In the last years of the Ming Dynasty, there was a man named Zhao in the school set up by the Hangzhou government, who was kind and did not kill. One year before the New Year, a friend gave him a goose. The family wanted to kill the goose, but Zhao refused to kill it. On New Year's Day night, the family wanted to kill the goose again, but Zhao refused to kill it. Soon after the Dragon Boat Festival, the family asked Zhao if he wanted to kill the geese. Zhao became angry and refused to let the family kill the geese. So the goose survived. Starting from May 17, Zhao became ill. By the first day of June, Zhao became very ill. Zhao saw a man dressed in blue and led him to an office. There were three complainants in the office. The officials in the office took the case review one by one. After a while, Zhao saw another person and Mrs. Yang from the village with him came together. The official was about to interrogate Zhao, when a goose suddenly appeared, bumped into Zhao's body, and talked. The goose said to Zhao: "You can leave now, I'll replace you!" Unknowingly, Zhao came to the door of his house, saw his body parked on the coffin lid, and suddenly felt that he was awake. That day, the goose itself died in the cage, and all the people Zhao saw in his dream died on the same day. -"Saving the Goose"
Self does not exist, so self-interest does not exist. Without self-interest, there is no interest at all. If there is no interest, there is no reality or illusion. Without reality and illusion, the enlightenment can be realized. -“Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment”
Although there are big and small, smart and stupid in form, there is no difference in trueness between big and small, smart and stupid.
The body changes with the mind. One thought of kindness can be born among the human world. A vicious idea is to plant ghosts and animal embryos. Since good and evil are mixed with each other's impurity, human beings and beasts are also reincarnated and unconstrained.
Someone asked a monk: "Why does the human body stand upright, and why does the beast's body crawl and walk horizontally?" The monk said: "The human heart was straight in the past, so the body in this life is also straight. The beast's heart was horizontal in the past, so the body in this world is also horizontal." The heart is straight and horizontal, and it changes in an instant, so that the body suddenly reincarnated as a man and suddenly reincarnated as a beast. Isn't it inverting impermanence? And because people are ashamed and ashamed, people have clothes. The beast has no shame, so the beast has no clothes. Because of good deeds and blessings, people replaced cloths with winter and summer. Because beasts are not blessed, they have only feather regardless of cold or heat. In addition, in previous lives, people often speak kind words, benevolent words, profitable words, honest words, and respectful Buddha，Dharma and Monk. Therefore, in this life, they can say whatever they want and can speak in their mouth. In previous lives, beasts often speaks bad words, lie, slanderous words, intrigues, words that cause right and wrong, foul language, slander Buddha, slander Dharma and Monk, does not believe in cause and effect. Therefore, they have mouths but cannot speak in this life. Even if the beast is dying of hunger and thirst, he cannot speak to beg for food, even if the blade stabbed the heart, he couldn't argue with words.
We should stay away from all the characteristics that are manifested outside and described by the observation of the mind, and initiate the supreme enlightenment mind. Mind consciousness should not arise from the sight of the eyes, and consciousness should not arise from the sound heard by the ear, the smell by the nose, the taste of the mouth, the touch by the body, and the thinking of the mind. There should be a mind that has no place to attach. If the mind stays attached, it means the mind does not stop. Therefore, the Buddha said that the bodhisattva mind should not perform charity based on the distinction between the external appearances arising from the mind, and the bodhisattva should do charity without distinction for the benefit of all living beings. For example, all the characteristics that are manifested externally and described by mind observation are illusions, and all living beings are not real living beings, because they are also external appearances reflected by mind. For the original text, see "Diamond Sutra"
In the thirteenth year of the Republic of China (1924), the army of Zhejiang Provincial Governor Lu Yongxiang was stationed in Huangdu Town, Jiading County. A soldier used a fake coin to buy things from the village woman. The village woman found that the coin was counterfeit coin and found the soldier and asked to exchange it for a real coin. The soldiers refused to exchange it. The village woman found the soldier's platoon leader to complain. The platoon leader took out his own money and exchanged the fake coin with the village woman, and put the fake coin in the upper pocket of his jacket. In September 1924, the Jiangsu-Zhejiang War broke out, and the war was fought between Jiangsu Governor Qi Xieyuan and Zhejiang Governor Lu Yongxiang. The unit where the platoon was in took part in the battle, and a bullet hit the platoon leader's upper body, and the bullet hit the counterfeit coin in the upper pocket of his jacket, making the counterfeit coin into a concave shape, and the person was not injured at all. After the battle was cleaned up, the soldier who used the counterfeit coin was killed. This platoon leader saved his life with a mere coin and the bullet was blocked by the counterfeit coin. It was a very coincidence, but this coincidence may be the inevitable result.
