明天

　　Until Tomorrow

　　喇嘛欽！

　　Lama chen!

　　如果沒有盡快修行，何時才會有修行的機會啊！

　　If we do not practice as quickly as possible, when will we get the chance to do it

　　明天是否還在世上也很難說，翻開《因緣品》，裏面講道：“明日死誰知，今日當精進。彼死主大軍，豈是汝親戚？”

　　No one can confidently say that he will still be living tomorrow. Turning the pages of The Collection of Deliberate Sayings, I found this passage: “Who is sure he will live until tomorrow

　　 Today is the time to be ready, for the legions of Death are not on our side.”

　　元朝的石屋清珙禅師長年以岩石爲居，清心寡欲，與世無交，其爲我們後人留下的山居詩，卻篇篇沁出山野的清香。“岩房終日寂寥寥，世念可曾有一毫？雖著衣裳吃粥飯，恰似死了未曾燒。”

　　Shiwu Qinggong, an ascetic Zen master of Yuan Dynasty, lived in rocky caves for years and had little contact with the outside world. He passed down poems on life at the mountainside; every one of them is imbued with refreshing valley flair:

　　Tranquil is my cave dwelling all day, could there be one flicker of earthly thought

　　Wearing clothes and eating porridge I must be, yet unmoving as dead with no fire burning is my being.

　　表明禅師雖已超越生死之境界，卻勸導世人要放棄世念，而以舍身赴死之心虔誠求道。

　　This poem shows that the Zen master has transcended life and death. He advises that one should renounce worldly preoccupations and be willing to sacrifice oneself for the pursuit of truth.

　　生命如風中之油燈，隨時面臨熄滅的危險。米蘭·昆德拉說：“生活是一棵長滿可能性的樹。”誰也難以斷定，下一步可能面臨什麼。

　　Life is like an oil lamp wavering in the wind; at every moment it faces the danger of being blown out. Milan Kundera said: “Life is a tree laden with potential.” Nobody is certain what one will encounter at the next moment.

　　明天能否醒來，誰也難以斷定。龍樹菩薩在《親友書》中言：“壽命多害即無常，猶如水泡爲風吹，呼氣吸氣沈睡間，能得覺醒極稀奇。”

　　Neither can anyone be sure of waking up the next morning. Lord Nagarjuna says in Letter to a Friend:

　　Life flickers in the flurries of a thousand ills, more fragile than a bubble in a stream.

　　In sleep, each breath departs and is again drawn in; how wondrous that we wake up living still!

　　麥彭仁波切的弟子單秋大師在班瑪的多科森林中閉關時，每天晚上不論何時，只要一醒來，就開始修法、磕頭或做轉繞。他說：“難道你知道你明天還在嗎？難道你還要睡嗎？”

　　Master Dan Cho was a disciple of Mipham Rinpoche. When he was doing a retreat in the woods at Panma de Duoku, he would prostrate or circumambulate immediately after waking up at night. He says: “Are you so sure that you will live until tomorrow

　　 Do you really want to go back to sleep

　　”

　　世間有智慧的人，對壽命無常也有很深的認識。康納勒普說：“今天的事要今天做完，太陽絕不會爲你而再升。”清朝的文嘉有在《明日歌》中也說：“明日複明日，明日何其多，我生待明日，萬事成蹉跎。”

　　Wise people in the world also appreciate acutely the impermanence of life. Konnerup says: “Finish the task today that”s assigned for today. The sun never rises again just for you.” In The Song of Tomorrow Master Wen Jia of the Qing Dynasty says: “Tomorrow after tomorrow, too many tomorrows. Waiting always until tomorrow, nothing ever gets accomplished. ”

　　我與和我一樣的假修行人，常常將事情推至明天，在散亂中抛擲了大好時光。看到前輩們的言教，我必須督促自己：放下一切瑣事，去修吧！

　　Fake practitioners like myself and others always put off things until tomorrow and waste precious life in distractions. Now, having the instructions given by the masters, I must urge myself: Relinquish all the trifling affairs, just practice!

　　壬午年正月十一日 　

　　2002年2月23日

　　11th of January, Year of RenWu

　　February 23, 2002