Bodhicitta and Merits

“Mahamudra: Essence and Practice” ( Book II)

Bodhicitta and Merits

◎Chen YiXin: What is Bodhicitta?

●XueMo: Bodhicitta is the will of benefiting sentient beings, condensed by a word called “Li Zhong”. Bodhicitta is likely to vow to benefit others instead for one’s own sake. There are many ways of behavior to benefit sentient beings. The simplest way is to help people around you by spreading the truth, giving alms, dharma teaching and comforting, etc. First of all, you need make people around you conscious and happy because it is unreasonable for you to go and help people in Africa. Some people keep talking about doing good to others, but they don’t take care of their wife and children. Instead they bring them sharp pains. If you want to do good to others, you should start from making people around you happy and conscious and sheltering them away from pains and worries. After that, you may be up to doing some more things

The ultimate way of benefiting others is dharma teaching which makes others sober-minded. To make that, firstly you must achieve it yourself. However, if you haven’t been enlightened yourself while still haunted by worries and pains, how could you extricate other sentient beings. So it’s necessary to practice austerities hard. Only when you are enlightened, can you actually do good to others and make others understand and attain enlightenment. Of course, it is commendable if some people can benefit others in secular life, too.

When you really get enlightened, you will treat others as your relatives. I talked about some of my experience in a dialogue. I said: “My father’s laugh is the best reward in my life.” Later I won a lot of prizes and attended many award ceremonies. I’ve forgotten most of the scenes, but I won’t forget my father’s naive and uplifting laughs. Not long ago, he was gone. I could not see his smile any more. Every time I miss him, I can’t help shedding tears. Sometimes as soon as I saw an elderly begging on the streets in chilling wind, I would mutter to myself unconsciously: I have lost father forever. A strong feeling of sorrow would arise from the bottom of my heart. I will give a little money to the elderly. If I give coins, I will often put them carefully in the bowl, fearing that the sound of the coin will make them unhappy. At that time in my eyes they are the same old men as my father. I can always find my dead father’s illusion in those elderly who are still suffering ordeal in their life. So I am very grateful to them for begging to me because they offered me a feeling of manifesting filial duty to my father.” So there comes a time when you will really treat sentient beings as your parents while there are no intentional thoughts. Of course, the ultimate way to benefit sentient beings is to help them enlightened. So I keep writing books to expound some theories. I feel obliged to use this pen to make more people happy and away from pain.

◎Chen Yixin: What is the meaning of merit gained?

●Xue Mo: Emperor LiangWu asked Bodhidharma: I built so many temples for my people. Do I have merits and virtues? Bodhidharma said there is no merit. He was absolutely right. Now a lot of people are seeking to gain merits. Do they succeed? No, they don’t. They only attain blessing and morality- a kind of obtaining reward which you will use up quickly. Merits originate from lucid mind. When you want to obtain reward by making offerings to guru, it is just all about blessing and morality, but not merits gained. What is merit? The merit is the accumulation that helps you perceive heart and see nature. So those people who are seeking merits are like doing another kind of business, hoping to make money over thirty thousand Yuan by offering only one hundred Yuan to Guru.  They are wrapped in dramatic greed when they make offerings to Guru. It seems that they are playing in the stock market and treat Guru as an equity. How can they make achievement by doing like that?

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《光明大手印：实修心髓》下

菩提心和功德

◎陈亦新：什么是菩提心？

●雪漠：菩提心就是利众之心，就两个字：利众。菩提心要发愿利众，不是只利自己。利众的行为有许多种，最简单的利众就是从帮助身边的人做起，向他们传播真理，进行财布施、法布施、无畏布施等等。首先要让身边的人明白和快乐。你不能跑到遥远的非洲去。有些人口口声声谈利益众生，却连老婆孩子也不管，反而给他们带来了极大的痛苦。利众应该从身边的人做起，让他们快乐，让他们明白，让他们远离痛苦、远离烦恼。在此基础上，再谈其他意义上的利众。

最究竟的利众是法布施，让他人明白。而要想叫别人明白，首先是你自己要明白。要是连你自己都没有觉悟，没有明白，整天陷入烦恼，陷入痛苦，不能自拔，你还谈啥普度众生。所以，精进的修炼是必要的。当你明白之后，你才可能究竟地利他，让他人也明白，达成一种觉悟。当然，有些人能在世俗生活中利益他人也是值得称道的。

当你真正明白时，你就会把别人也当做亲人。我在某次对话中谈了我的一些经验。我说：“父亲的笑，是我最好的人生奖励。后来，我获了好多奖，参加了好多颁奖典礼，那场面我大多淡忘了，但我忘不了父亲的憨憨的鼓励的笑。前不久，父亲死了。我再也看不到他的笑了，每一想起，就想落泪。有时，一看到街头寒风中行乞的老人，我在心里就会不自觉地念叨：我再也没有爹爹了！心中就会涌起一种浓浓的悲哀。我就会给那些老人一点钱。要是我给的是硬币的话，我

总是很小心地放进他们的碗中，我怕那响声，会令他们不快。那时，我眼中的他们，都是跟我父亲一样的老人。我总是在那些仍在经受苦难的老人身上，发现我死去的父亲的影子。所以，我很感激那些向我行乞的老人，是他们给了我一种孝敬父亲的感觉。”所以，到了一定的时候，你就真的会把众生当成父母。那时，你就可能没有丝毫的作意。当然，最究竟的利众是叫他们觉悟。所以，我总是在著书立说，我就想凭借自己的这支笔，叫更多的人离苦得乐。

◎陈亦新：什么是功德？

●雪漠：梁武帝问达摩：我为天下修了那么多的寺院，有没有功德？达摩说没有功德。他说得非常正确，现在很多人就是求功德，那么他有没有功德呢？没有。他只有福德，只会得到一种福报，并且这个福报还是有漏的福报，用掉了就没有了。功德源自清净心，当你供养上师想得到福报的时候，绝对只有福德而没有功德。什么叫功德？能让你明心见性的资粮就是功德。所以那些求功德的人在做着另外一种生意，想用供养上师的一百块钱得到三万块，或者更多钱，在供养的时候有一种巨大的贪心，像炒股的一样，把上师当做一种股票，这样的话怎么能成就？

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