如意童子 慈悲訓示
同德壇 · 2025.07.06 · 中英文率性進修班 — day 2 of the two-day 法會 at 紐約同德佛堂. A bilingual Chinese/English class, which is part of why the language is as plain as it is.
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如意童子奉老Φ之旨降臨紐約同德壇，為中英文率性進修班批下這篇《聽我說謝謝你》。這篇訓文最不一樣的地方在語言：全篇幾乎不用文言，用的是最日常的白話，而且整篇本訓都是唱的——借的是二○二一年那首大人小孩都會哼的兒歌〈聽我說謝謝你〉。鎮壇詩四句長短不齊（十二、九、十四、十三字），不是格律失守，是為了貼著那首歌的旋律填的；第三、四句還原封不動地留著原曲的那句「感謝有你」。鎮壇詩先問兩個問題——「榮華富貴和名利哪個更重要」、「所有人追求的是什麼」——問而不答，只讓人愣一下：榮華富貴與名利本來就是同一件事的兩種說法，一旦認真比較，就已經默認了人生的答案就在這兩樣裡面，問題本身就是要你發現這個默認。接著忽然轉了個彎，不再談追求，改成道謝：對「人到底該追求什麼」這一問，仙佛給的答案不是一個道理，而是一份感恩。而且謝的不是被救出苦難，是連「千錘百煉」的錘煉本身都謝——錘煉本身不值得感謝，痛就是痛；值得感謝的是被錘的時候有人陪著、有人引導，於是那些打擊沒有把人打散，反而把人打實了。吾乃段用「我是」而不用「吾乃」，一字之差，語氣就親了；進門的次序卻一點沒少：先領老Φ的旨，進門先參 皇Φ，最後才招呼人，而招呼用的是「兄弟姊妹」——不稱徒兒、不稱賢士，把整堂的溫度定了下來。本訓十句裡穿著兩條線：一條是「願」（願生命光明、願今生找到了、願德建顧明命），一條是「今生」（今生找到了、今生有幸逢、今生能參與辦）——從「我找到了」到「我遇上了」，最後到「我有份做事了」。十句從黑暗中的一盞燈起手，走過自性中的反省、修道的至誠、含和的不驚與待人的謙恭；到第五句才第一次出現另一個人，而兩人之間發生的第一件事只是一個真誠的笑，隨即就跳到「攜手彼岸登」——那條河不是一個人游過去的。「找回赤子心」用的是「找回」不是「培養」：赤子心不是後天修出來的新東西，是本來就有、後來被習氣一層層蓋住的東西，由一位童子唱出這一句格外貼切。全篇最後一句沒有落在老Φ身上，也沒有落在仙佛身上，而是落在「引渡人」——那個在你還什麼都不懂的時候，願意走過來拉你一把的普通人。鎮壇詩謝的是「一直引導」你的那一位，本訓最後謝的是「引渡」你的那個人：同一個「引」字，從天上落到了你身邊。
The first thing to notice about this teaching is how plain it is. There is almost no literary Chinese in it — the lines are short, ordinary and conversational, you smile at me, truly and sincerely, step by step walking forward — and the whole main body is sung to 〈聽我說謝謝你〉, “Listen While I Say Thank You,” a children’s song from 2021 that most of the room would already have known by heart. The speaker names himself the Wish-Fulfilling Youth. A youth-immortal, singing a children’s song, to a bilingual class. The plainness is not a limitation; it is the form this teaching chose, and it is itself a kindness — you are not asked to learn an unfamiliar language before you can hear what is being said. The opening verse begins not with thanks but with two questions, and they are sharp ones: which of them matters more — glory and splendor, wealth and rank, name and gain? and what is it that everyone is chasing after? The trap is that the two compounds name the same thing twice, so the moment you begin ranking them you have already conceded that the answer lies somewhere among them. Then, without a transition, the thanks arrive — twice, in the borrowed song’s own words. In the original the gratitude is ordinary and human, for a friend or a parent; here the same phrase turns toward whatever it was that guided when the singer was lost and low, and that stood by through a thousand hammerings and a hundred temperings. Notice carefully what is being thanked for: not rescue from the hardship, but the hardship itself. The trials are not an interruption of the practice; they are the forge in which it is made — a demanding teaching, hidden inside a thank-you note. The self-introduction keeps every element of the formal order and none of the distance: the decree is borne, the bow before the Sovereign Mother has already happened offstage, and then, before one word of instruction, is everyone well? — addressed to brothers and sisters, not to students or disciples. The ten lines that follow run on two threads. One is may: may this life be luminous, may it be that in this life I have found it, may virtue be built. The other is this life: found in this life, met in this life, taken part in this life — from I found it to I met it to I have a share in the work. They open with the oldest image there is, one lamp in the dark, whose whole force in the Platform Sutra is that the dark’s age counts for nothing; and then the very next line moves the work inside, stitching Mencius’s turn-and-seek-the-cause-in-yourself into the Platform Sutra’s self-nature, so that the room you are standing in is already complete and the turning back is simply what you do while standing there. From there the instruction is remarkably concrete and does not skip a link: sincerity is what you are, held harmony is what you carry, humility is what other people actually meet. And then another person appears in the poem, and the first thing that passes between them is only a smile — from which the line leaps straight to hand in hand we climb to the far shore, because this teaching will not let anyone arrive there alone. Life is short; take hold of the moment while it is still only a stirring; make bonds with people in whose presence your virtue actually grows. Then the recovery: find your way back to the newborn’s heart — found back, not built, since it was always yours and merely got covered over — and step by step walk forward, to face the Eternal Mother’s countenance, which is the whole geometry of the teaching in a single line, walking forward toward where you came from. The last two lines are vows, and the last of them ends not on Heaven and not on the far shore but on a person: gratitude to the one who led me in. Somebody invited you. That is what the borrowed melody was for — a song about saying thank you to the people in front of you, followed all the way down.
