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This rendering is an interfaith adaptation for sharing across audiences — not the canonical 訓文, not the temple's official translation.
濟公活佛 慈悲訓示
妙訓：誠意正心
德恩壇 · 2022.07.31 · 率性進修班
20220731CAde1
提要
濟顛和尚偕南屏小仙童奉 老Φ之命降臨德恩壇，於率性進修班留下這篇冠頂訓「誠意正心」。鎮壇詩一反訓文的典雅，改以四對家常話開講——感恩者福多、抱怨者人躲；分享者交遊廣、計較者情薄；包容者性灑脫、譏評者相磋磨；服務者路開闊、指使者人推託：這些都不是天降的賞罰，而是人情自然的因果，聽者當週即可自驗。本訓二十九句，句句十四字、一韻到底，每句首字連讀即成訓中訓「誠 毋自欺 正不失 真不漓……」，表裡兩篇同時進行。全篇由《大學》「誠於中，形於外」起手，歷《論語》的四毋、三省、四勿，《孟子》的正命順受、集義所生與浩然之氣，《中庸》的不勉而中、擇善固執，再上溯至如如智境、正法眼藏、行深般若，末以「氣當以志帥風骨，勉旃諸眾各正鵠」的射箭之喻收束——箭若失的，反求諸其身。訓中訓七句把全篇收攏回「毋自欺」三字，終於《大學》的「止於至善寶地」。（本訓借〈Sing, Sing a Song〉一曲填詞；語寄「德建立」。）
Overview
The Monk Ji Dian — the Holy Teacher in his unfettered mendicant guise — descends to the De’en Altar with the Young Immortal Attendant of Nanping, bearing the Eternal Mother’s decree, and bows to the ground before the Sovereign Mother’s presence before a word of instruction is given. He then opens not with scripture but with four plain kitchen-table couplets: those who love to give thanks find their blessings many, those who love to complain find people slipping away — consequences no one hands down, only what happens. What follows is a 冠頂訓, a crowned teaching whose twenty-nine fourteen-character lines each begin with one character of a second, hidden teaching titled 誠意正心, sincerity of intent and rectitude of mind, so the surface argument is always also spelling out the buried one. The body moves from the Great Learning’s claim that what is genuine inside inevitably takes shape outside, through Confucius’s fourfold abstention and Zengzi’s three daily examinations, Mencius’s rightful decree and the flood-like force born of gathered rightness, the Doctrine of the Mean’s striking of the mark without strain, and on into the Treasury of the True Dharma Eye, suchness, and the deep prajñā — before landing on an archer’s figure: when the arrow misses the centre, turn and look for the fault in yourself. The embedded teaching gathers all of it back into seven lines resting on a single first instruction — do not deceive yourself — and ends where the Great Learning ends, coming to rest in the highest good. (Set to the borrowed melody “Sing, Sing a Song”; closing keyword 德建立, virtue is established.)
About this editionAI-assisted study edition — the Chinese original is canonical; English is pending our elders’ review.
原訓OriginalTemple-verified
English — Scholar & PlainTranslationAI-Refined
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I am your teacher, the Monk Ji Dian; I am the Young Immortal Attendant of Nanping. Following the Gracious Teacher, bearing the Eternal Mother’s decree, I descend to the hall of De’en Altar — and entering the door, I bow to the ground before the Sovereign Mother’s presence.I am your teacher, the monk Ji Dian; and I am the Young Immortal Attendant of Nanping. Following the Gracious Teacher, carrying the Eternal Mother’s decree, I come down to the hall of De’en Altar — and stepping through the door, I bow to the ground before the Sovereign Mother.
濟顛和尚 — the mendicant epithet of the Holy Teacher (濟公活佛); 顛 = “unfettered, heedless of convention.” The source uses this name rather than the standard title, and the plain-spoken opening verse confirms the choice of persona; it is rendered as it stands. 南屏 is the hill at Hangzhou associated with the Holy Teacher’s monastery. That 恩師 (“the Gracious Teacher”) refers to the Monk Ji Dian, whom the attendant accompanies, is a reading, not a stated fact.
