Wonderful Metaphors in the Pure Land School
淨土宗妙喻
10B A Poor Man Who Loses His Gold
Let’s look at another metaphor. Imagine there is a very poor man. A compassionate person offers him a box of gold bars, suggesting that he take good care of it since it can keep him from hunger and misery. The gold bars, being so valuable, are in an exquisite case when they are given to the poor man.
Unfortunately, the man has no idea of the value of gold. He simply admires the box but does not bother to open it. He guards the box day and night and wonders why he remains poor despite having a windfall.
One day, the man comes across a helpful person who opens the box for him. The moment he sees the gold bars inside, he is overjoyed.
“Now I don’t have to suffer from poverty anymore!”
With this thought of joyfulness, he rushes out to tell his neighbors that he has received a big fortune and is no longer poor! With the precious assets at home, the happy man speaks with great confidence. No one will look down on him anymore but think that he is now a rich man.
He goes around boasting about his good luck. Someone warns him that he’d better go home to protect his gold from being stolen. The man thinks the advice is sensible.
Just then, a conman approaches him and tries to dissuade him from guarding his gold. ‘Millionaires are all happy go lucky people who are not overly worried about their fortune,’ the conman said. ‘What good does it do you to guard that box?
You’ve been keeping an eye on it for several years, yet you didn’t get any joy from
it, did you?’ The poor man couldn’t agree more. He has been keeping the box of
gold for three years and yet he is still as impoverished as ever.
“You are feeling the agony of being poor. That is just a simple thought.” The dishonest man continues with his ploy. “Now you have the joyful feeling of being rich, and that is also just a thought. You are rich because you have that one thought. This one thought is of the utmost value. Don’t ever let anyone take away that one precious thought of yours. Otherwise, you will be poor again.”
The ignorant man thinks the advice of the crook makes sense. Having conned the man, the crook sneaks into the latter’s home and steals his gold. Sadly, the briefly rich man becomes poor once again.
(to be continued tomorrow)
10B. 關於信心與念佛妙喻之 - 窮人失金喻
再打一個比喻:有一個人很窮,別人憐憫他,送一盒黃金給他,告訴他這很貴重,要他好好保存,能免除饑餓和痛苦。黃金很貴重,所以就用一個精緻的盒子裝著,交給他了。可是這個窮人不認識,看到盒子覺得不錯,也不打開看看裏面是什麼,天天守著盒子,心裏覺得他發了財怎麼還是這麼窮呢?有一天,他遇到一個,過來把他的盒子給打開了。他一看見黃金,心裏就喜悅了:真的不用再受窮。
有這一念喜悅,他就衝出去告訴左鄰右舍他發財了,他現在不是窮人了!他的話講得很有底氣,因為家裏有黃金嘛!所以,大家也不敢小看他,認為他真的是發財了。
他在外面到處講,有人就提醒他老老實實回去,把他的黃金看好,免得讓賊偷走了。他覺得有道理。
這個時候就來了一個賊,這個賊勸他不要回家守黃金,賊說大富翁都是很瀟灑的,他回家守著那盒東西有什麼用呢,他守了好幾年也沒有這種喜悅,對不對?窮人覺得很對,那盒黃金在他這裏放了三年,他還是覺得很窮苦。
賊對他說窮苦,就是那一念窮苦的感受。現在你有了這種發財的快樂感受,就說明你發財了。就在你看見黃金的那一念,你當下就發財了,所以,那一念很寶貴。你不要讓別人把你騙了,把那一念偷走了,你就是窮人了。他一聽,也有道理啊!賊跟他講完之後,就到他家把黃金偷走了。他最終又變成了窮人。
Namo Amituofo!