About this editionAI-assisted study edition — the Chinese original is canonical; English is pending our elders’ review.
鎮壇詩 Verse to Settle the Altar · recited
一開口不是宣示，是問句，而且用的是最日常的口語。要留意「榮華富貴」與「名利」其實是同一件事的兩種說法——一個講排場享受，一個講名聲好處。所以「哪個更重要」這一問藏著一個轉折：表面上像是要在兩者之間挑一個，可是只要開始認真比較，就已經默認了「人生的答案就在這兩樣裡面」。這個問題真正要問的，是你有沒有發現自己的這個默認。
The teaching opens not with a declaration but with a question, and in the plainest conversational language. Notice that 榮華富貴 — splendor, wealth, rank, the visible good life — and 名利 — name and gain — are two ways of saying one thing: one speaks of display and comfort, the other of reputation and profit. So “which of them matters more” hides a turn in it. On the surface it looks like being asked to choose between two things, but the moment you begin ranking them in earnest you have already conceded that the answer to a life lies somewhere among them. What the question is really asking is whether you have noticed that concession in yourself.
鏡頭從自己一個人拉到所有人身上：大家都在追，追得那麼用力，可是追的到底是什麼？這兩句不責備、不下斷語，只是問——不急著說教，先讓人自己愣一下。
The frame widens from one person to everyone: they are all chasing, chasing that hard — but what is it they are chasing? These two lines neither blame nor pronounce a verdict; they only ask. Nothing is preached yet. You are simply left standing still for a moment.
問題並沒有得到正面回答，第三句忽然轉了個彎，不再談追求，改成道謝。這是這首鎮壇詩最精彩的地方：對「人到底該追求什麼」這一問，給出的答案不是一個道理，而是一份感恩。「感謝有你」四個字，原曲唱的是朋友、家人、老師之間的溫暖，這裡四個字原封不動地留著，感謝的對象卻換了。人在得意的時候通常不覺得需要誰，真正認得出誰在身邊，都是在失落的時候——所以這一句裡暗含一個檢驗：回頭看，那些最低落的日子裡，是誰沒有走開？
The question never gets a direct answer. The third line turns aside instead: no longer about pursuit, but about thanks. This is the finest thing in the opening verse — to the question of what a life should actually be spent on, what comes back is not a principle but a gratitude. The four characters 「感謝有你」 are sung in the original song for a friend, a parent, a teacher; here they are kept word for word, and only the one being thanked has changed. When things are going well a person usually does not feel the need of anybody; you recognize who was actually beside you only in the low stretches — so a quiet test sits inside this line. Look back at the days you were most lost: who did not walk away?
「千錘百煉」原是打鐵的比喻：一塊生鐵要挨上千次錘打、經過上百回煅燒，雜質才去得乾淨，才成得了鋼；用在修行上，指的是心性、脾氣、習氣被一次次地磨。「魔考」則要拆開來看——「魔」來自梵語 Māra（音譯「魔羅」），意思是障礙、破壞，而佛家更看重的是內在的魔：煩惱、執著、恐懼；「考」是中國傳統裡的考驗、考察。兩字合起來，就是修行路上迎面而來的種種試煉，有的來自人事，有的來自自己心裡。這一句的重心仍落在「感謝有你」：錘煉本身不值得感謝，痛就是痛；值得感謝的是被錘的時候有人陪著、有人引導，於是那些打擊沒有把人打散，反而把人打實了。
千錘百煉 is a blacksmith’s figure to begin with: raw iron takes a thousand hammer blows and a hundred firings before the impurities are gone and it is steel. Applied to cultivation it means the temperament, the disposition, the accumulated habits, ground down again and again. 魔考 has to be taken apart. 魔 comes from Sanskrit Māra — obstruction, destruction — and Buddhist usage weights the inward demons above all: affliction, clinging, fear. 考 supplies the ordinary Chinese register of testing and examination. Together they name the ordeals that meet you on the road, some arriving through people and circumstances, some out of your own heart. And the weight of the line still falls on 「感謝有你」. The hammering itself is not what is being thanked for — pain is only pain. What is worth thanking is that while you were being hammered someone was there, someone guided, so that the blows did not scatter you but made you solid.
