---
title: 結語 In Closing
description: "IN CLOSING"
---

IN CLOSING

　　We hope you have enjoyed these stories. Some of them are very old--Cheng Tang in the third story lived over three thousand years ago. Here you have read about places you may never heard of before, and ideas you never thought of. You may be thinking, "Who on earth is the Dragon King?" Many of these stories are well known to most Chinese, but may seem very far away from you.

　　Perhaps once you saved a chick that fell out of its nest. After you read this boole, you may wonder, how come I didn't get a reward?

　　Notice that the rewards earned by the kind people in this book have generally been the most important things in life: wisdom, knowledge, good health, happiness. You probably aren't going to discover a gold mine because of that beetle you didn't step on, but look at it this way.

　　Most of these stories you have read here have never been told in English before. The West does not have this way of thinking. You have had the rare opportunity to read this book. You, out of all the millions of people in the country. This in itself is a wonderful chance, perhaps your reward for that good deed. Make good use of this.

　　But perhaps you have never rescued any animals in distress. You may be wondering, "What can I do to save lives?"

　　First, of course, you know you should never kill any animal. Fishing and hunting are terrible sports, and they bring disaster down on yourself and your loved ones. Don't kill animals for fun.

　　Don't kill animals for food, either. By nature, human beings are designed to be vegetarians. The number one killer in the United States is heart disease. The National Heart, Blood, and Lung Institute found that in 1989, Americans spent $151 billion dollars treating heart disease! And it's a proven medical fact that eating meat causes heart disease. Not just red meat. Meat.

　The US Surgeon General reports that 68% of diseases in the country are related to diet.

　　Of every seven dollars spent in the USA, one is spent on medical care.

　　Whew! That's a lot of numbers. Let's spell it out clearly.

　　Most sickness in the US today comes from what you eat. Let's face it, that means eating meat, fish, eggs, milk, butter, and cheese ruin your health.

　　If you get sick, you have to spend a lot of money.
　　If you don't get sick, you don't have to spend a lot of money -- you save the money and... Hey! That means

　　* if you say NO to a hamburger and spare a cow's life;
　　* if you say NO to a pork chop and spare a pig's life;
　　* if you say NO to a drumstick and spare a chicken's life, you really do get a reward, in cash!

　　You get to keep all the money meat-eating people have to give to doctors! Are doctors expensive? Ask Mom and Dad.

　　Okay, you want facts and figures. Economists estimate that the average American family of three, eating healthful vegetarian food, can expect to save some $4,000 a year in the short run, and more in the long run.

　　Now add that up, year after year after year...
　　That's a fortune!

　　And let's not just talk about the money. Do you enjoy being sick? It's painful. Even a stomachache that goes away before evening is painful.

　　Of all sicknesses, what is most painful? Probably cancer.
　　Every year, more Americans die of cancer than died in World War II, the Korean War, and the Viet Nam War combined!

　　And one of the main causes of cancer is eating animal products.
　　Simple. Eat less meat, get less cancer, suffer less.

　　Heart disease and cancer are not the only problems. The list of illnesses you can cause yourself by eating dead animals, eggs, and dairy products is long and horrifying. But that's only half the story. That's only the human suffering.

　　What about all those poor animals being slaughtered to provide us with the ingredients for all this bad health? Do you think they enjoy it?
　　The stories in this book took place long ago, in Asia. The animals suffered enormously while they were being murdered, but at least, in those days, they were raised pretty humanely. Pigs were stuck in filthy sties, but at least they had some space. Cattle lived outdoors most of the day and worked hard, but the farmers did,too. Chicks were allowed to scrabble in the dirt with the hens.

　　Some of the methods used to transport them to the market were pretty crude, but all in all, the animals didn't suffer too much while they were growing.

　　Times have changed. Do you have any idea of what goes on in modern meat production? Torture!

　　Now, pigs, cows, and poultry are trapped in the smallest space possible and fed unnatural foods. Babies are taken away from their mothers. Many of them never have space to move around. They never see sunlight. They are pumped full of powerful chemicals to make them fat. The whole way of raising these innocent animals is cruel and heartless.

