修德、造業

　　Cultivating Virtue versus Creating Karma

　　終日在醉生夢死中度生活，一點功德也沒有修，怎能成佛？

　　If you spend your whole life in a muddle, born drunk and dying in a dream, and not cultivating the least bit of merit and virtue, how can you become a Buddha

　　各位想一想，佛在往昔修無量無邊的功德，才能成佛。

　　Each of you should think for a moment: in the past, the Buddha had to cultivate limitless and boundless merit and virtue before he could become a Buddha.

　　我們爲什麼沒有成佛？就因爲沒有修無量無邊的功德。我們的功德相差太遠，因爲一邊修行，一邊造業，所謂「修的沒有造的多」。

　　Why haven”t we become Buddhas

　　 It”s because we haven”t cultivated limitless and boundless merit and virtue. Our merit and virtue are far less, because we cultivate on one hand and create karma on the other. So it is said, “What we cultivate is not as much as what we create.”

　　一天到晚造身業、造口業、造意業。譬如，在意念裏，常想人家不好，想著人家對不起我，想人家不如我等等妄想，于是在意念中，造了很多貪瞋癡的罪業。在口上也造業，講是說非，盡打妄語、绮語、惡口、兩舌等等。有些人要是一天不講是講非，就好像一天不能活著；一天不打妄想，就好像沒有吃飯一樣不自在。一天到晚，要靠講是非、打妄想來生存，你們說怪不怪？真令人費解。

　　From morning to night, we create karma with our body, with our mouth, and with our mind. For example, in our thoughts, we often have idle thoughts about how bad people are, how others have wronged us, how others are not as good as we are, and so forth. As a result, we create a lot of evil karma with the greed, anger and stupidity in our thoughts. We also create karma with our mouth, always talking about others” rights and wrongs, constantly telling lies, saying indecent things, scolding people, backbiting, and so on. There are some people who don”t seem to be able to survive for even a day without gossiping. If they don”t tell lies for a day, they feel as uncomfortable as if they hadn”t eaten. All day long, they need to gossip and lie in order to survive. Wouldn”t you say that”s strange

　　 It really hard to figure them out.

　　有這種毛病的人，自己還不承認，還要瞞著遮蓋它，還說自己沒有打妄想，沒有欲念，戴著假面具，到處騙人。其實在這世界上，怎能騙得了人？不但騙不了人，連自己也騙不了。爲什麼？因爲自己打妄想，問問自己知道不知道？若是知道，那就騙不了自己，既然騙不了自己，怎能騙人呢？愚癡人才有這種的行爲。

　　Yet the people who have this fault still refuse to admit it. They still want to cover it up, and they claim they haven”t told any lies and don”t have any desires. They put on a mask and cheat everyone. Actually, in this world, how can you succeed in cheating people

　　 Not only can you not cheat others, you can”t even cheat yourself. Why not

　　 When you have idle thoughts, ask yourself if you are aware of them. If you are aware of them, that means you can”t fool yourself. Since you can”t cheat yourself, how can you cheat others

　　 Only stupid people behave that way.

　　不修行的人，戴著假面具，昧心厚顔，專做些不守規矩、不光明正大的事，自己還不承認。因之，終日在醉生夢死中度生活，一點功德也沒有修，怎能成佛？與佛相差十萬八千裏。

　　People who don”t cultivate will put on a mask and in blind shamelessness do a lot of devious, improper deeds that break the rules. Yet they won”t admit it. Because of this, they spend their whole life in a muddle, born drunk and dying in a dream, and not cultivating the least bit of merit and virtue. So how can they become Buddhas

　　 They are 108,000 miles away from the Buddhas.

　　換句話說，我們所修的功德，還沒有造的孽業多；也可以說：「所得的沒有所丟的多。」這樣焉能有所成就？

　　In other words, the merit and virtue we have cultivated is not as great as the offenses we have committed. You could say, “What we gain is not as much as what we lose,” so how can we accomplish anything