第203集 — 什麼是真正的教育

佛是清淨平等覺，每個人心都是清淨平等覺，就是你有妄想、有雜念，把它破壞了，它不起作用。帶著妄想分別執著，這就叫妄心，執著是染污，染污就不覺了，分別就是波動，大風大浪，起伏不定。所以真心的德用失掉了。

Buddhas are pure, impartial and enlightened, so is every one’s mind. It is your wandering and distracting thoughts that have spoiled them, causing them to be ineffective. Having wandering thoughts, discrimination and attachments is called ‘the deluded mind’; attachment is a defilement, so it is unenlightened, while discrimination is fluctuation like the uncertain strong winds and waves. As a result, the virtuous function of the true mind is lost.

佛法沒有別的，就是幫助你恢復真心，用什麼方法？戒定慧。教給你一門深入，長時薰修，這是戒律，你要遵守；教給你讀書千遍，其義自見，這也是戒律。

Buddhism is nothing more than helping you to recover your true mind. What method should you use? You should employ the Threefold Learning method of precepts, meditative concentration and wisdom to recover it. You are taught to delve deeply into one subject and persevere with it for a long period of time, as well as reading a book for a thousand times to attain spontaneous enlightenment. You must obey this precept.

因戒得定，你能夠把這個規矩守住，一生都不改變，天天幹，久久就得定。定是什麼樣子？妄念沒有了，雜念沒有了，妄想沒有了，這就得定。定有淺深，淺的定是剛剛伏住，心不起妄念。你看，我們讀經、念佛，心裡妄念沒有了，不讀經、不念佛又有了，這功夫淺，功夫要加深。

If you could keep this rule throughout your life and do it every day, you would attain meditative concentration over time. What is meditative concentration like? It is a mind without wandering and distracting thoughts. Meditative concentration can be shallow or deep. Shallow concentration means one has just begun to subdue the arising of wandering thoughts. You see, when we recite the sutra and chant Amitabha Buddha’s name, we have no more wandering thoughts, but once we do not recite the sutra and chant Amitabha Buddha’s name, the wandering thoughts come back again. This effort of practice is shallow and we have to work harder.

一千遍不夠兩千遍，兩千遍不夠三千遍，一定要讀到我不讀心也是清淨的，也沒有雜念，也沒有妄想，不念經也是，這就什麼？這就得定了。得定之後好，讀經不要放棄，還照以前一樣天天讀，為什麼？求自見，自見就是大徹大悟。

If reading the sutra for a thousand times is insufficient, we have to increase to two thousand or three thousand times. We must recite to the stage whereby our mind is still pure without distracting and wandering thoughts even when we do not recite the sutra. What have we attained? We have attained meditative concentration. This is good, but do not give up the sutra recitation even after you have attained meditative concentration but persevere with it every day. What is the reason? Because we seek to attain spontaneous enlightenment (i.e., Supreme Enlightenment).

以前光讀，讀得很熟，裡頭的理不懂，突然開悟了，全明白了。這就是開悟，開悟全明白了，不但你學的這部經明白了，你沒有學的東西全明白了。這是真正的教育。

In the past, we only recited it very fluently without understanding its principles and reasons, but we can fully understand them once we become suddenly enlightened. Not only will you be able to understand the sutra that you have been studying, but you can also fully understand things that you have not learned before. This is real education.