英文书 E145 Living This Moment In Purity 當下的清涼心

Preface

The Consciousness of Great

Bliss and Luminosity

Recently, the Buddha has repeatedly prompted my heart with three simple, yet profound statements:

“All happenings will become the past.”

“Every individual’s life will extinguish.”

“All existence,in a flash, will no longer exist.”

I have often meditated on these three statements, knowing that all forms of affliction in this samsaric world, whether physical or emotional, will eventually pass.

Every person who is born eventually dies. Throughout the ages, many heroic people have walked this earth. But where are they now? Indeed, each and every life will be extinguished.

The material objects we think we own are merely passed from hand to hand. Some will disappear; others will be given away. Why waste one’s heart and mind on the accumulation of money and material things? In a flash, all will be transmuted into emptiness.

Every time I ponder these three statements, a tremor travels through my heart. Yet, at the same moment, I experience an exhilarating sense of liberation.

I have often recounted examples from China’s history, enumerating the successive dynasties from Xia, Shang, Zhou to Qin, Han, the Three Kingdoms, Jin, the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Sui, Tang, the Five Dynasties, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing.I cite these to illustrate the transience of all worldly phenomena.

As one dynasty succeeds and replaces the last,

One emperor replaces another;

One palace is replaced by the next,

As each ruling party replaces its predecessor.

Regardless of the event, it soon becomes the past. All will vanish like mist and smoke. All existence becomes non-existent. One may feel sad over such happenings but, after all, mourning brings no practical benefits amidst the torrents of time!