25.放走被困的兔子 Releasing Trapped Rabbits
- RELEASING TRAPPED RABBITS
The great monk Huineng lived from 638 to 713 AD. His family was so poor that he never had the chance to go to school to learn to read or write. He had very deep natural wisdom, though, and as soon as he found out about Buddhism,he made up his mind to become a monk. He worked very hard and soon achieved enlightenment. His Teacher, the Fifth Patriarch, or Master, of the Chan school,passed to him the robe and bowl which the First Patriarch, Bodhidharma, had brought from India. Huineng became the Sixth Patriarch of the Chan school, which the Japanese call Zen.
When he achieved enlightenment, he realized the trouble people cause themselves by killing animals for food. He told people to stop eating themselves into disaster, but nobody listened.
Huineng felt sorry for the hunters who kill wild animals, so he took off his robes and let his hair grow so he didn’t look like a monk anymore. He joined a group of hunters who spent months and months hunting in the wilds and the mountains.
Huineng wouldn’t shoot or trap, so the hunters told him to watch the nets. That was just what he wanted. When he saw a deer or rabbit tangled in the nets, if the hunters were not around, he freed the animals. If the hunters were there, Huineng cried and begged them to release the animals. He stayed with the hunters for sixteen years. In this way he not only saved many animals, but reformed the hunters as well. They realized the cruelty of their occupation, and found other ways to make a living.
Then Huineng set up his own temple. He was so kind and so wise that people came from miles around to learn from him, and to become Buddhists. His disciples passed his Chan, or Zen, teaching to Korea and Japan, and now it has spread to Europe and America, too.
- 放走被困的兔子
高僧慧能生于公元638年，逝于713年，他的家里很窮，沒錢送他上學。他不會看書也不會寫字。但是他天生有很高的智慧。聽聞佛法後，他決定出家。他 很好學，很快就開悟了。他的師父，或者說老師，就是禪宗五祖。五祖傳給慧能他的衣缽，這些是都是達摩祖師從印度帶來的。于是慧能成了禪宗六祖，禪宗在日本 稱為「Zen」。
當他開悟後，便認識到人們的煩惱是由于他們殺生造成的。他勸告人們停止殺生以避免災禍，但是沒人聽。
慧能很同情那些殺死野生動物的獵人們，所以他脫掉袈裟，留起長頭髮，這樣他看起來就不像個和尚。他加入了一隊獵人，這些獵人總是整月整月地在山里打獵。
慧能既不會射箭，也不會設陷阱，所以獵 人們讓他看著網。那正是他想要的。當他看到一只鹿或者兔子被網纏住的時候，如果獵人們不在附近，他就把動物放 走。如果獵人們在場，慧能就哭著求他們把動物放走。
他和獵人們一起呆了十六年，用這種方式，他不僅救了很多生命，還感化了那些獵人。他們認識到了打獵的殘酷，于是另謀生路。
慧能建立起了他的寺廟。他既善良又富有智慧，于是八方的人們都來向他學習，並且皈依了佛教。他的弟子們把禪學傳到了韓國和日本，現在還傳到了歐洲和美洲。