日日是好日 (Everyday Is A Good Day)

(This article serves as a wake-up call for my Chinese friends, especially my Chinese Buddhist friends. A few of those high achievers, who have studied tons of Sutras and attained good meditation stages, can’t seem to apply what they’ve learned to their everyday lives. Our phone conversations are full of their complains, complaining that the world is not treated them well. Maybe they’ve studied too much and forgot that Buddha’s core teaching: Looking inward. They don’t see what they already have (plenty!), only eying the things that they don’t. Even though they are considered successful by society’s standards, they are still unhappy, complaining about the same things day after day, and living in their own hell.)

當在要抱怨外界對自己不公而忿忿不平時，
請先看看自己所擁有的，再看看世界 / 國家 / 社會新聞，
就會了解慈濟基金會的 “每日靜思語”:

“心中常存善解、包容、感恩、知足、惜福。“

“感恩身體健康，能夠發揮人身良能；
感恩在多災多難的時代，能夠天天平安。“

幸福快樂只有自己能給；
汲汲往外求，是緣木求魚，永遠無法幸福快樂。
而擁有幸福快樂的秘訣, 就是感恩、知足、惜福。

如果我們感恩、知足、惜福的話，
當下就是天堂, 就是極樂世界。
反之，你擁有再多金錢、物質、男友、女人，
你還是身陷地獄的牢籠裏。

這些其實大家都知道，但在為生活奔波忙碌中，就都忘了。
大家都是很有福報的人，
都身體健康、有飯吃、有房子睡、有家人朋友可談心、還能上網玩電動，
比我在這兒看到的，大家的福報真是太大了!
活在當下，希望大家都能感恩、知足、惜福，
那麼就日日是好日!

Dalai Lama Coming To Taiwan (達賴喇嘛到台灣)

Dalai Lama is coming to Taiwan to comfort survivors of Typhoon Morakot. Unfortunately, this beautiful decision could anger China and “undermine the rapidly improving relations between Beijing and Taipei, rivals which are developing close business ties after decades of enmity,” as explained in this AP article.

I don’t know what to say… I understand the political tension that has lingered on since 1949, but couldn’t China put their political concerns aside for a few days and let Dalai Lama pray for the dead and help people who just lost their dear ones? The Taiwanese government has no interests in building any political connections with Tibet, and Dalai Lama is a peaceful Buddhist leader, who treats soothing people’s pain and suffering as his life-long duty. Please, please don’t taint this noble, compassionate event with any political conspiracy theory!

The ‘Hero’ of The Dream

The following section from the book that I’m currently reading, “Your Immortal Reality: How to Break the Cycle of Birth and Death” (“斷輪迴“) by Gary Renard, lingered in my mind:

GARY: Hey, you told me we were gonna talk about death this time. I’ve been so looking forward to it.

ARTEN: All right, wise guy. [...] So it’s time for you to do a little reading for us. Go to page 585 in the Text.

GARY: Ah, let me see here. “The ‘Hero’ of the Dream”? I haven’t read this in a while.

ARTEN: Yes. I want you to read it again at least five times in the next couple of months.

GARY: Five times? It better be good.

ARTEN: It’s better than good; it’s the truth. [...] Think about the ideas and consider what it means in regard to what you’re seeing in your everyday life. But read those first four paragraphs for us now.

GARY: All right. Here it comes.

“The body is the central figure in the dreaming of the world. There is no dream without it, nor does it exist without the dream in which it acts as if it were a person to be seen and be believed. It takes the central place in every dream, which tells the story of how it was made by other bodies, born into the world outside the body, lives a little while and dies, to be united in the dust with other bodies dying like itself. In the brief time allotted it to live, it seeks for other bodies as its friends and enemies. Its safety is its main concern. Its comfort is its guiding rule. It tries to look for pleasure, and avoid the things that would be hurtful. Above all, it tries to teach itself its pains and joys are different and can be told apart.

“The dreaming of the world takes many forms, because the body seeks in many ways to prove it is autonomous and real. It puts things on itself that it has bought with little metal discs or paper strips the world proclaims as valuable and real. It works to get them, doing senseless things, and tosses them away for senseless things it does not need and does not even want. It hires other bodies, that they may protect it and collect more senseless things that it can call its own. It looks about for special bodies that can share its dream. Sometimes it dreams it is a conqueror of bodies weaker than itself. But in some phases of the dream, it is the slave of bodies that would hurt and torture it.

“The body’s serial adventures, from the time of birth to dying are the theme of every dream the world has ever had. The ‘here’ of this dream will never change, nor will its purpose. Though the dream itself takes many forms, and seems to show a great variety of places and events wherein its ‘hero’ finds itself, the dream has but one purpose, taught in many ways. This single lesson does it try to teach again, and still again, and yet once more; that it is cause and not effect. And you are its effect, and cannot be its cause.

“Thus are you not the dreamer, but the dream. And so you wander idly in and out of places and events that it contrives. That this is all the body does is true, for it is but a figure in a dream. But who reacts to figures in a dream unless he sees them as if they were real? The instant that he sees them as they are they have no more effects on him, because he understands he gave them their effects by causing them and making them seem real.

“How willing are you to escape effects of all the dreams the world has ever had?”

Oh, wait, I’m supposed to stop. That’s so profound I wanted to keep going.

Dalai Lama in Town (達賴喇嘛到柏克萊)

Dalai Lama (達賴喇嘛) came to Berkeley yesterday to give 2 speeches: “Peace Through Compassion” at the Greek Theatre at 2pm and another one at the Berkeley Community Theater at 3:45pm. I had learned the news a few months ago, but because I anticipated something (what was that?) and didn’t think that I would be able to go, I simply forgot about it.

