这次去西班牙开会，几个好奇的西班牙同事问我为什么吃素？人生不会感到缺少什么吗？末学就借机会跟他们说了说轮回的观念，吃素的重要，并讲了个故事给他们听：

 

I was in Spain for a conference recently and when I was there, a few colleagues were curious why I was a vegetarian. They were wondering whether I would miss so much fun in my life. This gave me a great opportunity to share with them about the reincarnation and the importance of being vegetarians. I started with a story.

 

过去有一个老和尚，他路过一个村庄，看见有一户人家娶媳妇，老和尚路过人家门口，往院里瞅了一眼，说了几句话：“六亲锅里煮，猪羊炕上坐，孙子娶祖母。”

这些话被院里的人听见了，他们拉住老和尚，不让他走，要他把话解释清楚。

 

Once upon a time, there was an old monk who happened to pass through a village in which a family was having a wedding ceremony. When he was passing by the house of the family, he had a glimpse inside and said:“Uh hah, cook the close relatives in the wok, seat the pigs and sheep at the table, and marry the grandson to his grandmother.” When the words were heard by the people in the yard, they were curious of what he meant and asked him to explain.

 

老和尚说：“我说的都是真话，你们看不到，我能看到。锅里煮的这些猪马牛羊，都是前世吃猪马牛羊的人，现在已经转世，变成了猪马牛羊，现在被放在锅里煮了。炕上坐的人，就是前世被吃掉的猪马牛羊，今世转成人了。这就是因果轮回，丝毫不爽。你吃它，它吃你，吃来吃去何时了啊？只有佛菩萨看得清清楚楚，所以告诉大家不要伤害众生了，害他就是害自己，大家在六道轮回的路上不能自拔。”

 

So spoke the old monk: “What I said is all true. I can see things that you can’t. The pigs and sheep in the wok are those who ate pigs and sheep in their past life. They became pigs and sheep in this life and are now being cooked in the wok. Whereas the people sit at the table are those pigs and sheep that were eaten in the past life and now they are humans. Without any doubt, that is what we call transmigration of cause and effect. In one life, you eat them and in another, they eat you, and when will this cycle end? Only the Buddha can fully understand the transmigration of cause and effect and tell us not to harm any sentient beings because as one makes one’s bed, so one must lie on it. Keeping doing unwholesome deeds stops us from being liberated from the transmigration of the cycle of births-and-deaths in the six paths. 

 

为什么今天孙子娶了祖母？

 

Why the grandson married his grandmother today?

 

“这个孙子的奶奶是九十多岁死的，当时，她的孙子还小，她死的时候，孙子还不到九岁，所以，她一直念念不忘这个小孙子。当她咽气的时候，她的手拽着小孙子不放，好几个人才把这个手给扒开的。她的那份情太重了。所以，死了以后当下去投胎。正好她那个村子邻居家有个小媳妇想怀孕，她就去她家投胎了。变成了她的女儿。当他孙子九岁的时候，这个小女孩出生了，长大以后就嫁给了她的孙子。”

 

When the grandson was still a little boy, his 90-year-old grandmother passed away. The grandmother deeply loved her little grandson and tightly grabbed his hand when she died. With such unbearable separation from the one she had had great passion for, the grandmother died and reincarnated as the neighbor’s daughter when the neighbor was getting pregnant. She was born when her grandson was nine years old. When she grew up, she married her grandson.

 

说完了，末学就告诉他们，末学以后不想被他们吃，几个乐天的西班牙同事听完哈哈大笑。末学知道他们还不相信，不过也只能老实的说到这里，暂时跟他们结个善缘的种子了。

 

With this, I told my colleagues that the reason I had become a vegetarian was simply because I didn’t want to be eaten, they bursted into laughter. I knew they didn’t believe what I had said. But at least I have seeded a good karma and am looking forward to talking to them more.