這四句鎮壇詩是貼著〈聽我說謝謝你〉的旋律填成的，長短不齊不是失了格律，是為了合著那首大人小孩都會哼的兒歌唱。前兩句不宣示，只發問，而且問得極為日常：榮華富貴和名利哪個更重要？所有人追求的又是什麼？「榮華富貴」與「名利」本來是同一件事的兩種說法——一個講排場享受，一個講名聲好處；一旦認真在兩者之間排名次，就已經默認了人生的答案就在這兩樣裡面，問題本身就是要人發現這個默認。第三、四句忽然轉了個彎，不再談追求，改成道謝，而且原封不動地留著原曲的「感謝有你」四個字：謝的是在失落的時候一直引導的那一位，謝的是千錘百煉裡不畏魔考的那份陪伴。人在得意的時候通常不覺得需要誰，真正認得出誰在身邊，都是在失落的時候。要留意的是謝的內容——不是謝人把自己救出苦難，而是連錘煉本身都謝。錘煉本身不值得感謝，痛就是痛；值得感謝的是被錘的時候有人陪著、有人引導，於是那些打擊沒有把人打散，反而把人打實了。對「人到底該追求什麼」這一問，這一段給的答案不是一個道理，而是一份感恩。
This opening verse, recited before the teaching proper, is scanned to the borrowed children’s song, and its lines run uneven on purpose — they are fitted to a melody the room already knew by heart. It begins not with a statement but with two questions, and they are sharp ones: glory and splendor, wealth and rank, and name and gain — which of them matters more? And what is it that everyone is chasing after? The trap is that the two compounds name the same thing twice, so the moment one begins ranking them one has already conceded that the answer lies somewhere among them; the question is built to expose that concession. Then, without a transition, the thanks arrive — twice, in the borrowed song’s own words. In the original that gratitude is ordinary and human, for a friend or a teacher or a parent; here the same phrase turns toward whatever it was that guided when the singer was lost and low, and that stood by through a thousand hammerings and a hundred temperings. Notice carefully what is being thanked for. Not rescue from the hardship — the hardship itself. The trials that test a cultivator are not framed as an interruption of the practice; they are the forge in which the practice is made. It is a demanding teaching hidden inside a thank-you note, and it is the last thing said before the speaker gives a name.
吾乃 Who I Am · recited
一般聖訓的自我介紹用「吾乃」，這裡用的是「我是」——一字之差，語氣就完全不同，自然、不端架子。（文中的「Φ」是敬寫的符號，用來避免直書聖號。）「如意童子」這個聖號，就字面的文化意涵來說：「如意」對應梵語 Cintāmaṇi，即傳說中的如意寶珠，能隨人心意變現所需，佛法裡常用來比喻本性與正法的圓滿珍貴；「童子」對應梵語 Kumāra，佛道兩家都指純真未鑿、未受世俗沾染的狀態，如《華嚴經》裡一路參訪五十三位善知識的善財童子。這裡只談這兩個詞在文化上的意思；至於這位仙佛的來歷行誼，訓文沒有說，我們也不去猜。
接下來三個動作，順序很清楚：先領老Φ的旨，進門先參 皇Φ，最後才招呼人。先領命，再參拜，然後才是人情——這是規矩，也是身教；連降壇都不跳過這個次序，何況我們進佛堂。還有一個詞值得留意：「兄弟姊妹」。不稱「徒兒」，也不稱「賢士」，而是把在場的每一個人當同輩來招呼；一句家常的問好，把整個佛堂的溫度定了下來。這一天的班是中英文班，堂上坐著不同年齡、不同語言背景的人，用最簡單的一句問候開場，誰都接得住。
Ordinary holy teachings introduce the speaker with 吾乃; here it is 我是 — one character’s difference, and the whole tone changes: natural, no airs put on. (The Φ in the text is a reverent graph, written so the sacred name need not be set down directly.) As for the title 如意童子, taken purely as vocabulary: 如意 corresponds to Sanskrit cintāmaṇi, the wish-granting jewel of legend that answers whatever the heart asks, used in Buddhist writing as an image for the completeness and preciousness of the innate nature and of the true teaching; 童子 corresponds to kumāra, which in both the Buddhist and the Daoist vocabularies names the unspoiled state, untouched by the world — 善財童子 of the Flower Ornament Sutra, who visited fifty-three good spiritual friends one after another. Only what these two words mean culturally is discussed here; as for this immortal’s origins and deeds, the teaching says nothing, and we do not guess.
The three acts that follow come in a clear order: first receive the Eternal Mother’s decree, then on entering present oneself in audience before the Sovereign Mother, and only last greet the people. Decree first, bow second, human warmth third — this is the rule, and it is also instruction by example; even a descent to the altar does not skip the sequence, so how much less should we, walking into a prayer hall. One more word deserves notice: 兄弟姊妹. Not 徒兒, not 賢士 — everyone present is greeted as a peer, and one homely hello sets the temperature of the whole hall. That day’s class was a bilingual Chinese-and-English one, with people of different ages and different language backgrounds in the room; opening with the simplest greeting there is, everybody can catch it.
