Most of these stories you have read here have never been told in English before. The West does not have this way of thinking. You have had the rare opportunity to read this book. You, out of all the millions of people in the country. This in itself is a wonderful chance, perhaps your reward for that good deed. Make good use of this.

　　But perhaps you have never rescued any animals in distress. You may be wondering, "What can I do to save lives?"

　　First, of course, you know you should never kill any animal. Fishing and hunting are terrible sports, and they bring disaster down on yourself and your loved ones. Don't kill animals for fun.

　　Don't kill animals for food, either. By nature, human beings are designed to be vegetarians. The number one killer in the United States is heart disease. The National Heart, Blood, and Lung Institute found that in 1989, Americans spent $151 billion dollars treating heart disease! And it's a proven medical fact that eating meat causes heart disease. Not just red meat. Meat.

　The US Surgeon General reports that 68% of diseases in the country are related to diet.

　　Of every seven dollars spent in the USA, one is spent on medical care.

　　Whew! That's a lot of numbers. Let's spell it out clearly. 　　

　　Most sickness in the US today comes from what you eat. Let's face it, that means eating meat, fish, eggs, milk, butter, and cheese ruin your health.

　　If you get sick, you have to spend a lot of money.
　　If you don't get sick, you don't have to spend a lot of money -- you save the money and... Hey! That means

　　* if you say NO to a hamburger and spare a cow's life;
　　* if you say NO to a pork chop and spare a pig's life;
　　* if you say NO to a drumstick and spare a chicken's life, you really do get a reward, in cash!

　　You get to keep all the money meat-eating people have to give to doctors! Are doctors expensive? Ask Mom and Dad.

　　Okay, you want facts and figures. Economists estimate that the average American family of three, eating healthful vegetarian food, can expect to save some $4,000 a year in the short run, and more in the long run.

　　Now add that up, year after year after year...
　　That's a fortune!

　　And let's not just talk about the money. Do you enjoy being sick? It's painful. Even a stomachache that goes away before evening is painful.

　　Of all sicknesses, what is most painful? Probably cancer.
　　Every year, more Americans die of cancer than died in World War II, the Korean War, and the Viet Nam War combined!

　　And one of the main causes of cancer is eating animal products.
　　Simple. Eat less meat, get less cancer, suffer less.

　　Heart disease and cancer are not the only problems. The list of illnesses you can cause yourself by eating dead animals, eggs, and dairy products is long and horrifying. But that's only half the story. That's only the human suffering.

　　What about all those poor animals being slaughtered to provide us with the ingredients for all this bad health? Do you think they enjoy it?
　　The stories in this book took place long ago, in Asia. The animals suffered enormously while they were being murdered, but at least, in those days, they were raised pretty humanely. Pigs were stuck in filthy sties, but at least they had some space. Cattle lived outdoors most of the day and worked hard, but the farmers did,too. Chicks were allowed to scrabble in the dirt with the hens.

　　Some of the methods used to transport them to the market were pretty crude, but all in all, the animals didn't suffer too much while they were growing.

　　Times have changed. Do you have any idea of what goes on in modern meat production? Torture!

　　Now, pigs, cows, and poultry are trapped in the smallest space possible and fed unnatural foods. Babies are taken away from their mothers. Many of them never have space to move around. They never see sunlight. They are pumped full of powerful chemicals to make them fat. The whole way of raising these innocent animals is cruel and heartless.

　　The most hard-hearted person wouldn't want to touch a piece of meat if he knew even half of the suffering animals go through to produce meat in the United States -- even before being butchered.

　　There are many other problems with eating animal products, too.
　　Have you heard about all those miserable people starving to death in other parts of the world? Some people say, too bad, but there's just not enough food to go around.

　　That's not true. Farmers today produce more than enough food to feed every single person on earth today. Then why do some people go hungry? Because so much of the food farmers produce has to go to feed cattle and pigs and poultry to produce meat.

