Let Behavior attest to You Heart

“Mahamudra: Essence and Practice” ( Book II)

Let Behavior attest to You Heart

◎Yixin Chen: How to make sure whether I or others are really enlightened?

●Xue Mo: All the purposes of practice Buddhism are to be reflected in behavior.

Religion consists of four parts: religious philosophy, religious organization, religious etiquette and religious experience. Religious experience is the most important and all the religious experiences become meaningful only when they are reflected in the religious behavior. In another word, when you have gone through a religious experience, you need to use this experience to impact and reform your daily behavior.

Then how to know whether you have seen understood Buddism indeed? This depends on whether or not you can apply the enlightened brightness to your behavior or clean up your worries and habitual practices. If the answer is yes, that means the enlightened brightness is genuine. On the contrary, if you can't fight against worries and habitual practices, that means you haven’t understood to the full.

In daily communication, don’t care about whomever allegedly to have supernatural power (Abhijna) or can see or hear anything of gods and spirits.  Only his behavior matters.

Firstly, to see whether his behavior benefits others.

Secondly, to observe. Do you feel tranquiller, more comfortable, happier and far away from pains, worries, karmic obstacles and hatred when communicating with him? If so, he proves to be a true wise man .If his behaviors are filled with hatred, greed, sheer cunning and falsehood, no doubt he is pretending to be a believer. It is the same situation with personal practice. When you feel that the light of truth make you very happy, comfortable, tranquil, peaceful and full of the great love, you are really enlightened. Otherwise it is false. You must judge the correctness of your achievements by your behavior. Your behaviors attest to your enlightenment.

A few days ago, I said to a friend," Those whose fame is well known throughout the world is likely to be slandered by the world at the same time." When a person achieves something and wins more and more praises from others, he will receive more and more slanders as well

Sakyamuni also met this kind of occasion. During the period of preaching Buddhism       , he experienced all kinds of abuses and circumvention from heretics. There was a prostitute who wrapped a basin under her belly claimed that it was Sakyamuni who made her pregnant. Some heretics killed the prostitute and dumped corpse into the backyard of sakyamuni’s preaching vihara, claiming that she was killed by sakyamuni. There were lots of events like this at that time. And Buddhism developed against such adversity.

It is true in any times. A person has to confront abuses as many as the achievements he makes. The situation is much like a person who lifted the torch in the dark is seen to be tailed by a long stripe of shadow. The light of the torch is praise from others while the long shadow is abuse. Although the shadow disappears when there is no torch， soon you will be assimilated by the dark night. When you want to lift the torch, there will inevitable come out the shadow. That’s the way it is.

I wrote some introductory tabloids before. Some advised me :" Master Xue Mo, pls forget about writing these things because your lifetime is so precious that you can spend the precious time writing as many books as you want. But some people would easily tear the paper up without a brief glance." I said:"I am not writing the articles for them but for those who are willing to read them. I’m making the tabloid for people who are willing to read without intention for obtaining any interests. To me, it doesn’t matter if you read it or not or just tear it up. I thought in this way when I wrote it. " Mahamudra: Essence and Practice" was completed during the three golden years in my career as a writer. Although I could write one or two full-length novels, I think it is necessary for Shangpa Kagyu to have such a book. Otherwise it will fall into oblivion by history, which would be regretful to human beings because there is a lot of essence of human civilization in Shangpa Kagyu culture.

All behaviors of a person attest to the extent of enlightenment. Without religious or contributive behaviors, the wisdom you enlightened into is meaningless. If you claim that you are helping others while your heart is full of selfishness、ignorance or hatred, it is not the true enlightenment. I have never fallen in outrageous fight with anyone and will never. I think the people who abuse me are also Kalyana-mitra as they remind me of my flaws and weak points in another way. Some time ago one of my students slandered me everywhere , but I still treat him as an ill child.

