今天师父继续给大家讲“寂定于心”。寂是什么？就是寂静的寂。定于心就是要安静。一个修心的人如果能够安静的话，主要是从心开始出发的。为什么很多人修心修得不好？因为在生活当中他本身就是一个定不下心来的人。他想要寂静，他才能定下心来，所以叫寂定于心。我们说“寂灭”，如果一个修心的人在心中能够定下心来，他的寂一定是很重要的。我经常问修心的人：“你的心是不是全部集中在一个点上？你是不是思想很集中？你是不是做人、做事情的时候用心了？”实际上用心的人，做任何事情就是个寂静的“寂”字。所以学佛，修心是最重要的，如果一个人能够把心修好了，他就能够把娑婆世界的很多物质变为寂灭。
Today, I will continue to teach you about “achieving Samadhi (stillness and concentration) in the mind.” What is stillness? It is the profound quiet of a tranquil mind. To have concentration in the mind means you must be completely at peace. If a Buddhist practitioner wants to be at peace, it must stem entirely from the mind. Why do so many people struggle with cultivating their mind? It is because in their daily lives, they are simply incapable of settling their minds. Only when you truly aspire to stillness can you settle your mind—that is why we call it achieving Samadhi in the mind. When we speak of nirvana (calmness and extinction), if a Buddhist practitioner can truly steady their mind, it must rely on this stillness. I often ask cultivators: “Is your mind completely focused on a single point? Is your focus completely undivided? Are you putting your whole heart into how you conduct yourself and do things?” In reality, for someone who truly uses their heart, everything they do embodies that stillness. Therefore, when it comes to practising Buddhism, cultivating the mind is the most important thing. If a person can truly cultivate their mind well, they can transform the material things of this Saha world into absolute stillness.
无明如实而虚。我们心中的无明造成了我们在人间巨大的创伤。因为我们什么都不明白，所以我们经常做错事；因为我们的无知、我们的不明白，所以我们才会虚度年华到今天。你们每一天每一时每一秒都是这么悄悄地过去了。你们学到了什么？你们做到了什么？你们把娑婆世界的这些明物质看成自己终身要索取的东西，而把真正修为的本性丢弃在一边。你们拥有了什么？你们拥有的是自私、贪婪和无知——等于无明。所以无明造成了你的习气。因为你无明了，你什么都不明白，你还以为自己很聪明、很明白。所以你就会有习气出来，所以无明习气就是这么出来的。我们修心要改掉自己身上的无明习气。有些人什么都不知道还要骄傲，什么都不懂还要夸夸其谈。这是一个学佛人应该做的事情吗？一个真正学佛的人是一个有智慧的人。有智慧的人是应该用他的灵魂来控制他的心念，然后控制他的意念，控制他的行为，控制他的嘴巴。整天夸夸其谈、以为自己很了不起的这些人，实际上就叫无明。动不动跟你讲佛经，动不动跟你讲一切佛法的道理，实际上这个人就是无明。因为众生皆具本性，即佛性。而你所学的东西也只是一些皮毛，还以为自己学得很好了，你怎么可以拿出来就给人家去讲？要知道误导那是一个大业障啊，那是造口业。所以师父再三给你们讲：无明习气必须去掉。
Ignorance appears real, yet it is ultimately illusory. The ignorance within our minds causes us immense trauma in this human world. Because we don’t understand the truth of anything, we constantly do the wrong things. Because of our ignorance and lack of understanding, we have wasted our lives away up until this very day. Every single day, every hour, and every second slips by quietly. What have you actually learned? What have you actually achieved You treat the material things of this Saha world as lifelong pursuits, while casting aside your true nature and cultivation. What do you actually possess right now? What you possess is selfishness, greed, and a lack of understanding—which is exactly what ignorance is.
