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從小生長在舒適富裕家庭的我，不識愁滋味。從小到大，一向心裡想要的東西，父母都會滿足我的願望。因此，養成我任性貪得無厭的個性。直到移民美國，換了一個新環境之後，面對一切新的人和事，才發現這世界上不是一切都那麼地如人意。因此常常自問：「人活著到底是為什麼？難道每天就過著工作賺錢、吃飯、睡覺的日子？」尤其在上下班路上車水馬龍的時刻，看著如此多匆忙的車輛，川流不息地奔馳，我更會暗忖：「我們這些芸芸眾生，都在忙著往死亡的路上走啊！」頓時覺得十分無奈，不知如何是好？
就在一次偶然的機緣之下，一位朋友提到在美國有一位很有修行的法師－－宣公上人。因此，就很希望能成為上人的皈依弟子，藉此能從佛法上瞭解一些生死的道理。記得剛皈依上人不久，聽他老人家開示有關六道輪迴的因果，以及「眾生皆有佛性，皆堪作佛，只因妄想執著而不能證得。」才解開那久已存在我心中的生死之謎。眾生皆因自己的業報才到這娑婆世界，輾轉輪迴受苦，無有出期。唯有求出世法，正念修行，才能成佛，成佛之後就不用來這娑婆世界輪迴受苦了。我瞭解這因果道理之後，很是驚訝，原來佛菩薩也是人修成的！頓覺自己實在無知到了極點。往後又常聽師父他老人家的開示，及《阿彌陀經》上釋迦如來所描述的西方極樂世界的微妙莊嚴景觀，越覺得這五濁惡世的娑婆世界不可留戀。 |
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I grew up in a comfortable and well-off family and never knew the taste of misery. From the time I was little until I grew up, my parents always gave me whatever I wished for. Because of this, I became an insatiably greedy person. When I moved to the United States, I faced a new environment, new people, and new events. I realized that not everything is always so easy and smooth in this world. I often asked myself, "What are we really living for? Are we just living to work, make money, eat and sleep?" During the rush hour before and after work, seeing the busy traffic, I would think to myself, "All of us are busily running down the road to death!" At that instant I would feel totally lost and helpless.
Once, I happened to hear a friend mention that there was a Dharma Master of true cultivation in America--the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua. I hoped to become the Master's disciple in refuge, so that I could understand the Buddha's teachings on birth and death. Not long after I took refuge, I remember hearing the Master deliver a talk on cause and effect in the six paths of transmigration and on the principle that "all living beings have the Buddha nature and can become Buddhas; it is only because of false thoughts and attachments that they do not do so." This answered the riddle that had plagued my mind: It is because of their own karmic retributions that living beings come to this Saha world, where they suffer repeated rebirths without ever being able to escape. Only by seeking the transcendental Dharma and cultivating with proper mindfulness can one become a Buddha. After realizing Buddhahood, one no longer has to be reborn in the Saha world to suffer. When the principle of cause and effect became clear to me it dawned upon me that the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas were just people who cultivated. I felt that I had been extremely ignorant. From then on I listened often to the Ven. Master's talks and Shakyamuni Buddha's description of the wonderful scenes in the Western Land of Ultimate Bliss (in the Amitabha Sutra), and became convinced that we should not linger in this Saha world of the five turbidities. |
