If I Didn't Care ...

In the prologue/opening of the 1994 film, "The Shawshank Redemption" it begins with a scratchy car radio (on the soundtrack) plays the romantic and beautiful song: "If I Didn't Care," performed by the Group Inkspots:

If I didn't care more than words can say

If I didn't care would I feel this way?

If this isn't love then why do I thrill?

And what makes my head go 'round and 'round

While my heart stands still?

If I didn't care would it be the same?

Would my ev'ry prayer begin and end with just your name?

And would I be sure that this is love beyond compare?

Would all this be true if I didn't care for you?

........

Listening to this song, it soothes the soul, fills with joy ....

Simply love it ... A warm dedication to the Joy of World ...

The Marriage of Figaro- By Mozart

The theme song played in the movie of the Shawshank Redemption. The best of film ever seen. The amazing voice with the most famous piece of Mozart, the Marriage of Figaro, as the voice narrated (Morgan Freeman) on this video clip says:

"I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I don't want to know. Some things are better left unsaid. I'd like to think they were singing about something so beautiful it can't be expressed in words, and it makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you, those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a grey place dares to dream... "

The song symbolizes and gives hope ... The movie implies and carries meaningful messages, thought-provocating and the expressions are lucid and elegant. It is impressive, inspirational and life affirming and uplifting film. It manifests of friendship, patience, hope, survival, emancipation and ultimate redemption. Yes, salvation lies within.

Fear can hold you prison, hope can set you free. A free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain ....

Get busy living or get busy dying. That is god-damn right!

The Shawshank Redemption is currently one of the most beloved movies of the past decade. Don’t miss it!

On Desire, Imagination, and the Buddhist Path -Thanissaro Bhikkhu (Part 4)

Once you’ve silenced these voices, the next step is to take responsibility for your actions and their consequences. This requires being willing to learn from your mistakes. Several years ago, a sociologist studied students in a neurosurgery program to see what qualities separated those who succeeded from those who failed. He found ultimately that two questions in his interviews pointed to the crucial difference. He would ask the students, “Do you ever make mistakes? If so, what is the worst mistake you’ve ever made?” Those who failed the program would inevitably answer that they rarely made mistakes or else would blame their mistakes on factors beyond their control. Those who succeeded in the program not only admitted to many mistakes but also volunteered information on what they would do not to repeat those mistakes in the future.

The Buddha encouraged this same mature attitude in his first instructions to his son, Rahula. He told Rahula to focus on his intentions before acting, and on the results of his actions both while he was doing them and after they were done. If Rahula saw that his intentions would lead to harm for himself or others, he shouldn’t act on them. If he saw that his thoughts, words, or deeds actually produced harm, he should resolve never to repeat them, without at the same time falling into remorse. If, on the other hand, he saw no harmful consequences from his actions, he should take joy in his progress on the path, and use that joy to nourish his continued practice.

Although the Buddha aimed these instructions at a seven-year-old child, the pattern they outline informs every level of the practice. The whole path to awakening consists of sticking to the most skillful desire; you progress along the path as your sense of “skillful” gets more refined. If you act on an unskillful desire, take responsibility for the consequences, using them to educate that desire as to where it went wrong. Although desires can be remarkably stubborn, they share a goal—happiness—and this can form the common ground for an effective dialogue: If a desire doesn’t really produce happiness, it contradicts its reason for being.

The best way to make this point is to keep tracing the thread from the desire to its resulting actions and their consequences. If the desire causes suffering to others, notice how their corresponding desire for happiness leads them to undermine the happiness you seek. If the desire aims at a happiness based on things that can age, grow ill, die, or leave you, notice how that fact sets you up for a fall. Then notice how the distress that comes from acting on this sort of desire is universal. It’s not just you. Everyone who has acted, is acting, or will act on that desire has suffered in the past, is suffering right now, and will suffer in the future. There’s no way around it.

Unskillful desires don’t really give way, though, until you can show that other, less troublesome desires really can produce happiness. This is why the Buddha emphasized learning how to appreciate the rewards of a virtuous, generous life: the joy in fostering the happiness of others, the solid dignity and self-worth in doing the hard but the right thing. It’s also why his path centers on states of blissful, refreshing concentration. Accessing this refreshment in your meditation gives you immediate, visceral proof that the Buddha was no killjoy. The desires he recommends really do produce a happiness that can give you the strength to keep on choosing the skillful path.

