..续本文上一页ful in your wealth and comfort. It”s not very difficult for everything to be lost. A rich person could become a pauper in a couple of days. A pauper could become a rich person. It”s all owing to the fact that these conditions are impermanent and unstable. Thus, the Buddha said, “Appamado maccuno padam: Heedlessness is the way to death.” The heedless are like the dead. Don”t be heedless! All beings and all sankhara are unstable and impermanent. Don”t form any attachment to them at all! Happy or sad, progressing or falling apart, in the end it all comes to the same place. Please understand this.

　　Living in the world and having this perspective, we can be free of danger. Whatever we may gain or accomplish in the world because of our good karma, it is still of the world and subject to decay and loss, so don”t get too carried away by it. It”s like a beetle scratching at the earth. It can scratch up a pile that”s a lot bigger than itself, but it”s still only a pile of dirt. If it works hard, it makes a deep hole in the ground, but it”s only a hole in dirt. If a buffalo drops a load of dung there, it will be bigger than the beetle”s pile of earth, but it still isn”t anything that reaches to the sky. It”s all dirt. Worldly accomplishments are like this. No matter how hard the beetles work, they”re just involved in dirt, making holes and piles.

　　People who have good worldly karma have the intelligence to do well in the world. But no matter how well they do, they”re still living in the world. All the things they do are worldly and have their limits, like the beetle scratching away at the earth. The hole may go deep, but it”s in the earth. The pile may get high, but it”s just a pile of dirt. Doing well, getting a lot, we”re just doing well and getting a lot in the world. Please understand this and try to develop detachment. If you don”t gain much, have some contentment, understanding that it”s only the worldly. If you gain a lot, understand that it”s only the worldly. Contemplate these truths and don”t be heedless. See both sides of things, not getting stuck on one side. When something delights you, hold part of yourself back in reserve, because that delight won”t last. When you have happiness, don”t go completely over to its side, because soon enough you”ll be back on the other side with unhappiness…

《Taking Care of the Bamboo Grove》全文阅读结束。