前期經文提示：
情少想多。輕舉非遠。……遊於四天。所去無礙。
「及與淨願」：或者你發一個淨願，怎麼淨願呢？譬如說我「願生西方淨土」中，我願意生到西方極樂世界去，「九品蓮花為父母，花開見佛悟無生，不退菩薩為伴侶。」這都叫淨願。你或者願意生到東方，願意生到西方，願意生到什麼地方，這都叫淨願。「自然心開」：自然你心裏也就開悟了。「見十方佛，一切淨土」：見到十方佛一切的國土。「隨願往生」：你只要願意往那個地方生去，就可以生到那個國土裏去。
[二次宣講部份結束〕
「情少想多。輕舉非遠。即為飛仙。大力鬼王。飛行夜叉。地行羅剎。遊於四天。所去無礙。」
這個「情少想多」：情，怎麼叫個情呢？說是「有情無情，同圓種智。」什麼叫有情呢？有情就是有思想、有感覺的，這叫有情。什麼叫無情呢？一切的草木，說：「人非草木，孰能無情？」說人不是個草，也不是個木頭，哪一個人能沒有情呢？這人人都給自己講道理，說人人都有情。
可是這個情啊！在什麼時候有情呢？在青年的時候。所以這個豎心邊，加一個青年的青，就是年紀正在青春的時候，這就有情。這個情啊！最好就是把它當成一個「愛情」來講。本來情不一定愛情，在這個地方，就可以當「愛情」來講。什麼人有愛情？就是青年的男女，就專門講愛情。
為什麼他講愛情？要知道因為他就不知道愛情是什麼？所以他就要講，一天到晚哪！都是談情說愛。談也談不完，說也說不完。說了一天不夠，兩天；兩天不夠，三天；三天說不完，一個月、兩個月，一年、兩年。所以這個青年的男女，就迷戀到這個情上。迷情，所謂業重情迷，就是凡夫。業障重，情也迷了。這迷也就是一種執著。執著上了就放不下，這叫情。那麼情從什麼地方來的？從你心裡來的。心從什麼地方來的？從性而來的。所以說：「性流為情」。性往下流。君子上達，小人下達，也就是這個意思。往下流，說你下流痞。中國人罵人，說下流痞。就說你這個人沒有出息，你專門往下降，英文叫 down，就是一天比一天down。
那麼性流為情，情就流為欲，等到這個欲上，那就是慾火燒身了。慾火燒身哪！自己就控制不住自己了。這男女的情不自禁，情不自禁就是自己控制不住自己這個情感了。所以這個情要少，想要多。想就是想念，就是念玆在玆地總也不忘，這叫一個想。想多，好像這個想從什麼地方來的？你沒看見那個想字底下有個心字，也是從心那兒來的，從心裡才能有個想。「想」字這個心，它沒有想什麼，沒有思想什麼，這是個心，這個心是不動的。這一想心上邊就有個相。你看中國這個字，做的是特別的妙，在心上面加個相字，就著了相了。你想什麼，就有個什麼形相。
待續 |
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sutra text from last issue:
“Endowed solely with thought, they will fly and can certainly be reborn in the heavens above. If they fly from the heart, and if they have blessings and wisdom, as well as pure vows, ......and they will be reborn in whichever one they wish.
“Pure vows” means that before the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas you say:
I vow to be born
in the Western Pure Land
With the nine grades of lotuses
as my parents.
When the flower opens
I will see the Buddhas
and awaken to non-production.
Non-retreating Bodhisattvas
will be my companions.
Or you may wish to be reborn in the Eastern Land. Any such vow is a pure one.
heir hearts will spontaneously open” means they will awaken and they will see the Buddhas of the ten directions and all their pure lands, and they will be reborn in whichever one they wish.
[end of second lecturing]
If a person has blessings, wisdom, and vows, then at the end of his or her life he or she will see the Buddhas of the ten directions and be able to be reborn in whichever pure land he or she wants.
Sutra:
“When they have more thought than emotion, they are not quite as ethereal and so they become flying immortals, great mighty ghost kings, space-traveling yakshas, or earth-traveling rakshasas who roam the form heavens, going where they please without obstruction.
Commentary:
When they have more thought than emotion, they are not quite as ethereal. “Emotion” can be defined as sentience. It is said that,
Those with sentience
and those lacking sentience.
Have the same potential
for knowledge of all modes.
“Sentience,” in turn, is defined as having thought and feeling. Insentient objects include grasses, trees, and so forth. It is said,
People are not grass and trees;
Who among them doesn’t have emotion?
That’s just a way of rationalizing. “Everybody got emotion.” True, everyone does. And when is it evident? In youth. That’s why the character “emotion” (情) is made up of the word for mind (情) and the character for youth (青). When we get right down to it, we’re talking here about emotional love. Basically, the word for emotion is not limited to that meaning, but that's the use of it here.
Young men and women talk all the time about love and emotion. Why? Because they don't really know about it. They never finish talking about love and emotion. Day in and day out, month after month, year after year that's the entire topic of conversation. Young people become totally engrossed in emotion. It confuses them. It's said,
Weighed down by karma and confused by emotion,
One is a common person.
Confusion is a kind of attachment, the inability to let go. Where does emotion come from? From your mind. Where does the mind come from? From your nature. That's why it's said,
The nature flows out and becomes emotion.
The emotion flows out into desire.
The “out” means “down.” As when,
The superior person's aims are lofty.
The petty person's aims are base.
When a person goes down, down, down and reaches the level of desire, then the fire of desire consumes the body. One totally loses control. It happens to both men and women. They lose self-control.
“Thought” is persistent thought. This character also contains the character for “mind.” It, too, comes from the mind. At first the mind has not moved, but with thought, something appears in the mind. So the character for thought ( 想) is the character for “appearance” (相 ) over the character for “mind” (心). Whenever you think about appears. This character is quite descriptive. For instance, you think about drinking, and ad image of wine appears in your mind. If you're thinking about eating meat, a piece of meat appears in your mind. It's the same for anything you think about from the affairs of state to your own private matters. The Sutras talk about there being no appearance of self, no appearance of others, no appearance of people, and no appearance of a life-span. But with thought, there are appearances. Is thought right then nor wrong? Basically, it, too, is not right. But since people are attached to appearances, they end up with thought.
To be continued |
