光大佛教　敦品立德

　　To Make Buddhism Flourish, Develop Integrity and Virtue

　　要能夠屈己待人，時時改過遷善，不要把「我」看得那麼重要，

　　這就是敦品立德。

　　We should learn to be humble and yielding, constantly try to correct our errors and reform ourselves, and not have a big ego. We shouldn”t see ourselves as all-important. Then we can develop integrity and virtue.

　　學佛的人，應使佛教一天比一天發揚光大，而不是一天比一天衰敗。如何發揚光大？首先要培養優良的品格，打好地基，造高樓大廈就不會倒。重重無盡的樓閣，無一不是從堅穩的地基上造起。在修養方面，打好地基就先要「敦品立德」。

　　Students of Buddhism should strive to help Buddhism flourish. How can we do that

　　 First of all, we must develop a good character. By analogy, if we want to build a skyscraper, we must first lay a solid foundation. In our cultivation, we lay the foundation by developing integrity and virtue.

　　敦品，敦厚我們的品性。如何敦厚？就不要刻薄、小氣，不要心狹性窄；反之，要心包太虛，量周沙界，無所不包，無所不容。各位想想，太虛空裏不是完全善的，不善良之氣，亦在其中。恒河沙的世界裏，有叁教九流，形形色色的人物，有善有惡、有好有壞，我們都要包容。這都是敦厚品行，栽培我們的德行。要能夠屈己待人，承認自己的過錯，接受他人的勸勉，時時改過遷善，不要有我執或我相，不要把「我」看得那麼重要。這就是敦品立德，打穩自己的基礎，能夠如此，佛教定能發揚光大。

　　To develop integrity means to learn to be honest and sincere, not to be mean, stingy, or narrow-minded. Our mind should encompass the cosmos and all the worlds as many as grains of sand, and accept everything. Consider: The cosmos contains wholesome as well as unwholesome energies. In worlds as numerous as the sands of the river Ganges, there are beings of every variety, people and creatures of all shapes and forms, good as well as evil, and we must accept them all. By doing so, we are making our disposition honest and sincere and fostering our virtuous conduct. We should learn to be humble, to admit our own mistakes, and to accept the exhortations of others. At all times, we should try to correct our errors and reform ourselves, and not have a big ego. We shouldn”t see ourselves as all-important. Then we can develop integrity and virtue, and build a good foundation for ourselves. In this way, we can surely help Buddhism flourish.

　　一九八二年十月十日開示

　　A talk given on October 10, 1982