(Continued from issue #301)
Lunchtime Instructional Talk by Dharma Master Heng Gwei on November 18, 2018,
at Gold Wheel Sagely Monastery Emperor Liang’s Jeweled Repentance Dharma Assembly
Most of us, including cultivators, prefer to gather trash from outside rather than scrub clean our internal garbage. We feel that picking up external trash is easier, more comfortable, and preferable, because this can stimulate our senses.
Cleaning internal garbage takes a lot of effort. It requires patience, willpower and an unrelenting tenacity of the mind. We need to harness our determination and temper our mind. It is very laborious. That’s why many people choose to conserve their energy rather than do internal cleansing. To illustrate, some people who have free time on Sundays prefer not going to the temple to listen to the dharma because they feel uncomfortable if they don’t follow what was taught to them. They figure, “I respect the Triple Jewel, but from a distance. Overall, I have sustenance; I can rely on the Buddha in times of crisis.” Unbeknownst to them, despite careful reckoning, the outcome may be contrary to expectations in adversarial ways.
Hence, the Venerable Master often told us,
Life is but a dream,
Death, a dream as well.
Dreaming, we enjoy glory and wealth;
Waking up, we’re back in the gutters.
Day after day, we dream on,
Not realizing the poignancy of the dream.
If we fail to awaken from our dream,
Then we’ve dreamt through it all in vain.
The Venerable Master told us that life is like a dream. Some people have illusory dreams in which everything is joyful, comfortable and nice; but it is still only a dream. Death is likewise a dream. From birth to death is but a fleeting few decades, passing quickly like a dream. In the end, there is nothing since we can’t take anything with us. Once we die, we can’t take our mansion, our expensive clothing, our precious jewelry or our money aplenty in the bank. So, this is just a dream.
(To be continued …)