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以戒殺報答三寶恩
說到這個地方，想起一個公案，在中國南北朝時代，梁武帝的時候，佛法大興，做喜事請和尚來念經，做喪事也請和尚來念經。人有病，請和尚來念經，人病好了，也請和尚來念經。那時候，人人都信佛，所以和尚念經，就變成一個新興的事業。
當時，有一位有錢的人娶孫媳婦，就請一位大德高僧來念經，一請就請到誰呢？請到寶誌禪師。這位寶誌禪師，他的手生來就像老鷹的爪子似的，也是在老鷹的窩裏生出來的。他的父母聽見老鷹的窩裏有小孩子在那兒哭，以為這小孩子是被老鷹叨去要吃的，於是就上去看一看，看見一個白白胖胖的小孩子，但這小孩子的手不像人手，像鷹爪，他們就把他抱到家裏去養。他一長大就喜歡拜佛，喜歡學習佛法，於是他父母就把他送到廟裏去出家做和尚。他做了和尚，也因為夙世的善根成熟了，於是乎就證得五眼，也就有了天眼通、天耳通——等等，因為有五眼六通，他就知道一切人的前因後果，前世是做甚麼的，在來生又做甚麼，他一看就都知道。
這有錢人把寶誌禪師請去念經；寶誌禪師到那兒一看，看是這新娘、新郎在那兒拜堂成親，他就說：「古古怪，怪怪古，孫子娶祖母。」我講這個公案，一定有很多人不相信；可是就是一個人不相信，我還是要講，沒法子要我不講。這是我的大毛病。我要講的話，你信不信我都要講。他說：「古古怪，怪怪古，孫子娶祖母。」他說這孫子連祖母也要娶回來做太太。這是怎麼一回事呢？要知道我們是怎麼做了人呢？就是因為這個「情」，就做了人了。這個「情」字啊，你要用得適當，就很正當，用不得當，就會有一些奇怪的事情發生。這個祖母怎麼願意給他孫子做太太呢？因為這祖母臨死的時候，這小孩子才剛剛出生，這祖母的「情」就生出來了，老祖母想我死後甚麼也不掛念，就掛著我這個孫子，總放不下他，我這個孫子才剛剛生出來，你說我死了誰照顧他？雖然她這麼捨不得死，但是無常鬼一到，就把她叫到閻羅王那兒去了，她提出抗議地說：「閻羅王啊！你真糊塗，你真不會做閻羅王，我孫子剛剛生出來，你就叫我死，將來我這個孫子怎麼辦？誰照顧他？」閻羅王說：「你的情感這麼重，好了，我就順乎人情，做一件好事，妳去給妳孫子做太太去。」
這祖母一聽要給自己孫子做太太，想說不願意，但是這是閻羅王的命令，不能違抗，只好勉強去投生。於是就去投生做個女孩子，等孫子長到差不多年紀時，就結婚了。這是「孫子娶祖母」的因緣。
誌公和尚往窗外一看，看見一個女孩子拿著一個豬蹄子在那兒啃，他說：「女食母之肉」。這個女孩子所吃的這個豬蹄子，就是她自己母親變成的豬。她現在也不知道，就啃她母親的豬蹄子，這就是「女食母之肉」。
誌公和尚又往那個吹鼓手的棚裏一看，又說：「子打父皮鼓」。說這個兒子打的那個鼓，就是他父親死了之後，做了驢子，被人剝下來的皮做成的鼓，這是「子打父皮鼓」。他父親生時或者也常打他兒子，一天到晚不是用棍子打，就是用棒子、槌子打他，所以這兒子現在也就用鼓槌子，天天乒乒乓乓打他父親。
誌公和尚又往炕上一看說：「豬羊炕上坐」，說他們以前吃的那些豬、羊，現在都托生做人來了，並且到這兒隨喜人情，向他們賀喜，其實是來報仇的。
誌公和尚又往那個肉鍋裏一看，說：「啊！六親鍋裏煮。」說這些六親——父、母、兄、弟、妻、子，這個「情」字連在一起了。這個「親」，怎麼叫「親」呢？就是這個「情」字，黏黏糊糊黏到一起，就像用強力膠黏得分不開了，現在托生做豬、做羊，讓人殺了，放到肉鍋裏去煮來吃，所以中國形容「肉」字說：「肉字裏邊兩個人，裏邊罩著外邊人，眾生還吃眾生肉，仔細思量人吃人。」
誌公和尚看到這個情形，就總結為兩句話說：「眾生來賀喜，我看真是苦。」念完了這個吉祥話，回頭就走，也不管他們願不願意聽，也沒有拿供養他的儭錢。這個「肉」字裏的人，既然是我們的六親眷屬，都有機會做馬、牛、羊、雞、犬，那麼，我們應該想一想，牠們會不會是我的祖先，托生做馬、牛、羊、雞、犬呢？會不會也是我的父母，來托生做的馬、牛、羊、雞、犬呢？或者會不會是我以前的那些寵物，貓和狗來托生呢？還是馬、牛、羊來托生呢？我的寵物現在變成了豬，或是羊，我若吃牠的肉，牠會多痛苦啊！
各位若認為我講得對，就不妨把我的話，多想幾次，研究一番，是否有道理？若不對呢？就把它忘了，當做耳邊風一樣，只當我沒說。
待續
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To Repay the Kindness of the Triple Jewel, We Should Stop Killing
At this point, I have thought of a true story. During the reign of Emperor Wu (502 - 550 a.d.) of the Liang Dynasty, Buddhism flourished in China. People would ask Buddhist monks to recite Sutras at weddings and funerals, whenever anybody got sick, and also when people had recovered from illness. Everyone believed in Buddhism at that time, and it became a new enterprise for monks to recite Sutras on these occasions.
