◎ 受五戒的重要性
◎ The importance of receiving the five precepts

要是能持五戒十善，就能升到天上。「五戒」──杀、盗、淫、妄、酒。

不杀生是慈悲；
不偷盗是义气；
不邪淫是正人君子；
不妄语是忠信的人；
不饮酒是不乱来的人。

杀生，将来是宿殃短命报； 偷盗，将来是贫穷苦楚报； 邪淫，将来是雀鸽鸳鸯报；小鸟好高骛远，贪邪淫就做了小鸟。
If one can uphold the five precepts and practice the ten good deeds, one will ascend to the heavens. The five precepts are not killing, not stealing, not engaging in sexual misconduct, not lying, and not taking intoxicants:

Not killing is to be kind and compassionate,
Not stealing is to be righteous,
Not engaging in sexual misconduct is to be an upright and proper person,
Not lying is to be a loyal and faithful person,
Not taking intoxicants is not to be a reckless person.

Killing brings the retribution of a short life span,
Stealing brings the retribution of a life of poverty and hardship,
Sexual misconduct brings the retribution of being born as pigeons or mandarin ducks.

Birds are impractical and lustful. If people act that way, they will be reborn as birds.

我时时跟你们讲，你们却不太注意。我也不怕麻烦，再对你们再讲一遍。说什么呢？人不要杀生。因为一切众生在无量劫以来，和我是亲戚，或是朋友，或是父母祖先也不一定的。我们要是杀生的话，前生父母造了罪业，今生托生做牛，做猪，我们杀了他们，等于间接杀了我们的父母是一样的。
I often tell you these things, but you never pay much attention. I don’t mind taking the trouble to remind you again. What is it? People must not kill, because all living beings have either been our relatives or friends, or even parents or ancestors, throughout limitless eons. If our former parents have now been reborn as pigs or cows because of offenses they committed, and we kill those pigs and cows, then that would be the same as killing our own parents indirectly.

再说偷盗，「已所不欲，勿施于人。」自己不愿意的事，不要加在别人身上；自己不欢喜的事，不要叫别人做。「不偷盗」，因为我们不愿别人偷我们的东西，我们首先就不要偷别人的东西或财物。
As for stealing, it’s said, “We should not do to others what we would not like done to us.” Since we don’t like having our belongings stolen, we should not steal others’ belongings.

至于邪淫，在因果律上，凡是犯邪淫的罪，受的惩罚是很重。尤其夫妇不应该马马虎虎随随便便离婚，因为你结婚又离婚，在因果律上，人死后身体要分成两份。因为你有两边的关系，所以用锯子从头顶锯到脚底。你结婚几次就要分开多少份。一个女人和一百个男人结婚，就分成一百份；一个男人与一百个女人结婚，也要分成一百份。一百个女人，一人分一块，分得零零碎碎。
In the law of cause and effect, the punishment for sexual misconduct is very heavy. Husbands and wives should not casually divorce. If you are married and then divorce later, in the law of cause and effect, your body will be divided into two parts because you had two relationships. You will be sawed in half from head to toe. You will be sawed into as many pieces as the number of marriages you have had. If a woman married a hundred men, she would be cut into one hundred pieces. Each man would get a piece of her.

分开有什么不好呢？分了，再想把灵性聚集在一起，就很不容易了，这个机会是很不容易得到。得不到这个机会就永远性化灵残，与草木同朽，变成无情的植物。因为你的本性分开了，不够做众生；就是做众生，你一个身体要做八万四千那么多蚊虫。这个蚊虫又去做蚊虫，总也不知向后转，不会背尘合觉，在轮回里死了又生，生了又死。
What’s bad about being cut into fragments? It will be hard for the spiritual nature to come together again. Such a chance would be difficult to come by. If the chance does not arise, the spiritual nature will forever be incomplete and one will become an insentient thing, much like wood or grass. One's nature will be so fragmented that it will be insufficient to function as a sentient being. Even if it does become a sentient being, it would be in the form of a swarm of eighty-four thousand mosquitoes or the like. Those mosquitoes would in turn become mosquitoes that also lacked any awareness of how to change their course. They would not be able to wake up and turn away from the deluded existence. They would continually be born and die within the cycle of transmigration.

所以「一失人身，万劫不复。」我们把人的身体失去了，在几万个大劫后，也不容易恢复，再得到这个人身。
Thus, it’s said, “Once the human body is lost, it will not be recovered in tens of thousands of eons.” If we lose the human body, we will have to pass through millions of eons and still may not be able to regain it.