Buddha crossing a predestined person: Dharma and wisdom in life

Chapter 28 Cultivate a Pure and Tranquil Mind with the Buddha’s Heart——A Taste of Zen and Tea, a Realm of All Saints (4)
A worry-free mind is relaxed and stress-free. This attitude towards life often makes you less troubled by sorrow and distress, and has more energy than ordinary people. In this way, it is natural to solve the problems encountered in life. He also has more calm wisdom and energy than ordinary people.

It is of course very difficult to truly live with no worries, no complaints, and no regrets, even if it is just one of them, it seems difficult.For example, it seems difficult not to regret the wrong decisions you made in the past, and it seems even more difficult to live without complaints.Some people will say, is it impossible to truly achieve the Three No's?Even if the "three noes" are achieved, is it a negative attitude towards life?Of course not.When you see some people around you who are always smiling, or have great energy, can always do everything he wants to do easily, and have a lot of energy to do other things, such people are basically The "three noes" have been achieved, even if they are not, one or two of them have been achieved.

In fact, we should often conduct self-examination and reflection, purify our minds, purify and let go of all worries, complaints and regrets in our hearts, and treat everything with a heart of no worries, no complaints and no regrets, so that we can live a happier life.

The mind is calm and naturally cool. You don’t have so many worries, resentments, and regrets in your heart. You live an active life with an optimistic and relaxed attitude. How can you be restless because of the hot weather?Even if you are sweating profusely, you still face it calmly with a normal heart, and you can naturally experience the fun that ordinary people can't experience, and this is also enjoying yourself in the calm and natural coolness!

With a calm mind, you can enter a wonderful state of "closed doors are deep mountains, and reading is a pure land everywhere".Looking at the world with meditation, the world is an oasis full of tranquility and tranquility. Even if the birds are singing and the cicadas are chirping, you will feel the artistic conception of "the forest is more tranquil and the mountains are more secluded".The nature of the mind is leisurely, immersed in the morning glow and sunset or the bright moon breeze, the heart is purer, the breath is quieter, and the whole body feels refreshed when the heart is pure and quiet.

Peace of mind means that people rely on their own willpower to curb distracting thoughts in their thinking, abandon external interference and think about something independently, and then achieve the state of forgetting both things and me. deep state of mind.

When the mind is calm, it is as indifferent as the pine and bamboo, and only invites the breeze and the bright moon to play;

It is as calm as a rock, only for the woodcutter and the benevolent to live in;
As quiet as the sea, as peaceful as the moon, only the opening of the pearl shell.

As long as the inner world is peaceful, all movements will become quiet.No matter it is the sound of wind, rain, thunder, roaring of tigers, weeping of apes, chirping of insects, rumbling of machines, the sound of guns firing, or the sound of crying, laughing and singing...all will not disturb your heart the silence.Whether it is the stillness of the moonlight in front of the bed, or the stillness of things moistened by the spring rain, it is not as quiet as the heart.When the mind is calm, things and time will be quiet.

The mind is as calm as water, and it follows the shape of things.However, in this time and space full of hustle and bustle, overlapping and intersecting sound waves propagate disorderly.The tranquility I want to find is like a pool of clear spring water in the desert, which becomes more and more precious.Especially living in a noisy city, enjoying tranquility has become a luxury.

The Taoist practice of refining the mind and qi is tranquility;

Confucianism's cultivation of mind and nature is also tranquility;
The six senses of Buddhism are quiet, still quiet;
Ordinary people doing learning and cultivating spirituality are also quiet.

A calm mind is cool, it is a kind of tolerance, a kind of quality.

It is the freedom and ease of Confucius' "Mo Chunzhe... bathes in Yi, dances in the wind, sings and returns"; It is Lin Zexu's strength of "tolerance is great, but no desire is strong"; it is also the tolerance of "meeting and laughing away all grievances and enmity", and the Buddha-like generosity of "repaying grievances with virtue".

In front of everyone, there is a road leading to the distance, rugged but full of hope.Not everyone can go far, because there are always people who are tired and give up halfway because they didn't empty the sand in their shoes.Therefore, what dominates people's feelings is not joy and suffering per se, but mood.

The universe is big with peace of mind, and the peace of mind is clear.If the mind is not calm, it will not be clear, and if it is not clear, things will be unclear, and you will inevitably fall into confusion.Once people enter the "quiet" world, there will be more peace and less disputes; more happiness and less disasters.

