..续本文上一页take, be patient with what others cannot be patient, and yield what others cannot yield. It doesn”t mean other people should follow your instructions. That would cause those who haven”t brought forth their Bodhi mind to not do so, and those who have brought forth their Bodhi mind to retreat. If you make people retreat, then no matter what Dharma door you cultivate, you won”t be successful. In the future, you will fall into the hells and undergo endless aeons of suffering. So, don”t think that you are something great after you”ve received the complete precepts, and go around acting like a patriarch. This is a huge mistake.

　　Everyone says that the people at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas are cultivators. But if you are always jealous and obstructive, with a ghost in your stomach, then you are simply coming here for the food, and passing the time until you die. So, from now on, we in the City should ask ourselves everyday, why did I come to the city

　　 You have to be clear about your own position, and not only echo what others say. Don”t be lazy and avoid your work, or pretend to be sick. If you are really sick, you can rest, but if you are only pretending to be sick, then you are acting like a scoundrel in Buddhism. You have to respect yourself. When there isn”t much work to do in the Way-place, you can relax a bit, but you can”t just go to sleep, or sit there posing as if you are meditating. This "meditation" is another name for laziness. When there is work to do, you don”t join the others, but just sit there pretending to be an old cultivator. Real cultivators don”t need to put on an act for others. Why must you show off to others

　　 You are not cultivating for other people. You say you need meditation to cultivate, but at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, if nobody is meditating, you shouldn”t either. You have to follow along with whatever people are doing and not do something special. Many people come to the City to join the meditation session but what they see is a sleeping session. The sleep demon hasn”t been chased away yet. During a session, we must constantly strike up our spirits, sit upright and not let our heads drop down to sleep. If you sleep, you will be hit with the incense board. In a session, you cannot simply do whatever you like. Nobody should fall asleep. You have to get your spirits up and drive away the sleep demon.

《上人戒期开示 Venerable Masters Talk during the Precept Ordination》全文阅读结束。