3月20日

四歲老翁
佛光星雲 ( 1927~ )

有個年輕人遇到一位老先生，年輕人隨口問
老先生:「您今年多大高壽?」老先生回答:
「我今年四歲。」

原來已經八旬的老翁，四年前才值遇佛教，
覓得人生真諦。如果我們想要生命久長，聰明
的你可曾仔細思量，一生追求的到底是什麼?
《大莊嚴經論》說：「人身極難得，信心亦難生；
財寶難可足，福田復難遇。」朝聞道，夕可死！
四歲老翁並不可悲，可悲的是我們在夢中說夢，
假戲真做，如同莊周迷蝶，蝶迷莊周，惘然一生。

──選自《星雲說喻》

March 20th

Four-Year-Old Old Man
Venerable Master Hsing Yun (1927 - , Fo Guang Shan)
English translation: Rosalyna Huang

One day, a young man saw an old man. He was curious
and asked, “Sir, can you tell me how old you are?”
With a smile, the old man replied, “Oh! I am four years old.”

As it turned out, the old man was already in his eighties,
but had only discovered Buddhism by chance and
found the real meaning of life four years ago.
Many people would like longevity, but seldom consider
their pursuits in life. It is said in the Treatise on the
Scripture of Adorning the Great Vehicle, “It is difficult to
be born as a human; it is also difficult to cultivate faith.
It is difficult for money and valuables to bring contentment;
it is also difficult to come across a field of merits again.”
Having heard the way in the morning, one may die content
in the evening!

Being a four-year-old old man is not lamentable. What
is lamentable is speaking of the illusory in a dream, and
assume the false as real, just like the perplexity of Zhuang
Zhou dreaming that he was a butterfly without knowing
that he was Zhou.

── from Hsing Yun Shuo Yu (Hsing Yun's Commentaries on Allegories)