皈命大佛顶光

Returning My Life to the Light at the Great Buddha’s Crown

佛为什么有光明呢？因为他不愿意有黑暗愚痴。

Why does the Buddha have bright light?

It’s because he doesn’t entertain darkness and delusion.

我今皈命大佛顶，

无尽法藏智慧光；

愿我明了妙总持，

奉行如来所说义。

I now return my life to the

 Great Buddha’s Crown,

To the wisdom light of the inexhaustible

Dharma treasury.

I vow to understand the wonderful dharani

And respectfully practice the principles

spoken by the Tathagata.

「我今皈命大佛顶」：这是一切护法说：「我们现在一起皈命〈大佛顶楞严神咒〉。」

I now return my life to the Great Buddha’s Crown. All of the Dharma-protectors are saying, "Together, we now return our lives to the Spiritual Mantra of the Foremost Shuran-gama at the Great Buddha’s Crown."

「无尽法藏智慧光」：大佛顶，就是无尽法藏，是取之不尽，用之不竭的。这无尽的法藏都在自性里边，不是从外边来，是从你自性显出来的。那么现在为什么不显呢？这就好像虫子在蛰伏时不能动弹，天气热的时候，它就又活动过来了。修道人修得身上热了，自性的虫子就活起来了；自性的虫子一活，身上所有的菌虫就都死了。

To the wisdom light of the inexhaustible Dharma treasury. The Great Buddha’s Crown is an inexhaustible Dharma trea-sury; no matter how much you use of it or take from it, it cannot be depleted. This inexhaustible Dharma treasury doesn’t come from the outside. Rather, it manifests from within your own nature. Then why doesn’t it manifest now? Right now it resembles the situation of insects in dormancy, when they don’t move. But when the weather warms up, they become active. When people cultivate to the point that their bodies get warm, the bugs of their own nature come alive. When that happens, all the bad bugs in the body die.

说：「这不是杀生了吗？」

"Isn’t that killing?" you ask.

如果你认为那样，那可以不修行，没有人勉强你，你还可以还俗，过在家人的生活，整天烦烦恼恼，争争吵吵，充满无明、妒忌、障碍。可是如果想要修行，就要把身上所有的菌虫都改变了，恢复自己本有的佛性。在没有成佛之前，身上有八万四千虫在分你的性，吃你的肉，喝你的血，住在你身上，教你调皮捣蛋，教你不守规矩，教你去做一些颠倒的事情，这都是这些坏东西支配着你。

If you think so, don’t cultivate; no one’s forcing you to. You can live a worldly life filled with afflictions, quar-relling, ignorance, jealousy, and obstructiveness. If you want to cultivate, however, you have to transform all those bad bugs and return to your original Buddha nature. Before you become a Buddha, your body has 84,000 big bugs splitting up your nature, eating your flesh, and drinking your blood. These bad bugs live in your body and control you, causing you to make mis-chief, break the rules, and do deluded things.

你说：「原来这些事不是我做的。」

"Oh, so it’s the bugs that make me do these things," you say.

可是为什么你要这样帮着它，饿一点也不行，渴一点也不行，睡不够也不行，为什么要那么保护着它？你保护着这些虫子，自性就显不出来了。

Yes, but why do you want to help them out? You can’t stand even a little hunger or thirst, and you can’t bear it if you don’t get enough sleep. Why do you want to protect those bugs? Since you protect them, your own nature cannot manifest.

那么这些虫子到底都是些什么呢？就是一些愚痴的虫子。它们在你身上，弄得你这儿也不舒服，那儿又不好受，周身都是麻烦，一阵间有这个病痛，一阵间又有那个病痛，都是这些愚痴虫在作怪；穿得少了也不行，吃得少了也不行，它就爱和你打闹。

Just what exactly are these bugs? These dull-witted bugs live in your body and make you feel uncomfortable all over. Every part of your body has some kind of problem, and you have one illness after another because these insensitive bugs are up to no good. They disturb you and cause you not to be able to bear it if you don’t wear enough clothes or eat enough. They love to bother you.

无尽法藏都是在大佛顶里生出来的。这个智慧光不是一般的光，而是智慧的光明，佛的光是智慧的光明。佛为什么要有光明呢？因为他不愿意有黑暗愚痴，所以总是以智慧光明来照耀一切，把无明也照破了；无明一破，法性就显出来了，所以智慧光就是佛的光。

The inexhaustible Dharma treasury is born from the Great Buddha’s Crown. The Buddha’s light is not an ordinary kind of light, but the light of wisdom. Why does the Buddha have light? It’s because he doesn’t entertain dark-ness and delusion. He illuminates everything with the light of wisdom and pierces through ignorance. ["Ignorance" in Chinese is wu ming, literally "no light."] When ignorance is shattered, the Dharma nature manifests. The light of wisdom is just the Buddha’s light.

「愿我明了妙总持」：为什么要供奉这大佛顶无尽法藏的大智慧光呢？就为了明了这「大总持」，也就是〈楞严陀罗尼〉。总持就是陀罗尼，〈大悲咒〉又叫〈大悲陀罗尼〉。陀罗尼是梵语，翻译成中文为「总持」，总一切法，持无量义，什么法都在里面摄着，所有的法都从这儿发源。你看法界佛教总会的会旗，一条一条红色的就是代表智慧光，那个光是从「一」生出来的。

I vow to understand the wonderful dharani. Why do we want to respectfully make offerings to the great wisdom light of the inexhaustible Dharma treasury of the Great Buddha’s Crown? It’s because we wish to understand the great dharani, the Shurangama Dharani. The Great Compassion Mantra is also called the Great Compassion Dharani. Dharani is a Sanskrit word that means "uniting and upholding," because it unites all dharmas and upholds limitless meanings. All dharmas originate from this source. Look at the flag of the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association. The red stripes represent the light of wisdom. That light is born from the One.

所谓：

一本散为万殊，万殊仍归一本。

One source gives rise to the myriad things.

The myriad things return to that one source.

光，从一个地方放出，照着万方，又从万方收回一处。所以万佛圣城不是只有一道光，而是佛佛都放出光明，光光合而为一，互不侵犯，互不障碍。

From this one spot, the light can shine in all directions. It can also return from all directions back to that one spot. The City of Ten Thousand Buddhas doesn’t have just one light. Every Buddha emits light, and all those lights merge into one without cancelling or obstructing one another.

「奉行如来所说义」：我们了解这个大总持之后，便要依着佛所说的道理恭敬奉行。

And respectfully practice the principles spoken by the Tathagata. After we understand this great dharani, we must respect-fully practice in accord with the principles spoken by the Buddha.