Therefore, ignorance breeds your karmic predispositions. Because you are trapped in ignorance and understand absolutely nothing, you still think you are incredibly clever and clear-headed. As a result, these latent tendencies flare up; this is exactly how ignorant, karmic habits are formed. In cultivating our minds, we must rid ourselves of the ignorant predispositions we carry within us. Some people know absolutely nothing, yet they are still full of pride; they don’t understand a thing, yet they still boast and talk big. Is this how a Buddhist practitioner should behave? A true practitioner is a person of wisdom. A wise person uses their soul to govern their thoughts, and then controls their intentions, controls their actions, and controls their mouth. Those who brag all day long and think they are extraordinary are, in reality, showing a clear sign of ignorance. On a whim, they will spout Buddhist scriptures at you or throw all kinds of Buddhist principles in your face—but in truth, this person is completely trapped in ignorance. Every single living being already possesses Buddha-nature. What you have learned is merely scratching the surface, yet you think you’ve mastered it. How can you just go around preaching to others? You must understand that misleading people creates massive karmic obstacles—it is creating negative karma of speech. That is why I tell you time and time again: these ignorant predispositions must be completely rooted out.
一个真正学得好的人，一个大法师，一个和尚，你去问他什么事情他都说“阿弥陀佛”。因为人间的一切全是假的，你要想在假的当中想找出真的东西来，那怎么可能呢？所以无明如实而知。是什么意思？无明的习气你明明知道叫“如实”，“而知”就是你已经明白。你以为明白了，而无明集啊。因为你以为自己什么都明白了，所以你把所有的不明集中在一起了，叫“无明集”，所以就造成了“无明灭”。因为你所有的东西都不懂，以为自己都懂了，你就会整天的犯错误，整天的做错事情，你才会整天的不明白这些道理。而“无明灭”是什么意思呢？因为你聚足了很多不明白的事情，到了最后你就做错很多不明白的事情，你这个无明就慢慢地灭掉了。怎么会灭掉了？因为你做错了，你这个事情就没了。没了实际上你已经倒霉了，你已经做错很多事情了，灭度了。就像人的生老病死一样，在人间就这么灭度了。有生就有灭，生灭就这么来的。无明一灭，那么人心就灭。因为你碰了钉子了，因为你在人间做了很多的错事情，因为你们曾经伤害了很多人，因为你们过去做过很多对不起人家的事情，因为你们的无知伤害了别人、伤害了孩子、伤害了家庭，而这些给你们造成的伤害灭度了，那么你就开始重新在心中产生了一种新的萌芽，而这个萌芽就等于重新开始，但是这个开始就等于是你人生的重新开始。而很多人在这个萌芽还没有发起之前已经离开人间了，他就堕落到了下一个轮回。而真正可以把无明习气改正的人，他就叫灭度。他把这个无明灭掉了之后，他就会生出佛心。
When a person has truly mastered their practice, such as a Venerable Master, no matter what you ask them, they will simply reply, “Amitabha Buddha.” This is because everything in this human world is entirely illusory; how could you ever expect to find anything real within an illusion? Therefore, we speak of “knowing ignorance as it truly is.” What does this mean? “As it truly is” means you clearly recognise your ignorant predispositions for what they are, and “knowing” means you believe you have fully understood them. Yet, because you think you understand everything, you gather all your misunderstandings together—becoming the origination and aggregate of ignorance. This origination ultimately drives the cessation and extinction of ignorance. Because you don’t actually understand anything but believe you know it all, you will be constantly making mistakes, doing the wrong things, and remaining completely blind to the truth. And what is the real meaning behind this “extinction of ignorance”? It means that because you have amassed so many misunderstandings, you ultimately act on them and commit countless errors, which causes this ignorance to cease. But how does it cease? It ceases because you fail, and the matter simply comes to an end. By the time it ends, however, you have already suffered the consequences and ruined so many things; it has reached its end through suffering. It is just like the cycle of birth, old age, sickness, and death—this is how things reach their end in the human world. Whatever is born must pass away; this is exactly how the cycle of arising and ceasing works.
