Chapter 30 - Returning To The Hometown

All along I have been thinking, where does the water of Lake Sammamish flow after it reaches the ocean? Will it just stay in the ocean or will it flow back to Lake Sammamish?

I have also thought that, perhaps, one day in the future I will leave Lake Sammamish and move to another far away place. Or, perhaps, I will think of the place where I grew up and want to go back-not to reside, but to take a look at the hometown and to reminisce on childhood years.

I was born in Rear Lake of Chiayi.

I grew up in Da Kong Poo at Kaohsiung and attended elementary school, junior high, and high school there.

I finished my college education at Tai-Chung. During my stay at Tai-Chung, I moved eight times.

Where is my hometown? Is it my great grandfather's Fukien Province in Mainland China? Is it my grandfather's Pang Lake West Island? Is it my father's Chiayi? Is it my Tai-Chung or Kaohsiung? Or is it my son's Redmond, Washington, U.S.A.? I would like to ask: Where is my hometown? Where actually is my hometown?

Come to think about it, I do not have an absolute hometown, just like rootless floating weeds have no real home. The places where I was born, brought up, and educated were completely different. So where is my hometown? I have long recognized that I am a wanderer, traveling all around the world, just like a left-home person¹. When the final days of my life approach, I will not have any specific place to which to return. I will just be buried at the place where I die. That was the case with my ancestors; so it will be the case with me. The language of a wanderer is:

"On the road!"

Many people revel in the two (Chinese) sayings: to return home with fortune and honours and to reflect glory on one's ancestors. But, in the far future, if I want to return to the place where I grew up, no one will recognize me. Perhaps I will be wearing stylish fashion, perhaps I will be wearing a monk's robe, perhaps I will be a lamp, or perhaps I will be an ascetic in rags.

I believe, after years of wandering and assimilating in Lake Sammamish, my hair will have turned from black to white, my teeth will be loose, my eyesight will be failing. The wrinkles on my face are the marks left by time. "Time and tide wait for no man." It also said that the changing of forms is extremely rapid-such is life, ten thousand changes in one flash.

On the road! Returning to the hometown.

A white-haired old man returning to his hometown. I believe my hometown will have completely changed its face because, in this world, everything which appears one way today will be completely different in a matter of just a few years. So it is with people.

Who will recognize this old man and who will remember me? Whom will I recognize? I will recognize no one. It is a kind of loss of years, a loss of time, a loss of characters and sceneries, a loss of everything.

Where is that infant born in Chiayi? Where is that youngster walking to school with a heavy backpack on his back? Where is that uniformed official attending military school? Where is that travelling land surveyor? Where will be that Holy-Red-Crown-Vajra-Master? All these roles are extremely transient. I have been poor, rich, powerful, fashionable, and have been a founder of a religious sect, but what will I be like when I return to my hometown? It cannot be ascertained because one's outer appearance and role are constantly changing!

Where is the serious cultivator? Where is Holy- Red-Crown-Vajra-Master? Where is the travelling surveyor? Where is the uniformed military official? Where is the learning student? Ten thousand changes in one flash. That is the doctrine of this world, a doctrine that is constant and permanent.

Even after I return to my hometown, I believe I will still move on because my heart has already turned into the water of Lake Sammamish. I love the soil where I grew up, the people and the happenings, as well as the many loyal and sincere disciples there. I will give them the best blessings, the highest teaching, and the most precious wisdom, then I will move on.

Returning to the hometown. No matter how melancholy I will be, I believe there will be a stream of love filling my heart with happiness, flowing quietly ...

I will not bring any material gifts with me. I only know how to meditate; I only know about boundlessness. I am a man who has become unified with the Supreme Consciousness of the Cosmos. All I can give to anyone is this little touch of Dharma Power which is also the power and energy that I have used for many years.

Such is the wandering of the water of Lake Sammamish. I think it is not possible for the water to stop at any place. I am also walking on an unusual road, not a mundane one, but one which stretches forever. I am directly experiencing it, observing it, penetrating it, and merging with it.

I look at Lake Sammamish.

It seems to be waving and also shouting to me:

"On the road!"

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