　　Meat producers raise billions of animals. Those animals have to eat too, right?If meat producers buy up crops to feed to animals, poor people don't have any food to eat.

　　If the people of the United States ate only ten per cent less meat, there would be enough extra food to save all of the starving people in the world today.

　　Fifteen total vegetarians can be feed on the amount of land it takes to feed one person eating a meat based diet. In other words, when you eat meat, you are causing fourteen people to go hungry.

　　Another problem is that the way they produce meat today ruins the ecosystem. If the ecosystem is ruined, we are all dead.
　　When you think how much better off we all would be eating grains and vegetables, you probably realize it's not worth it to torture and kill animals.

　　But hunting and eating meat are not the only ways people kill animals.

　　Nothing can be more irritating than a mosquito buzzing around your ear at night. Smack! I got it!

　　What could be more disgusting than a cockroach crawling across the floor? Oooogh! I stepped on it!

　　What were those bugs doing inside in the first place? Giving you a message. A cockroach is a messenger telling you your house isn't clean enough. If you don'twant cockroaches, tidy your house, and they won't bother you.

　　A mosquito is another messenger, reminding you to keep your screens shut tight.

　　I know what to do with those messengers! I'll spray them with my trusty insect spray, so they'll know who's boss around this place!

　　Spraying may get rid of those pests today, but in the long run, who suffers? You do. I do. We all do.

　　To kill insects, pesticides obviously have to be powerful poisons. Manufacturing those poisons contaminates the environment. Once the poisons have been released from the can, they stay around and create health problems.

　　For every dollar's worth of pesticide you spray, about seven dollars have to be spent to fix up the damage to human health and the environment.

　　So let's not talk about gods appearing in dreams hundreds of years ago in faraway China. Let's talk about right here, right now.

　　* If you eat dead animals' bodies, you are going to suffer: cancer, heart disease, kidney problems, and dozens of other sicknesses. Take your pick.

　　* If you eat dead animals' bodies, you're going to have to spend a lot of money on doctors and medicine.

　　* If you eat meat, or fish, or eggs, or dairy products, you're making a lot of animals suffer.

　　* If you eat meat, you're hogging food supplies and starving hungry people.

　　* If you eat meat or spray bugs, you're helping to destroy the environmentwe depend on for survival.

　　Does that make sense? You should be able to accept these facts, even without a deeper discussion about the balance of the universe, or the universal laws we call the dharma.

　　Killing animals is a crime against nature.

　　"Lions and tigers kill things every day, don't they? Then killing's natural,isn't it?"

　　Well, yes, but if you've never done this before, this might not be a bad time for you to examine yourself. Do you have a tail like a lion? Do you have stripes like a tiger? Do you have big, sharp fangs and vicious claws?

　　No. What do you have? Intelligence, a lot of intelligence, so you can speak and read and write and reason, instead of just biting and scratching. You're supposed to use that intelligence to develop wisdom.

　　If you look carefully at the history of the human race, you can see very clearly that we use our mental strength more and more and our physical strength less and less.
　　If people thousands of years ago wanted to move a big boulder, they had to get a group together, and it was Yo-Heave- HO! until they managed to budge it.

　　Later, when people had learned some basic physics, the boulder could be moved by one person who knew how to use a lever. But it still took a lot of grunting and sweating.

　　Now, if we want to move that boulder, we have machines. If you know which buttons to push, you can move that boulder without using very much muscle power at all.

　　This is because we use our minds, not just our bodies.

　　In other words, our minds are getting more and more capable. This is good, but it's not enough. The end result of millions of years of struggling and evolution is not to spend our lifetimes digging stones or watching television or playing games.

　　We are not wild beasts in the jungle any more, we are civilized, and we are supposed to act that way. As you grow up, you're supposed to outgrow your baby toys and tantrums; as the human race develops, we should leave behind our savage ways and develop our minds.

