有位修忍辱的老修行，於門口掛上一塊匾，寫上：「我性如灰」，表示他性裡毫無火氣，從不發脾氣。
這位老修行晝夜精進用功，性情修得柔和無比。可是此時就來了一位菩薩，試驗他的道行。
菩薩到他的門前問：「這幾個字寫的是什麼？」答：「性如灰！」待會兒，菩薩走回來又問道：「匾額上寫的是什麼？我記不得了。」答：「性如灰。」如是來回問了幾百十次，終於把火問出來了。老修行冒火大聲地嚷道：「性如灰！性如灰！你這麼囉囉嗦嗦，儘來擾亂我的修行，你居心何在？」菩薩答：「哈！原來灰裡還有火呢！」說完，即踴身虛空。你道這菩薩是誰？原來是觀世音菩薩來考驗他，結果修了幾十年性如灰，仍有火氣，考不上菩薩的試驗。
觀世音菩薩臨走前言：「你還得修行！等二十年後，我再來。」 |
|
There was once a cultivator who practiced patience. He hung a sign above his door reading, “My nature is like ashes, meaning that he didn’t have the tiniest spark of anger and never lost his temper.
The old cultivator worked very vigorously at his practice day and night, to the point that his personality became incomparably soft and gentle. At that point, a Bodhisattva came to give him a test.
The Bodhisattva came to his door and asked, “What do these words here say?” “Nature like ashes!” he replied. The Bodhisattva came back a little later and asked again, “What does the sign say? I can’t remember.” He answered: “Nature like ashes.” The Bodhisattva kept coming back and asking the same question several hundred times. Finally, his asking brought out the fire in the cultivator. The cultivator furiously shouted at him, “Nature like ashes! Nature like ashes! You’re really a pain in the neck, coming here to disturb my practice. Just what is your intention?” “Ah,” said the Bodhisattva, “so there’s still some fire in the ashes!” Saying that, he rose up into the air. Do you know who this Bodhisattva was? It was Guanshiyin Bodhisattva coming to test him. After more than ten years of cultivating a nature like ashes, he still had fire and so he flunked the Bodhisattva’s test.
Before he left, Guanshiyin Bodhisattva said, “You need to cultivate some more! I’ll be back in twenty years!” |