Once your ignorance burns out, your old mindset ceases to exist. Because you have hit a wall, because you have done so many wrong things in this world, and because you have hurt so many people in the past—doing things you deeply regret, where your sheer lack of understanding wounded others, your children, and your families—the damage caused by these actions finally fades away. Only then does a new spark begin to emerge within your mind. This spark represents a fresh start; it is a total reset of your life. Yet, so many people leave this world before this spark even has a chance to ignite, causing them to fall straight into the next cycle of rebirth. On the other hand, a person who can truly correct their ignorant predispositions is someone who has achieved ultimate cessation. Once they have completely extinguished this ignorance, their Buddha-nature will naturally arise.
一个人自己什么都不明白、还以为自己很明白的时候，他的佛性是进不到他的心里的；而只有当自己什么都不明白的时候，就相当于一个仓库把它掏空一样的时候，那么你才能装进真正的佛性。心要净心，要空。只有把自己的心掏空，你才能接受一些更好的东西。很多的佛法都有流派，你跟哪个法门学的，你跟哪个法师学的，就犹如唱戏一样的。梅兰芳唱梅派，但是如果梅兰芳不是继承了他的老师王瑶卿的王派，他怎么会成为梅派啊？你必须接受新的佛法，你必须接受每一位法师、每一位高僧大德、每一位善居士的忠告，但你必须把自己过去的无知全部清除。就像电脑里面把它全部清除（delete）了，你才能接受新的东西。当你能够把无明去除之后，你的心就会生明、生光、生慧。生明是什么？是你才能生出明白的心。因为你过去不明白的东西已经没了，你现在才能生出明白的心。当你生出明白的心，你就不会做错事情。你所做的一切因为是对的、是符合佛法的，你就会产生出光。当你有这些光的时候，实际上你的心已经和佛的光合在一起了，你跟佛光合在一起你就会产生出智慧，所以叫生明、生光、生慧。师父希望你们先不要追求生慧，因为心中没有光的人，他就不能明白真正人生的道理，先要生明啊。先要把心中做什么事情都要明白，“这个事情我走的是对的，我走的是佛法的道”，然后才能生出光。你什么都不明白，你哪里来的光啊？所以学佛我们说生智慧（般若智慧是最高的境界），而智慧是靠着什么生出来的？不是靠你在人间乱闯乱跑所生出来的，而是靠着你不断地修心修行、不断地念经、不断地寻找一种在自身的本身早已存在的而被我们遗失的本性，你才能找到这个智慧啊。
When a person understands absolutely nothing yet thinks they are brilliant, their Buddha-nature cannot enter their mind. It is only when you admit that you know nothing—emptying yourself out like a completely cleared warehouse—that you can finally be filled with your true Buddha-nature. The mind must be pure; it must be empty. Only by emptying your mind can you receive better things. There are many schools of Buddhism; which Dharma Door you learn from or which Master you study under is much like the performing arts. Mei Lanfang sang in the Mei style, but if he hadn’t first inherited the Wang style from his teacher, Wang Yaoqing, how could he have ever developed the Mei style? You must be willing to accept new teachings. You must be willing to listen to the advice of Dharma Masters, eminent monks, and virtuous lay practitioners. At the same time, you must clear away your past ignorance. It is just like hitting ‘delete’ on a computer to clear the hard drive completely; only then can you accept new data. Once you are able to remove ignorance, your mind will generate clarity, generate light, and generate wisdom. What does it mean to generate clarity? It means you are finally capable of giving rise to an understanding mind. Because the things you used to misunderstand are now gone, you can finally think with absolute clarity. When you have an understanding mind, you will stop doing the wrong things. Because everything you do is correct and aligns with the Buddha-dharma, you will naturally emit light. When you possess this light, your heart actually merges with the light of the Buddha. And when you are one with the Buddha’s light, you will naturally generate wisdom—hence, we call it generating clarity, light, and wisdom.
I don’t want you to chase after wisdom just yet. If a person has no light in their heart, they cannot understand the true meaning of life. You must generate clarity first! In everything you do, you must first be absolutely clear: “I am taking the right path here; I am walking the path of the Buddha-dharma.” Only then can light arise. If you understand absolutely nothing, where on earth is your light going to come from? Therefore, in practising Buddhism, we talk about generating wisdom (Prajna wisdom is the highest form of wisdom). But what does wisdom rely on to arise? It doesn’t come from you running around aimlessly in the human world; it arises through continual cultivation of the mind, diligent spiritual practice, regular recitation of sutras, and the persistent search for our true nature — the very nature that has always existed within us but was lost along the way. That is the only way you will ever find true wisdom.