Sun Yong from Xiushui County went to Nanyang as a guest. He passed the Xiangjiang River on the way and found two gold hairpins. So Sun Yong stopped and waited for the owner. Soon a crying young maid came to find the gold hairpins. After verification, Sun Yong returned the two gold hairpins to the maid. The maid said that Sun Yong had saved her life and hoped to repay her with her body. Sun Yong refused her and continued to travel to Nanyang. After arriving in Nanyang, Sun Yong made a lot of money from doing business. On his way home, Sun Yong travel on his boat with other boats again passed by the place where he was picking up gold hairpins. By coincidence, the maid did the laundry by the water and recognized him. The maid hurried home to find her master. They invited Sun Yong be a guest at home together. Sun Yong agreed. It was too late after dinner. Sun Yong stayed all night and continued on the road the next morning, only to learn that all the other boats had sunk in the storm last night. Only Sun Yong kept safe as he left a day later.
Zhang Baihu of Gaoyou went to Huai'an to play, and when he took a boat rest in the lake, he docked the boat on the lake bank. He suddenly saw a small boat floating on the water in the distance, and a person on the boat was lying there, shouting for help. Zhang Baihu felt very sorry for that person, and hurriedly took out a dozen taels of silver and called the fishing boats around to rescue the person. After the fishermen rescued the man ashore, it became clear that this man was the son of Zhang Baihu. Father and son hugged each other and returned in surprise.
There was a Muslim named Hajiu at Hanxi Gate in Nanjing, who made a living by opening restaurants. A Jiangpu person brought a pocket with fifty taels of silver in it, which was lost in Hajiu’s restaurant. Ha Jiu chased to the riverside and returned the money to this person.
The day after they were separated, the Jiangpu native returned to his hometown and saw the strong wind blow over the boat in the river, and many people fell into the water. This person suddenly thought: "I will assume that Hajiu has not paid me back, and use the money to do good deeds." So this person called the fishing boat and said, "Rescue a person, and I will reward you with five taels of silver. "People on the fishing boats went to save people, but only one person was saved who turned out to be Ha Jiu's son. This incident happened on March 23rd of the Chinese Lunar Calendar, 1648, e.g. the Fifth years of Shunzhi of Qing Dynasty.
In the early Northern Song Dynasty, Lv Mengzheng was deputy prime minister. On the first day he took office, he suddenly heard someone say: "This kid also became a political affairs minister?" Facing the humiliation, Lv Mengzheng pretended not to hear. However, the colleague who was close to Lv Mengzheng was very dissatisfied and wanted to track down who this person was. Lv Mengzheng was hurriedly stopping the investigation. After meeting, Lv Mengzheng's colleagues were still aggrieved and regretted not catching the man at the time. Lu Mengzheng said: "If you know his name, you will never forget it for life. It is better not to know it."
When Fu Bi, a famous prime minister of the Northern Song Dynasty, was in his office, someone pointed at him and insulted him. Fu Bi said, "This person didn't scold me." Others said, "He was scolding you, he was calling your name!" Fu Bi said: "There are people with the same name and surname in the world." The person who scolded him was very ashamed when heard Fu Bi’s words. Fu Bi’s tolerance can be known from this.
Tolerate the faults of others. Blame yourself with the heart of blaming others, you will make fewer mistakes. Forgive others with the heart of forgiving yourself, you can stay away from resentment. The two words ‘middle ’ and ‘forgiveness’ are used by ordinary people in reverse, while noble people are using them as their real meaning.