That’s the next step: patiently and persistently sticking with the desire to do the skillful thing in all situations. This isn’t a matter of sheer effort. As any good sports coach will tell you, hours of practice don’t necessarily guarantee results. You have to combine your persistence with intent: sensitivity, discernment, ingenuity. Keep an eye out for how to do things more efficiently. Try to see patterns in what you do. At the same time, introduce play and variety into your practice so that the plateaus don’t get boring and the downs don’t get you down.

The Buddha makes similar points in his meditation instructions. Once you’ve mastered a state of concentration, see where it still contains elements of stress. Then look for patterns to that stress: what are you doing to cause it? Find ways to gladden the mind when it’s down, to liberate it from its confinements, to steady it when it gets restless. In this way, as you learn to enjoy rising to the challenges of meditation, you also gain familiarity with subtle patterns of cause and effect in the mind.

The fourth step, once you’ve mastered those patterns, is to push their limits. Again, this isn’t simply a matter of increased effort. It’s more a rekindling of your imagination to explore the unexpected side-alleys of cause and effect. A famous cellist once said that his most exhilarating concert was one in which he broke a string on his cello and decided to finish the piece he was playing on the remaining strings, refingering it on the spot. The most obvious strings in meditation are the specific techniques for fostering stillness and insight, but the more interesting ones are the assumptions that underlie the quest for skill: lack, strategy, dialogue, your sense of self. Can you learn to do without them? There comes a point in your meditation when the only way for greater happiness is to begin questioning these assumptions. And this leads to some intriguing paradoxes: If desire springs from a sense of lack or limitation, what happens to desire when it produces a happiness with no lack or limitation at all? What’s it like not to need desire? What would happen to your inner dialogue, your sense of self? And if desire is how you take your place in space and time, what happens to space and time when desire is absent?

The Buddha encouraged these queries by describing the awakened person as so undefined and unlimited that he or she couldn’t be located in the present life or described after this life as existing, not existing, neither, or both. This may sound like an abstract and unreachable goal, but the Buddha demonstrated its human face in the example of his person. Having pushed past the limits of cause and effect, he was still able to function admirably in this life, happy in even the most difficult circumstances, compassionately teaching people of every sort. And there’s his testimony that not only monks and nuns, but also lay people—even children—had developed their skillful desires to the point where they gained a taste of awakening as well.

So imagine that. And listen to any desire that would take you in that direction, for that’s your path to true happiness.

海鷗 - 不会迷失方向 ...

海鸥-翁倩玉

海鸥飞在蓝蓝海上，不怕狂风巨浪
挥着翅膀，看着前方
不会迷失方向，飞得越高

看得越远，它在找寻理想

我愿像海鸥一样
那么勇敢坚强

On Desire, Imagination, and the Buddhist Path -Thanissaro Bhikkhu (Part 3)

The first is to use your ingenuity to fight off the chorus of inner voices trying to dissuade you from making the effort to be skillful in the first place. These voices are like devious lawyers representing strongly entrenched interests: all your threatened unskillful desires. You have to be quick and alert in countering their arguments, for they can come from all sides, sounding honest and wise even though they’re not. Here are some of the arguments these voices may use, along with a few effective responses:

Trying to manipulate your desires like this is unnatural. Actually, you’re already manipulating your desires all the time, when you choose one desire over another, so you might as well learn to do it skillfully. And there are plenty of people out there only too happy to manipulate your desires for you—think of every advertisement you’ve ever seen, heard, or read—so it’s better to put the manipulation in more trustworthy hands: your own.

Trying to change your desires is an attack on your very self. This argument works only if you give your sense of self—which is really just a grab bag of desires—more solidity than it deserves. You can turn the argument on its head by noting that since your “self ” is a perpetually changing line-up of strategies for happiness, you may as well try changing it in a direction more likely to achieve true happiness.

To think of “skillful” and “unskillful” desires is dualistic and judgmental. You don’t want nondualistic mechanics working on your car, or nondualistic surgeons operating on your brain. You want people who can tell what’s skillful from what’s not. If you really value your happiness, you’ll demand the same discernment in the person most responsible for it: yourself.

It’s too goal-oriented. Just accept things as they are in the present. Every desire tells you that things in the present are limited and lacking. You either accept the desire or you accept the lack. To accept both at once is to deny that either has any real truth. To try to dwell peacefully in the tension between the two—in a “path of no craving” to be rid of either—is what the Buddha called limited equanimity, and what one Thai forest master called the equanimity of a cow.

