弹着吉他讲经的洋和尚 -The Guitar-Playing, Sutra-Lecturing Foreign Monk
本月八日上午，高鼻深目的恒实法师(Rev. Heng Sure)踏进北京郊外的龙泉寺。这位美国法界佛教总会会长、万佛城总住持来此，要以中文演讲为中国僧人、学员开示。
On 8 Nov 09, the high-nosed and deep-eyed Rev. Heng Sure set foot in Longquan Temple in the suburbs of Beijing. This Chairman of America’s Dharma Realm Buddhist Association, and the overall Abbot of the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, came here to address the Chinese monks and students with a talk in Chinese.
事情的缘起，是恒实法师此前在北京大学国际关系学院一场题为《佛教在西方的新面貌》的讲座，引起此间佛教界的兴趣与讨论。
The way this got started was that previously Heng Sure taught a course called “The New Face of Buddhism in the West” and it brought about the current interest and discussion in Buddhist circles.
龙泉寺方丈、同时也是中国佛教协会副会长兼秘书长学诚法师得知后，特地邀恒实法师来到龙泉寺演讲。
When the Abbot of Longquan Temple, who is also at the same time the Vice Chairman and Executuve Secretary of the Chinese Buddhist Association, Xuecheng Fashi, found out about it, he invited Rev. Heng Sure to speak at Longquan Temple.
当天，正值观世音菩萨法会期间，恒实入乡随俗，讲观世音菩萨在各国的不同名号，很多感应事迹，从一个个故事中讲述观世音菩萨不同面的慈悲。
That day, which was right in the middle of the Guanyin Bodhisattva Dharma Assembly, Heng Sure did like the Romans in Rome, and talked about all the different names of Guanyin in different countries, with a lot of stories about (the Bodhisattva’s) response, and in each story, he described the different faces of Guanyin’s compassion.
他以准确的中文表述道，修行人一个关键的问题在于信心，所谓“信为能入＊”。
With very accurate formulation in Chinese, he described the Way, with respect to a critical problem about faith, what is called “Faith is what allows you to enter.”
恒实法师此次来到中国，是为参加纪念虚云老和尚的活动。以此因缘，法师唱了一首歌：“杯子扑落地，响声鸣呖呖，虚空粉碎也，狂心当下歇。烫着手打碎杯，家破人亡语难开，春到花香处处秀，山河大地是如来”，传达虚云老和尚开悟境界。
This journey of Rev. Heng Sure to China was for the purpose of participating in the movement of commemorating Xu Yun Dragon-Elephant (my honorific -xp). From that connection, the Dharma Master sang a song: “The glass falling to the ground, the sound resounds like the warbling of orioles, the Void is smashed and scattered like dust, the wild heart should rest. Scalding my hand, I smashed the glass to bits, the lost speech of a homeless person is hard to start (again), with the coming of spring the fragrance of flowers penetrates everwhere, the mountains and rivers of the great earth are the Tathagata.” ((This is SO beautiful. What had happened to the venerable Dragon-Elephant, who literally lived for 120 years, and who literally was homeless for the majority of that long reign, was that his ENTIRE human individuality had gotten mapped onto that damnable cup. I guarantee you, you can do that wierd stuff when you’re homeless. So when it was shattered, which was NOT, I guarantee you even more, an accident (Xu Yun had long since earned Highest Final Enlightenment), he literally lost the entirety of what he was used to considering to be his mind. Here he is singing, as only an Enlightened individual can, about the fact that all the appearances are still there, but the POV by which you were used to looking at them has been irreversibly destroyed. –xp, 26 Nov 09).
事后，学诚法师在中国知名网站“新浪”开设的博客以《弹着吉他讲经的洋和尚》一文详细记述了中美僧人之间这次特别的交流。
After the affair, Xecheng Fashi described the affair in an article on his Xinlang blog, “The Guitar-Playing, Sutra-Lecturing Foreign Monk,” in which he described in detail the extraordinary exchange this time between American and Chinese monks.
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＊Baidu
问题：Question:
‘佛法大海，信为能入。’‘信为道元功德母，长养一切诸善根。’这两句话的含义。南无阿弥陀佛
“With respect to the great ocean of the Buddhadharma, faith is what allows one to enter.”