這一段是降壇的自報身分，內容單純，語氣卻把全篇的溫度定了下來。一般聖訓的自我介紹用「吾乃」，這裡用的是「我是」——一字之差，架子就放下了。「如意童子」這個聖號，就字面的文化意涵來說：「如意」是如意寶珠的語彙，能隨人心意變現所需；「童子」指純真未鑿、未受世俗沾染的狀態。這裡只談這兩個詞在文化上的意思；至於這位仙佛的來歷行誼，訓文沒有說，我們也不去猜。語氣雖然親切，進門的次序卻一點沒少：先領 老Φ的旨，進門先參 皇Φ，最後才招呼人。先領命，再參拜，然後才是人情——這是規矩，也是身教；連降壇都不跳過這個次序，何況我們進佛堂。而招呼用的是「兄弟姊妹」：不稱徒兒，不稱賢士，把在場每一個人當同輩看待。那一天的班是中英文班，堂上坐著不同年齡、不同語言背景的人；用一句最家常的問好開場，誰都接得住。
The self-introduction is brief and, for all its formality, disarming. Where a holy teaching ordinarily opens 吾乃, thus am I, this one says simply I am — one substitution, and the distance goes out of the voice. The name 如意童子 is given, and no more than its plain vocabulary should be read into it: 如意 belongs to the language of the wish-granting jewel, the thing that answers whatever the heart asks for, and 童子 to that of a youth, unspoiled and attentive. Nothing is claimed here about who this immortal is, what mission is carried, or where any lineage sits; the teaching does not say, and neither do we. What the passage keeps entirely intact is the order of entry: the decree borne is the Eternal Mother’s, the bow before the Sovereign Mother has already happened offstage before the class saw anything at all, and only then does a word turn toward the room. Decree first, obeisance second, human warmth third — that sequence is itself the instruction. And the warmth, when it arrives, is addressed to brothers and sisters, not to students and not to disciples: a bilingual class of mixed ages and mixed languages, greeted with the plainest question there is — is everyone well? Everything that follows should be heard in that order, and at that temperature.
本訓 The Teaching · sung to 〈聽我說謝謝你〉
第一句就把處境交代了：人本來是在黑暗裡的。佛家把這個黑暗叫「無明」——不是指沒有知識，而是指對生命實相的根本認錯，看不清自己是誰、從哪裡來、要往哪裡去。而破這個黑暗的，只要一盞燈：《六祖壇經》說「一燈能除千年闇，一智能滅萬年愚」——黑暗積了一千年，燈亮的那一刻就沒了，黑暗不會因為積得久就比較難破；《維摩詰經》講「無盡燈」，一盞燈點亮另一盞，展轉相續，燈燈無盡。也請注意「照亮我前行」的這個「我」：整句不是站在高處俯瞰眾生的口吻，而是一個走在路上的人，抬頭看見了燈。
The first line states the situation: a person begins in the dark. Buddhism calls that dark 無明 — not a lack of information but a root misrecognition of what a life actually is, not seeing who you are, where you came from, or where you are bound. And what breaks it is one lamp, no more. The Platform Sutra says 「一燈能除千年闇，一智能滅萬年愚」 — a thousand years of accumulated dark is gone the instant the lamp is lit; dark does not become harder to break for having lasted longer. The Vimalakīrti Sūtra adds the 無盡燈, the inexhaustible lamp: one flame lights the next and the next, on and on without end. Notice too the 我 in 照亮我前行. The line is not spoken from above, looking down on all beings; it is spoken by someone walking on a road who has looked up and seen a light.
「反諸己」出自《孟子》：「行有不得者，皆反求諸己。」——我對人好而人不親近，先檢討自己的仁厚夠不夠；我以禮待人而人不回應，先檢討自己的恭敬夠不夠；凡事不如預期，先回頭在自己身上找原因。單看這一句，反求諸己很容易變成一種苦刑：什麼都是我的錯。可是前面加了三個字——「自性中」。《六祖壇經》裡六祖悟道時說：「何期自性，本自清淨；何期自性，本自具足……」自性是人人本有的那個清淨覺性；放在「自性中」反省，意思就完全不一樣了：你不是在一個一無是處的地方翻找自己的過錯，你是站在一個本來就圓滿的地方，看看是什麼把它遮住了。反省不是自我否定，是清掃——所以下一句才敢說「願生命光明」：光明不是求來的，是本來就有的，把遮住的東西挪開就是了。
反諸己 comes from Mencius: 「行有不得者，皆反求諸己」 — I treat someone well and they do not draw near, so I first examine whether my own kindness went far enough; I treat someone with propriety and get no response, so I first examine whether my respect went far enough; whenever a thing falls short of what was expected, look first in yourself for the reason. Taken by itself, turning back on oneself can curdle into a punishment: everything is my fault. But three characters stand in front of it — 自性中. In the Platform Sutra, the Sixth Patriarch says at his awakening 「何期自性，本自清淨；何期自性，本自具足……」 — the self-nature is the pure awareness every person already has. Reflecting within the self-nature means something entirely different: you are not rummaging for faults in a place with nothing good in it, you are standing somewhere already complete and looking at what has covered it over. Reflection is not self-negation, it is sweeping — which is why the next breath dares to say 願生命光明. The light is not obtained by asking for it; it was always there, and the work is to move aside what hides it.
