大慈未愿 林钰堂 累劫誓愿渡苦众，直至安乐证菩提； 跋 近来英译《地藏经》，正进行二校，逐字推敲中。今日在第四品内见经文：“一王发愿，若不先渡罪苦，令是安乐，得至菩提，我终未愿成佛”；以及“一王发愿永渡罪苦众生未愿成佛者，即地藏菩萨是”。细思“未愿成佛”之义，而省悟常见之“地狱未空誓不成佛”并不妥当。 “未愿成佛”虽也可依字面解为“不愿成佛”，但成佛并不妨碍渡生，又何必回避？依“未”字通常之意含，“未愿成佛”应了解为“尚未”、“未及”发愿要成佛。如此，则可免除“有心规避佛果”的误会，更能彰显地藏菩萨本愿中“救渡为先，无暇顾己”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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