贫富

Rich or Poor

一位居士向我感慨道：“您经常教育我们要放下对金钱的贪恋，但我在修行当中却时常感受到金钱的必要性。有钱可以供养僧众、有钱可以救护生命，有钱可以印刷经书，有钱可以赈灾救难……我们不能碍口识羞地否认金钱的利益。所以，有钱还是必要的。”

A lay practitioner said to me ruefully: “You have always instructed us to give up craving for money. But during my practice I often felt the necessity of money. For instance, with money we can make offerings to the Sangha, we can release live beings, print Dharma books, fund disaster relief, and so on. We should not deny the usefulness of money just because of embarrassment or shame. In my opinion, we need to have money.”

听了他的一番话，心里有种说不出的滋味。世人可以赞美清贫，却不会讴歌贫困。“心依于法，法依于贫，贫依于死，死依于壑”的观念，是不可能被世人接受的。

His words aroused in me an indescribable feeling of mixed emotions. In the secular world, honest poverty is respected, yet poverty itself is far from being extolled. The Kadampa’s maxim is unacceptable to ordinary people:

Base your mind on the Dharma,
Base your Dharma on a humble life,
Base your humble life on the thought of death,
Base your death on a lonely cave.

我不否认金钱的作用，但这种作用是极其有限的，它不能给世间人带来思索、创造、欣赏的乐趣，更不能给修行人带来究竟的解脱。

I am not here to negate the usefulness of money, yet its scope is very limited. For instance, the satisfaction a person derives from meditation, creativity, or from appreciating something, cannot be bought by money. What’s more, money will never bring practitioners the utmost liberation.

米拉日巴是著名的穷光蛋，连强盗光顾他的山洞，也找不到可以带走的一针一线；石渠求学时期的法王如意宝也是身无分文，每天仅以分得的少许酸奶果腹；六祖慧能在五祖身边时，也不过是囊空如洗的碓米和尚。他们却证悟了钻石也折射不出的光明；积累了有钱人做梦也想象不出的功德；成就了金钱无法交换的事业。他们以有目共睹的事实，睥睨着世间对功名利禄的盲目推崇。

Milarepa was notorious for being a poor wretch; thieves invading his cave found nothing to loot, not even a single needle or a piece of thread. Our beloved Guru Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche was penniless while studying in Shiqu and he lived on a paltry portion of yogurt every day. The Sixth Patriarch Huinueg, when staying with the Fifth Patriarch, was a destitute monk responsible for husking rice. Yet the brilliance of their realization surpasses that of a diamond; the merit they have accumulated is beyond the wildest dreams of the rich and wealthy, and their accomplishment is unmatched by that gained with any amount of money. With their undeniable achievement, they rise above proudly the blind worship that the worldly people hold toward fame and wealth.

世人云：“穷则独善其身，达则兼济天下。”

An adage says:

In poverty, commit yourself to perfecting personal integrity.
In prosperity, devote yourself to the welfare of the world.

但是，修行人若能在静处发无伪菩提心，不仅可以利益自己，一样可以利益众生。

But for a spiritual practitioner in solitary retreat, generating uncontrived bodhichitta will also bring benefit to other beings at the same time, besides merely benefiting the self.

以清净心意幻供养诸佛菩萨，远远超过了以染污心供养世间七宝的功德。对上师最上等的供养不是财物，而是修行。

To make a mental offering with a pure mind is far more meritorious than to make offerings of seven treasures with a tainted mind. The best offering to the guru is to engage in practice, rather than to give money or goods.

古诗云：“梦里堆藏总是金，一场富贵喜难禁。枕头扑落忽惊醒，四壁清风无处寻。”不要被金钱所带来的一些表象迷住了双眼，滚滚红尘中的富贵名利终究是南柯一梦。何苦于为了金钱而投机钻营，浪费了这万劫不复的人生？

It says in an old poem:

I dreamed of having tons of money and gold and of enjoying thoroughly a life of glory and abundance.
Suddenly my pillow fell; I woke up and met with nothing but bare walls and the blowing wind.

Do not be blinded by the superficial circumstances money provides; all the fame, glory, wealth, and prestige in the ordinary world are but fanciful dreams. Is it worthwhile to waste our human life, which is beyond redemption once lost, on amassing wealth through trickery?

壬午年七月十七日 　
2002年8月24日 　

17th of July, Year of RenWu
August 24, 2002