2013年7月31日 星期三

20130731精舍發放日藥師法會上人開示

今天在精舍結集經藏,正好遇到發放日,藥師法會結束上人開示。
因為電腦開著所以可以打字,但是還是覺得實在是來不及打,僅能將打下來的跟大家分享。

常說台灣是寶島,平時若能生活中克勤克儉,不要動不動就是要享受、裝冷氣,出來外面或是無電可用冷氣,真正是受不了。
放眼天下不管是冷或是熱,有的國家冷跟熱都是很辛苦,貧窮苦難的地方,交通不方便的地方,生活只是嘆無奈。我們常提起來的非洲氣候燠熱,想裝冷氣也無奈,沒辦法裝冷氣,氣候本來就很熱,生活環境天然就是苦,向來貧困,不管是生活中物質的貧困,大自然的環境也給她們很多的苦難,自然的苦。在台灣我們要見苦知福。
剛剛看到墨西哥貧富懸殊,有錢的人很有錢,貧困的人很貧困,美國慈濟菩薩五六年前到墨西哥,聽到有很貧困的人,離大城市不過二十多公里,車程很快就到,在很熱鬧的首都,轉個彎交通就非常崎嶇不平,到了小村莊內,等於是兩個世界,才二十多公里,就變成另外一種世界。大都會區高樓大廈生活享受,小村莊中物質缺乏,所住的房子是撿來的東西拼拼湊湊簡陋破爛,孩子一群兒童、少年全身穿著襤褸,破爛,使人看了很不忍心,要讀書的孩子學雜費父母無法負擔,慈濟人的愛送到那裡,菩薩去問當地的老師,就是這樣鼓勵,不要很會唸書的,要想唸書的孩子要給她機會。不是要分數高獎學,是要苦難人有機會讀書。表達我們的心意幫助,展開去幫助,就這樣開始鼓勵老師用靜思語教導孩子品行,要怎樣孝順父母,互相幫助。
今年再去,三節合一(五月),他們會浴佛、孝親、敬師、感恩眾生恩,引導他們怎樣為父母洗腳,如何向父母說感恩、向老師敬禮感恩,那個畫面很美,雖然是貧困、拼拼湊湊的空間中,雖然很熱,畫面很和睦,看了覺得心很清涼,沒有一點燠熱的感覺。
孩子對父母的孝順、洗腳看起來很自然,父母開懷的笑容,這就是佛法如何入人間,有的是需要物質的幫助,有的是心靈慾望無窮盡,無窮盡的煩惱有如煮沙煎日,燠熱的氣候。學佛要學如何用心付出,打開人人燠熱、熱惱的心,轉熱惱為清涼,這就是我們要用虔誠的心,佛法入心,自然會時時滿足,感恩環境給我們充足的生活,打開心門,有愛付出,每個月一度藥師法會,藥師經中不就是要轉我們心境為人間付出?解脫人間心靈的苦難,這就是佛法面對人間世間要施的力量。

2013年7月28日 星期日

20130728 晨語故事

【舍利弗瞋恚氣分】
(雜語)智度論二謂「如舍利弗有瞋恚餘習,佛由禪定起經行,羅睺羅從佛,佛問羅睺羅:何故羸瘦?羅睺羅以偈答佛:若人食油則得力,若食蘇者得好色,食麻滓菜無色力,大德世尊當自知。佛問羅睺羅眾中誰為上座?羅睺羅答和上舍利弗。佛言舍利弗食不淨食。爾時舍利弗轉聞是語,即時吐食,自作誓言:從今日不復受人請。是時波斯匿王與長者須達多等來詣舍利弗所,告舍利弗,佛不以無事受人請,大德舍利弗復不受請,我等白衣,云何當得大信清淨?舍利弗言:我大師佛言,舍利弗食不淨食,今不得受人請。於是波斯匿王等至佛所,白佛言:佛不常受人請,舍利弗復不受請,我等云何心得大信,願佛敕舍利弗還受人請。佛言:此人心堅,不可移轉。佛爾時引本生因緣。昔有一國王,為毒蛇所嚙,王時欲死,呼諸良醫令治蛇毒。時諸醫多言還令蛇噉,毒氣乃盡。是時諸醫各說咒術。齧王之蛇,即來王所。諸醫積薪燃火,敕蛇還噉汝毒,若不然,當入此火。毒蛇思惟,我既吐毒,云何還噉?寧此劇死。思惟定心,即時入火。爾時毒蛇,舍利弗是,世世心堅不可動。」

