【慧灯中英文连载】《Are You Ready for Happiness?》(77) 将痛苦转化为行善的动力

5.Transform Suffering into an Impetus to Practice Virtue

5.痛苦转化为行善的动力

When undergoing suffering, we can also think: how fortunate I am experiencing just human suffering. If one day I must take rebirth in the hell, animal, or hungry ghost realm, how will I manage then? Thus I should be happy to bear the suffering before me.

在承受痛苦的时候，我们也可以转念一想：好在自己还是在承受人间的痛苦，如果真有一天，自己必须面对地狱、饿鬼道、旁生道的痛苦，那又该如何应付呢？所以我应该为眼前的痛苦而庆幸。

To avoid suffering, we must accumulate merit and create the cause for not suffering by practicing virtue. This is the natural law of cause and effect.

不想接受痛苦，就一定要积累福德，制造不痛苦的因——行善，这是因果的自然规律。

Although we normally understand these concepts, it is only when experiencing suffering that we profoundly realize samsara is not as perfect as we imagine but is instead filled with hardship. With this we turn suffering into an impetus for practicing virtue. Buddhists are generally diligent in practicing virtue and refraining from doing evil. Through suffering, they exert even greater effort in the practice.

虽然平时我们也懂得这些道理，但在面临痛苦的沉重打击之后，才能深深体会到世间轮回并不如我们想象的那么完美、幸福，而是苦难重重。这样就能把痛苦转化为行善的动力。本来学佛的人在行善、断恶方面就比较精进。通过体验痛苦，就会更加努力地精进修行。