「找到了」三個字語氣很輕，份量卻不輕：找了很久的東西忽然在這一生找到了，這裡面有一種鬆一口氣的欣喜。「至誠」出自《中庸》：「唯天下至誠，為能盡其性；能盡其性，則能盡人之性……」誠不只是不說謊，而是裡外一致、真實無妄、沒有一絲摻雜的狀態；做到至誠，就能徹底實現自己的本性，進而幫助別人與萬物實現本性。所以「修道發至誠」不只是說態度要認真，而是說：誠本身就是修道的內容——工夫做到哪裡，就看誠到哪裡；心裡留了一分保留，工夫就在那裡停住。
「找到了」 sounds light and is not light at all: something long looked for, found, in this life — there is relief in it before there is triumph. 至誠 comes from the Doctrine of the Mean: 「唯天下至誠，為能盡其性；能盡其性，則能盡人之性……」 誠 is not merely not lying; it is a condition in which inside and outside agree, real with nothing false and not a trace of adulteration. Reach that, and you can fully realize your own nature, and through it help others and all things realize theirs. So 修道發至誠 is not just saying the attitude should be earnest — it says that sincerity is itself the content of the cultivation: the work reaches exactly as far as the sincerity does, and wherever something is held back, that is where it stops.
這一句一半向內、一半向外，而兩半是同一個根。「含和」出自《道德經》第五十五章：「含德之厚，比於赤子……終日號而不嗄，和之至也。」嬰兒筋骨柔軟、力氣不大，可是哭上一整天嗓子也不會啞，因為內在的和氣是滿的；「含和」就是把這股中和之氣涵養在裡面。氣和了，外面的變動就驚不動你——「處不驚」不是麻木，也不是硬撐，是因為裡面是穩的。「謙恭」則是同一股和氣朝外的樣子：《易經》六十四卦裡謙卦是唯一六爻全吉的卦，〈彖傳〉說「天道虧盈而益謙……人道惡盈而好謙」；《尚書》講得更簡單：「滿招損，謙受益，時乃天道。」滿了就開始漏，謙下才裝得進東西。但謙不是自貶，也不是沒有主見——〈彖傳〉說謙是「尊而光，卑而不可踰」：真正的謙，裡面是有東西的。
This line is half inward and half outward, and the two halves grow from one root. 含和 comes from the Daodejing ch. 55: 「含德之厚，比於赤子……終日號而不嗄，和之至也」 — an infant’s sinews are soft and its strength small, yet it can cry all day without going hoarse, because the harmony inside is full. 含和 is nurturing that centered harmony within. With the breath harmonized, changes outside cannot startle you: 處不驚 is not numbness and not gritted endurance, it is what happens when the inside is steady. 謙恭 is the same harmony turned outward. Of the sixty-four hexagrams of the Book of Changes, 謙 is the only one whose every line is auspicious, and its 彖傳 says 「天道虧盈而益謙……人道惡盈而好謙」; the Book of Documents puts it more simply still: 「滿招損，謙受益，時乃天道」 — full, and it starts to leak; low, and there is room to receive. But humility is not self-abasement, nor is it having no mind of your own — the 彖傳 calls it 「尊而光，卑而不可踰」. Genuine humility has something inside it.
這是全篇最像兒歌的一句，也是最不該被輕看的一句。前面講的都是自己的工夫——反省、至誠、含和、謙恭；到這裡第一次出現了另一個人，而兩個人之間發生的第一件事，只是一個笑。不是共事、不是議論、不是誰教誰，只是你對我笑，而且笑得真誠；道場裡的關係，起點往往就是這麼小的一件事。從一個笑一下就跳到「攜手彼岸登」：《周易．繫辭上》說「二人同心，其利斷金；同心之言，其臭如蘭」。要留意「同心」與「協力」是兩件事——同心是方向一致，協力是各盡所長；真正的同心不是誰把誰的想法抹平，而是在同一個方向上各出各的力氣。「彼岸」是佛家的比喻：此岸是我們現在待著的、充滿煩惱生死的地方，中間隔著一條煩惱的河，對岸是解脫——而那條河不是一個人游過去的。
This is the most nursery-rhyme-like line in the whole teaching, and the one least to be taken lightly. Everything up to here has been one’s own work — reflection, sincerity, held harmony, humility. Now, for the first time, another person appears, and the first thing that passes between the two is only a smile. Not working together, not debating, not one instructing the other: just you smiling at me, and meaning it. In a practice hall, relationships very often begin from something exactly that small. From a single smile the line leaps straight to 攜手彼岸登. The Book of Changes (繫辭上) says 「二人同心，其利斷金；同心之言，其臭如蘭」. Notice that 同心 and 協力 are two different things: 同心 is a direction held in common, 協力 is each contributing what they are strongest at. Real 同心 is not one person’s thinking flattened into another’s — it is different strengths exerted on one bearing. 彼岸 is a Buddhist figure: this shore is where we are now, full of affliction and of birth and death; between lies the river of affliction; the far shore is release. And that river is not swum alone.
