不可思议的礼拜
The Inconceivable Bowing

郭亲觉 文 (澳洲楞严经讲修班学员) by Kuo Chinjue
(Participant, Shurangama Sutra Session, Australia)
何世麒 英译 English Translated by Daniel Herskee

或许我们从来都不曾去深刻的体会到，在一个看似平凡无奇的拜佛动作里，对于某些即刻需要帮助的人，甚至对这法界的一切，造成了多大的影响。于是，在这重复的过程中，日复一日的佛事里，难免让人感到枯燥；久而久之，就变得轻率和敷衍了事。

Maybe we’ve never really deeply experienced it: how much the seemingly unremarkable activity of making obeisance to the Buddha can influence those who need help, or even the entire Dharma Realm as a whole. Therefore, this process of repetition, this day-after-day service to the Buddha, cannot help but make people feel bored, and inevitably over time we do it rashly and perfunctorily.

大概是念〈楞严咒〉的关系吧？它唤醒了我深眠的自性，我发觉到日常所思所做的罪业积集得有多么深重；我是应该向地藏王菩萨礼拜忏悔，时时都需要忏悔，因为我们造罪业的心从来没有停止过。以前的我并不喜欢礼拜，但因为皈依上人的关系，要拜一万拜，所以我开始持续性的拜佛。在礼拜的过程中，我渐渐的体会到拜佛的重要；同时明白，原来上人不是要我们只拜一万拜就停了，而是要我们继续拜下去。

It’s probably the practice of reciting the Shurangama Mantra, which awakened my inherent nature from its deep slumber. I learned how deep and serious the negative karma accumulated from my daily thoughts and actions really were. I should make penance to the Earth Store (Ksitigarbha) Bodhisattva, repent at all times, because our mind never stops creating negative karma. I truly never liked bowing before, but because I had to fulfill the requirement of bowing 10,000 times in order to take refuge with the Venerable Master Hua, I started bowing constantly. In the process, I slowly realized the importance of bowing to the Buddha. At the same time it became clear that the Venerable Master wanted us not only to bow 10,000 times, but to keep right on bowing.

当我开始礼拜时，一有妄想生起，我想起上人曾说，他一生之所以有成就，主要是在于「专一」，也就是不打旁的妄想。所以，每当心动念起时，我都会尽量将这向外奔驰的妄念，收摄回来；也从学习控制妄念中，体会到六大宗旨里的不争、不贪、不求、不自私、不自利、不妄语的重要。原来大部分的妄想根源，皆来自于争、贪、求、自私、自利、妄语，也可以说是「贪、瞋、痴」；因此，发菩提心也就变得相当重要。

When I first started bowing, every time my false thoughts arose, I thought of how the Venerable Master once said, out of his life’s achievements, the important ones came from “concentrating single-mindedly,” which involves not thinking false thoughts. Therefore, every time my mind starts to wander, I do my best to collect these false thoughts racing towards other things. And through learning to control my false thoughts, I experienced the importance of the Six Great Principles of “no fighting, no greed, no seeking, no selfishness, no pursuit of personal advantage, no lying. I discovered that the majority of false thoughts arise from fighting, greed, seeking, selfishness, pursuit of personal advantage, and false speech, or in other words “greed, anger, and delusion.” It’s for this reason that having a Bodhi mind becomes so extremely important.

这一天晚上，在读完《华严经》后，我便开始向地藏王菩萨礼拜，在这礼拜的过程里，我心无杂念，一拜接着一拜。突然间，脑海里出现了一幕影像，我看见一片海，在海里的人，因为浮现在半空中的地藏王菩萨所射出的光，而往上升。我想：「大概是妄想吧，不理它！」但接下去再拜时，这影像并没有消失，依旧如此清晰；于是我便仔细地注意这画面片刻，并接着拜，不知什么时候它也就消失了。

One evening, after reading the Avatamsaka Sutra, I started to bow to Earth Treasury Bodhisattva, and during that process of prayer bowing, my heart had no extraneous thoughts, and one bow came after the other. Suddenly, an image appeared in my brain. I saw a stretch of sea, and the people in the sea were raised upwards due to the rays of light shot forth from Earth Store Bodhisattva floating in the air. I thought, “It’s probably just false thinking; ignore it.” But as I continued to bow, this image didn’t disappear. It stayed just as clear and precise as it was before. Thereupon I started to concentrate intently on this tableau for a while, and continued to bow. I don’t know when it disappeared.

事后，当我再回想这一幕时，我不再把它当成一个毫无意义，应该舍弃的妄想；而是把这一幕，放在我心底。每当我被境牵而心慌意乱，妄念纷飞时，我便想起那些因被菩萨放光照射，身着白衣而往上飞的「人」。

After this, when I think back to that image, I no longer regard it as a trivial false thought that should be discarded. Rather, I have placed this image at the bottom of my heart. Whenever I feel constrained, and my mind is panicked and unfocused, and false thoughts fly unabated, I think of those ‘people’ wearing white flying upwards due to glorious rays shot forth from the Bodhisattva.

我试着想，平常不论打坐、念经、礼拜，我们往往无法很快感受到做这些佛事，对我们的帮助，因为和某些人比起来，我们善根多的关系，所以很难体会到修行的功德。这就像天天都可以吃得很饱的我们，不知道什么是饥饿一样。

As I ponder it, whether it’s meditation, Sutra recitation, or bowing, there is generally no way to quickly know the benefits we reap through these Buddhist deeds. Since we have accumulated more good roots compared to some others, it is difficult for us to truly understand the merit and virtue of cultivation. It’s analogous to how, because we can eat our fill every day, we do not understand what hunger is truly like.

所以，我们便很容易的去忽略，不珍惜眼前这份难以得遇佛法的福报，也体会不到「世间无常，国土危脆」及时修行的重要性。好似在台湾一块钱掉到地上，人们都懒得弯腰去捡；但这一块钱，却可以让远在非洲的一个小孩子，得到一天的饱足而不受挨饿。在我们一刻都懒得去做的佛事里，不知道就是一个礼佛的小动作，都可能让地狱一个受苦的众生得到安乐。我从来都没去想过这问题，直到有了那次的经验。

Therefore, it is very easy for us to ignore and not treasure the blessing of the Buddhadharma which is so difficult to encounter. And we cannot truly comprehend that “the world is impermanent, and countries are precarious” as well as the importance of timely cultivation. It’s just like if in Taiwan, a one dollar coin were dropped on the ground, few people would bother to reach over and pick it up. But that one dollar could give a tiny child in faraway Africa a day’s worth of sustenance so he would not go hungry. During an instant when we just don’t feel like practicing Buddhism, we are not aware that this insignificant act of bowing to the Buddha might be able to give peace to one of the many painful living beings in the hells. I had never thought about this issue until this experience.