A Talk Given by Professor Douglas Powers to Dharma Realm Buddhist University’s Venerable Master Legacy Club on November 13, 2019/ Chinese Translated by Wu Lianlian and Janet Lee 包果勒教授 2019年11月13日講於法界佛教大學「宣公上人志業傳承社」/ 吳蓮蓮、 李采眞 中譯 VBS 610
The Master had other things going on that had massive amounts of effects that we can’t see. But all that is going on in another realm; you probably have 100 of realms going on simultaneously in which we’re just one. We could only work as humans in the form we’re working in. We worked on many programs that started happening. Because we had this place, the Master suggested we start a refugee program.
上人會在我們看不到的地方同時進行很多事情，並且發揮莫大的影響。這一切都在另一個界運作，也許有100個界同時進行著，而人界只是其中之一。我們就只能以人類的這個形式來做事，由這裡開始所有種種的計劃。因為我們有這個場地（萬佛城），上人建議我們發起一個難民計劃。
Shifu said, “Just do it!” So we went back to Washington and started talking to the State Department. It turned out that they needed a Buddhist organization. Resettlement is done through private agencies run by Protestants, Jews, and Catholics since they have contracts with the State Department to take a certain quota of refugees.
上人說：「就去做吧！」於是我們回到華盛頓，開始與美國國務院交涉，結果發現他們需要一個佛教機構。因為難民必須由私人機構安置。這些私人機構是由基督徒，猶太教徒和天主教徒所經營，他們與國務院簽有合約，能接受一定數量的難民。
Those agencies sponsor the refugees, and then you have contracts with the State Department to resettle those people. You are given a certain amount of money for the refugees and all that kind of stuff.
難民由這些機構資助。我們與國務院簽合約，再與這些機構談妥安置計畫，我們才能有經費來打點安置難民的種種相關花費。
Right at that time, it just so happened that there were all these Buddhists coming from Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam, and they had no Buddhist representation as an agency. It’s not a simple thing. To do this, one has to fill out many contracts with the State Department and attend meetings in New York and one every other week in Washington, DC. Anyway, they accepted us as a resettlement agency, but there was one problem: we were supposed to be at a meeting by contract. The Master said, “Just go do it.”
碰巧的是，那時有些佛教徒難民是來自寮國、柬埔寨和越南，他們沒有佛教徒的代表機構。這可不是一件簡單的事，代表機構要和美國國務院簽訂合約，要參加在紐約舉行的會議，以及每兩週在華盛頓舉行的會議。總之，他們接受我們作為安置機構，但有個難題，我們得遵守合約參加會議。上人說，「就去做吧！」
I flew to New York for one day and flew back every week for three years. I just flew to New York stayed for one meeting and flew back. I didn’t want to get an office in New York; it would cost too much. Shifu was also trying to get me to buy apartment houses in New York. I should’ve bought some, but there were a lot of stuff I didn’t do, because of a lack of imagination, and as a 27 or 28 year-old-person, I didn’t know what was going on. So I ran around looking at apartment buildings. In Manhattan they had 120 apartments for a couple million dollars or something and I didn’t buy them; they’re probably inestimable at this time. Everywhere I went he just said, “Buy stuff.” I guess I wasn’t really trusting then.
每週有一天，我搭飛機往返紐約，這樣持續了三年。我只是飛往紐約，開個會，然後返回。我不想在紐約設立辦公室，這會花很多錢。上人還試圖讓我在紐約購置公寓，我確實該買，由於缺乏想像力，很多事情我都沒有付諸實踐。當時27歲或28歲的我，完全摸不著頭緒。我四處瀏覽公寓大樓。在曼哈頓，他們有一棟120間房的公寓大樓，要價數百萬美元，當時我沒有買，現在的價值大概難以估計。我到任何地方，上人都說：「買！」，但我卻沒有完全當真。
Again, my relation with Shifu was that we talked on the phone and just in English. But don’t tell anyone exactly this, because he’s supposed to pretend he didn’t know English, so everybody would learn Chinese.
再說一次，我和上人的關係是——「我們通電話時，只用英語交談。」請不要告訴任何人。因為上人會假裝自己不懂英語，這樣大家才會學中文。
Question: I was wondering why Master Hua wanted to purchase property. As a Buddhist monk, frugality, a mendicant, a renunciate. Why does a Buddhist monk buy all these properties and teach you to buy property?
問：我想知道為什麼上人要購置房地產？作為一個比丘、勤儉、一位乞士和解脫者。為什麼比丘會購買房地產，並教您購買房地產？
Professor Douglas Powers: He wasn’t limited to any form. He honestly thought we should combine everything in the world. Now I see that every place we went, we’d buy something, fill it with people ,and move on. He wanted places in the whole world; he needed New York, London, Paris. The first university chancellor was from Europe, then the chancellor of Africa, the chancellor of South America, and so on. The University was a worldwide university that brought knowledge to the entire world and within the construct of the total world in every way the world could understand and get on it.
果勒居士：上人不局限於任何形式。他真心覺得，我們應該將世界上所有的一切整合起來。我現在明白了，我們到過的每個地方都買地產，用人填滿它，然後再到下一站。整個世界，上人需要紐約、倫敦和巴黎。他設的第一所大學，有歐洲的校長、非洲的校長、南美洲的校長，這是一所世界性的大學，它以整個世界能夠理解並加以吸收運用的方式，將知識帶到世界。
Money was an important element, and he treated it carefully up here with everybody, but dealing with him with money was a total trip because he only saw it as a means to something. He was never attached; you couldn’t get him to be anyway because he wasn’t attached to anything.
