丙六、念生死苦
C6: Mindfulness Of The Suffering Of Birth And Death
念生死苦
[6] Mindfulness Of The Suffering Of Birth And Death
云何念生死苦？谓我与众生从旷劫来，常在生死，未得解脱，人间天上，此界他方，出没万端，升沈片刻，俄焉而天，俄焉而人，俄焉而地狱、畜生、饿鬼。
Why be mindful of the suffering of birth and death? Speaking of myself with sentient beings, from ancient kalpas since, constantly in the cycle of birth and death, we have yet to attain liberation. In the human world, heavens above, this world and other directions, appearing and disappearing in ten thousand ways, rising and sinking in a moment, suddenly there, then as heavenly beings, suddenly there, then as human beings, suddenly there, then as hell-beings, animals or hungry ghosts.
丁一、地狱苦
D1: Hell-Beings’ Suffering
黑门朝出而暮还，铁窟暂离而又入。
From the black gate at dawn exiting, yet at dusk returning. From the iron cave temporarily leaving, yet again entering.
登刀山也，则举体无完肤；攀剑树也，则方寸皆割裂。
Ascending knife mountains too, then is the entire body without complete skin. Climbing sword trees too, then with every square cùn [i.e. 3.33 cm] cut apart.
热铁不除饥，吞之则肝肠尽烂；洋铜宁疗渴，饮之则骨肉都糜。
With hot iron that does not eliminate hunger, swallowing it then with the liver and intestines completely rotted. With boiling copper rather than quenching thirst, drinking it then with the bones and flesh all mashed.
利锯解之，则断而复续；巧风吹之，则死已还生。
With sharp saws dissecting all, then cut, yet recovering continuously. With timely winds blowing all, then dead already, returning to life.
猛火城中，忍听叫嗥之惨；煎熬盘里，但闻苦痛之声。
Within a city with fierce fires, enduring hearing of the howls of misery. In pans frying and boiling, only hearing the cries of suffering and pain.
冰冻始凝，则状似青莲蕊结；血肉既裂，则身如红藕华开。
Frozen and beginning to congeal, then with shape resembling blue lotus buds formed. With bloody flesh already split open, then are bodies like red lotus flowers blooming.
一夜死生，地下每经万遍；一朝苦痛，人间已过百年。
Of one night’s deaths and births, in the hells below often going through ten thousand times. Of one morning’s suffering and pain, in the human world already passing a hundred years.
频烦狱卒疲劳，谁信阎翁教诫？受时知苦，虽悔恨以何追？脱已还忘，其作业也如故。
Again and again, the prison guards of hell become weary. Who will believe old King Yama’s teachings and admonishments? When receiving it knowing suffering, although with regret, how can this be in time? Liberated already, still forgetting, that creating of karma is also like before.
丁二、畜生苦
D2: Animals’ Suffering
鞭驴出血，谁知吾母之悲？牵豕就屠，宁识乃翁之痛？
Whipping a donkey till bleeding, who knows the sorrow of my mother? Dragging a pig towards slaughter, how can thus be recognised as the pain of my father?
食其子而不知，文王尚尔；啖其亲而未识，凡类皆然。
Eating our own children yet not knowing so, like King Wén we still do thus. Swallowing our relatives yet still not recognising them, ordinary kinds of beings all do thus.
当年恩爱，今作冤家；昔日寇仇，今成骨肉。昔为母而今为妇，旧是翁而新作夫。
In those years with love, today becoming enemies. In former days as enemies, today becoming one’s flesh and blood. Formerly as mothers, yet today as wives. In the past are fathers, yet recently becoming husbands.
宿命知之，则可羞可耻；天眼视之，则可笑可怜。
If of past lives, knowing them, then is this shameful and disgraceful. If with heavenly eyes, seeing them, then is this laughable and pitiable.
丁三、生死苦
D3: Suffering Of Birth And Death
粪秽丛中，十月包藏难过；脓血道里，一时倒下可怜。
Within clumps of excrement and filth, for ten months concealed with difficulties. From passages with pus and blood inside, at once falling down pitifully.
少也何知，东西莫辨；长而有识，贪欲便生。
When young, what is known, with the East and West not distinguished? When grown up, then having knowledge, greedy desires then arise.
须臾而老病相寻，迅速而无常又至。风火交煎，神识于中溃乱；精血既竭，皮肉自外干枯。无一毛而不被针钻，有一窍而皆从刀割。
In one moment then, with ageing and sickness, one after another, swiftly then, impermanence again arrives. With wind and fire in turn tormenting, the consciousness within is collapsed and confused. With essence and blood completely exhausted, with skin and flesh outside dried and withered. Not one hair is then not like by a needle pierced. Having one opening is then like where all knives cut.
龟之将烹，其脱壳也犹易；神之欲谢，其去体也倍难。
When a turtle is going to be cooked, that removing of the shell is still also easy. When the consciousness is about to leave, that giving up of the body is also many times more difficult.
心无常主，类商贾而处处奔驰；身无定形，似房屋而频频迁徙。
The mind is without a permanent host, like a merchant then everywhere galloping. The body is without a fixed form, like houses then again and again moved into.
大千尘点，难穷往返之身；四海波涛，孰计别离之泪？峨峨积骨，过彼崇山；莽莽横尸，多于大地。
The great-thousandfold world’s dust motes, are difficult to exhaust the number of bodies going and returning. Like the four seas’ great waves, who can calculate the tears of separation? High accumulations of bones, surpass those tall mountains. Boundless lying corpses are more than enough to cover the great earth.
向使不闻佛语，此事谁见谁闻？未睹佛经，此理宁知宁觉？
If not having heard the Buddha’s words, of these matters, who can see them, and who can hear about them? Yet to have seen the Buddha’s sūtras, of these principles, how can we know them, and how can we awaken to them?
其或依前贪恋，仍旧痴迷，只恐万劫千生，一错百错。
Perhaps following previous greedy attachments, still ignorant and confused, only fearing that in ten thousand kalpas’ thousand lives, with one mistake leading to a hundred mistakes.
人身难得而易失，良时易往而难追。
This human body is difficult to attain yet easy to lose. Good times are easy to pass yet difficult to pursue.
道路冥冥，别离长久，三途恶报，还自受之，痛不可言，谁当相代？兴言及此，能不寒心！
The path of rebirth is dim and dusky, with separations for a long time. Of the three realms’ evil retributions, there must still be personal receiving of them, with pain unspeakable, who should bear this for another? With words coming to this, how can it not bring chills to the heart?
是故宜应断生死流，出爱欲海，自他兼济，彼岸同登，旷劫殊勋，在此一举。
Therefore, we should sever the river of birth and death, exit from the ocean of attachments and desires, help both oneself and others, to together ascend the other shore. From distant kalpas, the most surpassing of meritorious deeds, is in this one act.
是为发菩提心第六因缘也。
This is for giving rise to the Bodhi Mind, the sixth cause and condition.
净土宗十一祖省庵大师
Pure Land Tradition’s 11th Patriarch Great Master Xǐng’ān
《劝发菩提心文》
Essay On Exhortation To Give Rise To The Bodhi Mind
全文
Complete Text:
《劝发菩提心文》
Essay On Exhortation To Give Rise To The Bodhi Mind
https://purelanders.com/quan