《莊子．知北遊》說：「人生天地之間，若白駒之過郤，忽然而已。」人活在天地之間，就像一匹白馬從門縫前跑過去，一晃就沒了。認清人生短暫，可以走向兩條完全相反的路：既然那麼短就及時行樂，或者既然那麼短就一刻都不能空過——這裡選的是後面這條。「機」這個字份量很重，《周易．繫辭下》說：「幾者，動之微，吉之先見者也。君子見幾而作，不俟終日。」機是事情變動時最細微的那一點，是吉凶最早露出來的徵兆，有智慧的人一看見就動手。握住了要做什麼？「善知識」在佛家指的範圍很寬——凡是能引導你走上正路、幫你長進的人都算：師長、朋友、同修，甚至那些讓你不好過、卻因此磨出你工夫的人。所以「廣結」不是廣交朋友、擴大人脈，而是有意識地把自己放進一群互相提攜、互相砥礪的人裡面。
The Zhuangzi (知北遊) says 「人生天地之間，若白駒之過郤，忽然而已」 — a life between Heaven and earth is a white colt flashing past a crack in the door, gone in an instant. Recognizing that a life is short opens two exactly opposite roads: since it is so short, take the pleasure now; or since it is so short, not one moment may be wasted. This teaching takes the second. 機 is a heavy word. The Book of Changes (繫辭下) says 「幾者，動之微，吉之先見者也。君子見幾而作，不俟終日」 — the incipient is the faintest point at which a thing begins to move, the earliest place good fortune shows itself, and the wise act the moment they see it rather than waiting out the day. Take hold of it in order to do what? 善知識 covers a wide range in Buddhist usage: anyone who can guide you onto the right road and help you grow — teachers, friends, fellow cultivators, and even those who make things hard for you and by that very hardness grind out your practice. So 廣結 is not making a lot of friends or widening a network; it is deliberately putting yourself among people who lift and hone one another.
「有幸」兩個字是這一句的重心：不是在誇自己多有本事才求得到，而是承認這件事裡有很大一部分是恩、是機緣——時候到了，道降下來了，而自己剛好在這裡。《莊子．大宗師》形容道：「夫道，有情有信，無為無形；可傳而不可受，可得而不可見。」道是真實的、可以驗證的，卻沒有形狀；可以傳遞，卻不能像東西一樣交到你手上。「修靈」則點出修的是什麼：道家內丹學把人分成「元神」與「識神」，元神是先天的、虛靈不昧的本性，識神是後天的、能思考分別的意識；修靈不是把腦子練得更靈光，而是讓那個先天的本性重新當家——說得更親切一點，就是把那顆赤子心找回來。
「有幸」 carries the weight of this line. It is not a boast about being capable enough to have sought this out; it is an admission that a great part of it is grace and conditioned affinity — the time came, the Way came down, and one happened to be standing here. The Zhuangzi (大宗師) describes the Dao: 「夫道，有情有信，無為無形；可傳而不可受，可得而不可見」 — real and to be trusted, yet without form; transmissible, yet never handed over like an object. 修靈 names what is being cultivated. Daoist inner alchemy divides a person into 元神 and 識神: 元神 is the prior nature, empty and luminous and never darkened; 識神 is the acquired consciousness that thinks and discriminates. 修靈 is not sharpening the mind but letting that prior nature take charge again — put more plainly, it is finding your way back to the newborn’s heart.
「赤子心」儒道兩家都講：《道德經》說「含德之厚，比於赤子」——德厚的人像嬰兒，純樸、柔軟、專注、元氣飽滿；《孟子．離婁下》說「大人者，不失其赤子之心者也」——真正成熟的人，是那個沒有把嬰兒般純真的心弄丟的人。請注意用的是「找回」而不是「培養」：赤子心不是後天修出來的新東西，是本來就有、後來被習氣、機心、計較、分別一層層蓋住的東西；所以修行在這裡的意思是往回走，把蓋上去的一層層拿掉。末句的「面Φ容」指的是回到老Φ面前，這是整條路的終點，可是走法是「一步步」——沒有一步登天，沒有捷徑。往回找赤子心，和往前走去見老Φ，看起來一個朝後、一個朝前，其實是同一件事：越純淨，就越靠近。
赤子心 is spoken of by the Confucian and the Daoist traditions alike. The Daodejing says 「含德之厚，比於赤子」 — one thick with virtue is like an infant: simple, supple, wholly absorbed, brimming with vitality. Mencius (離婁下) says 「大人者，不失其赤子之心者也」 — the genuinely mature person is the one who has not lost the newborn’s heart. Notice that the verb is 找回, found back, and not 培養, cultivated: the newborn’s heart is not a new thing produced by later effort, it is what was always there and got covered over, layer by layer, by habit and calculation and comparing and ranking. So cultivation here means walking backwards, lifting the layers off one at a time. The closing 面Φ容 means coming back before the Eternal Mother, the end of the whole road — but the manner of walking is 一步步. No leap to the top, no shortcut. Turning back to find the newborn’s heart and walking forward to face the Eternal Mother look like opposite directions; they are the same thing. The purer you are, the nearer you have come.
