..续本文上一页d a series of births and deaths. But if we hold on to life with fear of death, o losing our car, our house, our friends, our children, this fear creates something like dead fingernails in the mind. The essential life and love can never leave you because you are that.. And when we awake we hold to nothing. It is neither conscious nor unconscious. It is that pure heart of awareness. It is that true nakedness beyond all appearance. Everything exists in its light. The essence of awareness neither dies nor is reborn. It is this changeless reality. And life and death then are married in the emptiness. In the Hekiganroku, Case 3, ”Great Master Baso is unwell,” this master is dying and the head monk asks him, ”How is your reverence feeling these days

　　” And the great master says, ”Sun-faced Buddha, moon-faced Buddha.” What did he mean

　　 ”Sun-faced Buddha, moon-faced Buddha.” This man is dying. Whether he is sick or well, the master is at peace. In other words, he sees all experience as Buddha-nature.

　　When I was in San Francisco a couple of years ago I had a wonderful opportunity. I was visiting John Tarrant Roshi and staying with Governor Jerry Brown, an ex-Jesuit. One night he said, ”There is a remarkable man over at Berkeley: why don”t we go and meet him

　　” The man”s name was Father Bede Griffith: some of you may have met him or know of him. He was a Christian priest who lived in India for something like thirty years, and who seemed to be able to assimilate all kinds of practices in his ashram. When they were chanting, one minute it was Buddhist chanting, the next minute Hindu, the next minute Christian. He would include all of these things. We went to the No Gate Zen Centre in Berkeley. There was a small Zen sesshin happening downstairs, with a Zen teacher giving a talk. We trudged upstairs to meet Father Bede Griffith. When we walked in, he was sitting on his bed. He was quite old and not very well and could not walk easily. He was dressed in his orange loincloth, which he wears all the time. He was a wonderful little old man, with silvery hair and a long white beard. Jerry happened to ask him a really interesting question. He said, ”What is death

　　” And Father Bede Griffith all of a sudden became excited and brighteyed and filled with joy and enthusiasm, and said, ”Death is a sacrament. I am completely looking forward to my death.” I was sitting right next to him on the bed and I was stunned. I never met anyone with such an enthusiasm for death, and such joy and love for death. ”I am completely looking forward to my death.” His attitude about death meant that he was living life to its fullest. His gift of no fear is the greatest gift we can give to ourselves or to others. When we give this gift then life is a sacrament, we meet life to its fullest.

　　May all beings receive the gift of no fear.

《Death is a Sacrament Teisho》全文阅读结束。