Peace of mind is a kind of realm, a kind of wisdom, and a kind of thinking.It is also a necessary process of transition in life, and it is also a necessary cost of success in life.Peace of mind requires an open-minded and confident quality, a tranquility and a rare understanding.

Everything in the world has a heart.

Heaven has a heavenly heart, the heavenly heart is quiet, everything is silent, mysterious and beautiful;
The sea has the heart of the sea, the heart of the sea is quiet, the sea and the sky are the same color, mysterious and peaceful;
Vegetation also has the heart of vegetation, the heart of vegetation is quiet, sleeps and wakes up with the sun and moon, lives like cherry blossoms, and dies like falling red;

Heaven and man are in harmony, people are calm, the heart is like a green pool, and the heart is as quiet as a clear spring...

Tranquility is the end, tranquility is the essence.

On a scorching summer day, the old monk was explaining Buddhist principles to the young monk.

The old monk said that it is often your own heart that is burned by the fire in your heart, so you must control your anger. "It's natural to be cool when the mind is calm!" said the old monk.

As soon as the old monk finished his lecture on Buddhism, the young monk asked the old monk sincerely: "Master, what was the last sentence you said just now?"

"It's natural to be cool when the mind is calm!" said the old monk.

"What is after peace of mind?" the little monk asked again.

"Naturally cool."

"What is Natural Cool?"

"Calm down."

"Oh, the mind is calm and naturally cool." The little monk read in a low voice, and then he asked again: "Master, what is in front of the natural coolness?
"Calm down."

"What's in front of peace of mind?"

"There is no more peace of mind." The old monk was a little impatient.

"Oh, what's behind the peace of mind?"

"Naturally cool."

"Natural coolness? What's in front of natural coolness?" the little monk kept asking.

"You bastard! You're not asking for advice, you're clearly messing around!" The old monk was so angry that his forehead was already covered with sweat.

Originally, the old monk taught the young monk the principles of Buddhism. As a result, the old monk was taught a lesson by the young monk, which made the old monk feel that his heart is not calm and naturally hot!Sometimes people are like this. They clearly know the reason for this matter and the best way to do it, but in the end they just can’t do it.That is to say, the mind cannot truly calm down and cannot enjoy the result of natural coolness.

Sima Yongzhen of the Tang Dynasty said: "Quietness produces brilliance, and movement produces faintness." Therefore, all impetuousness and desires in life come from an unquiet and unstable heart.If people can have the natural harmony of peace of mind, have a positive attitude of self-cultivation, stay away from the negative escape of pessimism and world-weariness, and be able to control themselves and their hearts, then everything will be in order, and there will be less secular life than troublesome life. many troubles.

When the helpless melancholy comes, please keep your eyes open, watch the sunset, listen to the insects and birds, just like listening to the crickets in the small courtyard when you were a child, and look up to count the twinkling stars in the sky.As a result, all the troublesome noises gradually fade away, and what we have is a peaceful heart.

Keep a peaceful heart, and you will sigh from the bottom of your heart: Even if I am not happy enough, don't frown deeply. Life is short, why should we cultivate bitterness?Keep a peaceful heart, and you will understand that broadness can dilute sorrow, and tranquility can dispel confusion.Yes, no one knows how far the distance is, but open the window of the soul, let the happy sunshine and moonlight pour in, and there is a song of happiness that will never go out in the tranquility.

Keeping a peaceful heart, you can constantly surpass and challenge yourself. Even if the distance is forever, there will be something called a miracle.

It is said that Yang Liwei, the first Chinese astronaut to go into space from Shenzhou Five Middle School, has a heartbeat of around 70 beats per minute. Even if he is flying in the air or landing successfully, it is quite stable.

Therefore, success in life requires maintaining a calm state of mind.It is a kind of effort to know, possess, and guard the peace of mind, and the perfection of the effort must go through the process of honing, absorbing, and discarding complex thoughts over the years.

Life is full of flowers, applause, feasting, singing and dancing, but the excitement often contains boring flattery and hypocrisy. After the excitement, what is left is often helpless desertedness and loss.Only tranquility is a pure land, which can help you resist endless temptations, bring you spiritual comfort, and let you enjoy the tranquility of life.Only with peace of mind can one not be keen on power, not envious of success and fame, not begging for fame, not envious of beautiful houses and mansions.Because all enthusiasm, jealousy, begging and envy are wishful thinking, which can only arouse emotional confusion and restlessness, increase the troubles and burdens in life, and have nothing to do with open-mindedness and happiness.