Therefore, it is important to carry out contributive behaviors. Although practice Buddhism, “Xiu Xing”, lies in disposition training, the process is reflected in behavior in essence. Xing means behavior. No matter how you boast of your kindness, it doesn’t work if there is no behavior because your disposition can only be reflected by virtue of behavior. Without behavior, there is no meaning to talk about disposition. Behavior contains everything of your value of life

Behavior can not only attest to your religious experience and practice level, but also can affect your disposition. Although you have not been enlightened, you heart could be nurtured and influenced gradually  by some meaningful behaviors, including practicing religious etiquettes such as bodhicitta-samutpada, refuge, visualization ,holding mantras , benefiting others, setting free captive animals, alms giving , offering, confession，reading and doing good, etc. In this way, you will find yourself getting happy, tranquil and refreshing. This is correct, too. So the practice method is divided into two parts: one is to use religious experience to influence one’s own religious behavior. Another is to use religious behavior to edify one’s own religious experience. They are interactive, interrelated and mutual promotional.

Religious philosophy is also used to guide our own behavior. Insight and behavior are all very important. Without in-depth insights, there will be no corresponding contributive behaviors. Many people cannot make progress because they haven’t deepened their insights enough. People without insights are like flies in the bottle. They fly all around and think the bottle is as vast as the sky. Only when they fly out of the little and sublimated to "human", they will find that the bottle was too fiddling in comparison. It is the impact of insights that make a fly sublimated to a wise person. Otherwise, they will fight for a bit dirty things in the bottle forever.

Let’s take another two examples. There are five spiders stay in a small bottle. When you throw a dead fly into it, the spiders will bite at each other in bloodshed fight in order to win the dead fly. They don't know that the outside world is much bigger that is abundant with more delicious food.  Therefore, insight determines behavior.

An astronomer will not fight like spiders because he finds that the room is bigger than the bottle,  the mansion is bigger than the room, not mentioning Guangzhou city, the earth, the solar system、the Galaxy and so on. When his mind is much broader as compared with the solar system, the Galaxy or even the universe, he will not snap at each other for the flies in the bottle

It is the width of mind and capacity of heart that impact a person's philosophy of values. When he jumps out of the small world of his heart to have broad mind and in-depth insight, he will understand that meaningless argument is too trivial to speak of.

Notice

Translated by non-professional volunteers, there would be some inaccuracies in the translation. You are welcome to offer us some advice for emendation. Please feel free to contact us.We also look forward to you joining our voluntary translation team.

Please contact us at suonanzhuoma1988@163.com, thank you.

《光明大手印：实修心髓》下

用行为去印证你的心灵

◎陈亦新：怎样看出自己或是他人是不是真的明白了？

●雪漠：修行所有的意义都是为了体现在行为上。

宗教包括四个方面：宗教哲学、宗教组织、宗教礼仪、宗教体验。其中最主要的就是宗教体验，而所有的宗教体验必须体现在宗教行为上才有意义。也就是说，当你有了宗教体验之后，要用这种体验来转化你的日常行为。

那么，如何看自己是不是真的明白了？这要看你能不能将证得的光明运用到你的行为之中，能不能清除你的烦恼和习气。如果回答是肯定的，说明你证得的光明是真的。如果你无法对治烦恼和习气，说明你还没有真正明白。

在与人的接触和交往中，无论谁说有什么神通，能看到或听到什么神异，你都不要管，关键是要看他的行为。

第一，要看他的行为是不是在利众。

第二，就是要观察。当你和他接触的时候，你是不是越来越清凉、安详、快乐，远离了痛苦、烦恼、业障和仇恨。如果是前者，那么他是真正的明白人。如果他的行为中充满了仇恨、贪婪、尔虞我诈，那他绝对是假信仰者。个人的修行也是这样，当你觉得真理的光明让你变得非常快乐、安详、宁静、和平、充满了大爱的时候，那么你就是真的证道了，否则就是假的。你证到的那个东西对不对，要从你的行为上来衡量。你的行为印证了你的明白。

前些时，我和一位朋友说过：“誉满天下者也可能毁满天下。”当一个人做了一些事后，在别人对他的好评越来越多的时候，对他的诋毁也会越来越多。

释迦牟尼也遇到过这种事。他在弘法的时候，就经历了各种外道对他的诽谤和陷害。有一个妓女，怀里揣了个盆子，说是释迦牟尼弄大了她的肚子。还有一些外道把妓女杀掉之后，丢入释迦牟尼弘法精舍的后院，说是他杀掉的。那个时候，这类事非常多。佛教就是在这样一种逆境中成长的。

