中英版：護僧的基本認知（九）

 

 

護僧的基本認知（九）

開仁法師著

 

八丶依法不依人

 

佛陀開示四預流支之親近善知識時，同時一道配合四依之依法不依人來詮述， 這有什麽特殊意義呢？意義可深遠了。從這可以看出佛陀的大智慧，因為佛法的學習不能缺少善知識，尤其是末世的眾生，智慧淺福報薄，不太可能靠一點自己的生得慧或聞思慧就可以修出一個春天來。所以，在初基階段，必定要多多親近好的老師，才能認清及建立自己未來的修道學程。

 

不過，大家都知道尚未入聖流的行者，行為不但有很多缺憾，甚至還會夾雜煩惱在裏頭。這個時候我們又如何平衡及抉擇它呢？上述的問題佛陀早已預料到了，故才會在開示親近善知識的法門後，即刻緊接著闡釋親近善知識的目的，主要是為了求學佛法而已。因為老師的責任只是把 方法 教授給你，至於實修與體驗則需靠自己的用功了。不要因為老師還有習氣而煩惱，也莫為了一個好的老師而難以割捨，我們親近他的目的是為了獲得解決煩惱的方法，千萬不能倒果為因，本末倒置了。

 

為什麽我們要先建立依法不依人的知見呢？現實上有很多問題的嚴重化，就是因為忘掉佛陀所教導的這項準繩，弄到一天不來寺廟看看師父就內心不安，最後造成家庭出現問題，乃至家離子散。有的則像將自己的身心送給寺院，看起來真的很發心，實則遺忘伴侶丶孤立朋友丶拋棄社會，但又不願意落發出家，兩頭不到岸。不但自己煩擾，也傷害了佛教，更是害苦了那位出家眾。從這裏我們可以知道，護持僧眾如果方法不恰當的話，即達不到相互增上的意義，也促使佛教受到傷害。

 

 

The Fundamental Knowledge in Safeguarding the Sangha Members（九）

By Ven Kai Ren

 

8. Rely on the Dharma or truth itself, not the false interpretation of men

 

When Buddha professed on sotāpattiyanga (the 4 preliminary conditions to Stream-entry) about approaching the learned one, He also talked about the four of the Dharma, i.e. the truth, which is eternal, rather than the men, even its propagator. What is the significance behind it? It manifests the wisdom of the Buddha. As we aware, we need learned ones to guide us to learn about Dharma especially when we are in the last of the three periods of the Buddha-law, it’s impossible for us to attain any high level of accomplishment in the practice without the guidance of the learned ones. Therefore, it’s very important, during the initial stage of learning, to frequently approach the learned ones.

 

As we are aware, we have a lot of shortcomings and worries when we have not achieved the holy position. So how are we going to balance it and choose? The Buddha had sighted all these problems and that’s why He, after explaining ways in approaching the learned ones, He immediately taught us the objectives of approaching these learned ones. The responsibility of the Sangha who acted as teachers/preachers is to tell us the way and it needs our own effort to put into practice and experience it. Our objective in approaching the learned ones is to know the way to get rid of our worries. If we get agitated just because of certain habits of the Sangha/Bhikkhus or attached so much to the Sangha/Bhikkhus, then we are putting the cart behind the horse in the course of our learning Dharma.

 

Why should we establish the right view of relying on the Dharma or truth itself, not the false interpretation of men? In real life, a lot of issues are getting out of hand because many people have forgotten this criterion taught by the Buddha. Some indulged too many of their time in the temple and felt uneasy for not seeing the Master and at last, gave rise to family problem. Some treated the temple as their home, it looked as if they were very committed, in actual fact, they had forgotten about their life partners, isolated their friends, abandoned the society and yet they were reluctant to renounce the household life and in the end, not only they gave problem to themselves, they also hurt the Buddhism and the Master in particular. From here, we can see that if the method is not handled properly, it would cause damage to many parties.