平常心 Normality - 矯正觀念 Adjusting Views

1-3-6. ADJUSTING VIEWS矯正觀念

One misunderstanding should be dealt with, namely that when we make merit, we want to go to heaven. I’ve asked a woman once, who offered food to monks, whether she had ever seen heaven. She said no. So I asked her next : ‘If you’ve never seen it, why do you want to go there and where is it anyway ?’. She said she didn’t know. I’ve read about heaven in a book, it said that in heaven women outnumber men in the ratio of 500 to 1. Think about this for yourself, is it fun ? Even 2 people will argue and beat each other to death and how will 500 people fare ?! This is something that we don’t yet understand, we haven’t used wisdom and reflected on it thoroughly.

有一個誤解必須澄清，也就是說，當我們做功德時都會想藉此而上天堂。有一次一位女士供養食物給僧侶，我問她：「你是否看過天堂？」她說：「沒有。」于是我接著問她：「如果你不曾看過，為何你想去那兒呢？它究竟在哪兒呢？」她回答說：「不知道。」我看過一本書介紹到天堂，里頭說：天堂里的女生人數和男生人數是500比1，你想想看，那好玩嗎？只兩個人就會爭論甚至打架打到沒命，那500個人要怎麼相處呢？這就是我們沒有搞清楚的地方，我們沒有運用智慧深入地加以思惟透徹。

We have to study about heaven and really understand it, so that we don’t go the wrong way. If we don’t know, we’ll go the wrong way ! That’s why I said that Thai people are Buddhists but don’t know what Buddhism teaches !

The time is up. Finally, having given some reflections and shake-ups, I’ll take the opportunity to call the virtues of the Buddha, the teachings of the Buddha and the good qualities of the Arahant-disciples of the Buddha, to be the fruit and inspiration to all laypeople, may you meet with the mind that is clean, bright and peaceful, in this life.

我們必須研究天堂並且要真正地了解它，這樣才不會走錯路。如果我們不弄清楚，就一定會走錯路！這也是為什麼我說：「泰國人是佛教徒，但卻不知道佛陀教導些什麼！」的原因。好，時間到了，在談了這麼些反思與革新的話題之後，最後我要藉此機會來贊頌佛陀的功德、佛陀的教導及佛陀阿羅漢弟子們的美德，祂們是我們在家眾的啟發及追求的成果與目標，願你們今生便能親見到清淨、光明、安祥的心。