皈命大佛頂光

　　Returning My Life to the Light at the Great Buddha”s Crown

　　佛爲什麼有光明呢？因爲他不願意有黑暗愚癡。

　　Why does the Buddha have bright light

　　It”s because he doesn”t entertain darkness and delusion.

　　我今皈命大佛頂，

　　無盡法藏智慧光；

　　願我明了妙總持，

　　奉行如來所說義。

　　I now return my life to the

　　 Great Buddha”s Crown,

　　To the wisdom light of the inexhaustible

　　Dharma treasury.

　　I vow to understand the wonderful dharani

　　And respectfully practice the principles

　　spoken by the Tathagata.

　　「我今皈命大佛頂」：這是一切護法說：「我們現在一起皈命〈大佛頂楞嚴神咒〉。」

　　I now return my life to the Great Buddha”s Crown. All of the Dharma-protectors are saying, "Together, we now return our lives to the Spiritual Mantra of the Foremost Shuran-gama at the Great Buddha”s Crown."

　　「無盡法藏智慧光」：大佛頂，就是無盡法藏，是取之不盡，用之不竭的。這無盡的法藏都在自性裏邊，不是從外邊來，是從你自性顯出來的。那麼現在爲什麼不顯呢？這就好像蟲子在蟄伏時不能動彈，天氣熱的時候，它就又活動過來了。修道人修得身上熱了，自性的蟲子就活起來了；自性的蟲子一活，身上所有的菌蟲就都死了。

　　To the wisdom light of the inexhaustible Dharma treasury. The Great Buddha”s Crown is an inexhaustible Dharma trea-sury; no matter how much you use of it or take from it, it cannot be depleted. This inexhaustible Dharma treasury doesn”t come from the outside. Rather, it manifests from within your own nature. Then why doesn”t it manifest now

　　 Right now it resembles the situation of insects in dormancy, when they don”t move. But when the weather warms up, they become active. When people cultivate to the point that their bodies get warm, the bugs of their own nature come alive. When that happens, all the bad bugs in the body die.

　　說：「這不是殺生了嗎？」

　　"Isn”t that killing

　　" you ask.

　　如果你認爲那樣，那可以不修行，沒有人勉強你，你還可以還俗，過在家人的生活，整天煩煩惱惱，爭爭吵吵，充滿無明、妒忌、障礙。可是如果想要修行，就要把身上所有的菌蟲都改變了，恢複自己本有的佛性。在沒有成佛之前，身上有八萬四千蟲在分你的性，吃你的肉，喝你的血，住在你身上，教你調皮搗蛋，教你不守規矩，教你去做一些顛倒的事情，這都是這些壞東西支配著你。

　　If you think so, don”t cultivate; no one”s forcing you to. You can live a worldly life filled with afflictions, quar-relling, ignorance, jealousy, and obstructiveness. If you want to cultivate, however, you have to transform all those bad bugs and return to your original Buddha nature. Before you become a Buddha, your body has 84,000 big bugs splitting up your nature, eating your flesh, and drinking your blood. These bad bugs live in your body and control you, causing you to make mis-chief, break the rules, and do deluded things.

　　你說：「原來這些事不是我做的。」

　　"Oh, so it”s the bugs that make me do these things," you say.

　　可是爲什麼你要這樣幫著它，餓一點也不行，渴一點也不行，睡不夠也不行，爲什麼要那麼保護著它？你保護著這些蟲子，自性就顯不出來了。

　　Yes, but why do you want to help them out

　　 You can”t stand even a little hunger or thirst, and you can”t bear it if you don”t get enough sleep. Why do you want to protect those bugs

　　 Since you protect them, your own nature cannot manifest.

　　那麼這些蟲子到底都是些什麼呢？就是一些愚癡的蟲子。它們在你身上，弄得你這兒也不舒服，那兒又不好受，周身都是麻煩，一陣間有這個病痛，一陣間又有那個病痛，都是這些愚癡蟲在作怪；穿得少了也不行，吃得少了也不行，它就愛和你打鬧。

　　Just what exactly are these bugs

　　 These dull-witted bugs live in your body and make you feel uncomfortable all over. Every part of your body has some kind of problem, and you have one illness after another because these insensitive bugs are up to no good. They disturb you and cause you not to be able to bear it if you don”t wear enough clothes or eat enough. They love to bother you.

　　無盡法藏都是在大佛頂裏生出來的。這個智慧光不是一般的光，而是智慧的光明，佛的光是智慧的光明。佛爲什麼要有光明呢？因爲他不願意有黑暗愚癡，所以總是以智慧光明來照耀一切，把無明也照破了；無明一破，法性就顯出來了，所以智慧光就是佛的光。

　　The inexhaustible Dharma treasury is born from the Great Buddha”s Crown. The Buddha”s light is not an ordinary kind of light, but the light of wisdom. Why does the Buddha have light

　　 It”s because he doesn”t entertain dark-ness and delusion. He illuminates everything with the light of wisdom and pierces through ignorance. ["Ignorance" in Chinese is wu ming, literally "no light."] When ignorance is shattered, the Dharma nature manifests. The light of wisdom is just the Buddha”s light.

　　「願我明了妙總持」：爲什麼要供奉這大佛頂無盡法藏的大智慧光呢？就爲了明了這「大總持」，也就是〈楞嚴陀羅尼〉。總持就是陀羅尼，〈大悲咒〉又叫〈大悲陀羅尼〉。陀羅尼是梵語，翻譯成中文爲「總持」，總一切法，持無量義，什麼法都在裏面攝著，所有的法都從這兒發源。你看法界佛教總會的會旗，一條一條紅色的就是代表智慧光，那個光是從「一」生出來的。

　　I vow to understand the wonderful dharani. Why do we want to respectfully make offerings to the great wisdom light of the inexhaustible Dharma treasury of the Great Buddha”s Crown

　　 It”s because we wish to understand the great dharani, the Shurangama Dharani. The Great Compassion Mantra is also called the Great Compassion Dharani. Dharani is a Sanskrit word that means "uniting and upholding," because it unites all dharmas and upholds limitless meanings. All dharmas originate from this source. Look at the flag of the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association. The red stripes represent the light of wisdom. That light is born from the One.

　　所謂：

　　一本散爲萬殊，萬殊仍歸一本。

　　One source gives rise to the myriad things.

　　The myriad things return to that one source.

　　光，從一個地方放出，照著萬方，又從萬方收回一處。所以萬佛聖城不是只有一道光，而是佛佛都放出光明，光光合而爲一，互不侵犯，互不障礙。

　　From this one spot, the light can shine in all directions. It can also return from all directions back to that one spot. The City of Ten Thousand Buddhas doesn”t have just one light. Every Buddha emits light, and all those lights merge into one without cancelling or obstructing one another.

　　「奉行如來所說義」：我們了解這個大總持之後，便要依著佛所說的道理恭敬奉行。

　　And respectfully practice the principles spoken by the Tathagata. After we understand this great dharani, we must respect-fully practice in accord with the principles spoken by the Buddha.

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