Shi Fa Zhe Yan 世法哲言

XXVI.
A person grows wiser by learning from the setbacks he suffered. True knowledge comes from one’s own experience. Secondhand experience is worth little.
人生明達之道，悟于挫折迭起之踐，凡事之解者，必于親身所歷之驗也，無實之聞，聞而無實，故身之所歷親見本來，得以明達之理。

XXVIII.
One owes one’s success to external factors that tap one’s potential. A solitary piece of wood by itself can never make a house, and it takes meticulous processing to reveal the beauty of jade stones.
人才之成就者，具內因必依外緣之助耳，無或之幫獨木何房，頑石美玉依藝或之精雕而絢麗之道，理法如是。

XXX.
A protracted dispute is wrong on both sides. Why? Entangled in such a dispute, both sides see only the faults of the opposing party and the merits of his own. Continuing dispute will but increase the wrongdoing. When one realizes that the other party is as annoyed as he is, one is apt to withdraw from the dispute.
久執之爭，是為雙錯，原何也，互見其過兮，互識自優兮，久之誤重，則弗見其對惱耳，由是無爭于執也。

XXIV.
Intellectual and material resources work in opposite ways. Intellectual resources are limitless; the more they are tapped, the broader they grow in scope. Impermanent in nature and limited in quantity, material resources last but a short time, and the more they are consumed the sooner they are exhausted. The truth is that the former is non-quantifiable and thus infinite and everlasting while the latter is quantifiable and therefore diminishing and exhaustible.
慧海之庫與物質之倉是為反量也，慧庫無為轉無量，多用之反增之。物倉儲存乃無常，施之減之，故無為乃大，大在無量，無常乃微，微在消然。

XVI.
When a person says that he never erros, he is whitewashing his error and thus erring.
凡出語之余無非也，謂詞似為非也，言無失者乃以詞奪理之失，故為非也。

XVIII.
There is nothing more foolish than for one to believe that all one sees is reason and the universe is created from it. Whenever one measures everything from one’s own standards, that person is demonstrating ignorance.
人愚之最癖是為我見是理，萬物由己量之由是而生，此屬心之弗明所至無知故也，凡為余衡量諸物似為尺度者，實則無識也。

XX.
The respect a person enjoys comes from his devotion to the well-being of other people. A swimming pool is admired in summer because it provides relief from the heat.
受人之敬者，由布益于或而所至也，如眾之讚游池妙哉，原在它之解暑施涼故耳。

XI.
Undue haste causes delay, and procrastination causes loss. With this point of view, one shall choose the Middle Way as a principle. When a violin is tuned too low, its strings produce disharmony, but when it’s tuned too high, the strings are likely to snap.

欲速則不達，行慢而失獲，事理如是觀，正住中道參，琴弦之懈弗出和雅之音，反之過緊則易于折。

XIII.
Deliberation is needed before one makes a move, but no conclusion is to be drawn from deliberation alone. It has to be tested in action. Suggested moves are not to be adopted in haste, nor are they to be rejected out of hand; they are not to be dismissed even when tests have proved them worthless, for in this case an inquiry into their legitimacy has to be made. When a rainbow is blocked from view by clouds, it does not mean that there is no rainbow out there.
凡事應三思之弗覺，體實而再行之，不可聞言而從，亦不可聽之否虛，三思之下實施無道者，當進而窮根之研，欲覓高天彩虹而遇烏雲之佈，則疑于霞輝之弗成也，是為過失。

XV.
A wise person knows that negative experiences in life are just as useful as positive ones. That is why he remembers both of them. Negative experiences are taken as warnings against erring and positive ones as means to increase the well-being of others. Such is the attitude of a wise person toward life experiences.

善知識者諸語皆收，諸識皆藏，歸己為用，施之眾或所益，原何來，善知本性為或而福，劣理作己批照，善道養德為或。