To be calm and cool, one needs to create a state of mind, which is to maintain a normal mind in the complicated social environment.

Only with an ordinary mind can one not feel dizzy when the house is full of guests and drinks, one will not feel lonely when the music is over and one is alone facing the crescent moon; Do your own things, write your own articles diligently, live your own life comfortably, and walk through the years of life with a clear mind and calm steps.

A normal mind is a kind of temperament, a kind of self-cultivation, and a kind of remoteness full of connotations.Whether it is dealing with people, or working and living, as long as you can maintain an indifferent and peaceful state of mind, and keep a piece of warm tranquility, you will be able to be rational and calm, and you will find that there are beautiful scenery everywhere in life, and there are always warm smiles in life.

Zhou Tiejun once said: "All the living conditions of human beings can be found in the source of thinking. Every step forward in thinking is a perfect step in the realm. No matter whether the result is finding eternity, finding calm, or finding liberation, it can make people's spirits The world presents a colorful splendor, and the most dazzling part of the splendor is the most worthy of our protection, and that is tranquility."

There is also a philosopher whose words often echo in my ears and resonate in my heart: "Pile up the gifts of the world at the feet of fools, and please give me a mind that is not disturbed!" Maturity is the highest reward given by the God of Destiny.Remember Thoreau's words: the tranquility of nature and the tranquility of mind give us eternal peace and happiness.

Flying is a Buddha, moving and still as one
Every life, no matter how long or short it is, has its own characteristics and uniqueness.

The life of the ephemeral mayfly is only a short period of three days.But it doesn't eat or drink, so it doesn't need to bother looking for food. God arranges for it only three days, so it can enjoy the limited light of its birthday with ease.If you are lucky enough to be immersed in the pine and cypress resin, the yellowish-brown transparent fossils will be condensed into amber gemstones after tens of millions of years.Isn't it also a gain to exchange such a short life for countless thousands of years of long-term attention?

Everyone is familiar with the common cicadas in childhood, and they end their lives in summer when they are less than a fraction of the noise.Come into the world and live only one to two weeks.But it has to live a dark life ranging from three to 17 years dormant underground before it can break out of the ground.

So it drank but did not eat on the tree, seized this short moment and sang "the beauty of birth" desperately, and poured out the beauty of "birth" with the voice of burning life.Its life trajectory follows the settings of the omnipresent Creator.Eclosion, singing, courtship, mating, spawning and death when the time is right.When this beautiful mission is completed, it returns to dust...

Didn't the herbaceous plants live a glorious life in that short season?According to the changes of the four seasons, they come on stage one by one, performing their respective brilliance: spring flowers, summer fruits, autumn fruits, and winter plums, each of which is good at winning.Unobtrusive things have special abilities that attract attention: ghost needle grass, dandelion, so that you have to spread the seeds for it to achieve the purpose of life extension; all kinds of flowers compete for beauty during the day, I rush to show my face before the sun rises , so my Japanese name is "Morning Glory" - morning glory; and I choose to open quietly at night, attracting attention with a tangy aroma - evening primrose...

All of these can be obtained naturally in contact with nature, and you don't need to ask for it deliberately, and you will benefit a lot unintentionally.The mind is naturally open and open-minded, and the nature naturally likes to be quiet and avoid troubles, so that you can enjoy yourself more.It’s not scary to feel that you don’t have a partner. There are so many spiritual treasures that can be excavated everywhere in nature. The “beauty” and “wonderfulness” that different lives show you are enough for you to ponder and appreciate for a lifetime.At the same time, we know that there is an omnipotent creator who uses his infinite wisdom to create such miraculous things through careful arrangements and ingenious layouts.And never favoritism, let alone favoritism.All life is equal in its shelter and bestowal.Each of them can live with gusto, and each can live out its own abundance and spirit.

There are spiritual treasures that can be excavated everywhere in nature - all kinds of observations and understandings are deeply imprinted in your mind and will last forever in your memory.Today, it is still as clear as yesterday.

Of course, because I was young at the time, I couldn't fully understand it. With the growth of age, accumulation of knowledge, and rich experience, I finally understood.In fact, this answer has been presented in the ancients' cosmology of "the unity of man and nature"; it has been confirmed in Zhuangzi's theory of "equalizing all things" that "heaven and earth and I live side by side, and all things are one with me"; You are content to watch quietly, and the four seasons are the same as others", which is the most appropriate expression.

