..续本文上一页ome, I”ve always taken only one meal a day. Therefore, for those who leave home with me, because I don”t have any other virtue or cultivation, all I can do is teach everyone to imitate my outward style. Those who leave home with me, whether male or female, all must eat one meal a day. I will accept a person only if he or she can eat one meal a day. This is an iron-cast rule for those who leave home with me. It cannot be altered. No matter when, no matter how much pressure there is in a situation, it must not be changed.
When the Sash is Not Worn, A Chan Session Becomes An Eating Session
This is because I have promoted this style of Buddhism of wearing the sash and eating one meal a day for several decades already. I advocated it when I first came to America, and I”m still advocating it now. It”s been several decades, and as people gradually get used to it, I believe they will really come to accept it in our hearts. Everyone will come to understand the way I”ve been teaching people. But recently, I discovered that while I was absent from the Chan Session in the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, the people who had left home for a long time actually failed to wear the sash and eat one meal a day, imitation of the "Eating Session" of China. They had three tea breaks and four meals, with a snack of dumplings on top of that. They even ate dumplings at night. If you claim you can still work diligently like this, I don”t believe it. I already feel it”s a lot of trouble to eat just one meal a day. Yet you eat four meals, plus dumplings in the evening! In China”s Buddhism, they call the evening meal "taking medicine." This is called "plugging up your ears and stealing a bell." This is cheating yourself and deceiving others. Ah! They want to eat at night, so they call it "taking medicine." That”s Buddhism in China — a Buddhism which cheats people. I had no way to reform it. however, in America, I established an overseas tradition that”s totally different from the Buddhism in Asia. Now, after leaving home with me for twenty or thirty years, my disciples have presumed to change my teaching, and this especially pains me. I heard this news before I left for Taiwan on January 2nd. Now I”ve returned from Taiwan, but I don”t dare to go back to the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas. Why
Because I have no face, no standing, to go back. My toil and sacrifice of several decades have all gone to waste overnight. The City of Ten Thousand Buddhas” golden reputation has been ruined. Alas! Everyone knew about the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas” reputation of eating one meal a day, but people actually presumed to eat three meals a day and dumplings as well. Although in the past, a couple of left-home people would secretly go to the kitchen and steal food, I wasn”t concerned. But now, a whole bunch of people, too many to count, are eating three meals a day! All the Shramaneras, Shramanerikas, Bhikshus, and Bhikshunis used to wear their sash everyday, and there are still a few who haven”t taken off their sash to take part in the Chan Session, but the great majority no longer wear their sash now. That”s the most important reason that I have no face to go back to the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas.
As I am telling you this story, relating how it happened, everyone should think about how for so many years I have toiled and sweated, and now each person who comes makes a little change. Ten people come and change 10 things, twenty people come and change twenty things; a hundred people change a hundred things. The City of Ten Thousand Buddhas didn”t have much to begin with - just the custom of eating one meal a day, and wearing the sash regularly. Some people also sleep sitting up and keep the precept of not touching money. I don”t know what wind has blown over these cultivators who used to claim that the eight winds couldn”t blow them over.
All you lay-people should think about this: What use am I here in America
I”m useless. As I tell you this, my heart really aches, because I”m a petty-minded person. I”m not that forgiving, generous and I cannot tolerate seeing people break the rules, and not keep their word. When they left home under me, they made a vow, promising me they could eat one meal a day. Now, more than ten years later, how can they go back on their word
If it”s like this when I”m still alive, I don”t know what will happen after I die. This is what really pains my heart. Now I”m telling you those disciples to see, that I am making a mask, and if there”s a need for me to go back to the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, I will wear that mask to show those disciples. If I didn”t wear a mask, I wouldn”t have any face to go back.
《出家人不搭袈裟就等于还俗 Left-home People Who Do Not Wear Their Kashaya Sash Have Just As Good As Returned to Lay-life》全文阅读结束。