It’s a futile attempt to resist such a divine and mysterious power. Desire seems overwhelming and mysterious simply because we don’t know our minds. And where would we be if we kept slapping the term “divine” or “cosmic” on forces we didn’t understand?

Arguing with unskillful desires is too much work. Consider the alternative: an endless wandering from one set of limitations to another, continually seeking happiness and yet finding it always slipping from your grasp, repeatedly taking a stance with one desire one moment and shifting to another desire the next. Right effort at least gives you one steady place to stand. It’s not adding a more demanding desire to the chaotic mix; it’s offering a way to sort out the mess. And the Buddha’s path holds open the hope of an unlimited happiness, preceded by increasing levels of happiness all along the path. In short, his alternative is actually the one that’s more enjoyable and involves less work.

問白雲 - 欢乐何处有 ...

問白雲-蔡琴

問白雲你有多少愁，問白雲你有多少憂
舊愁散不盡，新怨上心頭
一朵兒沉落半朵兒浮，問白雲你有多少深
問白雲你有多少層，故鄉望不見知己唱離分
遮住了歡笑蓋住了恨，我追著問又跟著問
痴痴的白雲默無聲，用白紙題下了無言詩

字字行行划淚痕，借風吹向白雲層
我勞你做一個送信人，將那首無言詩
一句句念給我的心上人，問白雲歡樂何處有
問白雲好景那裡求，千山你飄零
萬水你曾遊，為甚麼徬惶為甚麼优

On Desire, Imagination, and the Buddhist Path -Thanissaro Bhikkhu (Part 2)

Both sorts of people share a common assumption that true, unlimited happiness lies beyond reach. Their imaginations are so stunted that they can’t even conceive of what a true, unlimited happiness in this lifetime would be.

What made the Buddha special was that he never lowered his expectations. He imagined the ultimate happiness—one so free from limit and lack that it would leave no need for further desire—and then treasured his desire for that happiness as his highest priority. Bringing all his other desires into dialogue with it, he explored various strategies until he found one that actually attained that unlimited goal. This strategy became his most basic teaching: the Four Noble Truths.

Most people, when looking at the Four Noble Truths, don’t realize that they’re all about desire. They’ve been taught that the Buddha gave only one role to desire—as the cause of suffering. Because he says to abandon the cause of suffering, it sounds like he’s denying any positive role to desire and its constructive companions: creativity, imagination, and hope. This perception, though, misses two important points. The first is that all four truths speak to the basic dynamic of desire on its own terms: perception of lack and limitation, the imagination of a solution, and a strategy for attaining it. The first truth teaches the basic lack and limitation in our lives—the clinging that constitutes suffering—while the second truth points to the types of desires that cause clinging: desires for sensuality, becoming, and annihilation. The third truth expands our imagination to encompass the possibility that clinging can be totally overcome. The fourth truth, the path to the end of suffering, shows how to strategize so as to overcome clinging by abandoning its cause.

The second point that’s often missed is that the Noble Truths give two roles to desire, depending on whether it’s skillful or not. Unskillful desire is the cause of suffering; skillful desire forms part of the path to its cessation. Skillful desire undercuts unskillful desire, not by repressing it, but by producing greater and greater levels of satisfaction and well-being so that unskillful desire has no place to stand. This strategy of skillful desire is explicit in the Buddha’s explanation of right effort:

"What is right effort? There is the case where a monk [here meaning any meditator] generates desire, endeavors, arouses persistence, upholds, and exerts his intent for the sake of the non-arising of evil, unskillful mental qualities that have not yet arisen... for the sake of the abandoning of evil, unskillful qualities that have arisen... for the sake of the arising of skillful qualities that have not yet arisen... for the maintenance, non-confusion, increase, plenitude, development, and culmination of skillful qualities that have arisen. This is called right effort." (Digha Nikaya 22)

As this formula shows, the crucial elements for replacing unskillful mental qualities with skillful ones are desire, persistence, and intent. Desire gives the initial impetus and focus for right effort, while persistence provides staying power. Intent is the most complex factor of the three. The Pali word here, citta, also means “mind,” and in this context it means giving your whole mind to the work at hand: all your powers of sensitivity, intelligence, discernment, and ingenuity. You don’t want your mind to be split on this issue; you want all of its powers working together on the same side.