鎮壇詩 Opening Verse · recited · plain-spoken folk couplets, not classical diction
xǐ huān gǎn ēn de · fú qì duō · xǐ huān bào yuàn de · rén huì duǒ
Those who love to give thanks — their blessings are many; those who love to complain — people slip away.If gratitude is your habit, good fortune keeps finding you; if complaining is, people quietly step away.
The opening verse is in plain modern Chinese, not classical — 喜歡…的 is colloquial. This is a deliberate register drop, folk-aphoristic couplets in the Holy Teacher’s plainspoken voice, and the English matches it. Note also that none of the consequences are punishments handed down: they are simply what follows.
xǐ huān fēn xiǎng de · guǎng jiāo yóu · xǐ huān jì jiào de · rén qíng bó
Those who love to share — the circle of company widens; those who love to keep score — the warmth between people thins.Share freely and your circle of friends grows wide; count every favour and the warmth between people wears thin.
計較 — to weigh gains and losses, to nitpick a debt; 交遊 — those one associates and travels with.
xǐ huān bāo róng de · xìng sǎ tuō · xǐ huān jī píng de · rén cuō mó
Those who love to make room — their nature runs free and unburdened; those who love to mock and judge — people wear each other down.Make room for others and you live light and free; mock and pass judgment, and people just grind against one another.
xǐ huān fú wù de · lù kāi kuò · xǐ huān zhǐ shǐ de · rén tuī tuō
Those who love to serve — the road opens out before them; those who love to give orders — people find reasons to beg off.Serve willingly and the road ahead opens wide; order people about and they will find reasons to slip away.
本訓 Main Teaching · 冠頂訓 (each line opens a character of 「誠意正心」) · sung to 〈Sing, Sing a Song〉
Sincere within, taking form without — the two joined as one; all things, watched in stillness, come each into their own.What is genuine inside shows up outside — the two are one and the same thing; watch all things quietly, and each one comes into what it truly is.
誠中形外 — the Great Learning’s chapter on making the intent sincere: 誠於中，形於外，故君子必慎其獨也 — what is genuine within takes shape without, so the noble person is careful when alone. 萬物靜觀皆自得 — from the Song scholar Cheng Hao’s 《秋日偶成》; 自得 carries both “at ease” and “attaining their own nature.”
Do not presume, do not insist, do not harden, do not stand on self; between the deferential yes and the careless one — how far apart, really?Don’t guess, don’t insist you’re certain, don’t dig in, don’t make it about yourself; and the polite “yes” and the offhand one — how far apart are they, really?
毋意毋必毋固我 — the Analects’ fourfold abstention (子絕四：毋意，毋必，毋固，毋我), compressed here into seven characters: guessing, absolute certainty, rigidity, ego. 唯之與阿 — Daodejing 20: between a deferential “yes” and a careless “yeah,” how much distance is there?
zì míng suǒ chū chá shàn è sān xǐng sì wù wù tuī tuō
Know for yourself where each impulse rises; sift the good from the ill; the three examinations, the four prohibitions — do not shirk them.Know for yourself where each impulse comes from, and tell the good from the bad; the three daily self-checks and the four things not to do — don’t dodge them.
三省 — Zengzi’s daily threefold reckoning (Analects): was I wholehearted for others, trustworthy with friends, practised in what was taught. 四勿 — the four given to Yan Hui (Analects): do not look, listen, speak, or act contrary to what is fitting. The graph 勿 repeats immediately in 勿推託 (“do not shirk”) — a deliberate echo.
qī xīn mèi jǐ wéi bù xiào yǎng yōng yí huàn zì zhāo huò
To cheat your own heart and blind yourself is to make yourself unworthy; to nurse the abscess and pass on the harm is to call down ruin on yourself.Lie to your own heart and keep yourself in the dark, and you fall short of what you are; let the sore fester and hand the harm on, and you bring the ruin down on yourself.
不肖 — literally “not resembling”: falling short of one’s forebears and of one’s own nature. 養癰貽患 — 後漢書·馮衍傳, 養癰長疽，自生禍殃: nurse the abscess and you breed your own calamity.
Receive the rightful decree in willing accord; be no servant to things; let no feeling, no craving lead you astray.Take what rightly comes to you and take it willingly; don’t let things own you; don’t let feeling or craving pull you off course.
