When we take wisdom and pass it on, many people will understand the true characteristic of the world, and have wisdom, and become happy. After they have received the benefits, they too will take this wisdom of liberation and again pass it on. After we use the torch of wisdom to light the tinder in other people’s minds, then their minds also will become torches, and they will go on and light up the minds and spirits of more people.
拥有出离心，找到善知识之后，你就拥有了一种改变心灵的可能性，但这种可能是不是能变成现实，还要看你自己的行为。你可以先从爱你的家人做起，再将这份爱一点点地传播开来，让它遍及更多的人，甚至包括一些陌生人。当你对他人怀有一种无私的爱时，你自然会为了让他们幸福、快乐而尽力地做些事情。这时候，你就会慢慢学会如何奉献，如何利众。除此以外，你也可以按照佛家的方法来做一些事情，比如作福田，助长菩提心，为众生服务。
After you have the mind of detachment, and you have found an enlightened teacher, you will then have the possibility of changing your mind and spirit. But whether or not the possibility can be brought to realization still depends on your own actions. You can start first by loving your own family members, and then take this love and propagate it bit by bit, and let it spread to more people, even including strangers. When you have within you an unselfish love for other people, you will spontaneously do all you can do to enable them to be blessed and happy. Then you will gradually learn how to contribute, and how to benefit living beings. Besides this, you can also do things according to Buddhist methods, like preparing fields of merit, and fostering the bodhi mind, and serving sentient beings.
什么叫福田？福田便是你的功德和福德，积累功德和福德的过程就叫作福田。作福田一般有两种方式，一是供养，二是布施。布施包括财布施、法布施和无畏布施。当然还有放生之类的，放生也属于布施，布施生命。
What is meant by “fields of merit”? Fields of merit are your virtuous deeds and your meritorious virtues. The process of accumulating virtuous deeds and meritorious virtues is called preparing fields of merit. In general there are two methods of preparing fields of merit: one is offering support, and the second is giving charity. Giving charity includes giving wealth, giving the teaching, and giving fearlessness. Of course there is also action in the category of releasing living beings: releasing living beings also belongs to the category of giving charity, giving life.
所谓财施，就是不但不夺取别人的财物，还能将自己的饮食、衣服、田宅、珍宝、钱财等物施予他人。当你把财富供养出去的时候，这个行为本身就会形成一种反作用力，给你带来巨大的福德。
What is called giving wealth is not only not taking other people’s wealth, but also taking one’s own food and clothing and property and jewels and money and so on, and giving it to other people. When you take your wealth to offer support to other people, this activity itself can create a kind of reactive force, and bring you great merit.
不愿布施的人非常无知，他们的生命中充满了“我”和“我的”：我的楼、我的车、我的钱、我的女人……他们根本看不到其他事情。他们不知道，在自己忙于享乐、忙于追逐财富时，有很多家庭正陷入水深火热，吃不上饭，甚至把命都丢了。当他们对别人的痛苦毫无感觉的时候，对世界来说，他们的存在就没有任何意义。所以说，不愿布施的人，什么也不是。他们连手里攥着的三个铜板都不想丢掉，最后也就丢掉了。古今中外的王侯将相们，临终时还不是跟穷汉一样，四块棺板了结此生？
People who are unwilling to give charity are very ignorant. Their lives are filled with “me” and “mine” – my building, my car, my money, my woman… They basically cannot see anything else. They do not known that while they are busy enjoying pleasures and pursuing wealth, there are many families who are falling into extreme misery, who do not have enough to eat, and who are even losing their lives. When they have absolutely no feeling for the sufferings of other people, their existence has no meaning whatsoever. Thus it is said that people who are unwilling to give charity are not anything. They do not want to throw awayeven the three coins they are grasping in their hands, but in the end they will lose them. High-ranking people all through history in all countries – when they are approaching the end are they not just like the destitute people, and won’t they end up in coffins?
何况，专家们认为，世界上最大的赚钱秘密，不是索取，而是布施。据说，当你有了布施之心和行为时，你的心就和宇宙中非常伟大的某种力量融为一体，就像小河流入大海，变成大海的一部分一样，从而得到这种伟大力量的帮助，你便能够达成你的愿望，得到相应的福报。
Moreover, experts think that the greatest secret in the world for making money is not to seek it, but is rather to give charity. According to what they say, when you have the intention to give charity, and you act on this, your mind merges into one with a certain very great force in the universe, like a little river flowing into a great ocean, and becomes like a part of the ocean, and thereby gets the help of this great force, so you can then achieve your aspiration, and get the corresponding reward for merit.