These three qualities—desire, persistence, and intent—underlie every attempt to master a skill. So it’s useful, in undertaking the path, to reflect on how you’ve used these qualities to master skills in the past. The Buddha made this point in his many similes comparing the person on the path to a master craftsman—a musician, carpenter, surgeon, acrobat, cook. As with any skill, there are many steps to developing the path, but four stand out.

简單與快乐

圣雄甘地说过：简单是宇宙的精髓。

如果人没有一种适度的淡泊、宽松、简单，那么欲望之火会烧毁自身。对于一个满足简单生活的人，轻松自然，令人神往。人，小时候很简单，长大了复杂：穷的时候简单，变阔了复杂；落魄的时候简单，得势了复杂；君子简单，小人复杂；看自己简单，看别人复杂。你要活得随意些，就只能活得平凡些；你要活得辉煌些，就準備活得痛苦些；你要活得长久些，就只能活得简单些.

齐白石有句名言:一生只愿做闲人。人生有闲，乃是一福。

闲可以对月赏花，临溪垂钓；闲可以游山玩水，听雨看云；闲可以怡情悦性，省身悟道。”闲是一种心境，一种心气，一种胆量.

学会放下。放下忧虑，放下烦恼，人生好比走路过桥；放下得失，放下焦躁，人生好比远航起锚。柴木斯基说：“我们所担心的事情中，40%是不会发生在现实中的，30%是已经发生的事情，5%是我们无能为力的事情，剩下的5%才是我们真正面对和改变的事情。”

勇于放下就不会沽名钓誉、为所欲为，乐于放下就不会利欲熏心、苦心钻营，安于放下就不会以权谋私、骄奢淫逸，善于放下就不会争名于朝、争利于市。真正有价值的生命，就是要忘掉多余无用的东西，如忘名、忘利、忘仇、忘怨、忘老、忘死。

学会低调。就是身居要职而不显摆，取得业绩而不炫耀，受到表彰而不狂傲，颇有本事而不张扬。就如哲人云：“当我们走红运、事事如愿以偿时，切不可忘乎所以、盛气凌人。因为成功时趾高气扬与厄运下悲观丧气，都是一种浅薄和脆弱的表现。而在任何情况下都保持一种平静的心情、恒定的态度和同样的面孔，则是一件好事。老子说:“等一等就安全了，让一让就过去了，忍一忍就和谐了。”

学会满足。天下之大，无奇不有。暴政、战争、天灾、人祸……能苟且偷生，已经不易，居然还可以追求理想、快乐，更应满足。工作、伴侣、老友、环境……如不合理想，可撤换即刻撤换，没有能力则苦中作乐。有就有，没有就拉倒；随遇而安，是最佳状态。不要整天抱怨生活欠了你什么，生活根本就不知道你是谁？

From: 緣來是你...

On Desire, Imagination, and the Buddhist Path -Thanissaro Bhikkhu (Part 1)

Fire - Burning Desire

All phenomena, the Buddha once said, are rooted in desire. Everything we think, say, or do—every experience—comes from desire. Even we come from desire. We were reborn into this life because of our desire to be. Consciously or not, our desires keep redefining our sense of who we are. Desire is how we take our place in the causal matrix of space and time. The only thing not rooted in desire is nirvana, for it’s the end of all phenomena and lies even beyond the Buddha’s use of the word “all.” But the path that takes you to nirvana is rooted in desire—in skillful desires. The path to liberation pushes the limits of skillful desires to see how far they can go.

The notion of a skillful desire may sound strange, but a mature mind intuitively pursues the desires it sees as skillful and drops those it perceives as not. Basic in everyone is the desire for happiness. Every other desire is a strategy for attaining that happiness. You want an iPod, a sexual partner, or an experience of inner peace because you think it will make you happy. Because these secondary desires are strategies, they follow a pattern. They spring from an inchoate feeling of lack and limitation; they employ your powers of perception to identify the cause of the limitation; and they use your powers of creative imagination to conceive a solution to it.

But despite their common pattern, desires are not monolithic. Each offers a different perception of what’s lacking in life, together with a different picture of what the solution should be. A desire for a sandwich comes from a perception of physical hunger and proposes to solve it with a Swiss on rye. A desire to climb a mountain focuses on a different set of hungers—for accomplishment, exhilaration, self-mastery—and appeals to a different image of satisfaction. Whatever the desire, if the solution actually leads to happiness, the desire is skillful. If it doesn’t, it’s not. However, what seems to be a skillful desire may lead only to a false or transitory happiness not worth the effort entailed. So wisdom starts as a meta-desire: to learn how to recognize skillful and unskillful desires for what they actually are.