　　Somebody says, "Yeah, but a lion is a big, strong, powerful animal. Isn't that great?"

　　Is a lion very powerful? Have you ever heard of a lion that could roar as loud as a loudspeaker, run as far as a train, cut as deeply as a power saw, or strike as powerfully as a wrecking ball? These powerful tools are all the products of our intelligence. Human intelligence is more powerful than animal strength.

　　We respect lions and tigers and porpoises and dogs and all animals. We honor their right to live, we esteem their contributions to the ecosystem, and we are full of compassion for them.

　　A lion may have a strong body, and it may be very clever, but the tragedy of being a lion, or any animal, is that they are stupid. Oh, sure, they can communicate with one another, and they can be trained to do tricks, but they can not think very much, and they cannot concentrate, so they can never realize what the universe is all about.

　　This is the vitally important mission for human beings, with our greater intelligence. We have to learn what we are, where we are, who we are. If we don't even know that, all our inventions and cities and monuments and science are meaningless.

　　If we do not know where we are, what we are, and who we are, we cannot understand ourselves. We have to understand ourselves in order to realize what the universe is all about. Only then can we free ourselves from suffering.

　　If you cannot understand yourself, you have to go through the cycle of living and dying and living and dying until you've got things straight. Life is full of so much suffering that sometimes we're too numb to even realize things could be better. The way to make things better is to build enough wisdom to realize what the universe is all about, and get out of the cycle of life and death.

　　No animal can think hard enough to do that, and not even many people can. If you want to realize what the universe is all about, you have to work very hard to develop wisdom. Wisdom is the road to freedom. Freedom means freedom from suffering. To build wisdom, the first thing you have to do is stop making obstacles for yourself.

　　To build wisdom, you need a strong body and a good mind.

　　Remember the last time you were sick? You couldn't go to school, because you can't concentrate on your schoolwork when your body is sick. By the same token, if your body is not healthy, your mind will not be keen. A strong and healthy body is the basis for a strong and healthy mind.

　　Exercise builds a strong and healthy body, but the fuel you put in your body is especially important.

　　If you load your body down with dead animals, you're ruining your health. If you want to be healthy, you have to be a vegetarian.

　　Another problem is that if you eat animals, you are breaking natural laws, and in the end you have to pay those animals back. It is easier not to break those laws in the first place, so you do not put a bunch of obstacles in your own path.

　　But no matter how hard you work, it's more difficult to free yourself from suffering than it is to swim across the Pacific Ocean.

　　That is why the Buddha Amitabha felt sorry for us and created the PureLand, or Western Paradise. In his Pure Land, you can build wisdom without the suffering that is so common on earth. If you ask to get in, Amitabha will take you there and train you so that you can become a Buddha, too.

　　If you want to go there, recite Amitabha with all your heart and mind. When the time is right, he will come for you.

　　Once you get there, you will be free from life and death. You will be able to study and learn. Then one day you can come back and help all the suffering creatures so they can become Buddhas, too.

　　So here is our wish for you.
　　We wish you happiness
　　We wish you health, and
　　We wish you wisdom!
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　GOOD-BYE!
　A M I T A B H A

结语

　　我们希望你能够喜欢这些故事。有些故事已经很古老了——第三个故事里的商汤生活在3000多年前。你可能读到了一些你闻所未闻的地方，还有一些你从来没想到过的想法。你也许会想，“究竟谁是龙王呢？”这些故事对大多数中国人来说，都是很熟悉的，但是也许你会觉得很陌生。

　　也许你曾经救了一只从鸟巢里掉出来的小鸟，读了这些故事后，你也许会问，为什么我没有得到报答呢？

　　请注意，这本书里善良的人们得到的报答，往往都是生活中最重要的东西：智慧，知识，健康，快乐。你也许不会因为没有踩一只甲虫，而发现了一个金矿。但是你应该这样来看。

　　你所读到的这些故事大多数都从未被人用英文讲述过。西方人缺乏这种思考方式。这样的书很难读到，而这个国家的千万人中，偏偏你读到了。这确实是个难得的机会,也许这就是你做好事的报偿了。好好利用这本书吧。

