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上人、法師、各位同修：
我的名字叫莎菈，法名是果學，這次佛七我覺得我沒中獎，因為這次的佛七我實在太懶了，不過我覺得我畢生都要來念佛，不只是念佛，所有的聖號我都要念。
我出生的時候比預產期提早了三個月，醫生告訴我父母說，提早三個月出生的小孩，五個當中只有一個能夠存活，存活率很低的。所以我母親為我誦大悲咒，結果我不但存活，而且還活得挺好的。不過問題就是當我年紀還小的時候，我非常地野，而且對很多事情感到很害怕，我做事都冒冒失失，不好好考慮。
我母親鼓勵我和弟弟多念佛，念觀世音菩薩聖號，還要拜佛。每當我害怕或者是有困難問題的時候，我就念佛。在我們念佛的時候，我弟弟就觀想前面有一道梯子直接通往極樂淨土。每多念一次佛，我們就距離極樂淨土更近一級。
生命就像一道階梯，每念阿彌陀佛聖號就在這階梯上更進了一步。我在七歲大的時候母親帶我們去見師父。我不記得當時整個情況，我只記得父母親非常尊敬上人，上人就像尊佛似的，那時候覺得果然是件大事。上人穿著金色的袍子，我們拜上人就好像面對佛似的。上人問我和弟弟，你們誰要留下來跟我在一塊啊？我想都不想就說我要。後來人家告訴我說，對一個七歲小孩來講這種情況是蠻不尋常的。現在我在萬佛城，我覺得事實上就是跟上人在一塊。
幾年以後我們搬到這裡來，我和弟弟進入聖城學校唸了很多年。我相信這是我們念誦佛菩薩聖號的一個感應。在我生命當中每一件好事情都是跟佛教有關的。在我來這裡之前我的學習一直很困難，不管學什麼都要我費一輩子的力氣去學似的；來到這裡以後，法師叫我們做的第一件事情是念誦南無大智文殊師利菩薩聖號。有些同學就覺得：「哎喲！不想念喔！」會報怨，可是我覺得念誦南無大智文殊師利菩薩聖號非常簡單。而且這是念誦佛菩薩聖號，心裡念頭都是善的，都是好的。比方說無量光啦、大慈大悲啦、大智啦等等，這都是很好的念頭。那麼我覺得念誦大智文殊師利菩薩聖號不止幫助我能夠心思集中，同時念誦大智文殊師利菩薩聖號本身有一種力量使我在學習上面就變得容易多了。後來我在學習方面就不斷地進步，也覺得容易很多。
高中唸完後，太棒了！我再也不要上學了。可是一年之後開始懷念起上學還有老師、師長等等，所以我覺得念誦南無大智文殊師利菩薩使我能夠再度跟學習連接起來。
我現在在學院就讀，遇到困難不再害怕。我覺得生命就像階梯一樣，每次我念誦佛菩薩聖號就能夠往上再踏一級。念誦大智文殊師利菩薩，我覺得可以鼓勵有心向學的學生得到智慧。
我們現在有機會在這裡念誦阿彌陀佛聖號——當然有些人已經很有機會了——我覺得我們非常幸運。因為在這個世界上還有很多人沒有這樣子的機會。他們無所依賴。我這次很遺憾沒有好好參加這個佛七。其實我覺得我們大多數人內心深處都有一個聲音常常告訴我們要修行、要好好修行，但是有時候就是懶，或者因為覺得這個時候我得掃地啦，或者想看本小說啦等等，覺得那些蠻重要的，所以就錯過了到佛殿來。
我想唯一解釋我的懶惰沒有常常到佛殿來念佛，只能說這是很重的業習。這種業習很難打破，好像游水，往上游水的時候是很困難的，不過我們卻實不應該忽略修行。那麼要怎麼樣打破這種業習呢？
我想唯一能夠打破這種業習、壞習慣的辦法就是更努力一點，多鼓勵自己到佛殿。因為一旦到了佛殿就不會想要離開了。
如果我們平常不多念阿彌陀佛聖號，等到面臨死亡的時候就太晚了。平常我們在教育上，股票上，在各種方面做很多投資，但是我們實在應該多念佛號來買這方面的保險，所以這個更重要。
我今天晚上要講的大概就是這樣子。我希望有人能夠告訴我怎麼樣更有恆心、毅力來用功。同時也希望大家盡量多多上來發言，因為這是修行的一部分。雖然上來講話有點令人害怕，不過請大家不要吝法，不要吝於佈施。阿彌陀佛。
待續
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Venerable Master, Dharma Masters, and all fellow cultivators:
My name is Sarah, and my Dharma name is Guo Xue (Fruit of Study). I feel like the person who has not gone to get the money for the lottery because I was really lazy in this session. However, I feel like my whole life has been a response to recitation.