如果过去你没有无始的烦恼。什么叫无始的烦恼？当一个人从第一声哭泣降生在这个人间的时候，伴随他的就是一生的烦恼。因为有了烦恼他才会在心中生起了无明，然后就是轮回啊；因为有了无明，他又产生了烦恼；因为不明白很多事情，如果去做了，烦恼就来了；等到烦恼来了之后，又去做更多不明白的事……人就是这么轮轮回回的，所以一个人活在这个世界上就是活在烦恼当中。菩萨早就告诉我们，人道就是烦恼道。我们从生出来到死，哪一天可以没有烦恼？我们甚至白天烦恼，晚上睡觉了在梦中我们还会有烦恼，而这些烦恼是跟着你一辈子的。所以你只有彻底地破除无明习气，你才能克服住自己无始的烦恼。也就是说，你虽然在烦恼道，但是你行的是菩萨道，你才能摆脱人的烦恼，因为你的境界已经提高了。犹如你在人间，如果你开车簇拥在汽车当中，或踩自行车簇拥在成千上万的自行车当中，你能看到哪条道是你走的吗？你只有到高处，才能看到哪条路可以走，哪条路不可以走。你烦啊，你等得烦啊，因为你不知道前途有没有，你不知道光明在哪里，你什么都不知道。你只是跟在人家的自行车后面或跟在人家的汽车后面，你不知道什么时候停，停到几点钟，能够开多远——这就是人。如果我们跳出人的境界，我们修到菩萨的境界，就犹如我们到了一个山坡上面，我们到了一个大楼上，我们就可以看到哪条路前面畅通，哪条路我们可以走。这样你才会没有烦恼，否则你就是在芸芸众生当中烦恼不休。
What if you didn’t have beginningless afflictions from your past? What exactly are beginningless afflictions? From the very moment a person enters this world with their first cry, afflictions accompany them for the rest of their days. It is because of these afflictions that ignorance arises in the mind, which then drives the cycle of rebirth. Because of ignorance, a person generates even more afflictions. When you do things without understanding the truth behind them, afflictions naturally follow. Then, once those afflictions hit, you go on to do even more things blindly… this is exactly how human beings go round and round in circles. To live in this world is to live surrounded by affliction. The Bodhisattvas told us long ago that the Human Realm is the realm of affliction. From the day we are born to the day we die, is there a single day we are truly free of it? We suffer from afflictions during the day, and even when we fall asleep at night, they follow us into our dreams. They stick to you for a lifetime. Therefore, the only way to overcome your beginningless afflictions is to completely break through your ignorant predispositions. In other words, even though you are in the realm of affliction, if you practise the Bodhisattva path, you can break free from worldly afflictions because your spiritual state has been elevated.
Think of it this way: if you are driving a car stuck in a massive traffic jam, or riding a bicycle crammed among thousands of other cyclists on the road, can you actually see which way you are supposed to go? You can’t. It is only when you get up to a high vantage point that you can look down and see which road is open and which one is blocked. When you are stuck down there, you get frustrated—you get completely fed up waiting—because you have no idea if there is a way forward, you don’t know where the light is, and you know absolutely nothing. You are simply trailing behind someone else’s bike or someone else’s exhaust pipe, with no clue when things will stop, how long you’ll be stuck for, or how far you’ll actually get. That is the human condition. But if we transcend this human state and cultivate up to the state of a Bodhisattva, it is like standing on a hillside or looking out from a high-rise building. From there, we can see exactly which road ahead is clear and which path we can take. That is how you live without affliction; otherwise, you will just spend your life endlessly stressing out alongside the rest of the crowd.
