Painstaking Hard Work

不要命的用功

I know there are a few people whose legs hurt so badly that they almost cry out. This is useless. The more you cry, the more they will hurt. your crying does not help one bit. your legs will not say, “okay. since you have cried, i will not hurt anymore!” your legs will not sympathize with you. ordinary folks say we have a good practice of sitting in meditation here. This is actually because we ask people to come and suffer a little. “good practice” means “suffering.” we wake up before dawn, around one or two in the morning, and rest only an hour during the day. we don’t rest until midnight, so each day, we only rest for a total of about three hours. This is painstaking hard work! it is “giving up death and forgetting life.” as the saying goes, “unless you can give up death, you cannot exchange it for life. unless you can give up the false, the truth cannot be accomplished. If you can endure suffering, you can then enjoy blessings.” If you want to attain real skill, you will have to endure suffering, grit your teeth, and carry on with your cultivation. Basically, this pain is avoidable; however, we want there to be pain so we can endure it. This is to “endure what others cannot endure.” If you cannot endure a little pain, you fail the test.

我知道有几个人腿痛，痛得哭起来了，这是没有用的！愈哭，它愈痛，你怎么哭也不会不痛的，腿不会说：「哦！你哭了，那我就不痛了。」它不会同情你。一般人说我们这儿坐禅很好，这其实就是叫人来受一受苦，所谓「很好」就是很苦。你想一想我们从一早两点多钟就起来，白天休息一个钟头，到晚间十二点钟休息，每一天只休息两三个钟头，这可以说是不要命的来用功，这叫舍死忘生，所谓「舍不了死，换不了生；舍不了假，成不了真；你受不得苦，也享不得福。」你要想得到真正的工夫，必须要忍苦耐劳，在这儿咬着牙挺着。本来这个痛我们可以不痛的，但是我们欢喜教它痛，所以就腿痛也还是忍着，所谓「忍人所不能忍的」就是忍这个。你一痛就不能忍了，那还是考试不上的。