..续本文上一页deep abyss under him. After a while, a mouse came and took away a piece of grass; again a black mouse came and took away another piece. Thus the two mice took turns to take away the grass, which got less and less in his hand. At that time, he saw a tree full of fruits nearby, so he started to eat the delicious fruits joyfully and completely forgot his dangerous situation.

　　What does it mean

　　 Our life is just like the grass; the white and black mice are day and night, by which our life gradually decreases; the fruits nearby are worldly fame and wealth; and the deep abyss underneath is the three devil destinies of afterlife. Simply speaking, our life is quickly approaching the end, and if we still deeply delve into the trivial happiness of worldly desires, then once this life is over, the rebirth of our next life will be nowhere but the three lower realms.

　　However, many people do not realize this. Like some old people, obviously they can”t live any longer, and will die after twenty or thirty years, at most. But they are still busy with their future plannings, as if they could live for another century. On the other hand, young people think death is far away, as their body is healthy and energetic; but they don”t know death might come unexpectedly, as the old saying goes, “the netherworld is not just for the olds.”

　　In this world, every minute and second so many people die. Some die of accident, some die of disease, and some commit suicide. Therefore, death is not far from us, and it could happen anytime and anywhere. Nevertheless, normal people are very sensitive to the word “death”, and are usually unhappy to talk about it. However Buddhists are different, since we regard death as the driving force of dharma practice. Like Venerable Milarepa, originally he went to practice due to the fear of death, and eventually, he could successfully rest in the state of no birth and no death and did not fear it any more.

　　There are also many senior practitioners in Buddhism, who keep meditating on impermanence in their whole life. “What should I do when I die

　　” “What should I do when being sick of cancer

　　” “What should I do when getting a car accident

　　” If we always keep such thoughts, we are preparing for death. For normal people, either super stars or great leaders, they seldom think about death; once it happens, they just do not want to leave this world and can only cry, but none of those will help.

　　Therefore, being a Buddhist, we have to study the doctrine of Buddhism. If you just have a certificate of refuge and chant mantras in spare time while having no idea of dharma teaching, the practice is too superficial. At least, we should meditate on impermanence as our daily practice. Good practice of impermanence can spontaneously urge you to do virtuous deeds, since you are always thinking, “I shouldn”t be distracted or slack off in my practice, instead I should collect more merits and good karma diligently, because I may die very soon.”

　　Therefore, of all dharma practices impermanence is the most important. So many great virtues previously said, if one meditates on impermanence deeply, he won”t have any difficulties in other practices; on the contrary, if one doesn”t keep impermanence in his mind, even the supreme dharma in Vajrayana cannot take him to liberation.

　　Here is one more thing that I want to mention, which is that, nowadays most people regard Tibetan Buddhism as Esoteric Buddhism and Chinese Buddhism as Exoteric Buddhism. It seems in both Hong Kong and Taiwan, for more than twenty years, such statements are getting very popular. It is actually incorrect. In Tibetan Buddhism, either Kargyu, Geluk, Jonang, Nyingma, or Sakya, they all stress the conjunct practice of both Mahayana and Vajrayana. Throughout the whole Tibet region, you c…

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