正命順受 — Mencius (盡心上): 莫非命也，順受其正. 正命 is what befalls one who has fully discharged what duty asked; what befalls through one’s own negligence is not. Not fatalism — the effort comes first, the equanimity is what is left over. 役 = to be conscripted, made a servant.
While the vow stands unfulfilled, stand without rest or halt; whoever abides in the labour of practice throws off the husks.As long as your vow is unfinished, keep standing, without a pause; whoever stays with the hard work of practice throws away the husks and keeps the grain.
了愿 — to discharge a vow made before Heaven. 糟粕 — the spent lees of wine (Zhuangzi 天道), the ancients’ leavings. (Parse flagged: 存勞 could be “abides in the toil” or “keeps to the labour of”; 行者 is either “practitioner / wayfarer” generally or the Buddhist 行者. Rendered close to the characters, uncertainty stated rather than resolved.)
shī shí āi lè zhì yāng jiù zhòng shèn xīn ān lǐ zì dé
Grief and joy that miss their measure bring calamity and blame; be doubly careful — the heart at ease, the principle comes of itself.Sorrow and joy let loose out of season bring trouble and blame; be doubly careful — with the heart at ease, the sense of it comes on its own.
失時哀樂 — emotion out of measure; cf. the Doctrine of the Mean, 發而皆中節，謂之和. 重 = `zhòng`, “gravely / doubly.” 心安理自得 expands the common 心安理得.
The true and constant meets each thing as it comes; gather inward toward what is right; what is born of that brings no disgrace — the nature stands open and level.What is true and unchanging meets each thing as it comes; draw yourself inward toward what is right; what grows out of that shames no one — and your nature stands open and level.
真常應物 — verbatim from 清靜經: 真常應物，真常得性. Honoured as a fixed phrase. 集義 — Mencius (公孫丑上): 是集義所生者. 所生 does double duty and both readings stand: the Mencian “born of accumulated rightness,” and 詩經·小雅·小宛’s 無忝爾所生, “bring no disgrace on those who bore you.” 磊落 — open and level.
bù miǎn ér zhòng bù sī dé zé shàn gù zhí bù piān pō
Without forcing, you strike the mark; without pondering, you attain; choose the good and hold it fast — never leaning, never partial.You hit the mark without straining, and you understand without puzzling it out; choose what is good and keep hold of it — never tilting, never taking sides.
不勉而中，不思而得 — Doctrine of the Mean 20, describing the sage for whom sincerity has become second nature. 擇善固執 — from the same passage: 固執 is a firm grip on what has been recognized as true, not stubbornness.
lí sú gǎi huàn shí wú wàng xián xié cún chéng xiū zhēn wǒ
Let thinned-out custom be changed over — substance without falsehood; fend off the crooked, keep sincerity, cultivate the true self.Let watered-down habits be traded for real ones — solid, with nothing false in them; keep the crooked out, keep sincerity in, and cultivate your true self.
漓 — diluted, watered-down (澆漓, degenerate mores); answers 真不漓 in the embedded teaching. 無妄 — “without falsity,” also the name of a hexagram (“Innocence”). 閑邪存誠 — 易經·乾·文言, where 閑 = 防, to guard against.
The noble person practises the three reverences, the nine considerations; warm, respectful, truthful, scrupulous — every thing has its norm.A person of character keeps the three reverences and the nine points of watchfulness; warm, respectful, honest, careful — for everything that exists has its proper measure.
三畏 (Analects 季氏) — reverence for Heaven’s decree, for those of standing and virtue, for the words of the sages. 九思 — the nine points of self-watchfulness (seeing, hearing, expression, bearing, speech, work, doubt, anger, gain). 物有則 — 詩經, 天生烝民，有物有則: warmth, respect, truthfulness and scrupulousness are not manners recommended but the norm proper to a human being.
The child filial, the father forbearing; guard against high-handed will; where the heart you have set is veiled and shut, open it through early.Children respectful, parents forbearing; be on guard against deciding everything alone and throwing your weight around; wherever the heart you set out with has clouded over and closed up, clear it early.
