge on the road and I went down to the river to wash. On the farm, there was a group of perhaps thirty or more people seated under a makeshift pavilion listening to the Venerable Abbot while nuns translated. At first I was disappointed that he wasn't speaking English, but as the translations progressed, I was increasingly aware that the intent of his lecture had reached me in my innermost mind and heart. And though his words were spare and simple, they carried profound implications for a deeper inner cleansing.
The Venerable Master was lecturing the five precepts and they were exactly what I needed to hear. If I was to pursue a life of the spirit, I had to reorganize it along these lines. And after that day, many of the bad habits that I had been unsuccessfully trying to reform seemed to fall away easily.
Throughout my years of listening to the Venerable Abbot's lecture, and in the times my family and I have spent living and working at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas I have been helped in many ways, physically and spiritually. Though bad habits of mind and thoughts as well as action exist in all of us on the deepest levels, and are not always so easily changed, it has been my experience that the Abbot's profound compassion and patient guidance have been the vehicle through which our understanding of the profound Dharma has grown. Through doubts and spiritual droughts, his willingness to show the proper way appears endless.
The Venerable Master has taught us to live simply, so that greed can be replaced by a broadening awareness of our Buddha natures. He has taught us to purify what we take in so that we may nurture our compassion and initiate our own state of health in body and mind. He has taught us to refrain from intoxicants and drugs so that our understanding will be pure in nature. He has taught us not to use or abuse other people and to purify our conduct toward others to the very subtlest levels of mind and spirit. He has given us a direction in the education of our children that promotes unselfish mindfulness and the strengthening of a child's belief in his or her best and purest nature. He has taught us to care for and respect our parents, and to view a strong family structure as the foundation for the structure of a strong nation. He has taught us on so many levels that by voluntarily circumscribing our lives along disciplined and simple lines, in constant mindfulness of the Buddha nature, we are making our greater inner freedom possible. And he has done this tirelessly around the globe.
The people whose lives he has touched, I believe, are numberless. Not only has he transformed his Buddhist disciples, his compassion encompasses those of all religions who are sincerely working toward uncovering their true natures. But in my experience, the Venerable Abbot has shown us the purest, most straightforward, all-encompassing method for reaching our own enlightenment. It is possible to attend sessions and lectures and make great strides forward in our understanding, and to undergo profound changes of mind and heart. It does not surprise me that so many people have, under the Venerable Master's guidance.
My gratitude for the Venerable Master's willingness to help us is difficult to express. And I am continually challenged to apply my understanding in the world, and not to forget that it is a responsibility as well as a privilege to translate what I have learned into the lives of others. But I feel that the Venerable Master is always there, helping and encouraging us to go forward. |
