5月18日

讚僧詩
清 順治 ( 1638~1661 )

天下叢林飯似山，鉢盂到處任君餐；
黃金白玉非為貴，唯有袈裟披肩難。
朕本大地山河主，憂國憂民事轉煩；
百年三萬六千日，不及僧家半日閒。
來時糊塗去時迷，空在人間走這回；
未曾生成誰是我，生我之時我是誰？
長大成人方是我，合眼朦朧又是誰？
不如不來又不去，來時歡喜去時悲。
悲歡離合多勞慮，何日清閑誰得知？
若能了達僧家事，從此回頭不算遲。
世間難比出家人，無憂無慮得安宜；
口中喫得清和味，身上常穿百衲衣。
五湖四海為上客，皆因夙世種菩提；
個個都是真羅漢，披搭如來三等衣。
金烏玉兔東復西，為人切莫用心機；
百年世事三更夢，萬里乾坤一局棋。
禹開九州湯放桀，秦吞六國漢登基；
古來多少英雄漢，南北山頭臥土泥。
黃袍換卻紫袈裟，只為當年一念差；
我本西方一衲子，為何生在帝王家？
十八年來不自由，南征北討幾時休？
我今撒手西方去，不管千秋與萬秋。

──選自《聖地清涼山志》

May 18

In Praise of Monastics
Emperor Shunzhi (1638 - 1661, Qing Dynasty)
English translation: John Balcom

Food for all the monasteries in the world
    is piled as high as a mountain,
Whenever you go with your alms bowl
    there is food to eat.
Gold and jade are not dear,
Only the monastic's robe is hard to wear.

I am charged with all the land,
    the mountains and rivers,
Oppressed by concern
    for the nation and the people.
For one hundred years, 36,000 days,
Such cannot compare
    to the ease of half the day of a monastic.

Arriving confused, departing ignorant,
This life lived in vain.
Before birth, who was I?
After birth, who am I?

In adulthood, I am myself.
When I close my eyes, who will I be?
It would be better not to have come,
    and therefore not have to leave;
Arriving with joy, departing with sorrow.

Joy and sorrow, meeting and parting,
    all are cause for anxiety.
Who knows when the day
    of complete ease will come?
If I can know the life of a monastic,
It would not be too late to turn back.

It's hard to compare a worldly life
    with that of a monastic:
Free from worries, free from anxieties──at ease.
The food is simple and pure,
One is always dressed in a monastic robe.

Traveling the five lakes and four seas
    as an honored guest
Because of bodhi planted in previous lives.
All are true arhats
Who wear the Tathagata's triple robe.

The golden bird and the jade rabbit
    move from east to west.
To be human one must not scheme.
One hundred years of life is but a midnight dream,
The ten thousand miles of heaven and earth are as a chess board.

King Yu established the nine states,
    King Tang sent King Jie into exile.
Qin annexed the six kingdoms,
    but the Han took over them all.
So many heroes from time immemorial;
Now, burial mounds, from north to south.

The emperor's yellow robe
    rather than the purple kasa,
From a single thought of ignorance.
I was a monk in the west,
How then was I born into the imperial family?

Eighteen years without freedom;
Fighting in the south, battles in the north──when will I rest?
Today I let it go, and go west,
For a thousand or ten thousand autumns,
    it matters not.

── from Shengdi Qingliangshan Zhi (Record of the Sacred Clear and Cool Mountains)