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Crossing the Ocean of Life and Death
- Book 163: Crossing the Ocean of Life and Death
- Chapter 05:
Do Not Waste Away Your Life
- Written by Sheng-yen Lu
- Translated and edited by True Buddha Foundation
- Translation Team (Cheng Yew Chung, Satch)
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I once wrote: I had spent a good nineteen years in Kaohsiung, Taiwan; another nineteen in Taichung, and also nineteen years in Seattle, Washington in the United States of America. Now I am living in seclusion.
My life is better echoed through this verse of the Buddha which serves as a constant reminder:
All phenomena
are like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow,
a dewdrop, a flash of lightning.
View all created things as such.
`All phenomena` includes the suffering of life, old age, sickness, death, sadness, hatred, pain, worries, irritation caused by sickness, and the passing of life and death. Other kinds of suffering include the suffering of leaving loved ones, of meeting with people whom one dislikes, of not having one`s wish fulfilled, and of the flourishing of the five aggregates.
Even the great sage, the Buddha himself, was subjected to the nine major irritations:
1. False accusations from Sundari, a hermitess, who also slandered the five hundred Arhats.
2. False accusations from Cincamanavika, a Brahmin woman.
3. Devadatta rolled down a huge stone towards the Buddha [the stone struck the ridge jutting over the Buddha], and a shrapnel struck His leg, causing immense pain.
4. The Buddha`s feet were injured by a wooden spear.
5. The Crystal King Virudhaka, brutally massacred the Sakya clansmen, and the Buddha suffered a terrible headache in connection with this karma.
6. The Buddha accepted the invitation of the Brahmin ruler Agnidatta and consumed horse grain as food.
7. As the icy cold wind blew, a protuberance on his spinal bone resulted in severe backache.
8. Spending six years practicing asceticism.
9. Entering in the Brahmin village to beg for food, the Buddha returned with an empty bowl.
The adversities that Sakyamuni Buddha and I each had to face are echoed in the cautionary verse of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva:
This day has passed
Our lives too are closing
Like fish with little water
What joy can there be?
Most people who are familiar with philosophical doctrines will readily agree that life is filled with more misery than joy. People are content to live a life of the same daily routines, and their lives are wasted in meaningless pursuits. We are being swamped by the five desires throughout our lives. Isn`t it crucial that we should start thinking about the swift coming of death? Death`s arrival is only a matter of time, yet we find far too many people simply wasting their time and effort on meaningless things. What a waste of life it is. What a silly thing to do. What a pity.
In my case, I had spent nineteen years living in Kaohsiung, staying there until I graduated from high school. I had spent another nineteen years in Taichung, where I graduated from the university and built a career. I had spent the next nineteen years in Seattle delivering sentient beings. I must admit that the time spent on cultivation, delivering sentient beings and preaching the Dharma, was far too little. How many more years do I have before I die? How much more time is left for me on earth?
Among mundane mortals, I am considered fortunate. Only a handful of people are awakened, as most spend their lives feeling lost and confused, only to die eventually without ever knowing the Buddhadharma and cultivating any practice.
The Buddha had remarked that we mortal beings are simply too lazy, reckless and loose in our ways. Sentient beings have never treasured their lives and have elevated the subject of money above all others. They seek fulfillment of their desires, and believe the physical body to be true self existence. They feel that human life is all there is, and that physical life itself is everything. These ideas about life are wrong.
According to the truth as expounded by the Buddha, it is not easy to become human, for it is a rare opportunity given to an individual for cultivation. The Lankavatara Sutra clearly states that man can rely upon his own effort to progress spiritually, attaining the ultimate liberation and bodhi through the transformation of mind into the root wisdom, and reaching the enlightenment level of the Buddha.
Therefore, the Heart Sutra states: The Maha Prajna Paramita is the great divine mantra, the great enlightening mantra, the supreme mantra, the incomparable mantra. It means that as a human being, the one great endeavor that is most meaningful in life would be cultivating diligently to reach the Other Shore. A life dedicated to cultivation would be regarded as a greatly divine, enlightening, supreme, and incomparable life. Even if you become a king, a president, a prime minister, or an emperor, none of these can be compared to the incomparable mantra.
All phenomena are indeed like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, and a shadow. My favorite poem has to be Wang Ah Shi`s Poem of Dream, which I have mentioned many times in my writings:
I seek nothing, knowing this world is but a dream
Seeking nothing, my heart thus expands into the quiescence of emptiness
In this dreamlike world I return, moving among dreams
Accomplishing countless merits in the illusory dreamworld
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