緣起緣滅 - 一切皆空

對我影響很大的，是梭羅的那句話。他寫：「我搬到森林，因為我想認真地活著。去面對生命最基本的東西，並從自然界中學習… 我要把人生逼到角落，用最簡單的方式生活… 我要活得深刻，把自己看的透徹 ... 好壞都接受, 放下 ... 把人生的汁液吸乾淨。」

這些話當年我會背，但不懂。多年後的今天，我有机緣，聽到空海描述自然界與人類系糸相關, 緣起緣滅, 也在其中。 我到底要些甚么? 還有甚麼值得我要? 心空相應, 人空一体, 那就能解脫自在。也許是這些吧。從空海的講解, 慢慢開始体會其中真理實相。

回歸自然，認真地活著吧。就讓自己暴露在新的體驗下, 接受法界所給予，一切歸0, 一切無常。法界的實像是: 彼岸就在當下, 回到頭來，一切皆空，才能体會, 体證, 心空相應。

"夢裡明明有六趣, 醒後空空無大千" - 從夢幻世界醒來。体悟無常就像冰溶解為水, 水再形成雲 ... 為何還要抓住冰不放呢? 冰為水，水為雲，雲又被風吹散到各處, 那是法界在告訴我們無常的實相啊! 變爲風雲, 就享受當下的無挂礙, 無憂無慮, 可遊遍高山, 大海, 到處旅遊, 多灑脫! 做回風的本色吧！

燕子南飛，北風吹起，各分南北，迎風獨行，還我自由。

The door is open ... I am ready ... The journey of Dhamma begins, cannot wait anymore.

Goodbye, friends...

The Butterfly Is Not A Dream ...

Ven. Sujiva

A poem by Ven. Sujiva

That crimson flare

Which warms at first sight.

Now sears the heart with pain.Foolish man! Feel not sad,

Count yourself fortunate. Better it is, to lose a finger

Than to sacrifice ones whole life for a sip of honey.

Smoldering grey clouds, hovering darkness, thick and suffocating,

These repercussions of vanity weigh down your eyelids.

The worst of the storm has passed, picking up the wreckage,

You discover what your folly cost you.

After rendezvous, parting follows, and from craving arises woe.

When pleasure fade, suffering enters the stage with a loud bang and scream.

These truths – not that you are unaware, but since you forgot.

You see them again, now right before you, your deep love burns with fire. That only storm can extinguish. Cry if you can’t help it.

But by all means, do not end the world.

Alas! what mistakes man can commit, he repeats. I can forgive him a thousand times and more.

And each time present a gift of a lotus petal accompanied with a drop of compassion dripped down

From the bitter nimb tree leaf. But what really matters is that you can forgive

While others may still hate, forgive the sky and the earth

Forgive the ocean and all Mankind. If you can do that,

Turn around to find, see that pretty butterfly fluttering

From jasmines to roses, how busy she is,

With the affairs of the world. Why must you feel so sorrowful

When the beauty of Nature is yours, all yours!

No, that butterfly is not a dream, That woman is, and the man too

And that conflagration of love that you bathed in with sheer delight

Is the substance from which nightmares are made!

Repeated Mistakes, Creating Learning ...

A Dharma Discourse by Roshi John Daido Loori on Dongshan and Shenshan Cross the River.

"The Bodhisattva Vow - the whole thing is hopeless, but we’ll do it"

“You can’t teach someone to walk a tightrope wire by telling them to move their muscles a certain way. The only way to learn is by doing it. Somehow your body acclimates to it, your mind learns, and it seeps into your subconscious. It happens all at once. Is the Dharma any different? Of course you’re going to fail; step after step after step. Yet you will learn every time you fail. You say you’re going to stay with the breath, and pretty soon you start chasing after thoughts. You acknowledge your distraction, you let it go, and you come back to the breath. You keep doing this until you’re able to stay with the breath. After a while you get pretty good at it, but all of a sudden you seem to be back to square one and you can’t stay focused for even five seconds. Your mind is all over the place. Then it comes back.

Repeated practice creates learning. Repeated mistakes create learning. That is why Mistake is in reality called learning. The state of no-mistake is called nowness. It is called “now.” It is called “thus.” In nowness there is no before; there is no after. There are no goals, no agendas, no fixed direction. There is just the moment. It arrives as it departs, simultaneously. It has no before or after. It is so difficult for us to grasp this truth. We need goals. We want agendas. We crave direction. The notion of wandering aimlessly is very frightening for most of us…

The state of no-mistake is called nowness. In nowness there is no before or after, no goals, agendas, or fixed direction. Like the meandering river, it twists and turns in accord with circumstances, but always knows how to find its way to the great ocean. When you are on the river, you may be paddling north for an hour, and suddenly there’ll be a bend up ahead. When you look at your compass, you see you’re going south. You may have to go the same length, except now you’re paddling in the opposite direction. Then you go east, then you go west, then north again. Is the river making a mistake on its journey to the ocean?

It is the Tenth Ox-herding Picture with the old sagely guy stumbling through the marketplace with a bag on his back. He is laughing at falling leaves, playing with children. This is a step beyond the crystal-clear moon of enlightenment. Dogen says, “No trace of enlightenment remains, and this traceless enlightenment continues endlessly.” There are those who seek perfect clarity, yet sweep as you may, you cannot empty the mind. Keizan Zenji said that. Sweeping itself can sometimes fill the mind. The simple activity of emptying fills it.

Remember, the whole thing is hopeless. Taking care of the environment is hopeless, but we’ll do it. Achieving enlightenment is hopeless, but we’ll do it. Clarifying the mind, emptying the mind — impossible. We’ll do it. Just like the Four Vows say: “Sentient beings are numberless, I vow to save them.” How in the world are we going to do that, if they’re numberless? “Desires are inexhaustible, I vow to put an end to them. The dharmas are boundless, I vow to master them. The Buddha Way is unattainable, I vow to attain it.” Utterly hopeless. Yet we’re doing it.

We are jousting with windmills. That is our practice. The apparent impossibility does not make one bit of difference in our resolve. What is required is the kind of tenacity, the kind of vow that comes out of this practice. Imperfections notwithstanding, we will ultimately take care of this earth, and of each other. That is our vow.”

Narcissism -Self Love