修德、造业

Cultivating Virtue versus Creating Karma

终日在醉生梦死中度生活，一点功德也没有修，怎能成佛？

If you spend your whole life in a muddle, born drunk and dying in a dream, and not cultivating the least bit of merit and virtue, how can you become a Buddha?

各位想一想，佛在往昔修无量无边的功德，才能成佛。

Each of you should think for a moment: in the past, the Buddha had to cultivate limitless and boundless merit and virtue before he could become a Buddha.

我们为什么没有成佛？就因为没有修无量无边的功德。我们的功德相差太远，因为一边修行，一边造业，所谓「修的没有造的多」。

Why haven't we become Buddhas? It's because we haven't cultivated limitless and boundless merit and virtue. Our merit and virtue are far less, because we cultivate on one hand and create karma on the other. So it is said, “What we cultivate is not as much as what we create.”

一天到晚造身业、造口业、造意业。譬如，在意念里，常想人家不好，想着人家对不起我，想人家不如我等等妄想，于是在意念中，造了很多贪瞋痴的罪业。在口上也造业，讲是说非，尽打妄语、绮语、恶口、两舌等等。有些人要是一天不讲是讲非，就好像一天不能活着；一天不打妄想，就好像没有吃饭一样不自在。一天到晚，要靠讲是非、打妄想来生存，你们说怪不怪？真令人费解。

From morning to night, we create karma with our body, with our mouth, and with our mind. For example, in our thoughts, we often have idle thoughts about how bad people are, how others have wronged us, how others are not as good as we are, and so forth. As a result, we create a lot of evil karma with the greed, anger and stupidity in our thoughts. We also create karma with our mouth, always talking about others' rights and wrongs, constantly telling lies, saying indecent things, scolding people, backbiting, and so on. There are some people who don't seem to be able to survive for even a day without gossiping. If they don't tell lies for a day, they feel as uncomfortable as if they hadn't eaten. All day long, they need to gossip and lie in order to survive. Wouldn't you say that's strange? It really hard to figure them out.

有这种毛病的人，自己还不承认，还要瞒着遮盖它，还说自己没有打妄想，没有欲念，戴着假面具，到处骗人。其实在这世界上，怎能骗得了人？不但骗不了人，连自己也骗不了。为什么？因为自己打妄想，问问自己知道不知道？若是知道，那就骗不了自己，既然骗不了自己，怎能骗人呢？愚痴人才有这种的行为。

Yet the people who have this fault still refuse to admit it. They still want to cover it up, and they claim they haven't told any lies and don't have any desires. They put on a mask and cheat everyone. Actually, in this world, how can you succeed in cheating people? Not only can you not cheat others, you can't even cheat yourself. Why not? When you have idle thoughts, ask yourself if you are aware of them. If you are aware of them, that means you can't fool yourself. Since you can't cheat yourself, how can you cheat others? Only stupid people behave that way.

不修行的人，戴着假面具，昧心厚颜，专做些不守规矩、不光明正大的事，自己还不承认。因之，终日在醉生梦死中度生活，一点功德也没有修，怎能成佛？与佛相差十万八千里。

People who don't cultivate will put on a mask and in blind shamelessness do a lot of devious, improper deeds that break the rules. Yet they won't admit it. Because of this, they spend their whole life in a muddle, born drunk and dying in a dream, and not cultivating the least bit of merit and virtue. So how can they become Buddhas? They are 108,000 miles away from the Buddhas.

换句话说，我们所修的功德，还没有造的孽业多；也可以说：「所得的没有所丢的多。」这样焉能有所成就？

In other words, the merit and virtue we have cultivated is not as great as the offenses we have committed. You could say, “What we gain is not as much as what we lose,” so how can we accomplish anything?