　　The most hard-hearted person wouldn't want to touch a piece of meat if he knew even half of the suffering animals go through to produce meat in the United States -- even before being butchered.

　　There are many other problems with eating animal products, too.
　　Have you heard about all those miserable people starving to death in other parts of the world? Some people say, too bad, but there's just not enough food to go around.

　　That's not true. Farmers today produce more than enough food to feed every single person on earth today. Then why do some people go hungry? Because so much of the food farmers produce has to go to feed cattle and pigs and poultry to produce meat.

　　Meat producers raise billions of animals. Those animals have to eat too, right?If meat producers buy up crops to feed to animals, poor people don't have any food to eat.

　　If the people of the United States ate only ten per cent less meat, there would be enough extra food to save all of the starving people in the world today.

　　Fifteen total vegetarians can be feed on the amount of land it takes to feed one person eating a meat based diet. In other words, when you eat meat, you are causing fourteen people to go hungry.

　　Another problem is that the way they produce meat today ruins the ecosystem. If the ecosystem is ruined, we are all dead.
　　When you think how much better off we all would be eating grains and vegetables, you probably realize it's not worth it to torture and kill animals.

　　But hunting and eating meat are not the only ways people kill animals.

　　Nothing can be more irritating than a mosquito buzzing around your ear at night. Smack! I got it!

　　What could be more disgusting than a cockroach crawling across the floor? Oooogh! I stepped on it!

　　What were those bugs doing inside in the first place? Giving you a message. A cockroach is a messenger telling you your house isn't clean enough. If you don'twant cockroaches, tidy your house, and they won't bother you.

　　A mosquito is another messenger, reminding you to keep your screens shut tight.

　　I know what to do with those messengers! I'll spray them with my trusty insect spray, so they'll know who's boss around this place!

　　Spraying may get rid of those pests today, but in the long run, who suffers? You do. I do. We all do.

　　To kill insects, pesticides obviously have to be powerful poisons. Manufacturing those poisons contaminates the environment. Once the poisons have been released from the can, they stay around and create health problems.

　　For every dollar's worth of pesticide you spray, about seven dollars have to be spent to fix up the damage to human health and the environment.

　　So let's not talk about gods appearing in dreams hundreds of years ago in faraway China. Let's talk about right here, right now.

　　* If you eat dead animals' bodies, you are going to suffer: cancer, heart disease, kidney problems, and dozens of other sicknesses. Take your pick.

　　* If you eat dead animals' bodies, you're going to have to spend a lot of money on doctors and medicine.

　　* If you eat meat, or fish, or eggs, or dairy products, you're making a lot of animals suffer.

　　* If you eat meat, you're hogging food supplies and starving hungry people.

　　* If you eat meat or spray bugs, you're helping to destroy the environmentwe depend on for survival.

　　Does that make sense? You should be able to accept these facts, even without a deeper discussion about the balance of the universe, or the universal laws we call the dharma.

　　Killing animals is a crime against nature.

　　"Lions and tigers kill things every day, don't they? Then killing's natural,isn't it?"

　　Well, yes, but if you've never done this before, this might not be a bad time for you to examine yourself. Do you have a tail like a lion? Do you have stripes like a tiger? Do you have big, sharp fangs and vicious claws?

　　No. What do you have? Intelligence, a lot of intelligence, so you can speak and read and write and reason, instead of just biting and scratching. You're supposed to use that intelligence to develop wisdom.

　　If you look carefully at the history of the human race, you can see very clearly that we use our mental strength more and more and our physical strength less and less.
　　If people thousands of years ago wanted to move a big boulder, they had to get a group together, and it was Yo-Heave- HO! until they managed to budge it.

　　Later, when people had learned some basic physics, the boulder could be moved by one person who knew how to use a lever. But it still took a lot of grunting and sweating.

　　Now, if we want to move that boulder, we have machines. If you know which buttons to push, you can move that boulder without using very much muscle power at all.

　　This is because we use our minds, not just our bodies.

　　In other words, our minds are getting more and more capable. This is good, but it's not enough. The end result of millions of years of struggling and evolution is not to spend our lifetimes digging stones or watching television or playing games.