一篇叫《历史上最伟大的赚钱秘密》的文章中说：“如果一个人一直为他人的利益服务，甚至这种善行已经成为他下意识的习惯，那么宇宙中所有的善的力量都会汇集到他的身后，成就他的事业。因为除了布施，再没有任何声音可以更为洪亮地向宇宙宣示你的自信、富足和爱。”“而当宇宙听到的时候，更多的美好会加赋予你——不是作为奖赏，而是因为你真正地相信你自己的富足和爱。”“布施时间，你将收获时间。布施产品，你将收获产品。布施爱，你将收获爱。布施金钱，你将收获金钱。”“所有的富人都会布施，我觉得不是这样，而应该是说，所有布施的人都会成为富人。”
In an article called “The Greatest Secret in History for Earning Money” it says the following:
“If a person consistently serves the interests of other people, to the point that this sort of good behavior becomes an unconscious habit for him, then all the good power in the universe gathers behind him, and he succeeds in his work. This is because, other than giving charity, there is no other voice that can communicate as clearly to the universe your self-confidence, your abundance, and your love.”
“And when the universes hears this, even more beauty and goodness will be endowed to you – this is not done as a reward, but rather because you truly believe in your own abundance and love.”
“The time when you give charity is the time when you reap the harvest. When you donate goods, you will harvest goods. When you donate love, you will harvest love. When you donate money, you will harvest money.”
“All prosperous people will give charity, some say, but I feel it is not like this; rather, what should be said is that all people who give charity will become prosperous.”
所以，布施是世上最伟大的功德、善行和赚钱秘密。它就像种地一样，必须把种子种到田地里，才能开花结果。
Thus, giving charity is the greatest form of merit in the world, the greatest form of good conduct, and the greatest secret for earning money. It is like planting seeds in the ground: we must take the seeds and plan them in the fields, and only then can they flower and bear fruit.
某个国家，有许多非常优秀的企业和企业家，但是无论他们怎样努力，却总是贫富过不了三代。后来，企业家请了一些学者和专家进行专题研究：如何才能摆脱“贫富无三代”的现象。专家们经过研究，得出结论：第一，必须建立优秀的企业文化，只有文化才能承载传统，才能承载你非常优秀的东西。第二，要用比赢利更快的速度把得到的财富回报给社会。后来，企业家们就这样做了，这个国家从此多了百年甚至几百年的有名企业。
In a certain country, there are many excellent enterprises and entrepreneurs, but no matter who hard they try, they do not succeed in staying rich for more than three generations.Later on entrepreneurs invited some scholars and experts to do some specialized research on how to escape the phenomenon of not being able to stay rich for more than three generations. The specialists did the research, and they reached some conclusions: First, it will be necessary to establish an excellent enterprise culture. Only a culture can carry on the tradition, and carry on your very excellent thing. Second: you must return to society the wealth you have gotten even faster than you earned it. Later on, when the entrepreneurs act this way, from then on this nation will have more enterprises that are famous for a hundred years or even several hundred years.
但财施并不是最重要的，所有布施中，最重要的是法施。法施的意思是，当你从诸佛、善知识或经典中得闻世间、出世间的真理，并且因而受益，那么你就应该不计回报地把自己知道的真理传播出去。
But giving wealth is not the most important thing. Among all forms of giving charity, the most important is giving the teaching, giving the Dharma. Giving the teaching means that when you have gotten to hear the worldly truth and the world-transcending truth from the buddhas, the enlightened teachers, or the scriptures, and you have benefitted from this, then you must take the truth you have come to know, and transmit it to others withno thought of reward.
法施也是一种自利利他的行为。释迦牟尼佛说，以充满三千大千世界的珍宝供养三世如来，其功德不如把《金刚经》中的智慧传播给世人。这说明“法施胜于财施”。原因在于，财施只能解决被施予者的一时所需，但法施却能创造一种改变命运的可能，并可传承下去。而且，法施比财施更加珍贵。
Giving the teaching is also a kind of activity which benefits oneself and benefits others. Shakyamuni Buddha said that if you offer all the jewels filling all the worlds in the universe to support all the Tathagatas of the past, present, and future, the merit of this is not equal to transmitting the wisdom in the Diamond Sutra to one worldly person. This explains that “giving the teaching is superior to giving wealth.” The basic reason is that giving wealth can only resolve some of the recipient’s temporary needs, but giving the teaching can create the possibility of changing someone’s life, and can be passed along. Moreover, giving the teaching is more precious that giving wealth.
当我们把智慧传递出去的时候，许多人就会明白世界的真相，拥有智慧，变得快乐。他们受益之后，又会把这种解脱的智慧再次传递出去。这很像一个薪火相传的过程。当我们用智慧的火把点亮别人心中的火种之后，他们的心也会变成火把，继而点亮更多人的心灵。
When we take wisdom and pass it on, many people will understand the true characteristic of the world, and have wisdom, and become happy. After they have received the benefits, they too will take this wisdom of liberation and again pass it on. After we use the torch of wisdom to light the tinder in other people’s mind, then their minds also will become torches, and they will go on and light up the minds and spirits of more people.