真正学佛不是叫你学文字的东西，不仅仅是叫你学自古以来已经流传了几千年的佛经书，而是叫你学菩萨的智慧。有了菩萨的智慧，你才能真正理解菩萨所说的经文。我不要你们到我这里来听经，师父给你们讲的是白话佛法、现代佛法。如果你们想听经的话，你们可以到佛学院去听。而真正的佛法就是用在人间，真正的菩萨在人间到处都有，只是时间的长短。如果你做一个小时的善事、救度一个小时的众生，你就是一个小时的菩萨。所以破烦恼就是要破无明、愚痴和迷惑的综合。一个人的愚痴怎么会来的？也是无明造成的。因为他不明白，他才会越来越愚痴。因为她不知道、没有看见跟他前世是什么关系，所以就会死追着他，“你打死我我也跟着你”，所以就越来越愚痴。而且愚痴的结果就是迷惑，迷惑的结果就是颠倒。迷惑是什么？因为你愚痴你不知道这个事情的对错，你做错事情之后你都不知道怎么错的。所以当人做错一件事情之后很快地就傻掉了，傻掉的时候实际上就是迷。“迷”就是不明白、着迷。“惑”是什么？就是找不到方向。因为迷了之后才找不到方向，所以叫迷惑。找不到方向就是找不到正道，就是找不到佛的正道，这个人就会颠倒，所以叫“迷惑颠倒”。
True Buddhist practice isn’t about studying words on a page. It isn’t just about studying Buddhist scriptures that have been passed down for thousands of years; it is about learning the wisdom of the Bodhisattvas. Only when you possess the wisdom of a Bodhisattva can you truly comprehend the scriptures they spoke. I don’t want you coming here just to listen to scriptural lectures. What I am teaching you is Buddhism in Plain Terms—modern Buddha-dharma. If you want a traditional scriptural lecture, you can go to a Buddhist college. True Buddha-dharma is meant to be applied right here in the human world. Genuine Bodhisattvas are everywhere around us in daily life; the difference lies only in how long one can sustain that state. If you do wholesome deeds or guide and awaken sentient beings for an hour, then for that hour, you are a Bodhisattva.
Therefore, overcoming affliction means overcoming the combined forces of ignorance, delusion, and confusion. How does a person become deluded? It is also caused by ignorance. Because they don’t understand the truth, they become more and more deluded. For example, a woman doesn’t know and can’t see her karmic relationship with a man from their past lives, so she clings to him desperately, saying, “Even if you beat me to death, I’ll still stay with you.” That is how people sink deeper and deeper into delusion. The inevitable result of delusion is confusion, and the result of confusion is being completely upside down. What is confusion? Because you are deluded, you can’t tell right from wrong, and even after you mess up, you don’t even know what you did wrong. That is why when people make a massive blunder, they instantly go numb or look completely blank—that blankness is actually a state of being “lost”. Being lost means you don’t understand; you are “under a spell.” It means you have completely lost your bearings. Because you are lost, you can no longer find your way; that is why we call it confusion. Losing your bearings means you can no longer find the right path—you cannot find the Buddha’s Right Path. When that happens, a person’s life becomes totally upside down. This is the definition of being confused and upside down.