專擅 — to decide alone, to act high-handedly. 蔽塞 — veiled and blocked.
zūn qián tí hòu liáng néng dé jiàn běn yù shǐ zhī qí mò
Follow those ahead, lift up those behind — the innate capacity, the virtue; establish the root: if you would begin, know also where it ends.Follow those who came before and give a hand to those coming after — the ability you were born with, and the virtue; set the root down firmly: if you want the beginning, know the end too.
遵前提後 — the temple’s own idiom: follow those ahead, lift up those behind. 良能 — Mencius: what one can do without having learned it. 本…末 — the Great Learning: 物有本末，事有終始，知所先後，則近道矣. (Note: 德建 straddles the caesura here, and 德建立 is this teaching’s 語寄.)
Dao cannot be departed from — the spirit made one; with a vow that never wavers, the Way is opened wide.Dao is not something you can step away from — let your spirit become single and undivided; with a promise that never bends, the Way opens out wide.
道不可離 — Doctrine of the Mean 1: 道也者，不可須臾離也. 精神一 — cf. 惟精惟一. 矢志不渝 — a vow that never alters.
Fulfil your own nature, then extend benevolence into use; it is people who can broaden the Way — carry centre and harmony to their fullness.Bring your own nature to its fullness, then put kindness to work; it is people who make the Way great — carry balance and harmony all the way through.
盡己性 — Doctrine of the Mean 22: only the utmost sincerity under Heaven can fulfil its own nature. 人能弘道 — Analects 衛靈公: 人能弘道，非道弘人 — it is people who broaden the Way, not the Way that broadens people. 致中和 — Doctrine of the Mean 1.
To act or withdraw, to leave or to stay — each in its own season; the Treasury of the True Dharma Eye shines down a thousand ages.To step forward or to step back, to leave a post or to take one — each in its own time; the treasury of the true teaching, handed on heart to heart, shines down a thousand ages.
行藏 = `xíng cáng` — Analects 述而: 用之則行，舍之則藏, to serve when used and withdraw when set aside. 正法眼藏 = `zhèng fǎ yǎn zàng` — the Chan transmission at Vulture Peak, the treasury of the true Dharma eye handed on outside the scriptures. The same graph 藏 is read `cáng` and then `zàng` inside this one line.
The deliberating mind is measuring and weighing; on it consciousness takes its ground; in the wisdom-realm of suchness, suchness itself is realized.The deliberating mind is nothing but measuring and weighing, and awareness rests its weight on it; but in the realm where wisdom sees things just as they are, that very thusness is realized.
意者思量 — the Consciousness-Only analysis, in which 意 (manas) is precisely the faculty whose defining function is calculating and weighing. 識 = `shì`, the noun “consciousness”; 依止 = āśraya, the basis a thing rests upon. 如如 — suchness; cf. the Diamond Sutra, 不取於相，如如不動.
Subtle, mysterious, all-penetrating — the whole substance stands revealed; no more the restless stirring, no more the windlass turning round.Subtle, deep, and open all the way through — the whole of it stands revealed; no more restless churning of the mind, no more well-pulley going round and round.
微妙玄通 — Daodejing 15, of the ancient adepts: subtle, mysterious, dark and all-penetrating. 全體見 — 見 read `xiàn`, “stands manifest” (cf. 全體大用); “is seen” is a defensible alternative. 掉舉 — the technical term for a mind that will not settle. 轆轤 — the pulley over a well, going round and round forever.
Before the sign has taken form, at the Great Centre’s first; met in silence within the heart — what more should the heart long for?Before the first sign of it has taken shape, at the very beginning of the great centre; met in silence inside the heart — what more is there for the heart to want?
兆 — the incipient stirring, before anything has taken form. 太中初 has no settled reading in our sources — “the Great Beginning” (太初) with 中 infixed, or “the first of the supreme centrality.” Flagged, not resolved; rendered close to the characters and left for those with the recording and the original manuscript.
Bring the four sprouts to light, let them issue and be put to use; fit yourself to the One Thread, holding loyalty and reciprocity close.Bring the four seeds of goodness into the light, and let them come out and be used; fit yourself to the one thread that runs through everything, keeping wholeheartedness and fellow-feeling close.
