第37集 — 為什麼要一門深入長時薰修

The learning method is specializing in one subject, so learning too many subjects must be avoided at all costs. What do we seek when we focus on one subject? We seek to attain samadhi and enlightenment. The principle of learning is ‘delving deeply into one subject and persevering with it for a long period of time’ while the method is ‘reading a book for a thousand times to attain spontaneous enlightenment.’ Spontaneous enlightenment means you become enlightened by yourself without being taught by a teacher. Spontaneous enlightenment will never go wrong. What is the reason? Well, sutras can be used as proof because everything that you understand is what the sutras say. You can now understand everything that you originally cannot understand, and there is no hindrance at all. Since the Buddha expounded the Dharma lectures after he attained enlightenment and your state after becoming enlightened is the same as the Buddha’s, there is no reason you cannot understand the sutra teachings. That’s why we must employ the old method which is the path to becoming enlightened and entering the Buddha’s insight (i.e., the path to attaining meditative concentration and wisdom through precepts observation). Precept is rule, so ‘delving deeply into one subject and persevering with it for a long period of time’ as well as ‘reading a book for a thousand times’ are both precepts. Look at the example before us: Great Master Hai Xian attained enlightenment after chanting ‘Namo Amituofo’ for 92 years. Did he attain Buddha Mindfulness Samadhi? Certainly, he did! Why didn’t he give Dharma lectures after attaining enlightenment? Because he was born in an era when the condition was not right for him to do so. Had he been born during Sakyamuni Buddha’s era, he would have expounded the Dharma lectures. Had he been born during the Sixth Patriarch, Great Master Hui Neng’s era, he could have propagated Zen Buddhism extensively too. Instead, he was born in today’s era when using the Buddha-name chanting method is suitable. If all Buddhists could emulate him, I believe the government would give us a warm welcome and support us enthusiastically. That’s why Great Master Yin Guang taught us to build small cultivation centres in our era. With less than twenty co-living practitioners, the centre can be operated at minimum cost because everyone’s life is simple. Besides, the government can rest assured that you will not hold gatherings and cause trouble because you have few people. It would be great if every practitioner in this small cultivation centre could focus on studying one sutra. In this way, all the eight schools of Mahayana Buddhism in China as well as over hundreds of sutras and treatises can flourish. The teaching and learning method must be based on attaining meditative concentration and uncovering wisdom, so learning miscellaneous subjects is not allowed.