早上晨語,上人再度提到舍利弗的執著;說到在無量劫前,當舍利弗受蛇身時,就已經是那麼固執了。寧願犧牲自己的生命,也不願意把吐出來的毒再吸回去。

人的習氣常常是像這樣,累生累世累積而成,要改真的不容易;但是到法華會時,舍利弗也知道自己錯了,同時也因為這樣,得到了授記成佛的機會。

2013年7月20日 星期六

抄經:般若波羅蜜多心經


小時候寫毛筆字很喜歡臨帖,但是現在抄經倒是不臨帖了,倒不是因為字好看,而是因為臨帖會太專心去想字怎麼寫得像書法家,就不會有時間去思索經文裡面的含意了。

上人一直都說,抄經的功德是來自於抄經時會思索經文的意義,然後落實在生活中,如果只是為了練字而抄經,那是沒有功德的。

今天在抄心經的時候想到,所謂的「色即是空,空即是色」,其實用自然科學的想法就是一切物質都可以分析到四大類的大分子:醣類、脂肪、蛋白質、核酸,然後這些又可以分析到原子:碳、氫、氧、氮,然後所有這些原子其實都是質子、中子跟電子構成的,所以分析到最後所有的物質都是一樣的(次原子粒子),那也沒什麼好計較的對吧?

