【Listening 听闻 】What are you here for? 来这里干什么？

【LISTENING】 – What are you here for?

There was a great Venerable Master named Ying-guang (印光⼤師) who locked himself in a retreat and prostrated to Buddha. Of course, most of us Buddhists respected him greatly. At that time, some people would visit him out of admiration, but not all of them were Buddhists. There was one intellectual person who went with his friends – they were all well-known at that time – to visit Venerable Ying-guang, and some non-Buddhists came along. This intellectual scholar asked, “Venerable Master! Your Buddha statue is made of wood; it is carved out of clay and wood. Why do you worship it?” What was Venerable Yingguang’s reply?  ”It is made out of clay and wood, but I am not!” Do you understand what this means? Of course, that [statue] is made of clay and wood, but I’m not!

The same principle applies here. His teachings may not be correct, but I am not like that! I came to learn from Buddha. Let me ask, do you want to learn from Buddha? What are you here for?” [If you have come] to learn from Buddha, if it is for the sake of learning from Buddha, then you need to think positively.

SOURCE 来源 :

10A 19’30” Vol 2 of Master Jih-Chang’s Discourse P47 LL1
English Lamrim Vol 1 P57

日常师父法语📡10A 19’30” 手抄稿第2册P47 LL1

听闻 : 来这里干什么？

当年印光大师，他在自己关房里面闭关、拜佛。当然平常我们信佛的人，对他老人家恭敬得不得了。当时有一些人，仰慕他的名去，他倒不一定信佛，所以有一个人哪，也是个知识分子跑得去，跟着他们的朋友，那些朋友都是很有名的人物，去拜访他，就拉着那个不信佛的人一起去。结果他就问：「老法师啊！你这个佛像是木头，泥塑，木雕呀，你拜他干什么啊？」印光大师怎么讲？「他是泥、木作的，我不是呀！」你们懂得这个话吗？没错，那个是泥塑木雕，我不是呀！

同样的道理，摆在这里，他跟人讲的也许讲得不对，我不是啊！我是要学佛的。请问你们是要学佛的吗？你们到这里来干什么？要学佛而来，要学佛而来的话，你要往好的方面去想。