　　We are not wild beasts in the jungle any more, we are civilized, and we are supposed to act that way. As you grow up, you're supposed to outgrow your baby toys and tantrums; as the human race develops, we should leave behind our savage ways and develop our minds.

　　Somebody says, "Yeah, but a lion is a big, strong, powerful animal. Isn't that great?"

　　Is a lion very powerful? Have you ever heard of a lion that could roar as loud as a loudspeaker, run as far as a train, cut as deeply as a power saw, or strike as powerfully as a wrecking ball? These powerful tools are all the products of our intelligence. Human intelligence is more powerful than animal strength.

　　We respect lions and tigers and porpoises and dogs and all animals. We honor their right to live, we esteem their contributions to the ecosystem, and we are full of compassion for them.

　　A lion may have a strong body, and it may be very clever, but the tragedy of being a lion, or any animal, is that they are stupid. Oh, sure, they can communicate with one another, and they can be trained to do tricks, but they can not think very much, and they cannot concentrate, so they can never realize what the universe is all about.

　　This is the vitally important mission for human beings, with our greater intelligence. We have to learn what we are, where we are, who we are. If we don't even know that, all our inventions and cities and monuments and science are meaningless.

　　If we do not know where we are, what we are, and who we are, we cannot understand ourselves. We have to understand ourselves in order to realize what the universe is all about. Only then can we free ourselves from suffering.

　　If you cannot understand yourself, you have to go through the cycle of living and dying and living and dying until you've got things straight. Life is full of so much suffering that sometimes we're too numb to even realize things could be better. The way to make things better is to build enough wisdom to realize what the universe is all about, and get out of the cycle of life and death.

　　No animal can think hard enough to do that, and not even many people can. If you want to realize what the universe is all about, you have to work very hard to develop wisdom. Wisdom is the road to freedom. Freedom means freedom from suffering. To build wisdom, the first thing you have to do is stop making obstacles for yourself.

　　To build wisdom, you need a strong body and a good mind.

　　Remember the last time you were sick? You couldn't go to school, because you can't concentrate on your schoolwork when your body is sick. By the same token, if your body is not healthy, your mind will not be keen. A strong and healthy body is the basis for a strong and healthy mind.

　　Exercise builds a strong and healthy body, but the fuel you put in your body is especially important.

　　If you load your body down with dead animals, you're ruining your health. If you want to be healthy, you have to be a vegetarian.

　　Another problem is that if you eat animals, you are breaking natural laws, and in the end you have to pay those animals back. It is easier not to break those laws in the first place, so you do not put a bunch of obstacles in your own path.

　　But no matter how hard you work, it's more difficult to free yourself from suffering than it is to swim across the Pacific Ocean.

　　That is why the Buddha Amitabha felt sorry for us and created the PureLand, or Western Paradise. In his Pure Land, you can build wisdom without the suffering that is so common on earth. If you ask to get in, Amitabha will take you there and train you so that you can become a Buddha, too.

　　If you want to go there, recite Amitabha with all your heart and mind. When the time is right, he will come for you.

　　Once you get there, you will be free from life and death. You will be able to study and learn. Then one day you can come back and help all the suffering creatures so they can become Buddhas, too.

　　So here is our wish for you.
　　We wish you happiness
　　We wish you health, and
　　We wish you wisdom!
　　GOOD-BYE!
　A M I T A B H A

結語

　　我們希望你能夠喜歡這些故事。有些故事已經很古老了——第三個故事里的商湯生活在3000多年前。你可能讀到了一些你聞所未聞的地方，還有一些你從來沒想到過的想法。你也許會想，「究竟誰是龍王呢？」這些故事對大多數中國人來說，都是很熟悉的，但是也許你會覺得很陌生。