　　也许你从未救助困境中的动物，你会问，“我能为救助生命做些什么呢？”

　　第一，当然，你要知道你不应该杀害任何动物。钓鱼和打猎都是可怕的运动，它们会给你和你爱的人带来灾难。不要为了娱乐而杀害动物。

　　也不要为了食物而杀害动物。人们是天生的素食者。心脏病是美国人死亡的头号杀手。　国家心血肺研究所1989年发现，美国人每年要花费1510亿美元治疗心脏病！而医学早已证明了吃肉会造成心脏病，不只是吃牛羊肉，吃其他肉也会。

　　美国外科综合报告说，全国68％的疾病都与饮食有关。

　　美国消费的每7美元中，就有1美元是花在医疗费上。
　
　　哇！那是一个很大的数目。让我们说得更明白些吧。

　　美国今天大多数疾病都和人们的饮食有关。也就是说，吃肉、鱼、蛋、牛奶、牛油、奶酪会破坏你的健康。

　　如果你病了，你就必须要花很多钱。
　　如果你没病，你不需要花那么多钱——你省了一笔钱……嘿！这还意味着

　　*如果你对一个汉堡包说“不”，你救了一头牛的命。
　　*如果你对一盘猪排说“不”，你救了一只猪的生命。
　　*如果你对一个鸡腿说“不”，你救了一只鸡的生命。你已经得到了现金上的好处！

　　你省下了那些吃肉的人要用来看医生的钱！看医生贵吗？问问你的父母。

好，如果你要知道事实和数据。据经济学家统计，一个美国三口之家，如果他们吃健康的素食，在短期内大约一年能省下4000美元，以后会省得更多。

　　如果一年一年这么加起来……
　　那可是一笔巨款！

　　让我们先别说钱了。你喜欢生病吗？那很痛苦。甚至晚饭前饿肚子的感觉也是很难受的。

　　在所有疾病中，什么最痛苦？也许是癌症。
　　每年美国死于癌症的人数比在第二次世界大战、朝鲜战争、越南战争中死的人的总数还要多。

　　而引起癌症的一个很重要的原因就是食用动物产品。
　　简单的说。少吃肉，患癌的机会会减少，痛苦也就减少。

　　不仅仅是心脏病和癌症。你吃肉，蛋，奶制品可以造成的疾病可以列一张又长又可怕的单子。但是那只是故事的一半。只涉及到人类的痛苦。

　　那些被屠杀、给我们的健康带来危害的动物呢？你觉得它们会高兴这么做吗？

　　这本书都是很多年前发生在亚洲的故事。动物们被屠杀的时候，都遭受了巨大的痛苦。但是至少，在那个年代，它们可以被相当人道地饲养。猪在污秽的猪圈中长大，但是它们起码还有一些空间。牛大多数时间只能呆在田里辛苦耕作，可是农夫也一样。小鸡可以和母鸡一起在垃圾堆里找食。

　　有一些把它们运送到市场的交通方式相当残忍，但是不管怎么说，当动物们被饲养的过程中，它们不那么痛苦。

　　现在不同了。你知道现在的肉类生产是什么吗？是折磨!