這一句把兩句古訓壓縮在一起。「德建」出自《千字文》：「剋念作聖，德建名立，形端表正。」——克得住雜念就能成聖；德行建立起來，名聲自然跟著立；身形端正了，儀表自然就正。重點在次序：德在前，名在後——德立住了，其他的自己會來；反過來想先要名，德是撐不住的。「顧明命」出自《大學》所引《尚書．太甲》：「顧諟天之明命。」——「顧」是回頭看、時時照看的意思；上天賦予人的，一是本來光明的善性，二是一份該去完成的責任，「顧明命」就是不讓自己把這兩樣忘掉。一個往下扎根，一個往上不忘，合起來才走得遠。而「生生世世能得善緣」沒有求富貴、沒有求平安，求的是下輩子、下下輩子還能遇到對的人、走在對的路上——修道人心裡最大的一筆帳，原來記在這裡。
This line compresses two old sayings into one. 德建 comes from the Thousand Character Classic: 「剋念作聖，德建名立，形端表正」 — subdue the stray thought and you can become a sage; when virtue is established the name stands of itself; when the form is upright the bearing is naturally straight. The point is the order: virtue first, name after. Build the virtue and the rest arrives on its own; want the name first, and there is no virtue underneath to hold it up. 顧明命 shortens 「顧諟天之明命」, which the Great Learning quotes from the Book of Documents (太甲). 顧 is to look back at, to keep watch over; what Heaven gave a person is two things at once — an originally luminous good nature, and a charge that must be carried out. 顧明命 is refusing to let yourself forget either one. One drives roots downward, the other keeps the eyes up; only together do they carry you far. And 生生世世能得善緣 asks for no wealth and no safety — it asks that in the next life and the life after that, one may still meet the right people and walk the right road. The largest account a cultivator keeps, it turns out, is entered here.
「參與辦」是說有份參與這件事——不只是自己得了道，還能出一份力。這裡面有一層意思值得說清楚：剛求道的時候，人是被幫的那一個；到了能參與辦的時候，人才變成幫人的那一個。從被人渡到渡人，是同一條路上的前後兩段；三個「今生」到這裡走完：找到了、遇上了、能做事了。而收尾落在「一切感恩引渡人」——「引渡人」就是最初把你帶進門、介紹你求道的那個人。最後一句沒有留給老Φ，也沒有留給仙佛，而是留給了那個在你還什麼都不懂的時候，願意走過來拉你一把的普通人。到這裡，鎮壇詩開頭那兩句問話終於有了回音，連用字都接得上：鎮壇詩感謝的是「一直引導」你的那一位，本訓最後感謝的是「引渡」你的那個人——同樣一個「引」字，從天上落到了你身邊。
參與辦 means having a share in this work — not only having received the Dao oneself, but being able to put strength into it. There is a layer here worth stating plainly: when a person has just received the Dao, they are the one being helped; only when they can take part in the work do they become the one who helps. From being ferried across to ferrying others is two stretches of a single road, and the three 「今生」 of the teaching finish here: found it, met it, able to do the work. Then the close lands on 「一切感恩引渡人」 — the 引渡人 is the one who first brought you in, who introduced you and led you to seek the Dao. The final line is left neither to the Eternal Mother nor to any immortal, but to that ordinary person who, back when you understood nothing at all, was willing to walk over and pull you up. Here the two questions that opened the 鎮壇詩 finally get their echo, and even the wording links up: the opening verse thanks the one who 一直引導 you, and the last line of the teaching thanks the one who 引渡 you — the same character, come down from Heaven to the person standing beside you.
本訓十句全是唱的，裡面穿著兩條線。一條是「願」——願生命光明、願今生找到了、願德建顧明命：這十句不是一篇訓誡，而是一串心願，是替大家許的，也是要大家自己接著許的。另一條是「今生」——今生找到了、今生有幸逢、今生能參與辦，一次比一次往前推，從「我找到了」到「我遇上了」，最後到「我有份做事了」。起手是最古老的那個意象：黑暗中一盞燈。佛家把這黑暗叫「無明」，不是沒有知識，是對生命實相的根本認錯；而《六祖壇經》說「一燈能除千年闇」——黑暗積了一千年，燈亮的那一刻就沒了，黑暗不會因為積得久就比較難破。可是燈在外面，工夫在裡面：緊接著的第二句把《孟子》的「反求諸己」放進《六祖壇經》的「自性」裡，於是反省不是在一個一無是處的地方翻找過錯，而是站在一個本來圓滿的地方，看看是什麼把它遮住了——反省不是自我否定，是清掃。往下三句一層層往外推：修道發至誠，《中庸》的「誠」是裡外一致、沒有一絲摻雜的狀態，誠到哪裡，工夫就到哪裡；含和中處不驚，「含和」取《道德經》「含德之厚，比於赤子」的意思——嬰兒哭一整天嗓子也不啞，因為裡面的和氣是滿的，所以那份穩不是硬撐，是裡面滿；待人能謙恭，則是同一股和氣朝外的樣子。誠是你是什麼，含和是你帶著什麼，謙恭是別人真正接觸到的那一面。到第五句才第一次出現另一個人，而兩人之間發生的第一件事只是一個真誠的笑，隨即就跳到「攜手彼岸登」——那條河不是一個人游過去的。
後五句轉入實地。認清人生短暫可以走向兩條相反的路：一條是及時行樂，一條是一刻都不空過；這裡選的是後者，而且要握住的是「機」——《周易》說「幾者，動之微，吉之先見者也」，是事情剛要動、還只是一點徵兆的時候。握住了要做什麼？「廣結善知識」——善知識不是書本知識，是人：師長、朋友、同修，凡是能讓你長進的人；所以「廣結」不是擴大人脈，而是有意識地把自己放進一群互相提攜的人裡面。「今生有幸逢」的重心在「有幸」二字：不是誇自己有本事求得到，是承認這裡面有很大一部分是恩、是機緣——時候到了，道降下來了，而自己剛好在這裡。而修的是什麼？「找回赤子心」——用的是「找回」不是「培養」；赤子心不是後天修出來的新東西，是本來就有、後來被習氣機心一層層蓋住的東西，由一位童子唱出這一句格外貼切。「一步步向前走面Φ容」則把整條路的形狀說盡了：沒有一步登天，就是一步接著一步；往回找赤子心和往前走去見 老Φ，看起來一個朝後、一個朝前，其實是同一件事——越純淨，就越靠近。末兩句是願。「願德建顧明命」壓縮了兩句古訓：「德建」出自《千字文》「德建名立」，德在前、名在後，這正好回答了鎮壇詩開頭關於名利的那一問——不去追名，把德立住了，名自己會來；「顧明命」出自《大學》所引《尚書．太甲》「顧諟天之明命」，是時時回頭看著上天賦予的那份光明天命，而所以要「時時」，正因為那是最容易忘的。最後一句沒有落在 老Φ身上，也沒有落在仙佛身上，而是落在「引渡人」——那個在你還什麼都不懂的時候，願意走過來拉你一把的普通人。鎮壇詩謝的是「一直引導」你的那一位，本訓最後謝的是「引渡」你的那個人：同一個「引」字，從天上落到了你身邊。