Yesterday morning David was reading The Chronicle and told me that Dalai Lama was going to give 2 speeches in Berkeley. I was surprised! I just finished The Chronicle’s front page, but how did I manage to miss this big news? It turned out, and this was the bizarre part, that the news was part of a small local piece titled “Cars not advised on event-packed Berkeley day“. That was all. Considering Dalai Lama as an international figure, the fact that it did not make it to the front page just seemed peculiar.

Last night Dan, Sam, and Leon came over to celebrate Sam’s 50th birthday. (David was the Indian chef, busily cooking and feeding everyone. ) I told Sam that Dalai Lama was in town, and Sam was surprised as well. He told me that he followed news closely and watched local news everyday, but none of them mentioned it. We wondered if the local news media bowed down to the pressure from the Chinese government?

Anyway, today The Chronicle finally has a piece on Dalai Lama, which is categorized under the (weird) “PHOTOS & MULTIMEDIA” section instead of the top section. With the current state of the newspaper industry, it’s a big deal that they actually sent 2 reporters and 1 photographer to cover the news at all. I especially like Dalai Lama’s practical advice to the Cal students:

The Dalai Lama’s biggest cheer Saturday came at the end of the talk when he donned a cap with the Cal insignia on it. As for what Cal students should do upon graduation?

“You should prepare in your mind that life is not easy,” he said. “Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.“

風趣的講經大師 — 海雲法師

有些朋友跟我反應,
我寄的佛學文章太難了, 看不懂.
我想大家一看到開頭的文言文, 腦袋都傻了,
接下來的簡易白話解釋就都看不到了.
有些則是因為有些大師的白話文還是不夠白 (像印老的書),
怎麼唸也唸不下去, 頭越唸越大.

我想了又想,
大家可能對比較本土現代的法師會比較 OK,
而 DVD 的講經方式, 會比看書來得比較沒有壓力,
雖然書是根據法師們的講經而編的, 內容也一樣,
但是現代人似乎對電視的接受能力比書要來得高.
MP3 給大家的感覺和只比書好一些, 但是接受度還是沒 DVD 高.
好像有個法師的影像在面前, 大家比較安心,
對佛法不再那麼害怕或排斥, 也就很神奇的比較能懂.

剛好惠涵小師妹在這時從大陸寄來幾套海雲法師的DVDs,
這倒提醒我, 對於初入或想入佛門或純粹對佛門好奇的現代人而言,
幽默風趣的海雲法師倒是個很好的接引者.
我自己當初也是從他的《非常壇經》和《非常金剛經》開始.
我上網找了找, 發現如今他很多部的 DVDs 已經貼在大華嚴寺網站,
和我兩年半前剛起步時, 資訊豐富了不知有幾百倍!

雖然一開始學佛就從《華嚴經》開始, 有點太猛了,
(佛界名句: “不讀華嚴, 不知佛家之富貴.”)
但是先因佛法學得有趣而想學最重要,
往後自己會開始有概念想往哪一方向深入.
佛經雖然有這麼多部, 但是佛陀說來說去都不外在告訴我們
佛境界及成佛之道,
真正的法, 佛陀倒是一個字也沒提, 只因 “不可說, 不可說.”

說真的, 佛經是真的好看到不行啊!
即使純當故事看, 也比哈利波特精彩的太多太多了!
更不用說祂能幫我們改善我們的習性來脫離輪迴了!
只是可惜文言文文字艱澀, 把大家嚇到了而止步.
不過有海雲法師在這裏, 大家就不用再害怕了!

在這我附上海雲法師的《華嚴經．經首01》的第一段,
你就會了解學佛其實很有趣, 和我們之前先入為主的觀念不同,
而且學佛會讓我們的生命更美好, 更豐富, 更活潑!
如果不是的話, 那你是 100% 學錯修錯了!

“華嚴…就是兩個東西, 一個是佛境界. [...]
佛境界你要是真知道, 我告訴你, 打死你都不會放棄.
所以先把佛境界弄清楚.
第二個就是成佛之道, 到達佛境界的那一條路.
你一定是爭先恐後的要走上去.”

• 海雲法師更多的 DVD 講經在這裡.
• 想對《華嚴經》有個宏觀認識的朋友們,
  可以參考《華嚴經導讀》: 網頁或書 (1 – 3)或DVD.
• 想修華嚴法的, 可以先從《淨行品》開始: 網頁或書.
• 看閻驊改寫的善財童子五十三參卡通爆笑版!

聖嚴師父的大願

虛空有盡，我願無窮盡！
今生做不完的事，
願在未來的無量生中繼續推動；
個人無法完成的事，
勸請大家共同推動。

──法鼓山‧聖嚴法師（二○○五）

師父走了，我非常難過…
雖然和師父只有短短的兩面之緣（皈依，2007青年禪七），
但是師父是我禪學的啟蒙老師，他的書是更是我在美國學佛的指導準則。
沒有師父，我學佛修行的路是不可能如此順利。
雖然我資質愚鈍，
在法鼓山打的禪七總是打得亂七八糟，佛法到現在也是學得似懂非懂…
但是自從學佛以來，和家人朋友們的互動好了許多，
不再那麼愛發脾氣或看什麼都不順眼，
比較有耐心及慈悲心，也稍稍會站在對方的立場想。
我只學佛兩年多，
雖然有待加強的空間還很大，身上的貪瞋癡慢疑五毒一樣也不少，
但是生活品質提昇了不知有多少!

聖嚴師父語錄

作弟子的應謹記聖嚴師父的教誨!