　　现在，猪，牛，还有禽类挤在尽可能小的空间里，被迫吃进非天然的食物。小动物们被从母亲身边带走。它们有的甚至没有地方可以动一动。它们从来没见过阳光。它们被塞进许多作用强大的化学物质以便增肥。饲养这些无辜动物的方式是残酷无情的。

　　即使是最铁石心肠的人，当他知道在美国被屠杀的动物们的一半痛苦——甚至是被屠杀前的痛苦，他都会不愿意再碰一下肉食。

　　吃动物制品还会带来很多其他问题。
　　你听说过世界上其他地方有很多人正在忍饥挨饿，处于死亡边缘吗？有的人说：太糟糕了，但是没有那么多食物啊。

　　不对。今天农民们生产的粮食已经可以养活世界上所有人有余了。那么为什么还有人挨饿呢？因为农民们种植的粮食有很多要用来喂养牛羊、猪和禽类以便生产肉。

　　肉类生产者饲养了数十亿的动物。这些动物也要吃东西，对不对？如果肉类生产者买了粮食喂养动物，穷人们就没有足够的粮食了。

　　如果美国人能够减少10％的肉类消费，就足够救全世界那些挨饿的人了。

　　能养活十五个素食者的土地，只能养活一个肉食者。也就是说，如果你吃肉，你正在让另外那十四个人挨饿。

　　现在肉类的生产方式还会造成另外的问题：破坏生态。如果生态被破坏了，我们我们也活不下去了。
　　如果你想到如果我们都只吃谷类和蔬菜会带来的好处，你也许就会意识到虐待和屠杀动物是不值得的。

　　但是打猎和吃肉并不是人们屠杀动物仅有的方法。

　　没什么比晚上在你耳边嗡嗡叫的蚊子更烦人了。啪！打死了！

　　什么比地上爬着的蟑螂更恶心呢？呃！我踩死它！

　　首先，虫子在房子里干什么呢？是给你一个提示。一只蟑螂就是一个提示，告诉你你的房子不够干净。如果你不想再看到蟑螂(原文don'twant之间没有间隔符)，清洁你的房子，它们就不会再烦扰你了。

　　一只蚊子是另一个提示，提醒你要关好你的纱窗。

　　我知道应该拿这些提示怎么办! 用我最信赖的杀虫剂杀它们！这样它们才会知道谁才是这里的真正主人！

　　喷洒杀虫剂也许今天能够解决这些虫子，但是长久来看，谁会受到损害？你，我，我们所有人。

要杀死虫子，杀虫剂必须是剧毒的毒药。制造这些毒药会污染环境。当这些毒药从罐子里出来以后，它们会残留在周围环境中，造成健康问题。

　　价值1美元的杀虫剂，大约需要7美元才能解除它们对人体和环境造成的危害。

　　让我们来谈谈数百年来，在遥远的中国，出现在人们睡梦中的神灵。我们现在就谈论，就在此时此地。

　　*如果你吃肉，你会遭受痛苦：癌症，心脏病，肾病，还有其他很多种病。自己选择吧。

　　* 如果你吃肉，你会花很多钱看病买药。

　　* 如果你吃肉，鱼或者蛋类，或者奶制品，你会造成很多动物的痛苦。

　　*如果你吃肉，你就独占了太多的资源，让很多人挨饿。

　　*如果你吃肉或者喷洒杀虫剂，你就会毁坏我们赖以生存的环境。

　　这些有意义吗？你应该能接收这些事实，甚至不用更深入地讨论世界的平衡，或者我们称之为佛法的世界的法则。

杀生是违背自然的罪过。

“老虎狮子每天都杀生不是吗？那么杀生也应该是自然的，不是吗？”

　　对，没错，但是如果你没有这么做过，这也许是你自我反省的好时机，你有像狮子那样的舌头吗？你有像老虎那样的斑纹吗？你有又大又锋利的牙齿和恶毒的爪子吗?

