梁皇寶懺的故事 The Story of Emperor Liang Repentance（中英字幕 English subtitle）-- 美佛寺性仁法師講佛教故事 Ven. Xingren

梁皇寶懺之發起因緣。
The origin of Emperor Liang Repentance.
2022.05.21 宣講於洛杉磯美佛寺
《梁皇寶懺》的緣起，要追溯到梁朝的梁武帝。大家知道，梁武帝是一位極力護持佛教的皇帝，在中國的佛教歷史上，可以說是一位佛教的大護法。他在位的時候，建寺齋僧，大力地弘揚佛法，使得佛教得到了前所未有的發展。唐朝的詩人杜牧曾經在他的詩句裡面特別提到：『南朝四百八十寺，多少樓台煙雨中』。從這個詩句當中，我們可以看出，南朝寺廟之多，佛法之興盛。《梁皇寶懺》就是這個時代傑出的偉大著作。根據記載：梁武帝的皇后郗氏，在她往生的數月時間裡面，有一天，梁武帝正要就寢，他這個時候還沒有睡著，想要睡覺，但是他聽到殿堂上有騷亂的聲音，於是就去看了一下。這不看而已，一看嚇了他一大跳，竟然發現是一條大蟒蛇，並且這條大蟒蛇眼睛睜得大大地看著他。這個時候梁武帝非常地吃驚，不知如何是好，壯著膽對那條大蟒蛇說：『朕的宮殿嚴警，不是你們蛇類所生之地，看來你必定是妖孽，過來想害朕。』奇怪的是，當他說完話，這條蟒蛇也開始說話了。這條蟒蛇對梁武帝說：『我是你的皇后郗氏。因為生前性情慘毒，心狠手辣，喜歡爭寵，常常懷有瞋恨心、嫉妒心，害人害己，所以死後墮落到畜生道，現在做了這條大蟒蛇。我現在沒有飲食可吃，沒有洞穴可居，而且我身上的每一片鱗甲，都有許多的蟲在咬我，讓我痛苦萬分。由於深感聖上平日對臣妾的那種厚愛，所以才敢顯現如此醜陋的形貌與您相見，希望能夠祈求一些功德，讓我能夠脫離畜生道，脫離這條蟒蛇之身。』第二天，梁武帝就將這個情形告訴當時最有修行的志公禪師。志公禪師對梁武帝說：『必須要禮佛求懺悔，才能洗滌罪業。』於是梁武帝就請志公禪師，搜尋三藏十二部一切經典，摘錄諸佛的名號，並且依照佛經來撰寫懺悔文，總共寫成十卷，就是現在我們大家禮拜的《梁皇寶懺》。寫完之後呢，梁武帝就依照懺本，禮請當時的高僧大德，專門為皇后郗氏禮拜求懺悔。懺悔圓滿的那一天，他突然間聞到異香遍滿室內。他的房間香氣四溢，久久不散。於是好奇，突然間抬起頭，看見有一個人，這個人儀容端麗，長得非常地莊嚴，對他說：『我是蟒蛇的後身。因為承蒙聖上為我做功德，所以現在已經生到忉利天。現在特來致謝。』說完就不見了。這個是《梁皇寶懺》的發起因緣。
The origin of "Emperor Liang Repentance" can be traced back to Emperor Wu of the Liang Dynasty. We all know that he was an emperor who strongly supported Buddhism. In the history of Chinese Buddhism, he can be regarded as a great supporter of Buddhism. During his reign, he built temples, offered food to monastics, and vigorously promoted Buddhism, which made Buddhism develop unprecedentedly. Du Mu, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, once particularly mentioned in his poem: "There were 480 temples in the Southern (Liang) Dynasty and so many towers in the misty rain". From this verse, we can see the large number of temples in the Southern Dynasty and the prosperity of Buddhism. "Emperor Liang Repentance" was a great and outstanding work of this era. According to records, Emperor Wu's Empress was Xi. A few months after her death, one day, when Emperor Wu was about to go to bed, he wasn't asleep yet at that time but wanted to sleep, he heard the sound of commotion in the hall, so he went to take a look. It was fine before looking at it, but when he saw what he saw, he was shocked. He found out that it was a big python, and the big python looked at him with its wide eyes. At that time, Emperor Wu was very shocked and didn't know what to do, so he plucked up his courage and said to the big python, "My palace is strictly guarded and not where your snakes live. It seems that you must be a demon who comes to harm me." Strangely, when he finished talking, the python also began to talk. The python said to Emperor Wu, "I was your empress Xi. Because of my cruel temperament and mind, and that I fought for favor and always harbored hatred and jealousy, which hurt others and myself, so after death, I fell into the animal realm and became this big python. Now I have no food to eat, no caves to live in, and under every scale on my body, there are many insects biting me, making me miserable. Because I deeply feel your love to me, I dare to show such an ugly appearance to meet you. I hope you can do some good deeds for me, so that I can leave the animal realm and this python body." The next day, Emperor Wu told this situation to Zen Master Zhi, who was the most well cultivated at that time. Zen Master Zhi said to Emperor Wu, "One must worship the Buddha and repent to wash away sin karma." So, Emperor Wu asked Zen Master Zhi to search all Twelve Divisions of the Tripitaka, extract all Buddhas' names, and write a repentance according to the Buddhist scriptures, in a total of ten volumes, which is the "Emperor Liang Repentance" that we perform today. After it was finished, Emperor Wu followed the repentance and respectfully invited the eminent monastics of that time to perform repentance particularly for Empress Xi. On the day when the repentance was complete, he suddenly smelled an unusual fragrance all over the room. The fragrance filled his room and lingered for a long time. So, he was curious and looked up, suddenly he saw a person, who was beautiful and very solemn and said to him, "I am the incarnation of the python. Because of the good deeds Your Majesty did for me, I am now in the Trayastrimsa Heaven. Now I am here just to thank you." Then the person disappeared right after talking. This is the origin of "Emperor Liang Repentance".

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