|
問：我叫威能卡斯德。我想問問「用意」。我們要清除的是自己的毛病，也就是說我們身上好像都有刺，會造成傷害，所以我們要除掉這些刺。但是有時候人的「用意」是好的，所引起的行為卻造成傷害，那該怎麼辦？
上人：你處處想著利人，就不會對人有妨礙了。你若處處想要利己，那對人就有妨礙。我若答復錯了，請各位指教。
問：我叫傑夫古南。上人所說的「不自私」，對我來說好像與其他人所說的不一樣，我的一些朋友也這麼覺得。不知道上人有沒有什麼課程能引發維護這種「不自私」。
上人：這是要從小教化，從頭開始，小孩子，你若教他懂得怎麼做人，怎麼樣待人接物，不要他在眾人之中爭第一，而且想賺大錢。他小時候沒有自私心，長大了也就不會發狂似的，本著自私來做事。有人說：「你說這個道理，我學不了，我已經老了。」有人又說：「我年輕又沒學，現在更學不了，現在只想賺錢，賺多了，或者可當官、發大財，我只知道這麼多。」這也不要緊，壯年的、老年的，雖然兒童時期已過，你還是可以學那小孩子的心理、行為，再來過。所謂「一切是考驗，看我怎麼辦，看你怎麼辦，看他怎麼辦？對境若不識，須再從頭練」。你對境若不認識，就要從頭再開始。
問：上人，我是胡斯登史米博士，很高興有這個機會見到您，我們一見如故，我想您一定是我的好朋友，我的聰明比不上上人，我是最不聰明，因為您是中國人，您講中國話，而我是美國人，我應當講美國話，可是我卻講中國話，不知你同意不同意？我要問您一句話，你是一位中國的美國人，我是一個美國的中國人，因為我出生在蘇川，所以你講，我聽得懂您的意思，因為我聽得懂，所以我認為上人的本性和我的本性是一樣的。
上人：你是沒認識自己，我是愚癡中的愚癡，而你卻是有智慧中的智慧。我不但和你是一個，和所有的眾生都是一個。和螞蟻在一起，我就像個螞蟻似的，和偉大的人物在一起，我也不比他小多少，和最小的我也不比他大多少。是法平等，無有高下。我今天再告訴你們一句話，你們誰若想要發揮自己的智慧和能力，這個只在你們自己裡邊，我對你們所說的，都是一些皮毛譬喻或者形容詞。真正的智慧是要你自己來挖掘，要自己把它找回來，我沒有法子告訴你，我告訴你的，都不是智慧。
問：我叫金舒曼。我是一個特別無知的人。
（上人：沒有我這麼愚癡吧？）
我很想出家做和尚，但是我有妻子，又有二個小男孩。我不但有自己的欲望，還有兩個小孩的欲望，和我的差不多。特別是美國的欲望製造機——電視，製進出各種欲望，並且都說成是生活必需品。我的問題是，在這張慾網裡及有一妻二子的一家之主頸套中，我想做和尚以便驅除這些欲望，但又有這些責任要負起，這無知的我怎能安靜下來？
上人：見事省事出世間，見事迷事墮沉淪。這個不要問，要問自己。你自己惹出來的麻煩，自己把它擺脫了，自己想法子，怎麼辦？這不是我能替得了你，也不是幾句話就可以說明白的。自己生死自己了，自己吃飯自己飽。
問：宣公，佛陀難陀上師，我是一個從事世俗事情的人。我的問題是，我們一生所受的教育和訓練都在培植我們的鬥爭精神，和爭取成功，其他種種都是助緣。現在忽然我們找到了一個新目標，所以要改變原以為對的路線，要改成或向右或行中道的路。這個夢到底是真的，還是幻覺？假如可以問第二個問題，我想問問這個吠陀道和佛道，也就是所謂的右邊路線和中道路線，是一樣的嗎？是不是兩個街名其實是一條路。
上人：以前學的是爭名奪利，那麼忽然覺悟了，想要不去爭名奪利，這是不是矛盾呢？是不是虛幻的？這是很淺顯的道理，小孩子也懂的。譬如有個人，走路遇到火堆了，要繼續往前走還是向後轉？走路走到大海的岸上，是要往苦海裡跳還是要回頭轉？這裡頭，你說回頭轉是矛盾嗎？這是不實在嗎？這是第一個問題。第二個問題，佛教、婆羅門教，是否屬於一同的呢？我所知道的宗教，所有的都是人，所以我們以人類來評判，都是換名不換義，換湯不換藥。不論你是美國人、中國人、日本人、西班牙人、墨西哥人、德國人、法國人，都叫人，人是一個，名字不同，還是人。無論哪個國家的人，你不能叫他做狗，叫他做貓。
問：我叫狄克波提，聽了上人的話，引起我一個問題。我們現在這個社會日趨分裂成兩個階級，富者愈富，貧者愈貧，我們可以說已看到路上的「火堆」了，那麼作為一個有宗教信仰的人應該怎麼辦？
上人：把火堆給熄滅了。（笑聲並鼓掌）
問：請布拉達難陀和上人講一講佛教中「無我」的道理。我們吠陀教中「我」的道理非常優美，我們也了解必須要超脫這個「我」，但是佛性又是怎麼一回事？常常好像和這個「我」很相似的。
上人：你要找佛性，你現在說話就是佛性說，你吃飯就是佛性吃，你跑路也是佛性跑，你一舉一動無非佛性在那兒使你這個樣子。可是，你若往好的路上走就是佛性，你要是往不好的路上走，就是魔性，所以善惡之分，只在一念之間，你要知道這一念之間，根本分而不分，不分而分。一個「心」字形容佛性也形容得很好：「三點如星布，彎勾似月牙，披毛從此起，做佛也由他。」
問：布拉達難陀長老，我在和基督徒談話時，常想不知有沒有辦法解答「靈魂」這問題，他們不相信有輪迴這件事。
上人：你和小學生談中學的課程，他不懂；你和中學生談大學的課程，他也不明白；你問大學生小學的課程，他知道，中學的課程也知道，大學的課程他正在學習。等到了大學，你不說他也懂了，所以，這信不信是時間的問題，是人沒有成熟的問題，這都是無須要憂慮的問題。
問：我是艾琳琳達，女人參不參與你們的佛教社區，她們做些什麼事？
上人：佛教是沒有男女的分別，佛教裡只有規矩，女眾的規矩比男眾多一點，因為女眾的心細如毛，小至如毛的小關節，她都計較，人家看不見的她都看得見。男眾是大大概概，粗粗魯魯的（眾笑）。所以在佛教裡，講的是平等，可是各有各的規矩，都要各守各的規矩。
 |
| The Holy Sage Enlightened to Conditions Dozes High on a Mountain Peak, Alone. |
|
|
Q: I have a question, my name is Vernon Castle. The question is on intention. The idea was that we clean up our faults, the idea that we may have thorns and when our thorns cause harm we try to remove the thorns. What is a skillful response when the intention feels clean, and yet harm comes from the action that the intention provoked?
Venerable Master Hua: In terms of intention, the first thing to do is to rid your purpose of any selfish benefit. In every situation if your intention is to benefit others, then you will not be an obstruction to others. On the other hand if you intend to only benefit yourself, then you will be an obstruction to everyone. If my answers are wrong, I hope you all will correct me.