There is a butcher named An lived in BinZhou, and there were a ewe and its lamb in the family. One day, Butcher An wanted to kill the ewe, so he tied the ewe to a rack. The lamb suddenly knelt to Butcher An and shed tears. Butcher An was surprised, so he put the knife on the ground and asked his family to watch. When Butcher An and his family came back, the knife was gone. After searching for a long time, An found that it was the lamb who held the knife away and put it under the wall. The lamb knelt on the knife. Butcher An realized after seeing it, so he untied the ewe from the rack and sent the ewe and lamb to a monastery together so that they were released and would never be killed . -"The Filial lamb defends mother“
There is a person named Kong in Jiashan who went to visit relatives. At noon, relatives enthusiastically left him down for dinner, and planned to kill the chicken to feast Kong. Kong hurriedly stopped his relative to kill the chicken , so the chicken was not killed. That night, Kong stayed at his relative's house. Because the relative was pounding rice that day, the stone pestle was hung on the roof beam, and the place where he slept was just under the stone pestle. At 2 o'clock in the middle of the night, Kong suddenly felt in his sleep that a chicken was coming to peck his head, rushing and coming back , rushing and coming back again, three times in a row, it made Kong feel unbearable, so he got up to start the light to drive away the chicken. He just left the bed, and the stone pestle above fell with a "bang!" and it just fell to the place where his head was lying. "If it hadn't been for the chicken to wake me up, I would probably have been killed by the pestle on the spot!" Kong thanked that he had escaped. Later, he often used this as an example to admonish others not to kill.
There are about seven types of disasters in all. One flooding, two fires, three jail, four thieves, five burglary, six hunger, and seven diseases. In case of fire or flooding, rescue them in time; in case of injustice and jail, rescue them from justice; rescue them in case of thieves and burglary. The heart of salvation comes from a sincere heart. Seeing someone else has a disaster is like having a disaster yourself. Trying all possible means and exhausting money to make the heart of salvation complete. Rescue when a disaster strikes is a visible rescue. As Confucius said: "I'm just as fair as others in hearing litigation." There is also a law that makes people naturally avoid disasters and its merits are more outstanding. As Confucius said: "The people must be prevented from litigation." why? People suffer because of karma in previous lives. If there is no cause of suffering in this life, and there will be no suffering in the next life. If you can persuade people not to kill, steal, commit adultery, lies, swear words, or bad words, you will have saved more people from disasters. Therefore, if the disaster has already happened, the rescue is limited. Preventing disasters from happening is more important. It is the good deeds of ordinary people to rescue the disaster that have occurred. It is the practice of Bodhisattva to prevent disasters in advance. The two may go in parallel at the same time.
Urgency is different from difficulty. Difficulty usually refers to encountering misfortune, while urgency mostly refers to lack of property. The world often regards money as fate. In terms of survival, nothing is more urgent than dressing and eating; for diseases, nothing is more urgent than medicine; for people with children, the worry is the marriage of their children; when someone dies, so urgency is the funeral. When you encounter these sad things, you must give help as you go. This is called relief. ◎ Confucius said: "When the true virtue was implemented, the world was publicly owned by the people, so people not only honor their own parents, but also respect the parents of others; not only love their own children, but also care for the children of others." "If you feel disgusting property being left on the ground and wasted, why not give it to others, don’t have to hide it for yourself. If you feel that you have some ability but can’t be brought into play, why not help others, it’s not necessarily to show your ability only for yourself." If you could understand in this way, although the urgency is on others, you dare not regard it as other’s urgency. If you can regard the urgency of others as your own urgency, then you will not be in urgency for lives. ◎Mr. Chen Jiting said: “As the saying goes, a rich man is called master, which means that he can control the property.” Although the family business cannot be abandoned, it should be frugal for oneself and be generous for others. The rich nowadays are all controlled by money. Only when you can cherish your property and use it to help others can you be called a rich man, that means you can control your money not controlled by your money. I only know that those who are stingy and refuse to help others are nothing but miser. ◎ " Sūtra of the Upāsaka Precepts “ says: "If you donate clothes to others, you will get a good-looking appearance. If you donate food to others, you will get strong physical strength. If you donate light to others, you will get pure eyes. If you donate vehicle to others, your body can be safe and happy. If you donate housing to others, you will not be short of what you need. It also said: If you are happy when you give things to your wife and servants, you will be rewarded with endless blessings in the future. When you see the mice and birds in the rice barn stealing your food, if you can still feel compassion and joy, you will get endless blessings in the future. " -Excerpt from "An Shi Book" "Wenchang Emperor Silently Doing Good Virtue"