四端 — Mencius (公孫丑上): compassion, shame, deference, discernment — the sprouts of benevolence, rightness, propriety, wisdom. 一貫 — the Analects (里仁), 吾道一以貫之, rendered as ”the One Thread”; the Analects sense is the whole of it here, and 忠恕 in the same half-line confirms it. 忠恕 — wholeheartedness toward others and treating them as one would be treated.
zhī mìng bù yōu Yán dé shàn ér fú shī zhī quán yīng fú
Knowing what is decreed, one does not grieve — Yan Hui, gaining one good thing, never let it go: clasping it fast, bearing it on the breast.Know what is given you and you will not grieve — Yan Hui, once he found one good thing, never let it go: he held it tight and carried it against his chest.
顏 is the name Yan Hui, not an adjective — without it the whole allusion collapses into a generic maxim. 拳膺服 is a seven-character compression and inversion of the Doctrine of the Mean 8 — 得一善，則拳拳服膺而弗失之矣 — done for the rhyme. This is craft, not a scribal error: do not “correct” it. Yan Hui is remembered for holding one small thing completely rather than a large thing loosely.
Let all raise the mind of awakening; urge others on, and the crossing is won; practising the deep prajñā, all sufferings fall away.Let everyone raise the heart set on awakening; encourage others, and the crossing over is made; go deep in the wisdom that sees things as they truly are, and all suffering falls away.
發菩提 — raising bodhicitta, the mind set on awakening. 行深般若 — the Heart Sutra’s opening: 行深般若波羅蜜多時. 離諸苦 — cf. 度一切苦厄.
Truly, this gathering — a sacred ground chosen for it; seeing the worthy, resolve to stand equal with them — do not hesitate.Truly, this gathering — and a sacred place chosen for it; when you see someone worthy, set out to stand equal with them — don’t hang back.
誠哉 — an exclamation, and the acrostic character 誠 arriving again. 見賢思齊 — Analects 里仁: seeing the worthy, think to stand equal with them.
Fill out the inner substance, set up your own loom; the treasure is handed on through the three realms, reaching all in the heavens and among people.Fill out what is inside you, and set up your own loom to weave with; the treasure is handed on through every realm of existence, reaching everyone, in the heavens and among people.
充實 — Mencius: 充實之謂美. 立機杼 — appears to draw on the idiom 自出機杼, “weave your own pattern,” usually cited to 魏書·祖瑩傳; not verified in our corpus, so rendered on the plain sense of the characters. 三界 — the realms of desire, form, and formlessness.
sì shè yìng huà shī liù dù shàn yǔ rén tóng dé bù gū
With the four embracings, respond and transform; practise the six perfections; share the good together with others — virtue is never left alone.Meet people with the four ways of drawing them close, and let them be changed; practise the six trainings that carry you across; enjoy what is good together with others — goodness is never left standing alone.
四攝 — the four means of drawing beings close: giving, kind speech, beneficial conduct, working alongside. 六度 — the six perfections: giving, discipline, patience, effort, meditation, wisdom. 善與人同 — Mencius (公孫丑上), said of the sage-king Shun, who gladly took what was good from others and made it his own. 德不孤 — Analects 里仁: 德不孤，必有鄰, virtue is never left alone; it will find its neighbours.
The whole self falls into accord, a drifting cloud keeping company with the crane; walk the Way, and Heaven of itself comes to help.The whole self settles into accord — a drifting cloud in the company of a crane; walk the Way, and Heaven itself comes to help.
體順 — the whole self falling into accord. 鶴相於 — 相於, “to be with one another”; the construction is uncertain and the cloud-and-crane figure evokes the unfettered recluse.
Singing wide and free, shaking out the sandals, wherever the staff is planted — the utmost person uses the mind as a bright mirror.Singing wide and free, shaking out your sandals, wherever you set your staff down for the night — the truest person uses the mind the way one uses a clear mirror.
駐錫 — of a monk, to halt and take up residence wherever the staff is set down. 明鏡如 is inverted from 若明鏡 for the rhyme — Zhuangzi 應帝王, 至人之用心若鏡，不將不迎，應而不藏: the mirror neither escorts what leaves nor welcomes what comes, responding without storing. The inversion is craft, not a slip.
Light the lamp: it breaks ten thousand years of darkness; lamp after lamp, unending, to show the road.Light one lamp, and it breaks ten thousand years of dark; lamp after lamp, never ending, to show the road.
