|
|
||||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
Feng Wei had fallen ill and was lying on his bed when, in a trance like state, he saw three of his classmates walking by outside his door. These three classmates were shouting and jumping in a very casual way. Feng Wei thought to himself, "How strange! Aren't these classmates dead? Half a month ago, during a holiday, these three same friends had driven a jeep up a mountain road and, half way up, their jeep fell off a cliff into a deep ravine. Both the car and its occupants were burnt and destroyed. In fact Feng Wei had attended their memorial service a week ago. During the service, while teachers and fellow students were reminiscing about the activities they had shared with their dead classmates, many people broke down and cried. How could the three of them now be walking by his bedroom? Unexpectedly, one of the three classmates spotted Feng Wei and called out to him, "Feng Wei, let's go and play basketball." "Basketball? I can't. I am sick and have a fever." "Sick? Basketball is just what you need. The running around and sweating will break your fever." "I can't." "Sure you can!" The three of them pulled Feng Wei off the bed by force. In that instant, Feng Wei felt that he had gotten better and much lighter. Without thinking anymore that these three classmates were dead, and while still in a trance-like state, he hurriedly put on his clothes and sneakers. He had always enjoyed playing basketball and considered it the best kind of sport. So the four of them took off together. While the four of them were walking, they chatted and joked with each other in a light-hearted way. On the route to the basketball court, they ran into a few of their classmates, who acted as if their group were invisible and paid no attention to their laughter. Feng Wei asked, "How come they don't pay any attention to us today?" "Who cares, we will have our own fun," one of the classmates replied. "They will not understand our happiness," commented another. "I haven't gone to classes for many days," said the last one. They arrived at the basketball court, which had been abandoned by the school. Ever since the school had built two newer basketball courts, this one had fallen into disuse, with broken walls and debris and weeds growing wild in cracks in the cement ground. Feng Wei asked, "Why here?" "It is quieter here." "Let's go to the new ones. There are more people there and we can play against another team," suggested Feng Wei. "No, the four of us will just play with each other here." Feng Wei thought about it and agreed and did not say anything more. The four of them started playing. After a little while, something strange happened. Feng Wei saw one of the classmates jump up to shoot the ball. As the ball was falling into the basket, the entire body of this classmate also leapt up and shrank into a size small enough to fall through the basket. Like a puff of smoke, both this classmate and the basketball dropped through the basket. Seeing this vividly with his eyes, Feng Wei was shocked beyond his wits. Before he could give it any more thought, the second classmate similarly leapt up and disappeared into the basket with his basketball. The third classmate also followed suit. Just before vanishing into the basket, he called out, "Feng Wei, hurry up and jump into the basket." Feng Wei could feel his body becoming very light, and the sneakers on his feet seemed to have turned into flying slippers. He found himself soaring upwards. At this critical moment, a lama-outfitted man wearing a yellow dharma robe appeared between Feng Wei and the basket pole. Standing in front of him and blocking his path, this yellow-robed man shouted, "Don't take this path!" Feng Wei recognized the yellow-robed man, "Grand Master Lu, why can't I take it?" "Go back! Go back!" "I am not going back, I want to play ball!" "This is the path to death. If you go inside, you will die. Wake up quickly!" Feng Wei then saw the Grand Master (Living Buddha Lian-sheng Sheng-yen Lu) form a mudra with his hands. While pressing the mudra against Feng Wei's head, Grand Master chanted, "Om Mani Peidha Mi Hum, Chuli." A tremor shot through his body and mind, and Feng Wei woke up. He found himself still lying on his bed in his room, with his body soaking in a cold sweat. This was a strange, unusual, and weird dream. Awakened, everything in the dream vanished. However, when Feng Wei thought about the dream, everything in it was as vivid as if he had seen it with his own eyes. The next day, Feng Wei heard some odd news. Inside a patch of grass near the old basketball court at school, a mother cat had given birth to a litter of four kittens. But one of the kittens had died right after birth. Feeling a premonition in him, Feng Wei hurriedly went over to the basketball court to take a look. Indeed, the mother cat had a litter of four kittens, but one of the kittens had, indeed, died. The remaining three kittens were very lovely. There were exactly four of them: his three classmates and himself. The three classmates had leapt into the basket; only he had not done so. Feng Wei felt instinctively that the dead little kitten was he, himself. He buried the little kitten and also made a special offering of flowers at its grave. Feng Wei came to see me. I said to him, "I know." "Grand Master, do you know about it?" I laughed, "I know you like to play basketball, but you are not supposed to shoot yourself and the ball into the basket." "Grand Master, you saved me in the nick of time!" "If I hadn't done so, would you still be alive? You would only be able to meow now." Feng Wei knelt down to prostrate before me. I handed him a little poem:
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|