|
|
|
|
Words from the Heart of WisdomKhải Thiên
Bạn thân
mến, Lời dưới
đây được viết
từ những xúc cảm thành
kính sâu xa của
tác giả khi qùy trước cái
đẹp kỳ vĩ và
nhiệm mầu của
kinh Trái Tim
Tuệ Giác Vô Thượng. Dear Friends in Dharma, The
following words
stem from the deeply esteemed respect of the author as he knelt in
front of the
miracle sublime of the
Prajñāpāramitā Hrdaya
Sūtra. .
Los
Angeles August, 2007
(Your
true life of happiness does not actually need a
“self” to exist.)
(The individual self is that
which variously
separates you into different modes: gain, loss, success, failure, love,
hatred, fame, and shame.)
(You are able
to live freely and peacefully
in the rise and fall of life whenever all notions of self are given up.)
(The concept
of “self” is but an illusion.)
(The individual self is always the greatest obstruction causing all kinds of anxiety and suffering in your life.)
(The truth is,
the more you immerse yourself
in discrimination, the more selfish your life will be.)
(From the
discriminations of self, doubt,
judgment, and imagination constantly spurt out in your mind, covering
all
sources of light energy in your life.)
(Immersed in
the unceasing thinking of
indefinite subjects, you become a crazy person who speaks nonsense all
day long
without knowing what he is saying.)
(The more you
base your lifestyle on
discriminations, the more stressful and uncomfortable you will to be.)
(It is really
foolish to trade your happiness
for suffering by trying too hard just to embrace the notions of the
unreal
things: “I,” “mine,” and
“my self”!)
(The concept
of “non-discrimination” in Buddhist
thought of course does not mean “not knowing what is good or
what is bad,” but
in stead it is a “challenge” to the attachment to
the independent self of each
individual—or simply, the egocentric view.)
(The only
point that makes waves different
from water is the waves’ manifestation.)
(Discrimination
emerging from the self-view is
the very way leading to stubborn attachment, which eventually ruins
your
ability of living peacefully and free of all delusions.)
(The more you
observe the water and waves,
the more you understand the effectiveness and danger of the dualistic
discrimination,
particularly when this discrimination arises in the thirst of your
crazy
attachment to the “I,” “mine,”
and “my self”.)
(If we look at
the phenomena, suffering and
happiness are quite different from one another, like pleasure and
sadness.
However, if we look deeply into their nature, we can see that both
suffering
and happiness arise from the same foundation: the mind.)
(Indeed,
pleasure arises from the mind, as
does sadness. Suffering and happiness are all manifestations from the
mind.)
(Your real life does not need a name; your real happiness does not need a name either. Be nameless once to enjoy your real life!)
(The Heart Sutra would like to share an idea with you: “what you are” is just a dream!)
(In the reality of a dream you feel that everything is true, but it is true in the dream only; once you wake up, all that has happened in your dream no longer exists. The same can be said of our life.)
(The more we practice non-attachment, the happier we will be.)
(Whenever all the burdens of
attachment to gain,
loss, win, failure, fame, power, etc., are released in our minds, we
are then
truly free and able to enjoy true happiness right here and now.)
(The happiest
moments in life come when the
individual self goes.)
(The discovery that our real
lives do not
actually need a “self” to exist is
enchanting—just as in the case of a rose,
you may call it by any other name, but its sweet essence remains the
same.)
(To be awake,
you don’t have to do anything
extra at all, only practice looking deeply and durably into what is
rising and
falling around you as well as inside your body (your breath, for
instance.)
(It is
important to note that, although you
age, your mind doesn’t.)
(Until you
have truly lived in equanimity and
non-attachment, your capacity of enlightenment cannot become true.)
(A true
awaking appears in our minds on the
way to enlightenment, like an old man suddenly transformed into a
little kid
when he himself places down all burdens of attachment in his mind to
play with
the children.)
(In the
reality of mind-stream, age or
agedness has no special meaning.)
(In the world
of confusion and imagination,
agedness is quite impressive because of its connection linking all
rising and
falling events in one’s life.)
(You should
not become attached to the
concept of age too much because the nature of age is nothing more than
the
accumulation of pleasure and sadness in life.)
(As long as
you are able to keep your
childish mind, or take the childish mind as the foundation of your
life, you
remain the authentic merry child living in a beautiful and peaceful
world.)
(Your auditory
ability may change over the
course of time, but your auditory sense—like the original
source of mind that
goes beyond all notions of birth or death—never changes.)
(You may enjoy
the non-self happiness only
when you are alive as such.)
(It is
important to note that, when you are
immersed in the world of dreams and imagination, you lose your real
life.)
(You may able
to obtain the realm of true
happiness not at the end of your life, but right in this moment, in the
here
and now, within this body and this mundane world.)
(Just ask
yourself what, until this very
moment, have you grasped firmly in your hand during a short and
ever-changing
life of humanity?)
(Instead of
someday leaving the world with
your uncompleted desires full of gains, losses, successes, failures,
why don’t
you here and now live a peaceful life with the present
happiness—a happiness
without self?)
(Like a swan
leaving the lakes, you certainly
are able to live a peaceful life free from all delusions and worldly
bondage
right in this body and this world.)
(You
don’t have to wait until completing all
desires in this human world and ascending to heaven because such a
journey will
never happen.)
(To truly
perceive the truth, you must let
your eyes return to their original state—that is, no longer
limit your eyes by
“what you are”!)
(Actually,
fear and hope are the two
permanent factors in our minds; they exist in every moment, even in our
dreams.)
(Only the pure
eyes are able to observe
existence as it is.)
(To step onto
the planet of happiness is not,
in principle, a difficult or serious task; to get there, you need not
to do any
extra work, but cut short your attachment.)
(If you are
able to welcome both the good and
the bad together, you become a great person.)
(Whenever you
are able to control yourself,
you are able to control the world around you.)
(Happiness and
truth, to a certain extent,
are the same; when you discover truth, you simultaneously achieve
happiness.)
(What will
happen to your life if you give up
all the complexity of discriminations? Won’t the world be
empty? Ruined? No, it
is not like that. When all the complexities of discrimination are set
down, you
will truly put yourself in the reality-stream of happiness while your
heart of
great compassion will simultaneously be awaked.)
(In our
habitual thinking and intellect,
happiness and truth conventionally differ; in the ultimate truth,
however, they
are not at all different from one another.)
(On the path
to happiness and truth, the more
you want to choose, the more confused you will become.)
(Overcoming
sufferings in the sense of
“living free” from all delusions is a practical way
of wisdom, capable of leading to the present happiness, here and
now.)
(The heart of
great compassion is the very
source of life.)
(Compassion is
that which nurtures your
sainted mind and, like a guardian boat, saves the lives of others as
well.)
(The great
compassion and perfect wisdom, the Prajñāpāramitā, are
always the
career of a Buddha or a Bodhisattva.)
(Living with
the great compassion, you never
feel fatigued or bored in helping and benefiting others, even when your
forehead
is full of sweat.)
(Streams of
tears may sometimes flow down
your cheeks in harmony with the sufferings of others or of those who
are
wandering the streets with hunger and sickness.)
(The great compassion is an immortal flower.)
(Indeed, you cannot live a life of true happiness without the heart of great compassion.)
|