When I was born, I was born three months early, and the doctors told my parents that babies born that early had about one chance in five of surviving. But my mother recited the Great Compassion Mantra, and I turned out okay, except for the fact that I was rather wild as a young girl and always afraid of everything and had rather wild ideas in my head and wouldn't think before I did things.
My mother would encourage my brothers and me to recite, not just Amitofo, but recite Guanyin's name, and bow to the Buddhas, and so that's what I did. And I would do that especially when I was afraid or had some kind of problem. When reciting Amitabha's name, my brother and I would imagine that we were sort of making a stairway up to the Land of Ultimate Bliss. Each time you recite "Namo Amitofo," one more stair would appear, and you would get that much closer to the Land of Ultimate Bliss. And my life has sort of been like those stairs, but Amitabha and Guanyin, I believe, have helped me up them, one step at a time.
When I was about seven, my mother took my brothers and me to visit Shifu (The Master) for the first time. We didn't really know who he was, we just knew that our parents respected him. I don't remember anything about the visit, except that Shifu was just like the Buddha. I remember thinking, "Oh, what's the big deal? He's just like the Buddha." He had his golden robes on and seemed very big to me. We bowed to him, and everything was fine.
He asked my brothers and me, "So, which one of you wants to stay with me?" And I said, "I do!" I don't remember this too well, but someone told me about this, and now I can relate, because who would not want to stay with Shifu, especially when you're seven years old?
Of course, now it makes me feel very good to think about this, because it must have been planting a root, because I feel I am staying with him now, at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas.
I'm sure this was another response from recitation, because that's the most cultivation that I've done. Every good experience in my life has something to do with becoming closer to the Dharma
Masters and Buddhism. When I was younger, before I came here, school was very difficult for me, and learning anything took forever. It took me forever to learn to read. When I got here, the first thing that I learned to do was recite, "Namo Dazhi Wenshushili Pusa" ("Homage to the Greatly Wise Bodhisattva Manjushri") as we walked. The teachers would say, "Okay, c'mon, we need to recite. Everyone recite!" Some of the kids would be thinking, "Oh, my God! Why do we have to recite?" This was such a big deal to them, but to me, it was like, "Wow! How can you not recite? It's just so easy!" And it really is easy, and not just easy, but what better thought to have in your mind than limitless light or great compassion or Wenshushili—great wisdom? We had to recite that always when we walked. And I'm sure that there was a response from reciting, not just because it made us focus our minds, but from Wenshushili Bodhisattva himself. Because gradually school became much easier, and I began to do better in my classes.
So now we have the opportunity, and many of us have had the opportunity a long time, to .recite Amitofo. We're really lucky that we have been given this Dharma door. So many people in the world have never heard of it and they don't have anything to fall back on, like reciting Amitabha's name. It's up to us to take the opportunity and use it, and I feel rather bad that I didn't come to the session more. Instead I listened to the lazy voice that said, "Oh..." You don't even listen to it. It's just that you don't listen to the deep down voice that's there, always saying, "Cultivate, cultivate, you must cultivate. Why aren't you cultivating? What are you doing that for? Where are you? Why aren't you in the Buddha Hall?" Most of us have that little voice inside, I think, but sometimes it's really easy to just pretend like it's not there and ignore it and say, "Well, I really have to sweep the floor; it's really important for me right now." Or, worse yet, "read this novel" or something like that.
I've been thinking about it a lot: Why do we listen to that voice that ignores the cultivation voice? The only explanation that I have is that it must be a BIG habit, and habits are really difficult to change. It's like swimming upstream sometimes. But the fact that it's difficult to change certainly doesn't mean that we should just ignore it. But how can we break such a habit? How can we constantly listen to the voice that says, "Cultivate, recite, recite more Amitofo"?
I don't really know how to break this habit, except by working harder, or just saying, "Okay, go to the Buddha hall. You don't have to stay; just go." Because once you get here, it's so wonderful that you don't want to leave.
And we have to break the bad habit of being lazy or staying away from the Buddha hall, or even during our work, we should be listening to that voice that says, "Namo Amitofo, Namo Amitofo."
Because on our deathbeds it will be too late. We spend all this money buying insurance, getting a good education, making connections, and investing in stocks, but we have to make some kind of an insurance for after we die, because our lives are so short, and when we're laying there dying, I know that my number one thought is going to be, "Why didn't I recite more 'Namo Amitofo'?
That's all I'd like to say, except that I want to encourage anybody who has any ideas of how to be more perseverant and work hard to come up and talk, because coming up here and talking is part of our cultivation. It's important that we come and learn to speak our experiences and what we have learned and ask questions. So don't be afraid. It's scary, but that's okay. Amitofo!
To be continued
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