Freedom over Birth and Death Comes

　　When We Truly Escape Our Cage

　　生死自由　真出籠計

　　The owner pulled open the cage door and gently placed the little bird in his hand. It was still warm, not yet cold. In fact, because the bird was only pretending to be dead, of course it retained its body warmth. The owner peeked at the little thing, turning his hand this way and that. The bird didn”t even quiver. Whatever angle he viewed it from, the bird appeared to be really dead. Its body was still warm; only its breath seemed to have stopped. Slowly he open his hand... PHLLRTTPHLRTTPHLRTT! The bird broke loose from his hand and flew away! It had escaped from the cage!

　　于是就把籠門打開，將小鳥拿出來放到手上，還是熱呼呼地沒有涼，因爲它是裝死，所以身上的暖氣不會沒有的。這主人把小鳥放在手裏轉著看，嗯！不動了，翻過來看，掉過來看，看來看去，看它真像死了似地，但身體還是熱的，只是不喘氣了。于是就把手打開看看。噢！把手一開，你說這只鹦鹉怎麼樣？它精神就來了，噗！噗！飛了！這只小鳥的出籠計靈了！ 可是我們現在都在籠子裏呢！我們這個出籠計怎麼辦？

　　But we are still in a cage right now! How do we escape

　　 As to human beings, you shouldn”t think you are free. Don”t misinterpret freedom, saying, "I am really free. If I want to eat, I eat; if I want to drink alcohol, I drink alcohol. I can do anything I please. I can ignore the rules if I want to! That”s what I call freedom!" That”s a misinterpretation of freedom. To be truly free, you must be free of birth and death, and then if you wish to fly into space, you can fly into space, and if you wish to burrow into the earth, you can burrow into the earth. If you can do that, you will gain the kind of freedom that the little bird gained.

　　我們人哪，你不要自以爲是自由的，不要誤解自由，說我願意吃就吃，我願意喝酒就喝酒，願意做什麼就做什麼，我不守規矩也可以，這就是自由。這叫誤解自由，真正的自由，要能生死自由，我願意飛到天空就飛到天空，我願意鑽到地裏就鑽到地裏；你若有這個本事，才是自由，就像那只小鳥。