○自性的大光明藏

　　Zero: the Great Light Treasury of Your Own Nature

　　宣公上人開示

　　A lecture by the Venerable Master Hua

　　When the O is expanded, it becomes empty space and the Dharma Realm. That is true emptiness. When it is shrunk, it becomes a dust mote. Despite its tiny size, that dust mote is wonderful existence.

　　○字擴大起來，變 成虛空，變成法界，這是一個真空。 你把它縮小了，變成一粒微塵；雖然微塵是小，這可是妙有。

　　This great light treasury is originally yours; it not given to you by anyone else, not even by the Buddhas. It is inherent in you.

　　這個大光明藏是你 自己本有的，不是旁人給你的，也不是諸佛給你的，是你自己本具的。

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　　Living beings are born without a beginning, and die without an end. They revolve in this beginningless and endless transmigration like dust motes: suddenly up in the heavens, suddenly down on the earth. Just as suddenly they are born as hungry ghosts, or humans, or animals, or hell-dwellers, or asuras. Ah! There is no beginning and no end. You stop transmigrating in birth and death only when you realize the fruition of Buddhahood. Before you become a Buddha, you keep transmigrating. It is said, “Even Bodhisattvas get confused after having gone through rebirth; even Arhats become muddled after having dwelt in the womb.” Even if you are a great knight of the Dharma body (a Bodhisattva) manifesting in this world, sometimes you may be confused by the flow of birth and death and not know how to stop it.

　　衆生生于無始，死于無終，無始無終，就是在這個輪回裏頭流轉生死。衆生在這個無始無終的輪回裏頭，轉來轉去， 轉去又轉來，就好像一粒微塵，忽然而天，忽然而地，忽然而人道，忽然而餓鬼，忽然而畜生，忽然而地獄，忽然而修羅。這叫沒有一個開始的時候，也沒有一個終 了的時候。什麼時候你若能證果成佛了，這是把這個生死的輪回停止了。沒有成佛之前，都在這個輪回裏轉。「菩薩有隔陰之迷，羅漢有住胎之昏」，就是你法身大 士，示現人間，也有的時候被這個生死的流，流得頭昏腦脹的，不知道怎麼樣才能截斷這個生死的流？

　　Our birth and death, being born and dying, dying and being born again, is birth and death on a great scale. We also have birth and death on a small scale. There is the day we are born. Although we are born, we will have to die. The day of our death is already set the day we are born. Therefore, our life is birth and death on a great scale. Each passing year brings the death of that year. Thus if we are born one day, we will have to die one day, because once there is birth, there is death. If there is no birth, then there is no death.

　　我們這個生死，生了又死，死了又生，這是一個大生死。我們還有小生死，由生那一天，雖然有所生，但是也就有所 死了。生出來那一天，就是把死的那一天，已經都准備好了，所以我們這一生，這是一個大生死。我們每一年過去了，這就一年就死了。所以生這一天，也就是死那 一天，因爲有生，所以就有死；若沒有生，也就沒有死了。

　　As to the “beginningless,” most people explain it as there being no beginning and no end. It refers to time without beginning; it started at a kalpa in the beginningless past, and goes to a kalpa in the endless future. What is without a beginning

　　 And what is without an end

　　 It is something we all recognize: the zero. This O has no beginning and no end. It is the Absolute, without beginning or end. The beginningless is just the O. If you cut this O open, it becomes a “一” (the Chinese character for “one”). This is the beginning. Once there is a one, there is also a two: when you add one to one, that is two. Adding another one makes three, and adding more ones makes four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. From ten, a hundred is produced; a hundred brings forth a thousand; a thousand transforms into ten thousand; ten thousand further transforms into one hundred thousand, one million, ten million, and a thousand million, up to infinity. That is the beginning of numbers.

　　說這個「無始」，一般人所講的這個「無始」，就是沒有一個開始，沒有一個終了，是從無始劫以來，沒有開始那個 劫以來；沒有開始那個劫，所以也就沒有終了那個劫。說來說去，這個「無始」是個什麼呢？「無終」是個什麼呢？就是我們人人都認識那個字，在英文就叫○，在 中文就叫○(零)。那個○字，是也沒有始，也沒有終；沒有一個開始，沒有一個最終了，它是一元化的，那個就是無始無終。這個無始，就是所謂的這個○字。這 個○字，你把它割斷了，在一邊割斷了它，就變成一個「一」字，這是一個開始了，這有始了––有了「一」就會有二，再加一個一就是個二，再加一個一就是叁， 再加一個一就是四，五，六，七，八，九，十，有十就會生百，有百就會生千，由千就變化成萬，由萬又變化出來十萬，百萬，千萬，萬萬，乃至于數不盡那麼多， 這是一個數目的開始。

　　In the modern scientific age, we can launch satellites into space, where they revolve in their orbits ceaselessly. That”s a beginning. With the help of mathematica…

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