Unskillful desires can create suffering in a variety of ways. Sometimes they aim at the impossible: not to grow old or die. Sometimes they focus on possibilities that require distasteful means—such as lying or cheating to get ahead in your job. Or the goal, when you get it, may not really keep you happy. Even the summit of Everest can be a disappointment. When it’s not, you can’t stay there forever. When you leave, you’re left with nothing but memories, which can shift and fade. If you did mean or hurtful things to get there, their memory can burn away any pleasure that memories of the summit might hold.

In addition, desires often pull in opposite directions. Your desire for sex, for instance, can get in the way of your desire for peace. In fact, conflict among desires is what alerts us to how painful desire can be. It’s also what has taught each desire how to speak, to persuade, to argue or bully its way into power. And just because a desire is skillful doesn’t mean it’s more skillful at arguing its case than the unskillful ones, for those can often be the most intransigent, the most strident, the slickest in having their way. This means that wisdom has to learn how to strategize, too, to strengthen skillful desires so that less skillful desires will listen to them. That way desires can be trained to work together toward greater happiness. This is how a mature and healthy mind works: conducting a dialogue not so much between reason and desire as between responsible desires and irresponsible ones.

Even in a mature mind, however, the dialogue often yields compromises that don’t really go to the heart: snatches of sensual pleasure, glimpses of spiritual peace, nothing really satisfying and whole. Some people, growing impatient with compromise, turn a deaf ear to prudent desires and tune into demands for instant gratification—all the sex, power, and money they can grab. But when the rampage of gratification wears itself out, the damage can take lifetimes to set right. Other people try their best to accept the compromise among desires, trying to find a measure of peace by not reaching for what they see as impossible. Yet this peace, too, depends on a deaf inner ear, denying the underlying truth of all desires: that a life of endless limitations is intolerable.

懺悔歌

Song of Repentance 懺悔歌

我們一起來懺悔，遠離那世間是與非。

我們現在來懺悔，放下煩惱與怨恨嗔恚。

我們用心來懺悔，願彌陀擦掉我的淚。

我們真誠來懺悔，願彌陀洗滌我心扉。

往昔所做諸惡罪，皆因貪嗔癡所累，

我今皆懺悔，不願再違背，彌陀無怨無私的教誨。

不管身心有多疲憊，求生淨土願不退。

我今皆懺悔，念佛不怕累。

斷煩惱，彌陀永相隨。

Self Reliance

Self Reliance

By ourselves is evil done

By ourselves we cease from wrong

By ourselves become we pure

No one can save us but ourselves

No one can and no one may

We ourselves must walk the Path

Buddha merely shows the Way

今日閱讀 - 幸福在你的心 ...

小熊, 你們幸福嗎?

幸福是一種想法、一種心念、一種感覺、一種氣氛，更重要的是，你 是否把幸福的種子，播種在自己的心田。

一個女人走進了一家心理診所，告訴醫生說：「我的男朋友結婚了， 但是新娘不是我！」

「所以，妳是為了這件事而難過囉？」醫生問。

「也不盡然，我去參加了他的婚禮，看得出來他的笑容非常勉強，我 知道他是為了責任和壓力而結婚的，那個女人懷孕了，逼得他不得不 娶她，我知道他不可能會幸福的，因為他錯過了最愛他的女人。」女 人哭著說。

「聽起來妳非常愛他，妳是為了他的不幸福難過，而不是為了失去他 而難過？」

「是的，醫生。只要他過得幸福，我便心滿意足了。」女人的眼睛像 關不住的水龍頭一樣，不斷滴著眼淚。

「那麼，他結婚以後，你們還有連絡嗎？」醫生繼續追蹤。

「沒有，連一通電話也沒連絡過。」

「和他的家入、朋友也都沒有聯絡了嗎？」

「是的，都沒有聯絡了。」

「那麼，妳是怎麼知道他過得不好的呢？」醫生皺起了眉頭。

「那是一定的，他娶的那個女人根本不是他喜歡的類型，也許現在他 已經在為這個輕率的婚姻感到後悔了。」女人篤定地說。

醫生提筆寫下了他的診斷，並且對她說：「聽著，女孩，妳一口咬定 他不幸福，所以造成了自己的苦惱。但是那並沒有事實根據，完全是 妳自己的假設，妳何不反過來想，假設他是幸福的呢？他就快要做爸 爸了，應該感到幸福才對啊！」