“Faith is the mother of the merit that originates the Way, it raises to maturity all good roots.”
– (please explain) the implications of these two sentences. I take the name of Amitabha Buddha.
2007-5-31
回答：Answer:
修行佛法，包括成就任何事业都要依靠以下三个过程，也就是信、愿、行
In practicing Buddhadharma, including the accomplishment of any activity, you always have to rely on the following three stages, i.e., Faith, Vow, and Action (or Execution).
信：相信佛所说的。不管学什么，首先要相信别人告诉你的经验。例如，学各种科学知识，首先就要相信其中的各项前提条件等等。并相信其中得到的结论，这样才能深入。当然，学习过程中可以有一定的疑惑，但一定是要首先相信，深入学习后运用所学再进行比较。佛法也是如此，首先要相信，这样才能学下去，所以说佛度有缘人。但学佛的过程中是允许有疑惑的，佛经里说只有大菩萨才能真正对佛法生起实信，因为他们经过了亲身验证。而对于我们，就像对相对论一样，因为没有那种智慧去理解，就只能首先相信它是正确的，才能对现代物理学进行学习。
Faith: Believe what was said by the Buddha. No matter what you study, you first have to believe the experiences that other people tell you. For example, in studying any kind of scientific knowledge, you first have to believe all the premises pertaining to it, and so forth. Furthermore you also have to believe all the conclusions that have been arrived at in it, and only in this way can you deeply enter into it. Of course in the process of study, you can certainly have doubts, but certainly you must first believe. After you’ve deeply entered into study and put what you’ve learned into use, then you can go forward with comparisons. Buddhadharma is also like this. First you have to believe, only in this waya can you go forward with your studies, and so it is said that the Buddha saves those that he has conditions (or predestined affinity – 缘) with. But the process of studying Buddhism can be full of uncertainties. The Buddhist scriptures say that only great Bodhisattvas can bring forth certainty with respect ot the Bodhadharma, because they have passed through personal verification. But in our cases, it’s just like it is with the theory of relativity, because there is not the kind of wisdom that brings forth understanding, so we simply have to first believe that it is accurate, and only then can we carry study forward with respect to modern-era physics.
愿：相信并不等于愿望。当相信了所学的，还要有愿望去达到。没有善法欲，就算相信，也没有意义。就像别人告诉你去北京的方法，你也相信，但你不想去，实际上并没有效果。
Vow: Faith certianly isn’t equal to desire. Having believed what has been studied, we still must have the desire to bring it about. If you just plan on believing without having wholesome Dharma desires, it is meaningless. It’s just as if other people tell you how to go to Beijing, and you believe what they say, but don’t plan to go; there’s no purpose.
行：相信相应的方法，并有达到目标的愿望，还需要去做，也就是行。没有行作为依托的愿只是空愿，就像不想给树浇水还想吃果实一样。所以还要按照相应的方法去行
Action: Believing in the relevant methods, and having the desire to arrive at the goal, you still need to go do it, and that is action. If action is not what is being relied on (to produce results in Buddhist practice), then desire is just empty desire. It’s just like not thinking about watering the tree but still wanting to eat the fruit. So you still have to go do it according to the relevant methods. ((This is deep. Desire is where it hangs for Westerners. Desire, in and of itself, will simply drain your life-force, which is limited, which is why the Buddha forbade it. It’s going to happen to you anyway whether you want it or not, and whether you focus on it or not. The Buddha has taught us to focus on renunciation, and you do that by action, which is what attains the Goal, partly by exhausting the desire that drives it –xp, 26 Nov 09))
信在这三者里起着最基础的作用，如果不相信佛所说的，那么一切佛学都会无从下手，因此信是基础
Among these three, faith is what brings about the most basic function. If you don’t believe what the Buddha said, then there may be no place to start (practice) from in the entirety of Buddhist studies, and because of this, faith is most fundamental.
回答者： 天永 – Answerer: Tian Yong ((That looks like a Refuge name. Well written, Dharma buddy, well written indeed. –xp, 26 Nov 09))