Q: My name is Jeff Kurnan. My question is that it seems that what the Master is saying is very different, at least it is for me, and a number of my friends have said the same thing, about being entirely unselfish. Does the Master offer any kind of initiation, support, or course of study by which this can be facilitated?
Ven. Master: Although this has to be taught, it has to be instilled from the start, at an early age. If you teach children how to be a person, how to behave toward others, how to deal with things, and not contend to be number one and seek to make a lot money ... if, when children are young, they are without greed; then after they become adults, they will not act selfishly. Some people say, "I'm too old to learn the principle that you speak of." Others say, "I didn't learn this when I was little, so I can grasp it even less now. Presently, all I can think about is making a lot of money, holding an influential post, or striking it rich. This is all I know." Even if people have passed their youth and are advanced in years, it doesn't matter because they can still emulate a child's natural inborn tendency for learning and start again. It is said that:
Everything's a test
To see what I would do,
To see what you would do,
To see what he would do.
Mistaking what's before your eyes
You'll lave to start anew.
Q: I'm Dr. Huston Smith. (question is in Chinese). Venerable Master, I'm very happy to have this opportunity to meet you. Although we've just met, I feel we're old friends. I think you must be my good friend. My intelligence can't be compared to the Venerable Master's. I'm most unintelligent. Because you're a Chinese, you speak Chinese. I'm an American, I should speak American. But, instead, I speak Chinese. I don't know if you'll agree with this. I want to ask you something. You're an American among Chinese, I'm a Chinese among Americans. Because I was born in Su Jou (a city in China), when you speak I understand what you're talking about. Because I understand what you said, I think the Venerable Master's self-nature and my self-nature are the same.
Ven. Master: You still do not know yourself. I am the stupid one among the stupid and you are the intelligent one among the intelligent. I'm not only one with you, I'm also identical with all living beings. When I'm with ants, I feel like an ant. When I'm with great people, I'm not much lesser than them. When I'm with the most insignificant people, I don't feel I'm more superior than them. The Dharma is level and equal, there is no high and low. I'll tell you something else today. Whoever wants to activate their inner wisdom and potential has to do it from within. Whatever I say to you is only an extrinsic similarity or a graphic indication. True wisdom has to be mined by yourself, you yourself have to (be?) uncover it. There is no way I can convey it to you. What I can say in words is not true wisdom.