女孩想了很久，最後終於擦乾了眼淚，起身向醫生道謝。當她走出診 所大門時，她面帶笑容，心情像戶外的天空一樣晴朗無雲。

有位哲人提醒我們：「影響你快樂或痛苦的，並不只有外在的因素， 如果沒有內心的反應，那麼不管外在的刺激多大，仍然無法對你起任 何作用。」

作者：Joseph F. Newton博士

杜鵑花 -永远的舊曲...

杜鵑花

作詞：蕪軍　作曲：黃友棣

淡淡的三月天，杜鵑花開在山坡上，杜鵑花開在小溪畔，

多美麗啊！像村家的小姑娘一樣像村家的小姑

娘。去年村家的小姑娘，走到山坡上，和

情郎唱支山歌，摘枝杜鵑花插在頭髮上。

今年，村家小姑娘，走向小溪畔，

杜鵑花謝了又開啊！記起了戰場上的

情郎。摘下一枝鮮紅的杜鵑，

遙向著烽火的天邊，哥哥！你打勝仗回

來，我把杜鵑花，插在你的胸前，不再插在

自己的頭髮上。淡淡的三月天，

杜鵑花開在山坡上，杜鵑花開在小溪畔，

多美麗啊！像村家的小姑娘，

像村家的小姑娘。啊！　啊！

背景...

百歲音樂家黃友棣7月4日, 2010年逝世。他在遺囑中把他的音樂作品供人自由印行、演唱、演奏、製片、錄音、錄影、用為背景音樂，自由使用，全無限制；他要求家人不發死訊，並將骨灰撒在山上，用為造林的肥料。

黃友棣1912年出生於廣東省高要縣，19歲就讀中山大學教育系時，即立志推廣音樂教育。他於1949年遷居香港，46歲曾赴意大利留學，76歲移居台灣南部的高雄。他向來謙稱自己不算作曲家，只是“音樂教育推廣者”，但他作曲近2000首，反映不同時代軌跡，種類包括藝術歌曲、佛曲、聖歌、社團與學府校歌等。

一九三七年抗战爆发後，黄友棣教授在音乐救国的理念下，谱写了许­多鼓舞民心士气的爱国歌曲和抗战歌曲。

然而在这愉快的乐音中，却蕴含着无比沉重的历史哀愁。[杜鹃花­]中，小姑娘的情郎为了保卫国家上前线，她天天祈求上苍，盼望着­哥哥早日打胜仗回来，好把火红的杜鹃花插在他的胸前。但是许多的­热血青年，为了保国卫民抗敌，都已经在沙场中为国慷慨的捐躯了。­黄友棣教授为了安慰千万的父母，配偶和子女，觉得不能再加重其哀­伤之情，因此采用中国风格的和声和曲调，将[杜鹃花]谱成活泼的­跳跃，向英勇的国军将士们行礼致敬。

黃友棣畢生奉獻樂教。他的逝世訊息，全台媒體以快訊報導，有的製作專題，有的頭版刊出。新生代也許不識這位奉獻樂教的音樂家，但是，當老中青哼唱起他在抗日期間所譜寫的《杜鵑花》，音樂裡，黃友棣的光輝人生隨著音符而來，他將智慧財產權獻給全世界，百年瀟灑與豁達，令人去思無限。瀟灑豁達100年!

魚和釣竿

努力+技術 = 收穫 (Prawn Farm - Masai)

有個老人在河邊釣魚，一個小孩走過去看他釣魚，老人技巧純熟，所以沒多久就釣上了滿簍的魚，老人見小孩很可愛，要把整簍的魚送給 他，小孩搖搖頭，老人驚異的問道你為何不要？

小孩回答：“我想要你手中的釣竿。”
老人問：“你要釣竿做什麼？”
小孩說這簍魚沒多久就吃完了，要是我有釣竿，我就可以自己釣，一 輩子也吃不完。

我想你一定會說好聰明的小孩。
錯了，他如果只要釣竿，那他一條魚也吃不到。
因為，他不懂釣魚的技巧，光有魚竿是沒用的，
因為釣魚重要的不在釣竿，而在釣技。

這使我想起拐杖政策, 保護某些族群, 那麼這國家永遠的都不會進步.

