果舜行者出家的因緣

　　The Story of Cultivator Guo Shun”s Leaving the Home-life

　　念念莫忘生死苦，心心想脫輪循環。

　　In every moment, do not forget the suffering of birth and death.

　　In every thought, yearn to escape the wheel of transmigration.

　　果舜是吉林省哈爾濱市人，俗姓姚，以農爲業。夙秉善根，感覺世界，萬苦交煎，充滿罪惡，乃萌出世之念，到處訪求明師。有一天，在途中被日本兵(僞滿時代)發現，認爲是無業遊民，強迫送到邊界去做苦工。

　　Guo Shun was a native of Jilin (Lucky Grove) Province in China and made his home in the city of Harbin. His surname was Yao, and he was a farmer by occupation. His good roots from lives past led him to realize that the world was full of trials and suffering. His sensitivity to the evils that filled the world gave him the wish to leave the home-life. To realize this wish, he travelled about to seek wise teachers. One day (during the Japanese occupation of Manchuria) a patrol of Japanese soldiers found him, mistook him for a vagrant, and ordered to work in the countryside.

　　他被送到黑河勞工營中，時時想逃走，可是找不到機會。因爲營房的四周，用電網圍繞，如有逃者，不是被守兵槍擊而死，就是被狼犬所咬死，縱使僥幸逃過此二關，也逃不出電網，一定被電所燒死。這等于人間地獄一樣，苦不堪言。

　　He was sent to the Li River forced-labor camp. Imprisoned there, his only wish was to escape, but he never got a chance. An electrified fence encircled the camp, and any person who attempted to escape was either shot to death by the guards, or was savagely attacked by killer dogs that patrolled the perimeters. Even if by sheer luck one escaped the sentries and the watchdogs, there was still the electric fence that immolated anyone who touched it. The camp was a small hell on earth, dreadful to the extreme.

　　有一天晚上，果舜在夢中，見到有位長須老人對他說：「今天晚上是你出離樊籠的時機，在門外有只白狗，隨牠而去！」果舜驚醒，悄悄走到門外，果然見到有只白狗，在等著他。于是乎他就跟隨狗的後邊，安全走出電網，逃回家鄉。他慶幸死裏逃生，又看破紅塵，所以決心出家修道。

　　One night while sleeping, Guo Shun dreamed of a long-bearded old man who told him, "Tonight is your chance to escape this cage. There”s a white dog outside the door. Follow him and run away!" Startled awake, Guo Shun tiptoed to the doorway, and sure enough, saw a white dog waiting for him just outside. He walked behind the dog safely past the electrified fence, and made it all the way home without difficulty. Snatched from the jaws of death, he saw through the illusion of the material world and deeply resolved to leave the home-life to cultivate the Way.

　　民國叁十叁年冬天，我到大南溝屯爲高居士的母親治病。第二天，全屯傳遍高母病愈之奇迹。這個時候，果舜聽聞了，就想來拜我爲師。他長跪不起，我見他很誠心，所以允許他的請求，滿他的心願，並對他開示：「在家修道不易，出家修道更難，所謂『大事未明，如喪考妣；大事已明，更如喪考妣。』修行人還要忍人所不能忍，受人所不能受，吃人所不能吃，穿人所不能穿。要勤修戒定慧，息滅貪瞋癡，這是沙門的本分。」又爲他說一首偈頌：

　　念念莫忘生死苦，

　　心心想脫輪循環；

　　虛空粉碎明佛性，

　　通體脫落見本源。

　　In the winter of 1944, I went to the village of Danangou (Big Southern Ditch) to cure Upasaka Gao”s mother”s illness. The following day, news of the woman”s miraculous recovery spread throughout the village. When the story reached Guo Shun, he came to ask me to be his teacher. He knelt down and did not rise. Seeing his sincerity, I permitted him to leave home, thus fulfilling his wish. I gave him these instructions: "It is not easy to cultivate at home, and to cultivate as a left-home person is harder still. It”s said that,

　　Before the great matter is clear to you,

　　you feel as if you have lost your parents.

　　After you understand the great matter,

　　you feel even more as if you have lost your parents.

　　Cultivators must endure what other people cannot endure; they must take on what others cannot take on; they must eat what others are unable to eat, and wear what others are unable to wear. The Shramana”s duty is to diligently cultivate precepts, concentration, and wisdom, and to put an end to greed, hatred, and stupidity.

　　In every moment, do not forget the suffering of birth and death.

　　In every thought, yearn to escape the wheel of transmigration.

　　Obliterate empty space and understand the Buddha-nature.

　　Cast off the entire substance and see the original source.

　　又對他開示：「現在是末法時代，出家者多，修道者少；信佛者多，成佛者少。你既然發願出家，必要發菩提心，做疾風中之硬燭，烈火內之精金，不可辜負出家…

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