..续本文上一页s chores in service to the monastery.
有一天，他到房顶修理屋瓦，不慎失足，坠地而死。师兄弟就去报告方丈和尚。老和尚知道前因后果，想成就小沙弥，替他了苦，于是乎，对大家宣布：「这个小沙弥做事不小心跌死，对道场有很大的损失。因为他犯了侵损常住的过错，要惩罚他。你们用马把他的尸体拖散为止，免得买棺材埋葬。」大家一听方丈的话，不以为然，师兄弟们发恻隐之心，不听方丈的命令，因为不忍心这样去做。他们于是共议：「我们是师兄弟，同修一场，应该把他安葬，不可以用马拖尸。」大家就出钱买棺材，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.
这个小沙弥因为替庙做苦工，积有功德，来生为人，做了皇帝，身为崇祯。可是只做了十六年的穷皇帝，他在位的时候，天下大乱，内有李自成造反，外有清兵侵境，从来没有过一天好日子，都是在忧患煎迫中度日。这就是被好心的师兄弟害了，使他的苦未能了尽。如果他们当时听方丈的话，用马来拖尸，苦便了了，不会害得崇祯在煤山自缢，而为国殉难。
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》全文阅读结束。