..續本文上一頁s chores in service to the monastery.
有一天，他到房頂修理屋瓦，不慎失足，墜地而死。師兄弟就去報告方丈和尚。老和尚知道前因後果，想成就小沙彌，替他了苦，于是乎，對大家宣布：「這個小沙彌做事不小心跌死，對道場有很大的損失。因爲他犯了侵損常住的過錯，要懲罰他。你們用馬把他的屍體拖散爲止，免得買棺材埋葬。」大家一聽方丈的話，不以爲然，師兄弟們發恻隱之心，不聽方丈的命令，因爲不忍心這樣去做。他們于是共議：「我們是師兄弟，同修一場，應該把他安葬，不可以用馬拖屍。」大家就出錢買棺材，把他安葬在荒山中。
One day, he climbed onto the roof of a building to patch tiles, carelessly slipped off, and fell to his death. His Dharma-brothers reported the mishap to the Abbot. Knowing the prior causes and later consequences involved, the Abbot wished to bring the novice to accomplishment and end his suffering. Thereupon, he announced publicly, "This novice was not cautious while working, and he fell to his death. He caused this Way-place a major loss. For this offense of incurring loss to the monastery, he deserves serious punishment. Tie his dead body behind a team of horses and drag him around until he is pulled to pieces! This way we can avoid the cost of buying him a coffin." When the monks heard the Abbot”s pronouncement, they simply couldn”t carry it out. They pitited their Dharma-brother and decided to disobey the Abbot”s order, because they couldn”t bear to treat the dead one in such a harsh manner. They talked it over: "We are all brothers, fellow cultivators in the monastery, and by rights we should bury him; don”t let horses drag his corpse to bits." Then they chipped in contributions to buy the novice a coffin, and buried him out on the mountainside.
這個小沙彌因爲替廟做苦工，積有功德，來生爲人，做了皇帝，身爲崇祯。可是只做了十六年的窮皇帝，他在位的時候，天下大亂，內有李自成造反，外有清兵侵境，從來沒有過一天好日子，都是在憂患煎迫中度日。這就是被好心的師兄弟害了，使他的苦未能了盡。如果他們當時聽方丈的話，用馬來拖屍，苦便了了，不會害得崇祯在煤山自缢，而爲國殉難。
Since the young novice had amassed great merit and virtue by doing menial labor for the monastery, he was able to be reborn as a human, as the Emperor Congzhen, in fact. But his reign lasted only sixteen years and was characterized by disaster. While he ruled, China experienced great chaos; Li Zicheng staged his revolt, and the Qing Dynasty armies invaded from abroad. Not knowing a single day of peace, he passed sixteen years in continuous worry and torment. This was because his well-meaning fellow monks had actually harmed him by not allowing him to endure his suffering to the end. Had they followed the Abbot”s instructions and dragged his corpse behind horses, his suffering would have been finished then and there, and Emperor Congzhen would not have been forced to commit suicide on Mei Mountain as a national martyr.
《修道人要受苦 Cultivators of the Way Should Undergo Suffering》全文閱讀結束。