The Buddha Statue and the stone step

On a famous mountain, there was a temple. In that temple was a beautifully carved Buddha statue. Numerous people climbed a hundred stone steps to the mountain-top to perform prostrations and offer incense daily. One night, one of the hundred stone steps leading to the mountain-top complained to the Buddha statue, “We are both made of stone. On what basis do people trample on me while you sit in the shrine and receive people’s respect?” The Buddha statue laughed and said, “You only suffered from a few cuts from the knife back then before you became a stone step. I suffered innumerable cuts from the carving knife before I became a Buddha statue!”

“The Buddha statue and the stone step” was one of the fable stories published by Master Jin Bodhi on 28th May. Through personifications of the Buddha statue and stone step, Master illustrated an important principle in the path of cultivation. The path of cultivation is akin to the process of carving a Buddha statue. Just as the Buddha statue has to endure innumerable cuts from the carving knife, the practitioner must endure numerous suffering and wrongful abuse from others and practice arduously till he becomes perfectly enlightened. Master Jin said, “The path of cultivation is like the famous tale ‘The journey to the west’. This tale described a Tang dynasty monk who journeyed to the west to obtain sutras and he had to endure 81 difficult problems. If there is one less problem, one cannot become enlightened. One less problem means one will lack one particular wisdom to solve a problem. In the path of cultivation, we should be like a Buddha statue, be resolute and fervent in our practice and never regress in our practice. When we have endured through all the problems, we will find that it was the problems that made us enlightened.”

【禅意故事 -佛像与石阶】

在一座名山上，有一 座寺庙，庙里供一尊雕刻精美的佛像。每天，数不清的人沿着上百级石阶走到山顶，在佛像前顶礼膜拜，烧香许愿。一天晚上，铺在山路上的一级石阶向佛像抱怨 道：“佛像呀，同样都是石头，凭什么我被人蹬来踩去，你却高高在上，被人供在殿堂，受人瞻仰呢？”　佛像笑了笑说：“当年，您只挨了几刀，便成为了一块石 阶，而我是经历了千刀万凿之后，才有了现在这个样子啊！”

这是5月28日师父发布在脸书上的一则寓言故事《佛像与石阶》。故事将佛像与石阶拟人化，通过彼此的对话与对比，揭示出一个重要的修行道理：修行之路就像塑造佛像的过程一样，佛像要经历千刀万凿才成就其庄严精美；修行者也要忍受痛苦与委屈，经历千锤百炼，才能修行圆满。师父曾经说过：修行 过程就如西游记里描述唐僧到西天取经一样，要经历九九八十一难。少一难都不能成就，因為少经历一种磨难，就缺乏了对治这种烦恼的智慧。在修行过程中，我们 必须像这尊佛像一样，坚定信念，永不退转，等把所有一切都经历完了之后，才发现正是这些磨难才成就了自己！

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1) Meditation and Health
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2) Master Jin Bodhi Facebook
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3) Official Bodhi Meditation Website
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