Wisdom from Chinese Literary and Buddhist Classics
365 Days for Travelers
12/3: TIME SITS WITH ME (EXCERPT)
Yindi (1937 - )English translation: William Chong
Seated, time sits with me.
I am shocked by “destruction.”
“Destruction,” I think about the “destruction” in the world, all that “destruction.”
Time is an executioner, killing everything in the world. What is absurd is that I have to remember that Time nurtures everything.
Everything, everything we possess in the world, is conjoined in fortune and misfortune, sadness and joy. Time is a clock; its pendulum either left or right, always causing us to regret life’s imperfections between our gains and losses.
In our youth, we control and make use of time; in old age, time controls us, and we can only but succumb. In our youth, no one feels the flow of time; in old age, the passage of time has the weight of a mountain, crushing us till we are out of breath.
Time no longer slowly slips away, but like a running giant, chases after us, sucking away the light and beauty from our lives.
── from Rensheng Shigan
(Ten Reflections on Life)
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DECEMBER
Humble Table, Wise Fare
INSPIRATION
Recorded by Leann Moore
A closed window or door
will cut one off from the outside;
a closed mind
will confine the space of thoughts.
Dharma Instruments
Venerable Master Hsing Yun grants voices to the objects of daily monastic life to tell their stories in this collection of first-person narratives.
Sutras Chanting
The Medicine Buddha SutraMedicine Buddha, the Buddha of healing in Chinese Buddhism, is believed to cure all suffering (both physical and mental) of sentient beings. The Medicine Buddha Sutra is commonly chanted and recited in Buddhist monasteries, and the Medicine Buddha’s twelve great vows are widely praised.
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