○自性的大光明藏

　　Zero: the Great Light Treasury of Your Own Nature

　　宣公上人开示

　　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.

　　○字扩大起来，变 成虚空，变成法界，这是一个真空。 你把它缩小了，变成一粒微尘；虽然微尘是小，这可是妙有。

　　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.

　　这个大光明藏是你 自己本有的，不是旁人给你的，也不是诸佛给你的，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.

　　众生生于无始，死于无终，无始无终，就是在这个轮回里头流转生死。众生在这个无始无终的轮回里头，转来转去， 转去又转来，就好像一粒微尘，忽然而天，忽然而地，忽然而人道，忽然而饿鬼，忽然而畜生，忽然而地狱，忽然而修罗。这叫没有一个开始的时候，也没有一个终 了的时候。什么时候你若能证果成佛了，这是把这个生死的轮回停止了。没有成佛之前，都在这个轮回里转。「菩萨有隔阴之迷，罗汉有住胎之昏」，就是你法身大 士，示现人间，也有的时候被这个生死的流，流得头昏脑胀的，不知道怎么样才能截断这个生死的流？

　　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.

　　我们这个生死，生了又死，死了又生，这是一个大生死。我们还有小生死，由生那一天，虽然有所生，但是也就有所 死了。生出来那一天，就是把死的那一天，已经都准备好了，所以我们这一生，这是一个大生死。我们每一年过去了，这就一年就死了。所以生这一天，也就是死那 一天，因为有生，所以就有死；若没有生，也就没有死了。

　　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.

　　说这个「无始」，一般人所讲的这个「无始」，就是没有一个开始，没有一个终了，是从无始劫以来，没有开始那个 劫以来；没有开始那个劫，所以也就没有终了那个劫。说来说去，这个「无始」是个什么呢？「无终」是个什么呢？就是我们人人都认识那个字，在英文就叫○，在 中文就叫○(零)。那个○字，是也没有始，也没有终；没有一个开始，没有一个最终了，它是一元化的，那个就是无始无终。这个无始，就是所谓的这个○字。这 个○字，你把它割断了，在一边割断了它，就变成一个「一」字，这是一个开始了，这有始了––有了「一」就会有二，再加一个一就是个二，再加一个一就是三， 再加一个一就是四，五，六，七，八，九，十，有十就会生百，有百就会生千，由千就变化成万，由万又变化出来十万，百万，千万，万万，乃至于数不尽那么多， 这是一个数目的开始。

　　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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