面对死亡

From Malaysiakini

文：杨伟光【最后的12章之十二】

野田：

首先谢谢大家阅读最后12章的信件，不知不觉中已到了最后。希望大家在这章结束后，也会继续支持“给生命第二次机会”这运动。

最后一篇，你要我讲讲死囚面临死亡时的感受。

死刑让犯人诚实面对罪行

首先，我觉得，死刑存在的意义不是报复，而是让犯人了解，让他诚实面对自己所犯下的罪行的一种方式。就我来说吧，我其实是感恩我被捉，因为这让我了解生命的意义是什么，它让我坚强。我记得我说过，以前的我，没有真正的活过。

前几天，我的律师来探望我，他说过几天就会把我最后的特赦申请信交到总统府去了。

最痛苦的还是死囚家人

很多死囚在执行死刑的前一晚没有机会和家人说一声再见，除了悲伤，根本就是没有心情做任何的事情。其实，很多死囚在被带出牢房的那一刻，都会禁不住的大闹大哭，再多的辅导也没有用，因为这一走，是没有回头了。一个生命永远不在了。

这时，最痛苦的是家人，我根本不敢想像家人在外头，无助，焦急，彷徨……等待。等待一个冰冷的，没有生命的身体。

而对我来说，若明日是我生命中的最后一晚，我也没有其他的选择，只有黯然面对；毕竟错的是自己，我会忏悔。

我已“死”过好多次了

你问，我会不会腿软。我真的不知道。但我想我不会，因为面对生死，我已经开始熟悉了；别忘记，在这短短的4年，我已“死”过好多次了，2007年被捉，佛祖救了我让我重生；2009年被判死刑，在行刑前律师拉维向法庭申请暂缓。我能够活到今天，一切所属幸运。

我也不奢求最后晚餐即将是个如何丰盛的一餐，我想我会照旧早上起来祈祷念经，静坐深思，素食早餐，直到夜晚的到来，穿上妹妹买给我最好看的衣服，跟其他狱友说声再见，然后再诚心向地藏菩萨叩头感谢。

但我没有办法用文字表达那种心情。我也不知道走向绞刑台的时候会是什么心情。我想没有人会知道吧。

社会大众原谅是最大福分

听闻学修觉法，佛祖的传承，就是帮助、拥护、劝导、提醒、鼓励等等，一切正在受苦众生，迷惑众生，有国难终生，有烦恼众生，无知与无智众生，不知自控的众生等等，这些众生所受的我曾经经受，因有伟大觉者佛祖的传承众生（学者或觉者）的教导，所以我解脱很多，很自在！

也感恩社会大众能原谅我，能够活到今天已经是我最大的福分了。

只是有点担心母亲伤心

我想我的家人已经接受了我，将来的情况是个怎样的结果，我觉得家人都能够接受了；他们对我的改变，对我的蜕变感到欣慰；加上在我死之前可以读读佛经，认识佛教；我的改变也改善了家人之间的关系，尤其兄弟姐妹间的感情。

只是有点担心，母亲终究会知道我已经不在的。

最后的一篇，我就以这简短的文字，写出我的感受。

我再次感谢你们，没有你们我不能够把我的故事一一道出。

感恩，我在这里替大家祈佛，愿大家健康平安喜乐！祝福你们。

伟光

鄭丁賢 - 熟悉的陌生人

鄰國電視訪談，結束前，要我用一句話總結709大集會。“公民社會宣告降臨！”我回答。

倫敦政經學院（LSE）對“公民社會”（Civil Society）有簡明的定義：一群人因為共同的理想和價值觀，自願的組織和集合起來，追求彼此的共同目標。再簡明的定義，也有點抽象，模糊。

用709的例子，大家更容易明白。

這天下午1點，30幾個人出現在武吉免登路上，其中一些人身穿黃衣。走著，走著，在街邊觀望者，加入隊伍；在咖啡店喝茶的，加了進來；在商店前逛街的，也走入其中。很快的，從原本的30幾人，成為300人的隊伍；來到蘇丹依斯邁路口，和另一支隊伍會合，增加到1千人。隊伍走到半山芭路，已是數千人的陣容；加上幾個不同地點的人群，已是以萬人計。