At that time there was a rich man whose grandson was getting married. He invited an eminent and virtuous monk to recite Sutras at the wedding. Guess whom he invited? Dhyana Master Bao Zhi. Dhyana Master Bao Zhi had been born in an eagle’s nest, and his hands resembled the talons of an eagle. When his (foster) parents heard a baby crying up in the eagle’s nest, they thought the eagle had snatched the baby from somewhere and was going to eat it. When they climbed up to the nest, they found a white, plump baby there, totally human-looking except for his hands, which looked like eagle’s talons. The couple took the baby home and raised him. As soon as he grew older, he liked to bow to the Buddhas and study the Buddhadharma, so his foster parents sent him to the temple, where he renounced the householder’s life and became a monk.
After he became a monk the good roots he had cultivated in previous lives matured, and so he attained the Five Eyes and the penetrations of the Heavenly Eye, the Heavenly Ear, and so forth. Possessing the Five Eyes and the Six Spiritual Penetrations, he was able to know what people had been in their past lives and what they would become in their future lives.
When Dhyana Master Bao Zhi went to the rich man’s home to recite Sutras, he saw the bride and groom who were to be married and said, “Strange indeed, indeed strange! The grandson is marrying the grandmother.” I’m sure a lot of people will not believe this story, but I’m still going to tell it. Even if there’s not a single person who believes it, there’s no way I can refrain from telling it. This is a big fault of mine: If I have something to say, I’ll say it whether you believe it or not. Anyway, the Dhyana Master was saying that the grandson was taking his grandmother for a wife. How could this be? We have to understand how we become people. It happens because of our emotions. If your emotions are appropriate, then everything is normal. But if they are inappropriate, then some strange things can happen. Why would the grandmother be willing to be her grandson’s wife? It was because right before the old grandmother died, her grandson had just been born, and she was emotionally attached to him. She thought, “I don’t have any misgivings about dying, except that I’m worried about my newborn grandson—who will take care of him after I’m gone?” Although she couldn’t bear to die and leave him, the ghost of impermanence came and took her before King Yama. She said, “King Yama, you really don’t know how to be a good lord of death. My grandson was just born when you called me away. What will become of him? Who will take care of him?”
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King Yama said, “Fine, if your emotional attachments are so strong, I will follow your wishes and help you out. You can go back and be his wife.”
When the grandmother heard that she would become her grandson’s wife, she wanted to say that she didn’t want to, but there was no way she could oppose King Yama’s orders. So she reluctantly went off to rebirth. She was reborn as a little girl, and when her grandson grew up, she married him. That’s why the verse said that “the grandson is marrying the grandmother."
Dhyana Master Bao Zhi looked out the window and saw a little girl munching on a pig’s hoof. He said, “The daughter is eating the mother’s flesh.” The little girl’s mother had been reborn as a pig. The hoof she was chewing on was from the pig that had been her mother, but she didn’t know it.
Then the Dhyana Master looked over at the bandstand and said, “The son is beating on his father’s skin.” The boy’s father had been reborn as a mule. The boy was beating on a drum stretched with hide which came from that mule. Maybe when the father was alive he had beaten the boy all the time with sticks, clubs, and rods, and so now the boy was whacking his father with drumsticks all day long.
Dhyana Master Bao Zhi glanced at the couch and said, “Pigs and sheep are sitting on the couch.” The pigs and sheep the family had eaten before had been reborn as people and were joining the wedding festivities. They were really there to get their revenge.
Dhyana Master Bao Zhi looked into the pot of meat stew and remarked, “Oh, the six kinds of relatives are cooking in the pot.” The six kinds of relatives--father, mother, elder siblings, younger siblings, spouse, and children--are bound together by their emotional ties. What are relatives all about? They are about emotion. Emotion is like Crazy Glue, which glues all the relatives together so they cannot separate. Now the past relatives of the family have been reborn as pigs and sheep for people to slaughter and make into meat stew to eat. There is a verse describing the Chinese character for “meat”:
In the character for “meat” (肉) there are two people (人);
The one inside is holding onto the one outside.
Living beings eating the flesh of living beings:
If you really think about it, it’s just people eating people.
Taking in the whole situation, Dhyana Master Bao Zhi summed it up in two lines:
Everyone has come to offer their congratulations,
But I see that this is really suffering!
After saying those words of “blessing,” he left, not caring whether the people wanted to hear them or not. He didn’t take the offerings of money they had given him, either. If the people inside the character for “meat” could be our relatives who have been reborn as horses, cows, sheep, chickens, dogs, and so forth, we should give it some thought. Could it be that my ancestors have come back as horses, cows, sheep, chickens, dogs, and so on? Or that my parents have been reborn as animals? Or that my beloved pet cat or dog has been reborn in those forms? Or that the horses, cows, and sheep that we raised have been reborn? If my pets have turned into pigs and sheep, how painful it would be if I ate their flesh!
If you think what I am saying could be right, you might want to give it some thought. Look into it and see if it has any principle. If you think my words are wrong, simply forget them and act as if I never said them. Just let them blow by your ears like the wind.
To be continued |
