王云帆居士Yunfan講於12/30/2023彌陀七圓滿日晚上心得分享
各位諸佛菩薩，師父上人，各位尊敬的法師，善知識們，阿彌陀佛！我的名字叫云帆，在密歇根安娜堡讀書，這是我第一次來到聖城。非常榮幸能和大家分享我與佛結緣的經歴和此次佛七的收穫。不足之處煩請各位善知識們批評指正。
我學佛的原因很簡單——經歷了天堂快樂，和劇烈的痛苦。強烈的反差，讓我產生了出離心。我的童年非常幸福，心想事成，處處是善緣，學什麼都很快。那時，我天真地以為這就是理所應當的。可實際上，這一切只不過是福報的消耗。並在這個過程中，造下了種種罪業而不自知。當福報耗盡，業障現前。生離死別，惡緣頻現，處處碰壁，我自己都曾病到幾乎無法呼吸的程度了。曾經引以為傲的天賦，也因為種種原因，變得也不再擅長了。我終於體會到了什麼是世態炎涼和人情冷暖。十幾年的低谷幾乎摧垮了我的身體和意志。期間，我也有過幾次短暫的幸運，但接着就是更大的災難。好幾次想終結自己的生命，可總有股力量在阻止我。
上天有好生之德，佛菩薩憐憫我，讓我在幾年前接觸到了幾位善知識。他們用了一點小神通，讓我了解到這個世界上，有很多我們凡夫肉眼看不到的事情，神佛菩薩是真實存在的。進一步的，他們引導我接觸了傳統聖賢文化，其中一位善知識告訴我:我們來這個世界的目的就是“利用看的見的東西，來提升自己的看不見的德行。”看得見東西，例如財富，地位，名聲等都是假的。但是通過假的東西所提升的德行確實真的。他們中有一些人還建議我每天抽時間念佛。
因為找到了人生的意義——修德積福。我開始變了，我開始盡力去幫助身邊的人，懺悔自己的罪過。隨着福報的增長，今年我結緣了地藏菩薩，我被地藏王菩薩地獄不空，誓不成佛的大願所感動。在持誦《地藏經》時，我經常會泣不成聲。在地藏王菩薩的加持下，我的身體開始漸漸恢復，期間還發生了很多和《地藏經》所說相應的事情，讓我更加相信佛是真語者，實語者，不妄語者。我開始給自己定功課，每天一部《地藏經》，加上專念阿彌陀佛，觀音菩薩，地藏菩薩聖號。如果有空，會讀《阿彌陀經》和《金剛經》。後來，我遇到了另外一位善知識天煜，她極力推薦我來萬佛城參加佛七，並替我規劃了行程。阿彌陀佛。
通過這次佛七，我念經念佛的專注力明顯增強了。此外，我也通過這幾天的共修，得以對自己的每日功課做優化。在此，非常感謝萬佛聖城和生活中的各位善知識們，感謝你們對我的鼓勵和幫助。希望你們現世所求遂意，往生得生淨土，阿彌陀佛！
Dear respected Buddha, Bodhisattva, master Xuan, dharma masters, and good teachers, Amitabha. My name is Yunfan and I am now doing my PhD study in university of Michigan, Ann Arbor. This is the first time that I have been to the city of ten thousand Buddha.
It is a great honor of me to share why I started to study Buddhism and my take away from this 7-days reciting Amitabha buddha’s name session. Please correct me if you find any of mistakes. The reason why I studied Buddhism is quite straightforward. Because I experienced the heaven-like happiness, followed by hell-like sufferings in my life. The significant contrast drove me to seek for a way to leave this world. I have a very wonderful childhood. Everyone liked me. I could easily get whatever I wanted. I could easily master what I wanted to learn. At that time, I was naively taking it for granted but did not realize it came from my blessing. As soon as my blessings ran out, the disasters came up. Death of my family member, separated with most people who once loved me, hundreds of failures. What is more, I experienced a severe illness. Due to other reasons, those skills that I was once good at were wiped out. I eventually saw another side of this world, dark and cruel. Tens of years sufferings almost destroyed me both mentally and physically. Sometimes, I was able to get a short-time luck, but at the price of long-term disaster. I even considered to end my life. But I felt like that there are some invisible beings that stop me doing that.
Buddhas and Bodhisattva felt compassionate for me. Therefore, I was able to meet with some good teachers in my past several years. They used some spiritual methods to let me believe the existence of Buddha’s, Bodhisattva, and heavenly beings. Later, they introduced me to conventional Chinese culture. One of them told me that our life goal is to keep improving our unseen merit and virtue, the only truth in the world. Anything visible are considered artificial. But you need to rely on them to attain the true one. Some of them suggested me keep reciting Buddha’s and Bodhisattva’s name every day.
Because I found my life goal, I started to change. I was trying my best to help people around me and repent for my guilty. As my blessings continue to increase, I was able to meet with earth store Bodhisattva this year. I was deeply touched by the great vow made by him, that is I will not be a Buddha unless the hell becomes empty. Sometimes, when I was praying and reading the corresponding sutra, I couldn’t control myself and started crying. With the help of earth store Bodhisattva, my health condition became better and better. During that time, there were many supernatural things happening, which matches what buddhas spoke in the sutra. It further strengthened my confidence in learning Buddha’s words. I began to daily pray and read one the past vow of earth store Bodhisattva sutra. And keep reciting the name of Buddha and Bodhisattvas, if I have more time, I will also pray and read other sutras. Later, I met with another good teacher, Tianyu. She strongly recommended me to attend this 7-day Amitabha Buddha’s session. And she helped me plan the travel. Amitabha!
Through this session, I could concentrate more on reading the sutra and reciting Buddha’s and Bodhisattva’s name. Additionally, I updated my study plan after 7-day. As a conclusion, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all good teachers in city of ten thousand buddhas and in my daily life. Thanks for encouraging and helping me. Best of luck to your life and hope you all can get birth in the Western pure land in the future.