吉隆坡之外，新加坡、台北、香港、悉尼、墨爾本、迪拜、倫敦、紐約、洛杉磯……，都有一群“熟悉的陌生人”，不約而同的現身。

他們都是自願而來，沒有任何物質上的報酬，反而要面對種種危險。他們是為了改變選舉制度而來，也是為了自身和集體的權益而出現。隊伍中，大部份人並不認識對方，然而，彼此之間，卻有一種熟悉感，知道對方想些甚麼，準備做甚麼，追求些甚麼。

當隊伍遇到阻攔時，群眾守望相助，傳遞水、鹽巴、毛巾等等；在被驅逐時，大家互相扶持。這些人，是公民社會的一分子。他們追求個人的自由，公民的權益，不願意受到國家政權的過度約束；他們未必加入政黨，但是，他們關心政治。

他們認為，在5年一次的投票之外，公民還有其它表達意願，參與政治的管道，包括集會和遊行。709這一天，人們見證了公民社會的成形，以及它所發揮的力量。在大馬，公民社會將是國陣和民聯之外的第三股政治力量。哪一方能夠取得公民社會的認同和支持，就能夠贏得未來。

然而，執政黨習慣了本身高高在上的視角，也安逸於權力的擁有，而失去了敏感度，忽略了公民社會時代已經降臨。一旦驚覺受到挑戰，當局又錯誤的把它定調為反對黨的旁支外圍，或是被反對黨所利用，而採取對抗的姿態。結果，勢必把公民社會的成員，推向另一方。

正視公民社會的力量，接納它的存在，學習與之妥協共處，是執政黨今後唯一的道路。

709的兩個人

709的出現者：黃阿姨

住在吉隆坡外圍地區的黃阿姨，今年已經65歲。709當天，她穿上黃色T恤，一早就搭乘巴士，準備進城。

巴士開到中央醫院附近，就被阻攔。她只好下車；這裡距離市中心，大概還有10公里遠。她一路步行，走著，走著……。模擬她的行程，應該是沿著林蔭的彭亨路，走到馬來區甘榜峇魯，進入熱鬧市集的秋傑路。

過了秋傑路，是繁榮的蘇丹依斯邁路金融區；穿過小路，來到小印度。經過幾條主要道路，跨過高架橋，黃阿姨走過Masjid Jamek，往國家回教堂的方向繼續走。在大地宏圖大廈附近，她被警察攔了下來。警察問她為何穿上黃色T恤，她回問：“為甚麼不能穿黃色？”

她繼續前進，終於在午後時間，和人群會合。黃阿姨不是經驗老道的街道戰士，她缺乏經驗，缺少準備。她的行裝太過簡單，只有一個小腰包；沒有毛巾、沒有水、沒有鹽巴、沒有護目鏡。

她走累了，行動緩慢，更跑不動。當水柱射過來時，她毫無抵擋的裝備，全身濕透，週身刺痛；當催淚彈落下，濃煙嗆鼻，呼吸困難。

但是，她堅持握著手上那一束別人遞過來的菊花。直到集會結束，黃阿姨拖著濕透和累透的身體，走一段很長的路，坐上巴士，回家。

她自己不知道，隔天，她一人身影，站在鎮暴隊前的照片，已經流傳全世界。

x x x

709未出現者：依布拉欣阿里依布拉欣阿里說，他要以鮮血對抗淨選盟，保衛？？？（他自己也搞不清楚要保衛甚麼)。 他要發動1萬5千名土權分子，在709走上街頭。他要封鎖檳城大橋，任何人都別想通過。他警告華人，709留在家裡，最好囤積一些糧食。

他說，他的忍耐已經到了極限了……（噢，他說了很多次，看來，他的極限就是沒有極限)。709的緊張氣氛，很大部份來自依布拉欣；很多人被他嚇到，有點害怕。

709前夕，他說土權沒有拿到准證，所以不遊行了。然後，他告訴大家，他的內政部長――老婆大人，不准他709出門；所以，他必須留在家裡（這和他給予華人的“勸告”很一致）。

他呼吁他的土權朋友，709踴躍前往帝帝皇沙公園“散步”，展示力量。當天，記者在公園找喲找，找到20到30位他的朋友。太陽底下，大家意興闌珊，很沒趣。記者聯絡上依布拉欣，他說，他生病了。

他應該是鬱悶成疾了。青蛙把肚子吹得那麼大，呱呱呱，結果竟然爆破了肚皮，哈哈哈！

作者：鄭丁賢