为什么我持银钱戒呢？
Why Did I Hold the Precept of Not Touching Money?
节录自六祖坛经浅释 Excerpted from the commentary of the Sixth Patriarch Sutra
我想起我在东北，有一段的时期和这钱分开家了，我不拿钱，手里不摸这个钱。为什么那时候我持银钱戒呢？我这有一点原因。因为我出家，我那庙上有四、五十个和尚，有的时候二、三十，有的时候十几个，有的时候三、四十，也不一定。我到那庙上出家，这方丈和尚没有在庙上，其他人也没有人认识我的。方丈可能到外面去化缘去了，我就到那儿说出家。庙上那些和尚，就把我留到庙上出家了。我说：「我认识方丈和尚。」大家都很高兴的，很欢迎。
这么样出家，就要做什么呢？要做苦行。我做的苦行和你们做的不同，你们这是打打字啦、念念经啦、或者是有其他的工作。我那是很大的一个乡下的庙，有很多工作；就扫这庙的院子，也要扫一个钟头，才能扫完的。我在庙上收拾厕所、洗厕所，这是我的第一个工作。但是那厕所不是这种的厕所，那种就是在地下挖个坑，我们要把它拿出来放到一边去，那个味道很「香」的；因为修道的人不愿意闻香味，所以把这些粪搬到另外一个地方去。那么这个工作是由我来做，因为我这是初初发心，对于这香尘还没有断，所以天天收拾这种工作，也不觉讨厌。
在庙上我也扫地，做种种的工作。有的时候下雪，就要早一点把路都打扫干净了，让人好走路去上殿、念经。我在人都没起身以前，好像人四点钟起身，我在两点钟就起来，把下的雪，都收拾干净了；其他人起身走路，就没有雪了。这是我的工作。
等到方丈和尚过了一个时期回来了，一见到我就说：「啊！你来了。」我说：「我来了。」出家以后，他就和大家开会，要在庙上选首座和尚。首座和尚就是除了方丈和尚，就是首座；等方丈若退位了，首座就做方丈。有几十个和尚，那方丈和尚他谁也不选，他要选我来做首座和尚。他问大家，大家都反对，说：「他一个刚出家的，怎么可以做首座和尚呢？」方丈和尚说：「那我们在韦陀菩萨前，大家来抽签吧！」就求签，写上几个人的名字，谁可以有资格做首座都写上，到签筒摇，摇出来看是谁的名字，就是谁。摇了几次，哎呀！很奇怪！这大约是韦陀菩萨，他要给我找一点工作，所以摇了三次，都是我的名字跳出来。所以大家也不敢反对了，这韦陀菩萨安排的；所以我在庙上就做首座。
做首座以后呢，方丈和尚又想叫我做当家，当家就是做老板之类的。我一想：「这太麻烦了。好了，你叫我当家，我不摸钱，你看这个家怎么当法？」所以他叫我当家，我说：「可以的。但是我不摸钱，请旁人拿钱旁人数，我无论到什么地方，我都不摸钱的，我当这么个家就可以。」就这个样子，就持银钱戒啰！
持银钱戒，很奇怪的，我出门多数因为是自己出去，去搭火车。庙上离火车站很近的，没有巴士，只有火车。搭搭火车要买票的；得拿钱买票，这就是摸钱了。我就到那儿等着，我到什么地方去，就在火车站那儿等着，看有熟人来，他就给我买张票，我就去；没有熟人来，我就在那儿等。但是很奇怪的，每逢我到什么地方去，在那个火车站上等火车，一定有人来给我买票的，问我到什么地方去，然后就给我买张票。
While in Manchuria there was a short period during which money and I parted company. I never touched money and for a good reason. Living in the temple where I lived when I left home were forty or fifty bhikshus, but sometimes as few as a dozen. When I first arrived at the temple, the abbot was out begging and none of the bhikshus knew me. "I know the abbot, and I want to leave the home-life," I said, and they welcomed me.
After leaving home, I practiced austerities, but not the ones you practice. You type, recite Sutras, and so forth, but in the big rural temple where I lived, there was a lot of outside work to be done. Sweeping the courtyard alone took an hour. My first job was to clean the toilets, which weren't flush toilets, but pit toilets, and every day the waste had to be removed because the cultivators did not want to smell the odor. They gave this work to me because I had just left home and had not yet cut off my attachment to smells. I did it every day and didn't mind it too much.
I did various chores at the temple, such as sweeping. When it snowed I got up before everyone else; I got up at two in the morning and swept the walkways so that they were clear at four when everyone else got up to go to the Buddha hall and recite Sutras.
When the abbot returned and saw me he said, "So you have come!"
"Yes," I said, "I have."
After I had formally left home, he called a meeting, wishing to elect a manager, a position second only to the abbot. When the abbot retires, the manager becomes the new abbot. Among the several dozen monks, the abbot wanted to choose me. Everyone objected, "He has just left home," they said. "How can he possibly be manager?"
"Very well," said the abbot. "Let's go before the image of Weitou Bodhisattva and draw names." Oddly enough, (Weitou Bodhisattva must have wanted to give me some work to do) they drew three times and my name came up each time. No one said a word because I had been elected by Weitou Bodhisattva himself.
Later, when the abbot wanted to make me an administrator, I thought, "It's too much trouble. If he tells me to do it, I won't touch money. How will he expect me to administrate then?" So I said, "All right, but I will not touch money. Other people must handle and count it. That is my condition." That's how I started holding the precept of not touching money.
Unusual things happened when I held this precept. Whenever I went to the train station near the temple, I didn't bring money to buy a ticket, because I couldn't hold money. I would sit and wait for someone who knew me to come and offer to buy me a ticket. If no one came I just waited, but strangely enough, whenever I went to the station, someone would come and ask me where I wanted to go and then buy me a ticket.
