大慈未願 林鈺堂 累劫誓願渡苦眾，直至安樂證菩提； 跋 近來英譯《地藏經》，正進行二校，逐字推敲中。今日在第四品內見經文：「一王發願，若不先渡罪苦，令是安樂，得至菩提，我終未願成佛」；以及「一王發願永渡罪苦眾生未願成佛者，即地藏菩薩是」。細思「未願成佛」之義，而省悟常見之「地獄未空誓不成佛」並不妥當。 「未願成佛」雖也可依字面解為「不願成佛」，但成佛並不妨礙渡生，又何必迴避？依「未」字通常之意含，「未願成佛」應瞭解為「尚未」、「未及」發願要成佛。如此，則可免除「有心規避佛果」的誤會，更能彰顯地藏菩薩本願中「救渡為先，無暇顧己」的大慈悲精神。
No Time for Self-interests Yutang Lin Vows pledged over continuous kalpas to save suffering beings Comment: Recently I have been preoccupied with translating the Earth Treasure Sutra from Chinese into English. Now I am reviewing the English version for the second time, and working through the Sutra in Chinese word by word. Today in the fourth chapter I came across the following sentences:
Upon careful consideration of the meaning of "he would not have wished to attain Buddhahood" and "he has not wished to attain Buddhahood" I realized that a popular saying in Chinese Buddhism about Bodhisattva Earth Treasure, that says, "When hells are not yet empty he vows not to attain Buddhahood," is not proper. Even though "he would not have wished to attain Buddhahood" and "he has not wished to attain Buddhahood" might seem to indicate that he does not wish to attain Buddhahood, nevertheless, attaining Buddhahood is not a hindrance to rescuing beings from sufferings, why does he need to avoid it? The underlying meaning should be that he has not been, and would not be, up to the point of wishing to attain Buddhahood. But this is in no way due to his unwillingness to attain Buddhahood, rather it is only because he has been so preoccupied with rescuing suffering beings that he has had no time to worry about his own ultimate welfare. He has not and would not come to the point of wishing the best fruit for himself unless all suffering beings have attained that already. Herein lies the essential spirit of his great compassion. He is forever beyond self-interests in his continuous working for the salvation of suffering beings.
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