The ten lines of the main body are all sung, and two threads run through them. One is may: may this life be luminous, may it be that in this life I have found it, may virtue be built — not admonitions but a string of vows, made on the room’s behalf and then handed to the room to make. The other is this life: found in this life, met in this life, taken part in this life — from I found it to I met it to I have a share in the work. They open with the oldest image there is, one lamp in the dark, whose whole force in the Platform Sutra is that the dark’s age counts for nothing: however long one has been lost in it, the lamp does not have to work through the backlog. But the lamp is outside, and the very next line moves the work inside, stitching Mencius’s turn-and-seek-the-cause-in-yourself into the Platform Sutra’s self-nature — so that the room one is standing in is already complete, and turning back to look for the cause is simply what one does while standing there. This is not self-blame; it is looking in the only place the answer has ever been. From there the instruction runs outward and does not skip a link: utmost sincerity, which in the Doctrine of the Mean is not honesty in the ordinary social sense but a state so wholly unmixed that there is no seam anywhere in it; then held harmony, the Daodejing’s infant who can cry all day without going hoarse because the harmony in it is that full, so that this steadiness is fullness and not gritted teeth; then humility, which is that same fullness as other people meet it. Sincerity is what you are, held harmony is what you carry, humility is what anyone else actually encounters. And then another person appears in the poem, and the first thing that passes between them is only a smile — from which the line leaps straight to hand in hand we climb to the far shore, because this teaching will not let anyone arrive there alone.
The second half turns practical. Life is short can be heard two opposite ways, and this teaching hears it as let nothing be wasted: take hold of the moment while it is still only a stirring — the Book of Changes calls it the barely visible first movement of a thing, where good fortune shows itself before it has arrived. And what one takes hold of it for is people. Good spiritual friends are not books and not knowledge; they are teachers, companions, fellow practitioners, anyone in whose presence one’s virtue actually grows, so widening those bonds is not networking but placing oneself deliberately among them. Fortunate is the weight-bearing word in the line that follows: not deserving, not earned, not owed — the true Way came down, and one happened to be standing there. And what that fortune asks for is not acquisition but recovery: find your way back to the newborn’s heart — found back, not built, since it was always yours and merely got covered over, a line that lands with particular fitness sung by a youth. Then the destination, in the last few characters: step by step walk forward, to face the Eternal Mother’s countenance. There is no leaping; there is one step and then the next. And the whole geometry of the teaching sits in that line, because walking forward here means walking back toward where one came from — the purer, the nearer. The final two lines are vows. May virtue be built draws on the Thousand Character Classic’s when virtue is established, the name then stands, virtue first and name afterward, which is the quiet answer to the opening verse’s question about name and gain: you do not chase the name, you build the virtue, and the name settles on it. And keeping the bright mandate in sight shortens the line the Great Learning quotes from the Book of Documents — keep looking back to the luminous mandate Heaven has given you — whose point is that this has to be done continually, because it is continually forgotten. Then the teaching ends, and it ends neither on Heaven nor on the far shore but on a person: gratitude to the one who led me in. The opening verse thanked whatever kept guiding through the low times; the last line thanks the ordinary human being who walked over and brought you through the door when you understood nothing yet. The same word for leading, come down from Heaven to the seat beside you. Somebody invited you.