錢有其重要性，上人和道場裡的每個人都非常謹慎處理。但是和上人一起用錢，總讓人超乎預期。對他而言，錢只是為了達成某件事的工具，他從不執著。你無法用任何事物抓住上人，因為他完全無所執著。
He saw every single person in their Buddha nature. So, through the conditions, every living being is living in its karmic conditions, but they all contain the Buddha nature. He only saw the Buddha nature in each living being and then the conditions that were the shadow over it.
上人看每個人是看他們自性中的佛性。因為種種因緣，每個眾生都活在自己的業緣之中，但都具佛性。上人只看每個眾生的佛性，和這些遮蔽佛性的陰影。
Money is an element but not a primary element of the conditions. If you look at the totality of conditions and where the consciousness is going, wealth isn’t actually a very good determiner of where consciousness is going. Gender is one element; nationality is another element. There are many different elements in the conditions.
金錢是個因素，但不是緣法的要素。如果看整體的緣法以及意識的走向，那麼財富實際上並不是一個決定意識走向的因素。性別是因素之一。國籍也是因素之一。因緣法中有種種不同的元素。
He was actually seeing the karmic conditions where you are creating a theory. We apply a theory in every case about what we think is going on. He wasn’t working with a theory; he was working with the actual karmic conditions of each sentient being that he was seeing. There is no theory. Every person has a different story; every sentient being has a very complex construct of karmic conditions that cover that nature, and each one has its own specific issue.
上人實際上看到了各種業緣，並且看到我們正在創造一種（意識形態的）思考模式。我們會以這個模式來看待所有的事。上人不是，他是看到每個眾生的業緣，無需任何模式。每個人都有不同的故事。每個眾生都被錯綜複雜的業緣遮蔽了自性，都有自已要面對的課題。
The difference between wisdom and all of us is seeing each of the conditions for what they are within themselves and not through theories we have to apply to them. Because theory just covers what’s going on. We apply the theory. We don’t see it directly. Therefore, the theory covers over what is really going on. Wisdom is seeing directly. And each karmic vision will look different. If I were to see each of you with that kind of wisdom, I would not be seeing any theory or any gender; I would just be in the totality of the conditions. And he could see through that to the nature. He was only relating to nature. That’s why his sadness is there all the time: “You guys, I don’t get it. I’m seeing the Buddha nature, and you’re completely confused in your desires.”
智者與我們所有人之間的區別在於，能夠看到自身所處的各種因緣狀態，無需透過任何思考模式。意識形態的思考模式只看到當下所發生的事。用這種思維，我們就無法洞察一切。意識型態的思維只能看到眼前的狀況；智慧則能夠照了。業緣使然，人人所見不盡相同。如果我能以師父那樣的智慧去看每個人，就不會著眼在那些思考模式和性別，而能全然處於所有的緣法狀態之中。上人可以透過這些看到眾生的自性。上人只著重在和自性有關的一切。這就是為什麼他總是非常痛心：「我真不明白你們這些人。我看到了佛性，你們卻被欲望所迷。 」
He was doing that on many, many levels. When you looked at him, he’s always reciting a mantra. His lips were always moving. When he was doing a lecture, his lips were always moving in a mantra; he was always reciting. He was operating on a multitude of different levels simultaneously. He operated on all of the levels of the conditionals and simultaneously interacting on all these different levels. When you came up and talked to him, it was as if there was this dot in his consciousness that he looked at you with. You could see him looking into a dot, “Oh, oh yeah, oh, what’s up?” A little dot in the total conditions. In paying attention to that little dot, amongst millions and trillions of other things that showed up at the moment, you felt he was paying full attention. Still, it wasn’t that within this realm of consciousness that you were actually really there in any kind of real sense. The only thing I feel bad is, he would say, he felt sad about how stupid we were. “You guys are so stupid,” that’s all I got from him. No matter what we did, he was so sad. “You do all this stuff, you create all these conditions—why are you so attached to all this stupid stuff?” You could feel this kind of sadness and sorrow for just the level of stupidity we continued to engage in, for no matter how much he tried to teach us, we were just super attached to our situations.
上人總是同時運作許多層面的事。當我們看見上人時，他的嘴唇不停地在動，他無時無刻都在持咒。當上人講經時，他的嘴唇也沒停止持咒，他總是在持誦。上人會同時處理許多不同層面的事，在同一個時間對種種不同的因緣發揮作用。當你上前和他說話時，上人看著你，就像看著他意識中的一個小點，上人端詳這個小點，說「哦，哦，是的，怎麼啦?」。而這個小點，不過是所有緣法中的一個小點。你覺得上人全神貫注這一個小點，事實上它不過是當下所出現數百萬億計事物中的一個小點。你覺得他全部注意力都在此，其實不然。你認為自己是真實的存在，這只是你自我意識的認知而已。我唯一覺得遺憾的是，上人會說，對我們的愚痴感到悲哀。我從他那兒聽到的就是「你們真愚痴」。不管我們做什麼，都讓上人很痛心。「你們的所作所為，造就了所有這些因緣——為什麼你們還要執著所有這些愚痴的事？」你可以感到上人的悲痛，因為我們是如此地愚痴，無論他怎麼教化，我們在自己的旅程中依然執迷不悟。♦