长久

Sustained Effort

修行是一项旷日持久的艰苦过程。无垢光尊者说：“修行不能仅靠几天的努力，需要长期的奋斗。”如果能长期坚持不懈地精勤，既可磨炼意志，又可积攒资粮。

Spiritual practice is a challenging process that takes time and endurance. Longchen Rabjam says: “Spiritual practice is not a few days’ effort only; it is a long struggle.” By practicing diligently and persistently for a long period, not only we can sharpen our willpower but also accumulate vast merit.

记得小时候有一位叫扎拉的阿姨，不仅年轻美丽，而且诚信佛法。她曾跟随村里人一起到拉萨朝圣。30年前，她曾在上师前发愿，每天磕头100个，念诵极乐愿文1遍，金刚萨埵心咒10000遍。当时尚处于宗教受到严重摧毁的恐怖时期，念经诵咒尚可默默完成，但磕头就有很大困难。除了在家里，她常在放牧时偷偷到一山洞里磕头，并叮嘱我为其放哨。常常趁没人之时，我就提醒她：“你该磕头了！”

I remember when I was a child, there was a beautiful young aunt called Drala. As a devout Buddhist, she made a pilgrimage to Lhasa with local villagers and pledged to her teacher that every day, she would perform 100 prostrations, read once the Aspiration Prayer to Be Born in the Pure Land of Great Bliss, and recite 10,000 times the Vajrasattva mantra. That was 30 years ago when religions were being destroyed ruthlessly. In that horrific period, one might manage to recite mantras or read sutras silently without getting caught; but prostrations presented a bigger problem. Besides doing it at home, she also tried the accumulation in mountain caves when herding, and would always ask me to stand guard for her. When no one was around, I would always remind her: “It’s time for you to do prostrations!”

时光荏苒，30年时光匆匆流逝。其间我经历了读书、出家等一系列变故。去年7月，我在老家碰见她，她的脸上已刻满了历经沧桑的痕迹。想起当年磕头的经历，连忙问她：“您还在继续磕头念咒吗？”她回答我：“从来没间断过，即使生了大病，病后仍然补上。现在时间更多了，可以念更多的咒子。”“那这么多年您一共磕了多少头？念了多少咒？”“没统计过，我想只要好好修持就行了，没有去统计什么数量。”

Time elapsed quickly; 30 years had slipped by before I met her in my hometown last July. During this period I had gone through stages of schooling and become a monk. For her, the experience of life’s ups and downs had chiseled her face. Reminiscing about the old days, I quickly asked her: “Are you still continuing prostrations and recitations?” She answered: “Certainly. I’ve never stopped. Even if I missed them during my episodes of severe illness, I always managed to make them up after recovery. Now, with more free time on hand, I can recite even more mantras.” I asked, “Then, through all these years, how many prostrations and mantra recitations have you done in total?” She replied, “I have not really kept track of them. I feel practicing alone is good enough and have never cared to count the numbers.”

我在心里为其保守地算了一下。这30年她至少磕头1,095,000个，念诵极乐愿文10950遍，金刚萨埵心咒109,500,000遍。这对于很多人来说不着啻为天文数字。扎拉是藏族中极其普通的一位教徒，既没有名声，也不算最精进。但她能30年如一日地以磨杵成针的毅力锲而不舍地修行。实为难能可贵。

I made a mental calculation. Conservatively, in the past 30 years, she could have done at least 1,095,000 prostrations, read the Aspiration Prayer to Be Born in the Pure Land of Great Bliss 10,950 times, and recited the Vajrasattva mantra 109,500,000 times. For many people, these figures may seem astronomical. Drala is all but an average practitioner commonly seen among Tibetans, little known, nor extraordinarily diligent. Nonetheless, that she has kept her practice throughout 30 years with the perseverance of “grinding an iron pestle down to a needle” is truly praiseworthy.

现在有的人修完一遍50万加行，就四处炫耀，唯恐他人不知。扎拉却能默默无闻，从不间断，的确令人叹服。反观自己，虽然在上师前发了愿，却没有如法行持，虽然被别人称为法师，却不如一个普通人，真令我汗颜。古人云：“骐骥一跃，不能千里；驽马十驾，功在不舍。”

These days there are practitioners who can’t wait to flaunt around their completion of one cycle of 500,000 preliminaries, lest someone would miss their accomplishment. Drala, on the other hand, cares not for recognition but only to practice persistently; she is indeed admirable. Checking my own progress, I had made pledges before my master, but I have not practiced authentically; I have been addressed as a spiritual teacher, but I am no better than common people. Shouldn’t I blush with shame?

The ancient saying goes:

One gallop of a noble steed remains one gallop of distance, not 10 gallops.
Ten days of effort of pulling a cart by an inferior horse, on the other hand, would cover 10 days’ distance.
Success comes from doing the task persistently.

如果每个修行人都能有此精神，有一分付出，就一定会有一分收获的。

Every practitioner should embrace such an enduring spirit. With every ounce of effort put in, there is bound to be an ounce of reward.

壬午年二月十二日 　
2002年3月26日

12th of February, Year of RenWu