This pure Confucian scholar, a master of Neo-Confucianism in the Song Dynasty, and Mr. Dong Hong, a dignified gentleman in the eyes of ordinary people, could not resist the charm of nature. He wrote such famous poems while getting close to and appreciating nature.real!A person who is indifferent to the world and has a clear mind can gain something from his heart by observing everything quietly.I can better understand that in the four seasons of the world, all other things have the same interests as people, and they also have their own best performances.yes!These you and I have been confirmed one after another long before we received formal education.And gradually become clearer as the sun and the moon pass by.

I remember a Buddhist story of "treasure in the catalpa". It was about an old man who hid a lot of priceless treasures in the cellar under his house. Revive the ancestral business.One day many years later, the house, which had been in disrepair for a long time, suddenly caught fire, and the house was destroyed.Because they don't know that under the ruins, there are hidden treasures left by their ancestors.

It's like a portrayal of how we live today.Today, human beings have gone through agricultural society, industrial society, and post-industrial society, and directly rushed into the era of network and information.

For a "white-collar worker", although there are not many of the substantial information received every day, if he does not surf the Internet, browse hundreds of pieces of information, or receive many E-mails, text messages and phone calls, his They will wander around in panic, worried that they will be "marginalized" by society.There is a car for transportation when you go out, and the home and office are fully automated. You can know what is going on in the world without leaving home. A few words on the Internet may cause tens of thousands or even tens of thousands of people to argue; Hurry up and deliver what you need to your door...

But all this does not seem to make our body and mind really comfortable.In this era when intelligence is king, our bodies are finally freed from heavy labor, but all the pressure is loaded on the spirit.

Many people complain that they don't have enough time and life is too stressful, but they never stop to reflect on the meaning of life.In fact, if you want to find the treasure hidden in the ground, you have to calm down and clean up bit by bit, and dig bit by bit.

Sometimes I also wonder, since our living conditions are getting better and better, our vision is getting wider and wider, and we can use more and more resources, where do those inexplicable panics come from?Why are we always worried every day, and it seems that it is difficult to deal with the precarious things in front of us with a relaxed attitude.In the dark, why do we keep oppressing ourselves, turning the incoming information into a source of troubles, and the more pungent the smell, the easier it is to lead us by the nose?

Once, Master Huineng, the Sixth Patriarch, saw two people arguing endlessly facing a flag.

One said: "If there is no wind, how can the flag move? So it is said that the wind moves."

Another said: "If there is no movement of the flag, how can we know that the wind is moving? So it is the movement of the flag."

The two insisted on their own words and refused to give in to each other.

After hearing this, Master Huineng said to them: "Please don't quarrel, you two. I would like to be a fair judge for you. It's not the wind, nor the flag, but the heart of the two benevolent people!"

Looking back from the Buddhist point of view, many troubles in our lives are indeed caused by ourselves.To be attached to everything, to provoke all troubles, even if the situation has long been calm, we still have to persevere.As the saying goes, there is nothing in the world, and mediocrity disturbs it, and troubles and pains come from it.

Yes, it can be seen from the above koan that the Zen master’s view of the external environment is entirely to return to one’s own mind, rather than staying on the appearance of things.Therefore, if the mind is calm, everything will be content, and if the mind is moving, the differences between things will appear. How to achieve the state of unity of movement and stillness depends on whether the mind can get rid of delusions of difference.

The ancients said: "Everything is content to watch" (Cheng Hao's poem).There are all kinds of things in the world, as long as you calm down and observe, you can enjoy yourself.In the midst of confusion, one must maintain a peaceful state of mind, observe with a relatively transcendent perspective, and think in a pluralistic and balanced way, in order to be "satisfied", that is, to achieve "freedom" about things Recognize, and let things have the opportunity to develop "freely".

Mr. Wang Biao told two stories in his essay "Meditation is an Empty Basket". One is:

At that time, Sakyamuni, who was a prince, became a monk in order to seek the true meaning of getting rid of the suffering in life.He went through all kinds of hardships, worked diligently, and visited eminent monks in India, but he still couldn't find a satisfactory answer.

His heart was full of distress and sorrow, so he prepared to throw himself into the river.A farmer rescued him and cursed: "You are so young, but you are looking for life and death. You are really useless waste."

The farmer threw him under a linden tree by the river and left without looking back.

(End of this chapter)