2013年7月17日 星期三

Sister of Charity ~ 2010年富比士亞洲版的上人專題報導

原文網址在此

根據文章裡面說的,上人應該沒有接受訪問,不過我個人很喜歡這篇文章,因為他把上人講得非常有現代感。

為了課程需要花了一點時間翻譯,跟大家分享。

Sister of Charity
Shu-Ching Jean Chen, 04.02.10, 12:40 PM EDT Forbes Asia Magazine dated April 12, 2010
Buddhist nun has built the biggest charity in the Chinese world.
Dharma Master Cheng Yen may be a 72-year-old Buddhist nun adhering to a harsh daily regimen in a convent with 160 other nuns, but that doesn't mean she's missing out on the latest technology. Wherever she goes in her small temple abode in eastern Taiwan or in the sprawling office complex she oversees nearby, television screens are close by, including two where morning service is held. She presides over a daily videoconference and, from the computer on her desk, holds emergency meetings via Webcam and tv. In the early 1990s she was quick to get an e-mail address and start surfing the Web.
或許上人是一位與其他160位比丘尼在精舍堅持著嚴格的日常作息的72歲比丘尼;但這並不意味著她對於最新的科技一無所知。不論她是在台灣東部的精舍,或在精舍附近的辦公大樓,甚或在進行上午的兩次傳道(按:晨語與志工早會)時,附近一定有電視屏幕。每天,她主持一個日常的視訊會議(按:應是志工早會),另外也會從她辦公桌上的電腦,通過webcam和電視舉行緊急會議。在20世紀90年代初期,她就有E-mail地址,並開始上網。
Cheng Yen is the founder and chief executive of a fast-growing charity, Taiwan Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation, the largest noNGOvernmental organization in the Chinese world. Thanks to being so wired, she heard about the Haiti earthquake in January right after it hit. She immediately began coordinating a global fund-raising drive and dispatching relief.
證嚴上人是台灣佛教慈濟基金會( 華人世界中一個快速成長的慈善機構)的創辦人及行政總裁。因為隨時都與世界連線,在2010年1月海地地震後,她馬上得到消息,並立即開始協調全球的募款活動及派遣救災。
Often compared with Mother Teresa, Cheng Yen and five others started Tzu Chi in 1966 when they began sewing baby shoes to raise money for the poor. Begun in a wooden hut not far from its headquarters today, Tzu Chi now enlists entrepreneurs and other lay people as volunteers and organizes itself like a corporation. The number of donors hit 1 million in 1989, the same year that Cheng Yen published her first collection of philosophical musings, Jing Si Aphorisms. But its grassroots activity really caught the public's attention after the foreign press started criticizing Taiwan as an island of greed during a stock market bubble in 1990. The book is now available in 11 languages and has sold 3.5 million copies, and Tzu Chi's donors number 10 million.
證嚴上人和其他五位比丘尼在1966年開始慈濟的慈善志業,當時他們以縫製嬰兒鞋籌集資金濟貧。慈濟開始於距離其總部不遠處的一間木屋,現在有許許多多的志工,包括大企業家;並且組織本身就像一個公司。在1989年,會員的數量達到100萬,同年,證嚴上人的哲學沉思,靜思語,也出版了。但是,在外國媒體開始批評台灣在1990年期間的股市泡沫,並冠以「貪婪之島」的名稱後,慈濟的活動才真正引起公眾的關注。這本書現在(2010)有11種語言的譯本,並已售出350萬本,而慈濟會員數已經突破1千萬。
Cheng Yen never travels outside of Taiwan because she suffers from heart disease. But this doesn't prevent her from taking Tzu Chi to faraway places; it has branches in 47 other countries, the largest number being in the U.S., where it has 99 field offices. Some 30% of its donors live outside of Taiwan, with the largest group--330,000--in Malaysia. Last year it raised $313 million in Taiwan and at least $30 million overseas; there's no overall total because Tzu Chi doesn't tally what all the branches collect. The branches are self-sustaining and seek funding from the headquarters only when necessary.
因為患有心臟病,上人從來沒有去台灣以外的地方旅行。但是,這並不妨礙慈濟去遙遠的地方。慈濟基金會在其他47個國家設有分支機構,最大的是在美國,擁有99個分會或辦事處。慈濟會員約有30%在國外,以馬來西亞最多,有33萬。去年在台灣募得313萬美元,海外至少3千萬美元(因為慈濟從來不計算全球募款總和所以沒有募款總金額)。海外分會都要自行募款支持在地活動,只在必要時尋求花蓮本會協助。
The organization is a model of efficiency: Its staff numbers just 800, bolstered by its network of 2 million volunteers, up from 30,000 only 17 years ago. By comparison, the Red Cross has fewer than 1 million volunteers, but it pays 34,000 employees. Bangladesh's BRAC, the world's largest NGO by number of staff, employs more than 120,000.