Q: My name is Jim Schuman and I'm a particularly ignorant human being. I would have liked to be a monk. (Ven. Master: Not as ignorant as I am!) But, I am a father with two boys and a wife. Not only do I have my own desires but I also have the desires of my children pointed in my direction. The desire-making machine that exists here, particularly in the United States, the television creating more and more desires, which seem to be necessities ... my question is, how to face the onslaught of desire and as a householder, a human being with wife, children, family, the full catastrophe as Socrates says. My thought is that I need to be a monk in order to rid myself of desire and yet I have responsibility to complete. How in the face of that, in my ignorant state can I be.... quiet?
Ven. Master: When you see things and understand, you can transcend the world. When you see things and are confused, then you will fall. This you don't need to ask; you should ask yourself. You brought this trouble on yourself, and you will need to get rid of it yourself. You have to figure out a way. What to do? This is not something that I can do for you, nor is it something I can express clearly in a few sentences. You end your own birth and death, you eat your own fill.
Q: Venerable Master Hua and Swami Buddhananda. This question comes from a common person who runs the affairs of the world like me. So. Our whole life's education and training is designed to put us on a long route where the sole objective is competitive spirit and success. The rest is all means to the end. Suddenly we get a goal in life and we decide to change routes, right at the beginning. To the right path or the middle path. Is such a dream real or is it a delusion? I'll try to avoid the controversy about wisdom and ignorance. So I would request you, for the benefit of a common person like me, who runs the affairs of the world, is such a dream of following the right path real or just delusion? And if a second question is permitted, are the Vedantic path and the Buddhist path, what you call the right path or the middle path, the same name for these, two names for the same street?
Ven. Master: In the past, you learned to contend for fame and fight for profit; then, suddenly you're enlightened. You don't want to go and contend for fame and fight for profit anymore. Is it a contradiction? Is this an illusion? This is a rather simple and obvious way of looking which even a child can understand. For instance, while a person is walking along the road, he suddenly sees a blaze of fire. Should he continue walking on, or turn back? When you walk to the edge of a sea-cliff, should you leap into the ocean of suffering, or should you turn around? In such a situation, would you say that turning around is a contradiction? Is it unreal?
As for the second question: Whether it's the case that Buddhism or Hinduism are different names for the same religion? Well, I know that all religions are just people. We make judgments based on people. You call them different names, but actually they are the same. Whether you are American, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, Mexican, German, French, you are called a human being. You all have different names, but all of you are people. No matter what nationality you are, you can't be called a dog or a cat.
Q: Venerable Swami and Master Hua, my name is Dick Bolte and my question comes from what has just been said by Master Hua. Many of us here are struggling with a society now that is increasingly divided into two social classes. The rich are getting richer, the poor are getting-poorer. We see the fire in the road. What is the task of the religious person in such a case?
Ven. Master: Extinguish the fire. (Audience laughter.)
Q: Swami Pradhananda and Ven. Master Hua, would you please address the Buddhist principle of Anata or Anatman. We can appreciate the beauty of Atman in Vedanta. We can also understand the necessity of transcending the jivaatman (self), but what about the Buddha-nature which seems often to be similar with the Atman, the true self.
Ven. Master: If you are looking for the Buddha-nature, you're talking now and it's the Buddha-nature who is talking. Eating, it's the Buddha- nature eating. Running, it's the Buddha-nature running. Every act you do, it's none but the Buddha-nature doing it. But only if you're on a good road is it the Buddha-nature. If you're on a bad road, it's the demon-nature. So the difference between good and evil lies in one thought. You must know that within this one thought, fundamentally, it's different yet not different, not different yet different. The Chinese character for "mind" (心) symbolizes the Buddha-nature very well. It's described as,
Three dots like clustering stars,
A hook like the new moon.
Animals and Buddlas
Both come from here.
Q: I wonder, in talking to people from the Judeo-Christian religion, is there a way to resolve the question of the soul? They think that there's no such thing as reincarnation.
Ven. Master: If you talk about the high school curriculum with elementary school students, they won't comprehend it. If you talk about the content of the college curriculum with high school students, they won't understand either. If you ask a college student about the elementary school curriculum and high school curriculum, he'll know. If you ask him about the college curriculum, well, he's studying it. When he goes to college, he'll know without your telling him. So, whether people believe it or not is only a matter of time. It is also a question whether or not people are mature. So, there's no need to worry about this question.
Q: This is for Master Hua, I'm Arlene Linda. Do women take part in your Buddhist community, and what do they do?
Ven. Master: Because the minds of women are as fine as hair, paying attention to minute details as fine as hair, they tend to be very fastidious. They will see what others cannot see. Men are broader and coarser. (The audience laughs) In Buddhism, there is equality, but they each have their own set of rules. Each has to comply with his or her rules.
|