　　也許你曾經救了一只從鳥巢里掉出來的小鳥，讀了這些故事後，你也許會問，為什麼我沒有得到報答呢？

　　請注意，這本書里善良的人們得到的報答，往往都是生活中最重要的東西：智慧，知識，健康，快樂。你也許不會因為沒有踩一只甲蟲，而發現了一個金礦。但是你應該這樣來看。

　　你所讀到的這些故事大多數都從未被人用英文講述過。西方人缺乏這種思考方式。這樣的書很難讀到，而這個國家的千萬人中，偏偏你讀到了。這確實是個難得的機會,也許這就是你做好事的報償了。好好利用這本書吧。

　　也許你從未救助困境中的動物，你會問，「我能為救助生命做些什麼呢？」

　　第一，當然，你要知道你不應該殺害任何動物。釣魚和打獵都是可怕的運動，它們會給你和你愛的人帶來災難。不要為了娛樂而殺害動物。

　　也不要為了食物而殺害動物。人們是天生的素食者。心臟病是美國人死亡的頭號殺手。　國家心血肺研究所1989年發現，美國人每年要花費1510億美元治療心臟病！而醫學早已證明了吃肉會造成心臟病，不只是吃牛羊肉，吃其他肉也會。

　　美國外科綜合報告說，全國68％的疾病都與飲食有關。

　　美國消費的每7美元中，就有1美元是花在醫療費上。

　　哇！那是一個很大的數目。讓我們說得更明白些吧。

　　美國今天大多數疾病都和人們的飲食有關。也就是說，吃肉、魚、蛋、牛奶、牛油、奶酪會破壞你的健康。

　　如果你病了，你就必須要花很多錢。
　　如果你沒病，你不需要花那麼多錢——你省了一筆錢……嘿！這還意味著

　　*如果你對一個漢堡包說「不」，你救了一頭牛的命。
　　*如果你對一盤豬排說「不」，你救了一只豬的生命。
　　*如果你對一個雞腿說「不」，你救了一只雞的生命。你已經得到了現金上的好處！

　　你省下了那些吃肉的人要用來看醫生的錢！看醫生貴嗎？問問你的父母。

好，如果你要知道事實和數據。據經濟學家統計，一個美國三口之家，如果他們吃健康的素食，在短期內大約一年能省下4000美元，以後會省得更多。

　　如果一年一年這麼加起來……
　　那可是一筆巨款！

　　讓我們先別說錢了。你喜歡生病嗎？那很痛苦。甚至晚飯前餓肚子的感覺也是很難受的。

　　在所有疾病中，什麼最痛苦？也許是癌症。
　　每年美國死于癌症的人數比在第二次世界大戰、朝鮮戰爭、越南戰爭中死的人的總數還要多。

　　而引起癌症的一個很重要的原因就是食用動物產品。
　　簡單的說。少吃肉，患癌的機會會減少，痛苦也就減少。

　　不僅僅是心臟病和癌症。你吃肉，蛋，奶制品可以造成的疾病可以列一張又長又可怕的單子。但是那只是故事的一半。只涉及到人類的痛苦。

　　那些被屠殺、給我們的健康帶來危害的動物呢？你覺得它們會高興這麼做嗎？

　　這本書都是很多年前發生在亞洲的故事。動物們被屠殺的時候，都遭受了巨大的痛苦。但是至少，在那個年代，它們可以被相當人道地飼養。豬在污穢的豬圈中長大，但是它們起碼還有一些空間。牛大多數時間只能呆在田里辛苦耕作，可是農夫也一樣。小雞可以和母雞一起在垃圾堆里找食。

　　有一些把它們運送到市場的交通方式相當殘忍，但是不管怎麼說，當動物們被飼養的過程中，它們不那麼痛苦。

　　現在不同了。你知道現在的肉類生產是什麼嗎？是折磨!