該組織是效率的典範:它只有800名員工,在200萬名志工(17年前只有3萬名志工)的協助下運作。相比之下,紅十字會的志工不到1百萬,但它聘任了3萬4千名員工。孟加拉的BRAC(世界上最大的非政府組織),其工作人員數量超過12萬。
Since its first overseas mission in 1991 after a flood in Bangladesh, Tzu Chi's medical and relief teams have been active in 70 countries, their signature blue shirts and white trousers visible in such far-flung places as Kosovo, Rwanda, Cambodia and North Korea. In North Korea, for many years after 1998, Tzu Chi was the only NGO allowed to hand-deliver goods to recipients, not merely drop off the supplies at harbors as other international NGOs had to do.
自從第一次的國際救災(1991年孟加拉洪水)以後,慈濟的醫療和救援隊已經到達了70個國家;他們的「藍天白雲」-- 藍色襯衫和白色長褲 -- 在科索沃、盧安達、柬埔寨和北朝鮮等遙遠的地方都可以看到。在北朝鮮,在1998年後多年,慈濟是唯一被允許直接將救災物資交付到居民手上的的非政府組織,而其他國際非政府組織僅被允許將救災物資運到港口。
In 2003 Tzu Chi became Taiwan's first NGO included under the UN's umbrella, giving it protection in hot spots such as Afghanistan, and in 2008 it was the first offshore NGO allowed to register in China. In January Beijing ruled that its name, Tzu Chi (meaning "compassionate relief"), was worthy of copyright protection against a local copycat. "The best way to look at Tzu Chi from a management point of view is how its efficiency and brand name value continue to pull in volunteers and outside donations," says Stan Shih, a cofounder of Acer. "Cheng Yen is no doubt one of the world's best CEOs."
慈濟在2003年成為聯合國的保護傘下的台灣第一家非政府組織,使它可以在聯合國保護下到阿富汗等危險地帶賑災。2008年它成為第一個在中國境內獲准註冊的境外非政府組織。中國並且在2010年1月裁定對慈濟(意思是「慈悲濟世」)的版權保護。 「從管理的角度來看,慈濟的效率和品牌價值,會繼續吸引志工和外界捐款,」宏碁的創始人之一施振榮先生說:「上人毫無疑問是世界上最好的CEO之一。」
Shih met Cheng Yen in the 1990s through another Acer cofounder, Ken Tai, a Tzu Chi volunteer, and went on to attend a Tzu Chi summer camp held for businesspeople contributing $30,000 or more. Shih is working with Tzu Chi and other organizations to promote computer literacy as part of a pan-Asia effort.
施振榮在90年代透過另一個宏基創始人,邰中和,會見了證嚴上人,並參加慈濟舉辦的實業家生活營,捐獻了至少三萬美金。施先生與慈濟和其他組織合作,在泛亞洲地區推廣電腦掃盲。
Chief executives are famous for their long hours, but Cheng Yen--who declined to talk to FORBES ASIA for this story--takes this to an extreme. Her office hours begin at 3:45 a.m. and end past 10 p.m. Her schedule is filled months ahead with visits from donors, volunteers, people asking for help and politicians, interrupted only by meals that last no longer than 15 minutes. Frugal to the point of hardship, she is known for using no more than one basin of water a day. A couple of times a year she travels around the island to visit volunteers and deliver speeches. A forceful speaker, she prods housewives to save part of their grocery money to help the poor with medical expenses, and she converts big-name business leaders into devout disciples.
CEO們工作的時間都很長,但證嚴上人 - 拒絕接受富比士亞洲的訪問 - 更是將此發揮到了極致。她每天從早上3點45分開始工作到晚上10點,接見會眾、志工、求助的人和政治人物,用餐時間不超過15分鐘。她的行程總是已經安排到未來幾個月以後。她節儉到幾近苦修,每天不用超過一盆水。一年有兩三次,她環島行腳,與志工會晤並開示。她的演講極為有力,她激勵家庭主婦省下她們菜錢的一部分,來幫助窮人的醫療費用,也有許多商界領袖成為她虔誠的弟子。
An early disciple was Wei Yin-Chun, one of the four founding brothers of Tingyi Holdings. In 1988, four years before the brothers moved to China to found what later would become the largest instant-noodle maker there, Wei, then 31, was deeply touched by stories in a Tzu Chi publication and contacted its local office to make a donation. In 1995 he started working with Tzu Chi in China, doling out relief and building schools in remote villages. After completing a two-year apprenticeship, Wei became a disciple and now heads the food unit of Tzu Chi's international aid arm. When disaster strikes, he puts aside work at the family business to focus on relief efforts, as he did in January for Haiti while on business in China. Now back in Taiwan at the helm of a family subsidiary, Wei Chuan Food, Wei set up a unit in 2008 inside the company to offer courses for the group's 5,000 employees.