所以，真正的法施者，必须拥有一颗利众的菩提心。菩提心，是无求的清净心。当你拥有菩提心之后，还要用利众行为来诠释它。经典中将所有善行归纳为十种：
Thus, a person who genuinely gives the teaching must have the enlightened mind of benefitting sentient beings. The enlightened mind, the bodhi mind, is the pure mind that has no seeking. After you have the enlightened mind, you still have to express it by means of actions that benefit sentient beings. In the sutras they take all forms of good action and sum them up into ten categories:
第一，不但不杀生，还要行放生之善，要力所能及地尊重并帮助所有生命，行使它们生存的权利。
第二，不但不窃取他人财物，还要行布施之善。
第三，不放纵情欲，不做邪淫欲事，还要自净其意，精进修行。
第四，不说谎骗人，而且还要真诚、坦诚地对待别人。
第五，不谈论是非，更不挑拨离间，反而要尽力协调他人之间的矛盾。
第六，不口出恶言，不辱骂他人，并且要以平淡柔和的语气与人交谈。
第七，不信口开河，也不吹捧他人，要诚实、坦率地对待别人。
第八，不贪恋情欲，也不贪图享受，还要自净其意，精进修行。
第九，不对别人发火，也不记恨于人，还要以慈悲忍耐的心来对待他人。
第十，不生偏邪异见，不执非为是，并且还要时时提起正信正见
1) Not only do you not kill living beings, you also must carry out good deeds to set them free. You must to everything in your power to respect and help all living things, and let themexercise their right to live and survive.
2) Not only do you not steal other people’s wealth, you must practice the virtue of giving charity.
3) You do not give free rein to your emotions, and you do not engage in illicit lust; rather you must purify your intent, and make energetic progress cultivating practice.
4) You do not lie to people or deceive them, and you must treat other people with genuine sincerity and honesty.
5) You do not talk about who is right and who is wrong, much less foment discord. On the contrary, you do all you can to reconcile the contradictions among other people.
6) You do not speak evil, or slander other people, and you must use a calm, gentle manner when you converse with people.
7) You do indulge in loose talk, and you do not flatter other people. You must be sincere and frank in your dealings with other people.
8) You are not greedy for emotional pleasures, and you do not indulge in emotional pleasures. You still must purify your intent, and make energetic progress cultivating practice.
9) You do not engage in outbursts of anger toward other people, or bear grudges against them. You still must treat other people with the mind of compassion and forbearance.
10) You do not give rise to biased, misguided, deviant views, and you do not cling to wrong as right. And you also must constantly focus on true faith and true perception.
整个佛家教义，就是围绕这十种善行而设立的。它属于一种基本道德规范。更重要的是，它能帮助你清净身、口、意的污染，使你远离恶的环境，为你的解脱提供一些助缘。这也是戒的意义。当你远离邪恶、趋向善道，具足这十种善业之后，也就具足了成就无求之心的基础。不过，想要利益众生，你还必须生起一种威仪。
The whole meaning of the Buddhist teaching is established around these ten kinds of virtuous action. These are in the category of a fundamental moral standard. Even more important, they can help you purify the defilements of the body, mouth, and mind, and enable you to keep away from evil environments. They offer cooperating causal conditions for your liberation. This is also the meaning of a code of conduct, of discipline. After you have gotten far away from evil, and you are going toward the path of goodness, and you are fully equipped with these ten forms of good conduct, then you will be equipped with the foundation for achieving the mind that has no seeking. But if you want to benefit living beings, you still have to generate a kind of dignified manner.
威仪类似于佛慢，是自心的真实体现，并非表演和虚诈的行为。真正的威仪，是严格守戒之后，在清净心中生起的一种令人敬畏的仪态，是真心的流露。它所展现出的，是一种对真理的深信不疑，以及对身心的强大控制力。你从对这种威仪的敬仰中，便能生起对真理的信赖与向往。
Dignity is similar to having confidence in your inherent enlightened nature; it is the genuine manifestation of your own inherent mind, and not some superficial false performance. True dignity is an attitude that is born in the pure mind after rigorously preserving discipline, an attitude that makes people feel respect and awe. It is the outpouring of the true mind. What it shows is a kind of deep faith in the truth, free of doubts, and a strong power to exert control over the body and mind. From the deep respect you feel towards this dignity, you can give rise to faith and yearning for the truth.
近千年前，密勒日巴在山洞中苦修多年，无暇顾及饮食营养，无暇顾及衣着仪表，直修到骨瘦如柴，身体都变成绿色，屁股上也长出了厚厚的老茧，终于摘得了究竟佛果，这才开始弘法。正是这个原因。所以说，当你抛开成见与无益的揣测，进入真修行人的内心，体会他们单纯的愿望，回想他们为追求信仰所付出的一切努力，你确实是会被感动的。
A thousand years ago, Milarepa practiced austerities for many years in the mountain valleys, and was too busy to be concerned with food and drink, too busy to be concerned with clothing and his outward appearance. He kept on practicing until he was emaciated, and his body turned green, and there were thick calluses all over his buttocks. But in the end he plucked the fruit of ultimate enlightenment, and only then did he begin to spread the teaching. This was the basic cause. Thus it is said, when you discard your set views and useless speculations, and enter into the inner minds of the people who genuinely cultivate practice, and experience their pure aspirations, and think back on all the efforts they made to seek faith, then you will genuinely be moved.