无明一定要改正。因为你的无明、你的不明白，你才会产生妄想。很多人不明白还要去想，明明自己得不到六合彩，还天天想去中六合彩。当他的妄念生出来之后，他的行动就来了。这在佛法里经常讲，叫“无明妄动”。因为你不明白，你嘴巴才会乱说话，你手脚才会做出很多令人家费解的愚痴的行为。“妄动”的意思就是自己想象出来的东西然后去行动，那就是“妄动”。无明妄动会害死人的。你们知道无明妄动会造成什么？会造成轮回的根本啊！我们人为什么会轮回？因为我们不明白道理啊。我们今天所有做的一切，其实我们什么都不明白。就像有些人帮助人家拆散人家的婚姻，还以为自己是在做功德。因为他认为这对夫妻天天吵架还不如离婚，所以他去劝说他们。他们离婚了，他作孽，他下辈子又要投人了。这些你们懂不懂？你们明白不明白？你们不明白就叫无明。你们无明之后才会产生你们六道轮回的根源。因为我不明白、我想报复（比如他对我不好我一定要报复他），所以我就杀了他。这就是造成你下辈子投畜生的根源。因为他对我不好，我也要对他不好，这就造就了他下辈子投阿修罗道的根源。如果这个无明集中在一起，那么就成为一个大的孽障。我们很多人身上的孽障是怎么来的呢？就是这个不懂、那个不懂，那个不懂、这个不懂，什么都不懂，然后做出来一些妄动，做错事情之后就形成了因果。按照现在电子板上讲，叫集成块。而这些集成块在你身体上就产生了毒素。因为你造了孽、你做错很多事情，所以这块黑气在你身上就永远的存在了。等到它应该激活的时候，那么对不起，你就尝到了人生的苦果。所以师父今天首先跟大家讲的是“无明”。“无明”在经文里都有，但是要理解它，要明白它，要真正的用到现实生活当中，那才叫学佛学法啊。一个人如果连人都做不好，他学佛菩萨是一定学不好的。太虚大师早就说过，“人成即佛成”。如果你人做得都像鬼一样，你能成为一个人吗？如果你今天在人道做得像菩萨一样，你就是人间的菩萨。
Ignorance must be corrected. Because of your ignorance—your lack of understanding—you give rise to deluded thoughts. So many people don’t understand the reality of things, yet they keep fantasising; they clearly have no chance of winning the lottery, yet they dream about hitting the jackpot every day. Once these deluded thoughts arise, they begin to act upon them. In Buddhism, this is often referred to as “ignorance giving rise to deluded action.” Because you don’t understand, your mouth starts shooting off, and your hands and feet carry out foolish actions that leave others baffled. What is deluded action? Deluded action means acting on things that exist only in your own imagination—you create an idea in your mind and then act upon it.
Deluded action driven by ignorance can absolutely ruin a person. Do you know what it creates? It creates the very root of the cycle of rebirth! Why do we human beings keep reincarnating? It is because we do not understand the truth. Everything we do today is, in reality, done without fully understanding. It is just like those people who help tear apart someone’s marriage, genuinely believing they are performing a meritorious deed. They think because the couple fights every day, they are better off divorced, so they step in and egg them on. Once that couple divorces, that person has created terrible negative karma, and they are guaranteed to be reborn as a human again in the next life to pay for it. Do you understand any of this? Are you clear about it? Your lack of understanding is exactly what ignorance is. And your ignorance is precisely the root cause that traps you within the Six Realms of Rebirth. Because you don’t understand, you seek revenge—telling yourself, “He treated me badly, so I am going to get even with him”—and you end up killing him. That is the root cause that forces you to be reborn into the Animal Realm in your next life. Because he treated you poorly, you treat him poorly in return, which plants the seeds for you to be reborn into the Asura Realm in your next life.
If all your ignorance gathers together, it solidifies into a massive karmic obstacle. How do the karmic obstacles so many of us carry come to be in the first place? It happens because you don’t understand this and you don’t understand that; you are completely blind to the truth, and so you act on these delusions. Once you commit these errors, karma is created. In modern computer terms, this is what we call an integrated circuit. These karmic “microchips” inside your body then produce spiritual toxins. Because you have created negative karma and done so many wrong things, this dark energy remains embedded within your body permanently. When the time comes for this karma to be activated, then I am sorry, but you will have to taste the bitter fruits of life.
Therefore, the very first thing I am teaching you today is “ignorance.” The term “ignorance” exists throughout the scriptures, but to truly comprehend it, understand it, and genuinely apply it to your daily life—that is what it truly means to practise Buddhism and the Dharma. If a person cannot even conduct themselves properly as a human being, they will never be able to learn the ways of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas properly. As Master Taixu famously said long ago, “When one perfects humanity, one attains Buddhahood.” If you live your life acting like a ghost, how can you even call yourself human? On the other hand, if you conduct yourself like a Bodhisattva in the Human Realm, then you are already a Bodhisattva in the human world.