任何时候都这样，当一个人的成就越大时，他遭到的诽谤也越多。这情形，很像在黑夜里，当一个人举起了火把时，就有人会发现他的身后有一个长长的阴影。火把的光明就是别人对他的赞美，长长的阴影就是别人对他的诋毁。没有那个火把时，虽然也没有那个阴影，但很快你会被黑夜同化。当你要举起火把的时候，必然会有阴影，就是这样的。

我以前写过一些结缘读物，有人劝我说，雪漠老师，你不要搞这些，你的生命那么珍贵，时间那么珍贵，你可以写多少书啊，可你办的报纸，有人拿上就撕了。我说，我不是给他们办的，我是给愿意读它的人办的。谁愿意读它，我就办给谁看，而且没有任何的功利。我觉得你看也行，不看也行，撕了也不要紧。我在写作时也是这样想的。

《大手印实修心髓》是我在一个作家最黄金的三年中写的，我可以利用那段时间写一两部长篇，但我觉得香巴噶举需要有这样一本书，否则它就被历史湮没了，这是非常可惜的，因为香巴噶举文化中有很多人类文明的精髓。

一个人所有的行为，都在印证着他的觉悟。没有宗教行为和利众行为，你所证悟到的智慧就没有意义。要是你说你在利众，却非常自私、愚昧、仇恨，那么这就不是真的明白。我从来没有和哪个人打得不可开交，从来不会这样的。我觉得，说我坏话的人也是善知识，他们在用另外一种方式提醒我。前些时，我的一位学生到处诋毁我，我仍然将他当成了生病的孩子。

所以，一定要有利众的行为。修行虽然在修心，但实质上还是要体现在行为上。修行的“行”就是行为，不是别的。你说你的心多么好，没有行为是没有用的，因为你的心只有通过行为才能体现出来。没有行为的所有的心，没有任何意义。行为是你人生价值的全部。

行为不仅可以印证你的宗教体验和修行层次，还可以影响你的心性。虽然你没有证悟，但是通过一些有益的行为，其中包括修炼宗教礼仪，如发心、皈依、观想、持咒、利众、放生、布施、供养、忏悔，还有读书、做善事等，慢慢地熏染、影响你的心灵。在这种影响之下，你会慢慢发现自己变得明白了、快乐了、宁静了、清凉了。这也是对的。所以说，修行分为两种：一种是用宗教体验影响自己的宗教行为，一种是用宗教行为熏染自己的宗教体验。相互作用，相互影响，相互增进。

宗教哲学也是用来指导自己的行为的。见和行，都非常重要。没有那种见地，就没有相应的行为。很多人修行不长进的原因就在于见地不够。没有见地的人像瓶子里的苍蝇，在里面飞啊飞啊，他以为瓶子是很大很大的天空。只有当它从那个小瓶子里飞出，升华为“人类”的时候，它才会发现以前是多么的渺小。从一只“苍蝇”升华为有智慧的“人类”，这就是见地的作用。否则的话，它就会永远在瓶子里面为一点脏东西争来斗去。

再比如，有五个蜘蛛待在一个小瓶子里，当你丢进一只死苍蝇的时候，这些蜘蛛会互相咬来咬去，为了争那只死苍蝇，斗得血肉横飞，一塌糊涂。它们不知道外面的世界更大，有更美的食物。所以，见地决定其行为。

再比如，天文学家是不会像蜘蛛那样争斗的，因为他发现这个房间要比瓶子大很多，而楼又比房间大很多，广州城更大，之后是地球、太阳系、银河系，越来越大。当他的胸怀大到连太阳系、银河系，甚至宇宙都显得非常渺小的时候，他就不会为争瓶子里的苍蝇咬来咬去了。

影响一个人的价值观的是胸怀和心量。当他跳出小环境，拥有大胸怀、大见地的时候，他就明白无谓的争斗实在太渺小了。

声明：本文系文化志愿者试译，非专业人才翻译，错误定然不少，如出现疏漏及错误，敬请读者见谅。如有任何翻译上的建议及修正意见，欢迎及时与我们取得联系，我们会加以校对、修改，并希望有专业才能的朋友也能加入我们志愿者群体中来。

邮箱地址：suonanzhuoma1988@163.com