上人：世間有氫彈原子彈的時間很短，但是從大範圍考慮一下，包括所有的時間空間，你就會明白這些現象是很平常的。現在的人可以登上月球，但上月球不過是兒戲罷了。從小孩子的觀點看這是很特別的，可是從宇宙的觀點看，事情一定是如此。小孩有新玩具時都會非常珍惜，以為自己是第一個有這種玩具的人。
每個世界都要經歷「成、住、壞、空」四個時期的循環。一劫是很長的時間，有上億年。一千劫是一個小劫；二十小劫是一個中劫；四個中劫是一個大劫，一個世界經過了這四個時期後，就完成了一個周期。在一個大劫中，每個時期有二十個小劫。在這麼長的時間裡，新的變舊，舊的又變新。人也是這樣，我們出生、成長、衰老、死亡、又出生、成長、衰老、死亡，連續循環不斷。同樣的道理對於人和世界，在無量劫中的情形都適用。
福克斯先生：吃了午飯後我們就消化食物。同樣，你所說出的智慧我也在消化。人似乎始終都沒有變，而我們的大腦卻不停地在思考，所發明的新東西越來越多。不停思考的結果，發明雖然在變化而人卻大體上沒有變化。
上人：是的，人不停地思考發明，可又是誰讓你這樣做呢？是這個生理上的大腦嗎？人死之後，大腦當然還在；雖然屍體還有大腦在，可是它再也不能思考了。所有這些發明其實都不是新的，以前就有了。如果有人要學習所有的知識，十年之後他會發現許多十年前的知識都忘記了。二十年之後，他所忘的會更多；到老的時候，他會連兒童時的事情都忘掉了。同樣，所有這些發明以前都有過，只是人將以前的發明忘記了，現在又重新來發明一次。
例如我像通常那樣一行行豎著寫字。後來我開始從右向左橫著寫一行，再從左向右寫回來，一行行寫到紙面的底部。雖然這些字的讀法仍然是通常的豎列，可是每個人都很吃驚。過了一段時問之後，現在沒人覺得特別了。
福克斯先生：許多事都是這樣，沒有人操心去問為什麼，去考察這種連續變化、更新的來由。
上人：「為什麼」，這個問題基本上就是在談人的無盡潛力。一切都在人的真心之內，所謂萬物生於眾生的自性，不離自性。
福克斯先生：您是否相信我們能夠決定，並控制我們個人的命運？
上人：命運不是固定的。我們的遭遇依賴於我們做甚麼，我們想要做甚麼。
你能做總統，他也能，我也能做總統。我們只是要進行必要的努力，以完成達到目標的條件。個人的命運並非由上帝獨裁地掌握著。上帝明確地說他是唯一的，無上的存在者。佛法包括了一切事物，一切人；在佛法中，任何人修行都可以成佛，任何人都能夠修持他的行為和心念；在佛法中，即使在佛法界也是平等的。佛佛平等，彼此沒有大小、高矮、優劣、黑白的差別。彼此和諧無礙。
待續
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Venerable Master: Hydrogen and atomic bombs have existed in this world for a short time, but if you think on a larger scale, considering all of time and space, then you will understand that these phenomena are quite common. Now man is able to fly to the moon, but going to the moon is just the play of children. From the point of view of small children, it seems very special, but from the cosmic point of view, it is just as it ought to be. When a child has a new toy, he treasures it, thinking that he is the first to have it.
Every world system passes through a cycle of four periods: birth, dwelling, decay, and emptiness. A kalpa (eon) is a long period of time, measuring hundreds of millions of years. One thousand kalpas are equal to one small kalpa, twenty small kalpas are equal to one middle-size kalpa, and four middle-size kalpas constitute one great kalpa. When a particular world system passes through the four periods, it completes one cycle. In a cycle of one great kalpa, each period of change lasts for twenty small kalpas. Over such long periods of time, the new becomes old and the old becomes new again. The same is true of people. We are born, we grow up, we grow old, and then we die. The cycle continues as we are born, and grow up, grow old, and then die. The principle is as true for people as it is for countless eons of world systems.
Mr. Fox: Now that lunch has been eaten, we digest the food. In the same way, the wisdom which you speak is also being digested. It seems that from the beginning people have not changed. Our brains continue to think without stopping so we invent more and more new things. Because of this ceaseless thinking, although the inventions may change, people remain more or less the same.
Venerable Master: Yes, people continue to think and invent, but who tells us to think? Is it this physical brain? When a person dies, certainly his brain still exists, but although it continues to exist in the corpse, it no longer performs the function of thought. All these inventions are really not new. They have been before. A person who wishes to study all-knowledge will find that after ten years, he has forgotten many of the things which occurred ten years before; after twenty years, he will have forgotten a little more, until as an old man he will have forgotten the events of his childhood. In the same way, all of these inventions have been before. It is just that people have forgotten that they once had them, and now they discover them once again.
For example, originally I wrote characters vertically in columns, as they are normally written. Then I began writing horizontally from right to left, and then back again left to right, line after line down the page. The characters, however, were to still be read in the usual way, in columns. Everyone was greatly surprised at this. But now, after having seen it for a long time, they no longer think it special.
Mr. Fox: Many things are this way, but no one takes the trouble to ask why, to investigate the source of this continuous change and renewal.
Venerable Master: This question of 'why?' is basically a matter of man's limitless potential. Everything lies within the power of the true mind of man. Therefore it is said, 'the ten thousand things arise from the self-nature of living beings, and are not separate from the self-nature.'
Mr. Fox: Do you believe, then, that we are capable of determining and controlling the course of our individual destinies?
Venerable Master: It is not fixed. What happens to us depends on what we do, and what we want to do. You can become president and so can he. I too can become president. It only requires that we expend the necessary effort and do what is required to reach our desired goal.
Individual destiny is not a matter of dictatorship as it is with "god," who makes it very clear that he is the only one, the Supreme Being. The Buddhadharma includes everything and everyone. In the Buddhadharma, anyone who cultivates can accomplish Buddhahood, and everyone is capable of cultivating his conduct and thought. In the Buddhadharma, equality is found even in the realm of the Buddhas. All Buddhas are equal. It is not that some Buddhas are bigger than others, some taller and some shorter, some better and some worse, some lighter and some darker. All Buddhas are in accord and they have no mutual obstruction.
To be continued |
