深信因果如何标本统治？
How Deep Faith In Karma Treats Suffering’s Symptoms And Causes Together
医家治病，急则治标，缓则治本。
[When] doctors treat sicknesses, [if] urgent, [they] thus treat [the] symptoms [first, if] unhurried, [they] thus treat [the] root [cause].
譬如有人咽喉壅肿，饮食难入，气息难出。
For example, [there] is [a] person [with the] throat obstructed [by] swelling, [with] drink [and] food difficult [to] enter, [and the] breath difficult [to] exit.
必先消其肿，然后方可按其病原，调理脏腑。
[There] must first [be] elimination [of] that swelling, thereafter then, [is it] possible [to] accordingly [treat] that sickness’ cause, [to] take care [of the] inner organs.
若不先消其肿，则人将立毙。
If not first eliminating that swelling, thus will [the] person immediately die.
纵有治本之良方妙药，将何所施。
Even if with, [for] treating [the] root [cause, a] good prescription [of] wonderful medicine, how will that [be] given [then]?
因果者，即今日消肿之妙法也。
The [teachings on karmic] cause [and] effect, is today’s wonderful Dharma for eliminating [the] swelling [of evil-doing and suffering from evil in this world].
然因果一法，标本统治。
Certainly, [with this] one Dharma [of] cause [and] effect, [the] symptoms [and the] root [cause can] together [be] treated.
初机依之，可以改恶修善。
Beginners relying [on] it, can correct [their] evil [and] cultivate good.
通人依之，可以断惑证真。
Those with wide knowledge relying [on] it, can sever confusions [to] realise truth.
乃彻上彻下，从博地凡夫，以至圆满佛果，皆不能离者。
Thereupon penetrating [the] above [and] penetrating [the] below, from barren ground’s [spiritually inferior] ordinary beings, up to [those with the] perfect Buddha fruit, all [are] not able [to] depart [from] it.
岂徒治标而已哉。
How [then] can it [be for] treating symptoms only?
净土宗十三祖印光大师
(复张伯岩居士书)
Pure Land Tradition’s 13th Patriarch Great Master Yìnguāng
(Reply letter to layperson Zhāng Bóyán)
Namo Amituofo : Translation by Shen Shi’an