　　現在，豬，牛，還有禽類擠在盡可能小的空間里，被迫吃進非天然的食物。小動物們被從母親身邊帶走。它們有的甚至沒有地方可以動一動。它們從來沒見過陽光。它們被塞進許多作用強大的化學物質以便增肥。飼養這些無辜動物的方式是殘酷無情的。

　　即使是最鐵石心腸的人，當他知道在美國被屠殺的動物們的一半痛苦——甚至是被屠殺前的痛苦，他都會不願意再碰一下肉食。

　　吃動物制品還會帶來很多其他問題。
　　你聽說過世界上其他地方有很多人正在忍飢挨餓，處于死亡邊緣嗎？有的人說：太糟糕了，但是沒有那麼多食物啊。

　　不對。今天農民們生產的糧食已經可以養活世界上所有人有余了。那麼為什麼還有人挨餓呢？因為農民們種植的糧食有很多要用來餵養牛羊、豬和禽類以便生產肉。

　　肉類生產者飼養了數十億的動物。這些動物也要吃東西，對不對？如果肉類生產者買了糧食餵養動物，窮人們就沒有足夠的糧食了。

　　如果美國人能夠減少10％的肉類消費，就足夠救全世界那些挨餓的人了。

　　能養活十五個素食者的土地，只能養活一個肉食者。也就是說，如果你吃肉，你正在讓另外那十四個人挨餓。

　　現在肉類的生產方式還會造成另外的問題：破壞生態。如果生態被破壞了，我們我們也活不下去了。
　　如果你想到如果我們都只吃谷類和蔬菜會帶來的好處，你也許就會意識到虐待和屠殺動物是不值得的。

　　但是打獵和吃肉並不是人們屠殺動物僅有的方法。

　　沒什麼比晚上在你耳邊嗡嗡叫的蚊子更煩人了。啪！打死了！

　　什麼比地上爬著的蟑螂更惡心呢？呃！我踩死它！

　　首先，蟲子在房子里干什麼呢？是給你一個提示。一只蟑螂就是一個提示，告訴你你的房子不夠乾淨。如果你不想再看到蟑螂(原文don'twant之間沒有間隔符)，清潔你的房子，它們就不會再煩擾你了。

　　一只蚊子是另一個提示，提醒你要關好你的紗窗。

　　我知道應該拿這些提示怎麼辦! 用我最信賴的殺蟲劑殺它們！這樣它們才會知道誰才是這里的真正主人！

　　噴灑殺蟲劑也許今天能夠解決這些蟲子，但是長久來看，誰會受到損害？你，我，我們所有人。

要殺死蟲子，殺蟲劑必須是劇毒的毒藥。制造這些毒藥會污染環境。當這些毒藥從罐子里出來以後，它們會殘留在周圍環境中，造成健康問題。

　　價值1美元的殺蟲劑，大約需要7美元才能解除它們對人體和環境造成的危害。

　　讓我們來談談數百年來，在遙遠的中國，出現在人們睡夢中的神靈。我們現在就談論，就在此時此地。

　　*如果你吃肉，你會遭受痛苦：癌症，心臟病，腎病，還有其他很多種病。自己選擇吧。

　　* 如果你吃肉，你會花很多錢看病買藥。

　　* 如果你吃肉，魚或者蛋類，或者奶制品，你會造成很多動物的痛苦。

　　*如果你吃肉，你就獨占了太多的資源，讓很多人挨餓。

　　*如果你吃肉或者噴灑殺蟲劑，你就會毀壞我們賴以生存的環境。

　　這些有意義嗎？你應該能接收這些事實，甚至不用更深入地討論世界的平衡，或者我們稱之為佛法的世界的法則。

殺生是違背自然的罪過。

「老虎獅子每天都殺生不是嗎？那麼殺生也應該是自然的，不是嗎？」

　　對，沒錯，但是如果你沒有這麼做過，這也許是你自我反省的好時機，你有像獅子那樣的舌頭嗎？你有像老虎那樣的斑紋嗎？你有又大又鋒利的牙齒和惡毒的爪子嗎?