　　不。那你有什么呢？智能，很高的智能，所以你能够说话、读书、写字、推理，而不是抓和咬。你应该用你的智能来开发智慧。

　　如果你仔细地回顾人类历史，你能看到我们越来越运用我们的头脑的力量，越来越少用我们肢体的力量。

如果几千年前，人们要搬动一块大石头，他们需要一整队人。然后吆喝着，直到他们搬动石头。

不久以后，当人们了解一些基本物理后，只要一个人懂得运用杠杆，他自己就可以搬动石头。既便如此，他还是需要一些气力的。

现在，如果你想搬那块大石头，我们可以运用机器。只要你知道应该按那些键，你就可以不费吹灰之力地搬动那块石头。

这都是因为我们运用了智力，而不仅仅是身体。
　　也就是说，我们的智力越来越发达了。这很好，但是还不够。上百万年的演变发展的结果，不应该仅仅是让我们的生命花费在挖石头或者看电视和游戏上面。

　　我们不再是森林中的野兽了，我们是文明人，我们也应该文明行事。当你长大后，你会抛弃你童年时的玩具和坏脾气；当人类发展后，我们也应该离开那些野蛮的行为，发展我们的智慧。

　　有的人说，“是，但是一只狮子是一只巨大的，强壮有力的动物。那不是很了不起吗？”

　　一只狮子很强大？你听过有狮子能吼得像喇叭一样大声，跑得像火车一样快，刺得像动力锯一样深，或者像重物滑车那么有冲力吗？这些强大的工具都是人类智慧的产物。人类的智能比动物的体能还要强大。

　　我们要尊敬狮子、老虎、海豚、狗，以及所有动物。我们要尊重它们生存的权利，尊重它们对生态中的贡献，同时也要同情它们。

　　一只狮子可能有很强壮的身体，而且可能很聪明，但是作为一只狮子，或者其他动物的悲哀，就是它们很愚蠢。哦，对，它们能彼此交流，而且它们能够被培训表演杂技。但是它们不能够深入思考，不能集中念力，所以它们不能够知道世界是什么样的

　　这就是人类最重要的使命，因为我们有更高的智能。我们应该知道我们是什么，我们在哪里，我们是谁。如果我们连这个都不知道，我们所有的发明、城市、纪念碑、科学，都毫无意义。

　　如果我们不知道我们在哪里，我们是什么，我们是谁，我们就不能了解我们自己。我们了解自己，是为了了解整修宇宙。只有那时我们才能从痛苦中解脱出来。

　　如果你不能了解自己，你就必须在生生死死的轮回中流转，直到解脱。生活中充满了痛苦，以至于有时候我们麻木到没意识到一切可以更好的。让一切更好的方法就是积累足够的智慧，了解宇宙人生，跳出生死轮回。

　　动物没能力通过思考而得到解脱，多数人也不可能。如果你想了解宇宙人生，你必须努力地开发智慧。智慧可以通往自由。自由，意味着解脱痛苦得到的自在。要有智慧，你要做的第一步就是停止为自己制造障碍。

　　要有智慧，你需要一个强壮的身体和一个好头脑。

　　记得你上次生病的情况吗？你不能上学，因为你病的时候，你不能集中注意力做功课。一样的道理，如果你的身体不健康，你的头脑就不灵敏。一个强壮健康的身体是一个强大健康的头脑的基础。

　　如果你吃肉，使自己身体负担过重，你就正在毁坏自己的健康。如果你想健康，你就应该做一个素食者。

　　假如你吃肉，你会破坏自然法则，最后你会如数偿还这些动物。首先不要破坏这些法则，这样相对容易些。这样你就不会在自己的道路上造成很多障碍。

　　但是无论你怎么努力，要让自己从痛苦中解脱出来，比横渡太平洋还难。

　　这就是阿弥陀佛为我们难过，而且建造净土，也就是西方极乐世界的原因，在极乐世界，你能够积累智慧,而没有这个世界上普遍存在的苦恼。如果你至心发愿，阿弥陀佛就来接引你，还会教导你，这样你也能成佛了。

如果你想去，你当一心念佛？机缘到了，阿弥陀佛一定会来接引你的。

　　你到了那里以后，你就会脱离生死。你能够学习和修持佛法.这样有一天，你就可以重回这个世界，帮助所有受苦的生命，以便它们也可以成佛。