Nov 21

Nov 21, 2017
慧淨上人法語
淨土宗宗風真諦

There is a saying, “practice begins with understanding; once commenced, understanding is no longer necessary”. For instance, before you set out on a journey, you start with reading the map and the driver’s manual. Once your car is on the road, you don’t need to steer the wheel with one hand while holding the map with the other; you just drive the car along your planned route right the way.  That is the meaning of the saying. Buddhism emphasizes on faith and practice, not knowledge and theory or simply academic studies. Here come the dicta “observe the mind with the aid of the teachings” and “practice according to the teachings”. Studying Buddhism without the faith and practice is a kind of academic discussion or study. That is a branch of philosophy and not religion.

有句話說：「行由解起，行起解絕。」好比走一條路，在還沒有走之前，先了解地圖、說明書；一旦車子上路了，不必右手抓方向盤，左手又拿地圖，就直接開車上路，這個就是「行由解起，行起解絕」。因為佛教重在信仰和實踐，而不在於作學問、講理論，或單單只是研究學術而已。所謂「藉教觀心」、「依教奉行」，如果研究佛學而不藉教觀心、依教奉行，等於是一種學術性的討論或研究，則只是一門哲學而已，不能稱之為宗教。

Namo Amitabha!