　　不。那你有什麼呢？智能，很高的智能，所以你能夠說話、讀書、寫字、推理，而不是抓和咬。你應該用你的智能來開發智慧。

　　如果你仔細地回顧人類歷史，你能看到我們越來越運用我們的頭腦的力量，越來越少用我們肢體的力量。

如果幾千年前，人們要搬動一塊大石頭，他們需要一整隊人。然後吆喝著，直到他們搬動石頭。

不久以後，當人們了解一些基本物理後，只要一個人懂得運用槓桿，他自己就可以搬動石頭。既便如此，他還是需要一些氣力的。

現在，如果你想搬那塊大石頭，我們可以運用機器。只要你知道應該按那些鍵，你就可以不費吹灰之力地搬動那塊石頭。

這都是因為我們運用了智力，而不僅僅是身體。
　　也就是說，我們的智力越來越發達了。這很好，但是還不夠。上百萬年的演變發展的結果，不應該僅僅是讓我們的生命花費在挖石頭或者看電視和游戲上面。

　　我們不再是森林中的野獸了，我們是文明人，我們也應該文明行事。當你長大後，你會拋棄你童年時的玩具和壞脾氣；當人類發展後，我們也應該離開那些野蠻的行為，發展我們的智慧。

　　有的人說，「是，但是一只獅子是一只巨大的，強壯有力的動物。那不是很了不起嗎？」

　　一只獅子很強大？你聽過有獅子能吼得像喇叭一樣大聲，跑得像火車一樣快，刺得像動力鋸一樣深，或者像重物滑車那麼有沖力嗎？這些強大的工具都是人類智慧的產物。人類的智能比動物的體能還要強大。

　　我們要尊敬獅子、老虎、海豚、狗，以及所有動物。我們要尊重它們生存的權利，尊重它們對生態中的貢獻，同時也要同情它們。

　　一只獅子可能有很強壯的身體，而且可能很聰明，但是作為一只獅子，或者其他動物的悲哀，就是它們很愚蠢。哦，對，它們能彼此交流，而且它們能夠被培訓表演雜技。但是它們不能夠深入思考，不能集中念力，所以它們不能夠知道世界是什麼樣的

　　這就是人類最重要的使命，因為我們有更高的智能。我們應該知道我們是什麼，我們在哪里，我們是誰。如果我們連這個都不知道，我們所有的發明、城市、紀念碑、科學，都毫無意義。

　　如果我們不知道我們在哪里，我們是什麼，我們是誰，我們就不能了解我們自己。我們了解自己，是為了了解整修宇宙。只有那時我們才能從痛苦中解脫出來。

　　如果你不能了解自己，你就必須在生生死死的輪迴中流轉，直到解脫。生活中充滿了痛苦，以至于有時候我們麻木到沒意識到一切可以更好的。讓一切更好的方法就是積累足夠的智慧，了解宇宙人生，跳出生死輪迴。

　　動物沒能力通過思考而得到解脫，多數人也不可能。如果你想了解宇宙人生，你必須努力地開發智慧。智慧可以通往自由。自由，意味著解脫痛苦得到的自在。要有智慧，你要做的第一步就是停止為自己制造障礙。

　　要有智慧，你需要一個強壯的身體和一個好頭腦。

　　記得你上次生病的情況嗎？你不能上學，因為你病的時候，你不能集中注意力做功課。一樣的道理，如果你的身體不健康，你的頭腦就不靈敏。一個強壯健康的身體是一個強大健康的頭腦的基礎。

　　如果你吃肉，使自己身體負擔過重，你就正在毀壞自己的健康。如果你想健康，你就應該做一個素食者。

　　假如你吃肉，你會破壞自然法則，最後你會如數償還這些動物。首先不要破壞這些法則，這樣相對容易些。這樣你就不會在自己的道路上造成很多障礙。

　　但是無論你怎麼努力，要讓自己從痛苦中解脫出來，比橫渡太平洋還難。

　　這就是阿彌陀佛為我們難過，而且建造淨土，也就是西方極樂世界的原因，在極樂世界，你能夠積累智慧,而沒有這個世界上普遍存在的苦惱。如果你至心發願，阿彌陀佛就來接引你，還會教導你，這樣你也能成佛了。

如果你想去，你當一心念佛？機緣到了，阿彌陀佛一定會來接引你的。

　　你到了那里以後，你就會脫離生死。你能夠學習和修持佛法.這樣有一天，你就可以重回這個世界，幫助所有受苦的生命，以便它們也可以成佛。

　　這就是我們對你的祝願。
　　希望你快樂，健康，富于智慧！
　　再見!