其中一位早期的弟子魏應充,他與三個兄弟創立頂益控股(筆者按:現改名為康師父控股)。在1988年,四兄弟到中國(並在以後成為最大的方便麵生產商)的四年前,當時31歲的魏應充,被慈濟出版物的故事深深感動,並聯絡其當地辦公室進行捐款。 1995年他開始與慈濟在中國合作,發放救濟物資並進行偏遠鄉村學校的建設。完成了兩年培訓以後,他成為弟子,現在負責國際慈濟人道援助會(簡稱慈濟人援會)食品召集人。當災難來襲時,他把家族企業工作先放在一邊,把重心放在救災工作;就如2010年1月海地震災,他正在中國處理業務,也立即開始處理賑災事項。目前他在台灣管理味全食品,同時透過一個在2008年成立的單位提供公司內部約5000名員工的課程。
Relentless and inspiring as Cheng Yen is, it's her ability to deliver results while converting the philosophical thought of Buddhism into plain language and applying it to daily life that win her wide admiration. "She talks in a way that makes things sound so simple that you can understand," says Franky Widjaja, son of Eka Tjipta Widjaja, founder of Indonesia's Sinar Mas Group. "There's nothing mystical about what she says."
上人善於不懈的鼓舞人心,並且將佛教的哲學思想轉化成通俗易懂的語言,並把它應用到日常生活中,因此而贏得廣泛的敬仰。 「她說話的方式,使事情聽起來如此簡單容易理解」,印尼金光集團創辦人黃奕聰先生的兒子黃榮年先生說:「她說的話沒有什麼神秘的元素在內。」
The father, a Christian, and his son visited Cheng Yen for the first time just days before riots broke out in Indonesia in 1998 in the aftermath of the financial crisis. After returning, the Widjajas jumped into action, distributing food, toothpaste, instant noodles and other daily necessities to victims and the army during the riots. They also worked with Tzu Chi to clean up Jakarta's notoriously polluted Angke River after disastrous flooding in 2002 and to raise $30 million to resettle victims of the 2004 tsunami. With the help of volunteers such as the Widjajas, Tzu Chi arrived in Banda Aceh, capital of the area devastated by the tsunami, one day ahead of Indonesia's president, several ministers and the army.
黃榮年先生的父親,當時是一個基督徒,和他的兒子在1998年印尼騷亂爆發之前幾天第一次拜訪上人。黃榮年先生回國後,開始向暴亂的受害者和軍隊發放食物,牙膏,方便麵等生活必需品。他們還與慈濟在2002年洪災後進行雅加達紅溪河污染的清理,並籌集三千萬元,安置2004年海嘯的受害者。在黃榮年等志工的幫助下,慈濟比印尼總統、部長和軍隊還提前一天抵達班達亞齊(海嘯重災區)。
Such grassroots mobilization is meshed with a consensus-driven decision-making structure at headquarters. Cheng Yen intervenes in contentious issues, such as in the decision to help China resettle millions of victims of the 1991 mass flooding in eastern China, even though politics stood in the way on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. It was Taiwan's first relief effort in China--the Chinese government was suspicious of Tzu Chi's motives, and some Taiwanese weren't happy that Tzu Chi was helping mainlanders instead of focusing on domestic relief. "She can combine her charisma with the management of a modern organization," says C. Julia Huang, an anthropology professor at National Tsing Hua University and author of a new book on Tzu Chi. "That makes Tzu Chi an interesting case study of a nonprofit organization, different from most other Buddhist groups." Many Buddhist groups have trouble growing beyond their roots as a religious organization, she says.
花蓮本會的決策通常以共識來動員基層。但是在1991年,即使海峽兩邊的政治人物都干預,證嚴上人仍然決定幫助在中國華東大水災中數以百萬計的民眾安置。這是台灣在中國的第一個救援工作 - 中國政府覺得慈濟的動機可疑,而一些台灣人對於慈濟幫助大陸,而不是專注於國內救濟感到不開心。 國立清華大學人類學教授黃倩玉說:「她能結合她的人格魅力與現代組織管理,這使得慈濟在非營利組織中成為一個有趣的案例,與大多數其他佛教團體不同。」她說,許多佛教團體在擴大組織時都遇到困難。
