Deepest Gratitude to the Greatly Merciful and Greatly Compassionate Guan Yin Bodhisattva.
Deepest Gratitude to all Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and Dharma Protectors.
Deepest Gratitude to Master Jun Hong Lu.
Good afternoon to all shi xiongs.
First and foremost, I would like to express my gratitude to all volunteers from Singapore Guan Yin Citta Dharma Door for putting together an insightful online English Group Study every Saturday. Without a doubt, such sessions have been particularly beneficial for me.
The online English Group Study that I attended on 8 May 2021 – A Buddhist perspective of Time – struck a chord with someone like me who lacks the steadfastness in my Buddhism practice. Time and tide indeed wait for no man and only the wise will make good use of every second of their time for spiritual cultivation.
Allow me to share two stories that have left a profound impression on me. They relate to what Master Lu once said, “We must always think about how precious life is and deliberate on its impermanence. Not cherishing time means that you are wasting your life away. You are one step closer to death with each passing day. Cherishing your time is tantamount to treasuring your life.”
My mother passed away slightly more than 14 months ago. Long before her passing – some 20 odd years ago – she decided to get herself a niche in a columbarium in Malaysia.
There I was, in the columbarium for more than an hour, chanting for my mother after placing her urn in the niche. I walk past a long stretch of hallway with rows and rows of niches with names and ages of the deceased printed on the cover of the niches.
Curious, I took a look at these niches. To my horror, the number of people who passed away young (less than 30 years old) was aplenty. If you want me to put a hazard guess, I reckon it is at least one-fourth.
The other thing that I observed was the number of people, who had the privilege to live beyond the age of 60 years old was far and between. I reckon it is in the region of less than 10%. Needless to say, it was a shocking discovery, and it serves as a good reminder that time is precious and we must stay focused on what’s important in life and not get distracted by all worldly pursuits that will eventually come to nought.
As aptly put by Master Lu in Buddhism in Plain Terms, Episode 83, “It is important that we are always reminded of death. Bear in mind that life is short and pathetic, so is it even worth the while to fight tooth and nail among ourselves over something or harbour jealousy towards others?”
The second encounter that I would like to share is about my childhood experience.
I bore witness to several close shaves with death that my mum had had during my childhood days. She was asthmatic and in those days, inhalers were hardly common in Malaysia. Every time, she had had an attack, the entire family would be on alert.
The oral medication that she was prescribed to would usually take effect an hour or so later. During the first one hour, it was the most critical as she would be in distress, gasping for air.
She would be bed ridden, unable to do anything else but just struggle to draw in for more air. The desire to live that extra second or minute was so apparent to me. Not a sight that any of us would want to see. Horrifying moments for us as one of our relatives died young due to asthma. There were several occasions that it looked like life would be snatched away from my mother in any moment. She was then in her early forties.
Think about it, don’t we all take our ability to breath, see, touch, think, hear, speak and eat for granted all the times. Don’t we all abuse some of these sensory abilities to commit negative karma.
The harsh reality is the shadow of death is really not that far from us. Whenever you think that you are too young or too healthy to bite the dust, remember what the ancient Chinese sages had often said, “Death does not discriminate between the old and the young”. Master Lu has nicely summed it up as, “Living is not a privilege of the young and death is not necessarily the misfortune of the old.”
In the blink of an eye, happiness that we currently relish could evaporate and turn into sorrow and despair. As such, Master Lu advises us to always take the middle path – we should not allow our happiness go overboard, neither should we allow our sorrow bring us to the valley of darkness. After all, all the recognition, argument, ego, sorrow, happiness, despair, compliment, belittling – you name it – is meaningless in the face of imminent death.
Master Jun Hong Lu said this during his public talk in Sydney on 27 January 2019, “We live like we won’t ever die, yet in the hour before our death, we lament that we’ve lived like we haven’t truly lived. The greatest crisis faced by humanity in the 21st century is having no sense of crisis.”
In times when we want to find excuses to delay our Buddhism practice to the day when we retire, as some may argue, “It takes too much effort and we want to enjoy what life has in store for us”, remember this advice from Master Lu, “By then, for all you know, it is all too late as you can never be too sure that you get to live to see the day that you retire.”
Last but not least, have we fully understood the meaning of “There is absolutely nothing that I have gained in this life, I can bring with me upon death”.
If my sharing is improper in any way, I would like to seek forgiveness from the Greatly Merciful and Greatly Compassionate Guan Yin Bodhisattva, all Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Dharma Protectors and Master Jun Hong Lu.
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