Simple LIFE / Humble LIFE
Simple life —– well well well. I’m well aware that I’ve been using this word rather casually and often.
After all, Zen Buddhism is not what we talk or think, but practice.
So, in practice am I having simple life ? ? ? —- In one glance, it is untrue.
I’m doing too many things and being involved too many activities —– often not necessary they
are what I’ve intended. They just happened and came to my hand.
But, this is the most important core teaching in the ZEN.
When I do anything I only do one thing ( at a time ) = because of I’m doing only one thing,
it is very simple. Just Do It.
non
Then Humble Life —– ? This is definitely true on me. Anyone can see it in distance.
May be indistinguishable from a vagrant. Far remote of any concept of fashion, still strangely people says,
they can find me in the cloud easily since I’m looks always the same 😀
A secret behind of this, I’m buying the same cloths, some time many at once —– my signature attire of
white pullover, I got almost identical 5 of them.
When I buy underwear or socks kind, I buy many of them in one go, or after gave a close look and when
I found it is a good product, I go back to the shop and buy up many of them.
Like the socks, if they are all same made, I don’t need to have a trouble to find a matching pair 😀
After all, I’m lazy to think what to ware ( I don’t care the package, the matter is the contents ) —– if
the package is the same, I don’t need to think about when I put. It’s true isn’t it ?
Laziness lead to the simplicity. This is what the humble life become simple life. Ha ha ha. 😀
non
While having much enough to think about for a project or design, I wouldn’t like to spare the time to
mundane things —– sorry I wouldn’t pay much of attention to the room decoration.
Zen wouldn’t chase two rabbits, since we got only one life. ( And we don’t wait to have another
life to finish the project —– as nobody ever did = nobody ever enlightened in the next life,
since no such things ever exists in this world —– even Dalai Lama had to learn the Buddhism
from scratch = where all the wisdom supposed to be accumulated in his previous 13 lives ? )
So, Just Do It, while it is in your hand.
___/\___
non
Yoshizen's Blog 
I will find a good time to read this article more seriously.Have a good time,I am going to hit the bed.
Thank you ver much to be here.
Good night and have a peaceful sleep.
___/\___ Yoshizen
You are very familiar with the Zen,could you explain the Chinese saying in English:
佛祖说：前生五百次回眸，换来了今生的一次擦肩而过。
十年修得同船渡，百年修得共枕眠。
Now you are kicking the gate 😀
My attempt to reconstruct the Zen Buddhism in a modern
context is not based on the Chinese Scripts or traditional way.
But by trying practice first, and find how we feel and think,
then to see what we can find as the conclusion. Since
Buddha was a same human, only able to give an insight
very deep even to the invisible human psyche. Yet still,
we may able to guess the process how he had come to
the conclusion = his enlightenment.
To translate chinese script with my rusted 40-year-old Chinese
study, while having many simplified letters I don’t know, is
a sheer guess-work.
[ Buddha said, In the former life seeing it 500 times
and came to this life and rubbing the shoulders once, still
to take the same boat together to cross the liver, takes 10 years,
and (to know well enough) to sleep on the same pillow
takes 100 years]
= Even if we had a chance encounter many times,
to know each other deep enough, needs to have many years of work.
And this must be a metaphor of such as,
Even seeing the Buddhism many times, and touching it once
is not enough, to know its meaning takes many years of hard work.
—— is my guess-work, is it correct ?
Of cause, you must know it 😀
___/\___
PS: If I were a Rinzai (臨済) Zen monk, I would have answered
[ It is what you read the meaning in your sweet tea （甜茶） ],
And as my father was a Soto (曹洞) Zen monk, I could have
smacked your shoulder and shouted ” Dog shit”.
Though I’m neither of them. —– so, I gave a translation
without knowing your simplified letters ( I couldn’t find a
Chinese dictionary, which I haven’t seen 30 years 😀 )
In Zen talking, it’s always, the metaphor of a boat
crossing the liver mean getting an enlightenment
( go to the other side)
and sleep on the pillow mean Nirvana (涅槃).
= this verse is telling, even a person who had a cause
to take a correct pathway, yet how difficult to reach the goal.
___/\___
Great,I really don’t know how to put it in English correctly,it is a sentence describes the fate.
Maybe I can translate it is this way:
Buddha said:In the former life,we looked back 500 times so that we have a chance to brush against a person in this life.
We need to practice and pray ten years so that we can get a chance to take the same boat to cross the river.
And we need to practice and pray hundred years so that we can get a chance to sleep in the same bed and put our heads on the same pillow.
Haha,this is my poor English translation,just for fun.
Hmmm. On the beginning I guessed a letter before [来了] as
換 and guessed this paragraph is in the context of a result,
though a letter after 而, I had no idea what this letter is.
And the another thought, ” Would any 100+ year old person
want to sleep with others on a same pillow ? This must
mean [ get Nirvana together] it is more logical ” Ha ha ha 😀
—– So, I’ve adjusted the meaning to more simple context
of the occurrence, one after another, not in relation of Fate.
As it is your language, your translation must be correct.
But the word [修得] has the meaning [Practice and Play]，not
simply [master] ?
Haha,I should have explained it more clearly,sorry……………
This is a Zen sentence,it is indicating the Fate,the relation of the former life and this life.The practice took ten yeas and hundred years was done in the former life,not in this life.,, haha.
修=修炼，修行(to practice Buddhist or Taoist rules) in this sentence.
得=获得，得到(gain,reap).
May be the English saying has the same meaning:As a man sows and so he shall reap(But of course,in the sentence,we sowed in the former life,so we reap in this life).
It is a very interesting interpretation.
So, you understood that whether the one could reach Nirvana had been already fixed in the former life ?
Therefore, what so ever the conduct in this life would be reflected only on next life !
Therefore killing 100 wouldn’t be punished, and live virtuous life would be pointless in this life ? 😀
So, unless a person live 100+ life with 修得 , no nirvana ever reached by anybody ? I doubt it.
Is that a teachings of Buddhism in China ? — Blime !
Buddha never said that kind of things. In fact, in his teachings, there is no such soul remain after the death.
( No reincarnation ever taught in his teachings. How the teaching of 無我，無心 no-self, can say [on the death,
suddenly it appeared and remains］ 😀 = Reincarnation was a mixed-up with Hinduism, long after Buddha )
Buddha’s teaching of Karma 縁 ( If you kill, you will be punished. Here is oil, here is air, and when
you light-up there will be a fire = cause and the result or effect 因果) is within this realm = 法.
To imagine another world or next life is nothing but a delusion = was the word of Buddha.
Unlike Pureland (浄土) sect, Zen sect never talk about after-life or next-life because they are
more faithful to the Buddha’s original teachings.
By the way, in Buddhism, [Learn習，修, Study学] and [Practice行，実践] are treated in equal importance，
because, each of them are essential elements compensating each other.
As you said:To imagine another world or next life is nothing but a delusion.
The only thing we need to do is enjoy the moment. lol.
That’s right, even a small man Steve Jobs said [ you got only one life,
live your life, not others’] = what others say is only in your memory or
thinking = not in your hand as a reality.
You have to live in your reality, not in an imagination or delusion.
Therefore, DO the best what you got in your hand.
Do the best to others as well.
All those action will come back as the results or consequences.
Best actions, hence best results will bring you the joy as well, which
you can enjoy. —-> in total, you wouldn’t have any regret when you die.
This is the Nirvana.
___/\___