英文佛学美文－－It Is Also Compassion

anniespera

英文佛学美文－－It Is Also Compassion




　　
　　It Is Also Compassion

　　Ven. Ta-Yu
　　Translated by Jeannie Chen
　　Edited by Betsy Pross

A little deer quietly came in front of the window.
　　Everyday, near sunset, the little deer shows up in front of the window.   At first I didn’t understand that my presence scared him.  Once I understood, I stopped in the middle of my work cleaning the shrine table.  As he lowered his head and was eating the tender grass, I slowly knelt down.  However, his keen eyes still noticed my careful movements from the other side of the window.  He lifted his head and sacredly looked around with a full mouth of green grass.
　　I continued to wait until he relaxed and lowered his head to enjoy his unfinished dinner.
　　Just like that, we were there.  One was the inside and the other outside the window, playing hide and seek.  It was not easy, but finally I hid myself behind the window without disturbing him.  It is a fawn.  Watching him, relaxed and comfortably having his meal, I silently prayed for him in my heart to grow up peacefully without harm from hunters or cars.
　　As Buddhist practitioners, it is very important to generate and increase our compassion.  How do we cultivate compassion?  It cannot be achieved simply by studying profound Sutra and Buddhist text or relying on sitting with our eyes closed and our knees bent.  It should be practiced in our daily lives --- in every moment, in all actions, within our minds and our daily activities, such as walking, standing, sitting, and sleeping.
　　There is a clause in “Great Prajna Paramita Sastra” (a commentary ascribed to Nagarjuna on the Great Parjna Paramita Sutra):  “Great loving kindness gives happiness to all sentient beings; Great compassion removes suffering away from all sentient beings.”  Ordinarily, we feel that the compassion helps the public with great generosity and loving kindness.   In fact, the merit is even more profound and wide from a pure and virtuous action arising naturally from our minds without any names and forms.  A compassionate person knows how to apply the theory of giving, which is to empty the three wheels in his mind.  While performing compassionate actions, there is no concept of self, who is compassionate, there is no perception of others, who receive benefit, and there is no attachment to the compassionate actions and their results.  If we are able to generate and practice compassionate actions toward all sentient beings and non-sentient beings without any preconditions and attachments, then we are truly practicing the Bodhisattva’s deeds.
　　Once we are truly able to practice compassion in our daily lives, then there is compassion everywhere and in every moment.  The compassion is there in every place all the time.
　　It is compassionate to lightly pick up the dropped flowers from the ground, put them into a small container with some water and let them peacefully blossom to their last bloom.  It is also compassionate to bury an unknown dead insect lying under the grass, recite the Buddha name for him and dedicate the merit to wish him reborn in a superior realm.  Isn’t it also compassionate to let the little deer outside the window comfortably finish his meal undisturbed?
　　Some Small things, looking too worthless to mention in our lives, may become the turning point for us to practice Bodhisattva’s deeds.   Practitioners should not be unaware of small things in their daily lives.
　　The little deer finished his dinner and slowly walked down hill.  I watched him disappear into the forest.