然燈 = 燃燈, the act of lighting the lamp. (A resonance with 然燈古佛 is possible but is not asserted — the surface reading is the act itself.) 燈燈無盡 — the transmission figure of lamp lighting lamp without end.
Let the vital force be commanded by the will — that is backbone; press on, all of you, each to the bull’s-eye that is yours.Let your energy be led by your will — that is what backbone means; press on, all of you, each toward the bull’s-eye that is your own.
志帥氣 — Mencius (公孫丑上): 夫志，氣之帥也, the will is the commander of the vital force. 勉旃 — a classical exhortation, “press on,” usually cited to 漢書·楊惲傳; not verified in our corpus. 正鵠 — the bull’s-eye of a target; Doctrine of the Mean / Book of Rites, 射有似乎君子；失諸正鵠，反求諸其身 — when the arrow misses, the archer turns and looks for the fault in himself. The archery sense is required; “goal” would lose it.
調寄：Sing, Sing a Song
diào jì:
Melody:
訓中訓 Embedded Teaching · 「誠意正心 / Sincerity of Intent, Rectitude of Mind」 · recited
Sincerity: do not deceive yourself; the upright is not forfeited; the true is not thinned.Sincerity: don’t fool yourself; what is upright is not given up; what is true is not watered down.
毋自欺 — the Great Learning’s entire definition of making the intent sincere: 所謂誠其意者，毋自欺也. 不漓 — “not thinned out,” answering 漓俗改換 in `BX10`.
The noble person follows Dao and walks it; intent, however faint, becomes plain — know it through.A person of character follows Dao and walks it; even the faintest intention is the thing that shows most plainly — know it all the way through.
遵道而行 — Doctrine of the Mean 11: 君子遵道而行，半塗而廢，吾弗能已矣. 意微之顯 — Doctrine of the Mean 1: 莫見乎隱，莫顯乎微，故君子慎其獨也 — nothing is more visible than what is hidden, nothing more manifest than what is faint.
chéng · chōng sì tǐ · hào rán qì · jí yì suǒ shēng zhòng bù xī
Sincerity: it fills the four limbs, the flood-like force, born of gathered rightness — hold it weighty, never ceasing.Sincerity fills you out to your hands and feet — that vast, upright energy, built up from doing right again and again; hold it as something weighty, and never let it stop.
充四體 — cf. Mencius: the four sprouts are as native as the four limbs, and 氣 is what fills the body. 浩然氣 — Mencius (公孫丑上): 至大至剛, vast and unbending. 集義所生 — 是集義所生者，非義襲而取之也: born of rightness accumulated, never seized in a single act. 重 = `zhòng`, “hold it weighty” (“again and again” is a defensible alternative). 不息 — cf. 易經·乾, 君子以自強不息.
Not made servant by things; not worn out by feeling — let it rest.Don’t be made a servant by things; don’t let feeling wear you out — let it come to rest.
勞止 — 止 may be a verb (“stop”) or the Book of Songs sentence-final particle (民亦勞止). Ambiguous; rendered on the verbal reading, and the ambiguity is stated rather than resolved.
Preserve and nourish, examine and reflect; the spirit is able (to be single and undivided — and virtue is established).Keep and nourish what is good in you, and examine yourself honestly; then the spirit is able (to be single and undivided — and virtue is established).
存養省察 — the standard pairing: 存養 (preserving and nourishing) in stillness, 省察 (examining and reflecting) in activity. The parentheses are in the source, and 德建立 within them is this teaching’s 語寄.
Mind: let it not be veiled by desire; hold faithfully to the centre; substance and function fit as one.Mind: don’t let wanting cloud it; hold honestly to the centre; what you are and what you do fit together as one.
不欲蔽 — read as “not obscured by desire”; “desiring not to be veiled” is a defensible alternative. 允執中 — 尚書·大禹謨 / Analects 堯曰: 允執厥中, hold faithfully to the centre. 體用契 — substance and function fitting as one.
Come together and meet again as at the first beholding; come to rest in the highest good — the precious ground.Come together and meet again as freshly as at the very first sight of it; and come to rest in the highest good — that precious ground.
止於至善 — the Great Learning’s opening: 大學之道，在明明德，在親民，在止於至善. Not reach the highest good — come to rest in it.