..续本文上一页s, cars... If you compare this with the basic rules of the Dhamma and Vinaya, it makes you more heartsick than you can say. How is it that we have the stomach to kill the Buddha red-handed this way with our shameless and unthinking ostentation as monks

　　 It really makes you embarrassed.

　　So I ask that each of you reflect a great deal on these matters. If you”ve ordained really for the sake of the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha -- and not for the sake of being adversaries of the Buddha”s teachings -- I ask that you reflect on the Dhamma and the path followed by the Buddha more than on any other matter. No time excels the time of the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha that they have set as an example for us to follow. This is a very important principle. I ask that you all follow the principles of the time of the Buddha. The results, which are refreshing and satisfying, are sure to appear in line with the principles of the well-taught Dhamma, the Dhamma that leads out from suffering. There”s no way to doubt this.

　　These things I”ve practiced to a fair extent myself. I used to be a junior monk too, you know. When I went to study and train with my teachers -- and especially Ven. Acariya Mun -- I really listened. I listened to him speak. He would speak half in earnest, half in jest, in the ordinary way of teachers talking with their students, but I would never listen in jest. I always listened in earnest and took things to heart. I had the greatest imaginable love and fear and respect for him. I”d hold to every facet of what he”d say that I could put into practice. What I”ve been able to teach my students is due to the power of what he taught me. For this reason, even though in this monastery we may conduct ourselves somewhat differently from other monasteries in general, I”m confident in line with the principles of reason and of the Dhamma and Vinaya so that I”m not worried about the matter. I don”t think that what we do is wrong, because I have the example of the Buddha”s teaching and of my teachers -- everything of every sort that follows the original patterns -- which is why I”ve led my fellow meditators to practice this way all along. Whether this is right or wrong, we have to decide in line with the principles of reason. Deference to people is an affair of the world, an affair of inpiduals, and not an affair of the Dhamma and Vinaya, which are fixed principles for the practice. Speaking in line with the Dhamma for the sake of understanding and right practice: That”s the genuine Dhamma. For this reason, an unwillingness to speak the truth for fear of stepping on someone”s toes is not a trait for those who aim at the , Dhamma together.

　　This seems enough for now, so I”ll ask to stop here.

《Things as They Are - The Work of a Contemplative》全文阅读结束。