Mixing her idealism with perseverance, Cheng Yen often commits herself to a project before raising the money. Despite worries about funding, she overruled skeptics and agreed to the requests of every school headmaster who knocked at Tzu Chi's door asking for money to rebuild after an earthquake flattened a slice of central Taiwan in 1999. Tzu Chi raised $300 million to build 51 schools, all shock-resistant structures. After eight years of trying, she built her first hospital in 1986 by collecting small donations and bypassing big donors. "Do not leave trouble to our offspring," she told her disciples when explaining why she declined an offer from a Japanese donor to underwrite the whole hospital project. She worried that relying on a single donor would jeopardize Tzu Chi's independence if the donor demanded a bigger say in its operation.
作為一個堅毅的理想主義者,上人往往在救災時先承諾,然後再籌錢。不考慮經費的問題,在1999年集集地震以後,只要有校長來訪,她都同意他們重建的請求。推翻眾人的懷疑,慈濟籌得三億美元,建立51所具備有防震結構的學校。經過8年的努力,她靠小額捐款於1986年建立了第一家醫院。 「不要給後世留下問題,」當她解釋為什麼拒絕從一位日本的大德接受所有醫院所需經費的捐助。她擔心接受單一的捐助後,萬一捐贈者要求更大的控制權,會危及慈濟醫院的獨立性。
After six more hospitals came the establishment of a full-fledged university and a medical college, all in Taiwan, and a media group that includes a 24-hour global satellite TV station carrying in-house productions of news, dramas, talk shows and documentaries, as well as Cheng Yen's speeches and notices of charity activities posted by its global offices from as far as Lesotho. The media group draws a quarter of its annual budget from a metal, plastic and paper recycling business in Taiwan staffed by 60,000 volunteers.
目前慈濟在台灣有六個醫院、一所完整的大學包含醫學院,以及大愛電視台(24小時的全球衛星電視台)播放新聞、電視劇、談話節目和紀錄片製作、證嚴上人的說法和其全球各地的慈善活動新聞,播放範圍遠及賴索托。大愛電視台年度預算的四分之一,是由環保志業 -- 由60,000名志工組成,回收金屬,塑膠和紙張。
Today Tzu Chi also runs Asia's largest bone-marrow registry, and its reserve of emergency medical supplies, enough to treat 30,000 patients for a month, rivals that of leading medical missions. "Tzu Chi's biggest asset is the master, the second asset is the volunteers, the third is the capital and experience of its entrepreneurs," says Walter Huang, chairman of Texma International, a garmentmaker for U.S. brands such as J.C. Penney ( JCP - news people ), gap and Tommy Hilfiger. Huang is among the five founding donors and managers of a nonprofit textile business under Tzu Chi using fabric made from recycled plastic bottles to sew blankets for refugees around the world.
目前慈濟擁有亞洲最大的骨髓庫,其緊急醫療物資儲備足以治療30,000名患者一個月。 德式馬企業股份有限公司(供應J.C. Penny、GAP、以及Tommy Hilfiger等知名品牌的布料)董事長黃華德先生說:「慈濟最大的資產是上人,第二大的資產是志工,第三大的資產才是有資本和經驗的企業家」,黃華德先生是大愛感恩科技的五個創始捐助者與管理者,負責以回收塑料瓶製成的材料縫製毯子,提供給世界各地的難民。
No apparent successor has emerged from Tzu Chi's four deputies, all professional managers, or from the nuns. "We and the master always focus on now," says Gary K.C. Ho, a real estate brokerage entrepreneur who heads the Canada branch. "Master hopes to finish everything while she is still alive, so everything will be in place when we have a successor, who might be less charismatic but would feel less pressured." But running against a clock that she has meticulously divided into 86,400 seconds a day, Cheng Yen has always said there's no retirement for her.
從慈濟的四個副總執行長(都是專業經理人),或是比丘尼中,目前沒有明顯的繼任者出線。 「我們和上人始終專注於當下,」何國慶先生(房地產經紀企業家,目前負責的加拿大分會)說。 「師父希望在她住世時完成一切,所以當我們有一個繼任者時,一切都已經完備,這樣繼任者即使沒有那麼多力量,但壓力會小一點。」但是,對於分秒不空過的上人來說,她總是說自己沒有退休的那一天。

Cheng Yen's Ten Commandments 慈濟十戒
Words of wisdom for Tzu Chi disciples:

1. Do not kill 不殺生
2. Do not steal 不偷盜
3. Do not fornicate 不邪淫
4. Do not lie 不妄語
5. Do not drink alcohol 不飲酒
6. Do not smoke, use drugs or chew betel nuts 不抽煙、不吸毒、不嚼檳榔
7. Do not gamble or speculate 不賭博、不投機取巧
8. Respect your parents and be moderate in speech and attitude 孝順父母,調和聲色
9. Follow the traffic regulations 遵守交通規則
10. Do not participate in politics or demonstrations 不參與政治活動、示威遊行