The Caribbean(2)
■Book 111 - Roving Over The World
■Written by GrandMaster Sheng-yen Lu
It is said the water has three instincts:
1. It brings benefit to all living things - - - irrigation for agriculture for example.
2. Nature and without contention - water is tender and follows Nature closely.
3. Lie low - it never flows upwards, it flows downwards, and is very polite.
When Lao Tze said \`water brings benefits to all, it is polite, quiet and flexible\`, he was implying that
if human beings can learn to be like water, then they will be very close to the path!
In short, Water:
Lies very low and never gets involved in any argument,
Auietly it hides in the abyss,
It gives alms to all with no intention of asking back a favour,
It reflects everything correctly,
With Good management, Water is capable of doing everything,
When you need it most, water will appear,
Water thus has the most perfect human characters!
There is a water Dhyana in the Dharma:
Concentrating fully on water and obtain a meditative stabilization from the water. Water fills the inner and outer bodies. It is a natural and suitable dhyana.
The story of high priests from the Tang dynasty recorded the following:
Fa Zhing the monk cultivated the Water Dhyana and attained a high level of spiritual advancement. He always meditated in the bamboo bushes behind the temple. His family members went to collect some fire wood and found a pool of water at the place he mediated. They picked up two stones and put it on the pool of water.
Fa Zhing the monk had very bad backache when he returned to the temple. He was told about the stone incidence. Fa Zhing wanted them to take back the two stones they left behind.
The second day, Fa Zhing went for his meditation. From the pool of water, the family members took back the two
stones. Fa Zhing`s backache disappeared immediately.
Eight lakes of meritorious deeds are found the Western Pure Land. The Eight kinds of meritorious deeds
are:
1. Clear and clean
2. Chilly
3. Sweet and beautiful
4. Soft and tender
5. Sleek
6. Peaceful
7. Quenching the thirst
8. Accumulating merit
In fact, these are the special features of water.
A famous verse from the Virtue Sutra always quoted by me is as follows:
\`Ren Fa Di, Di Fa Tian, Tian Fa Dao, Dao Fa Zi Ran.\`
It simply means:
\`Human must learn from the Earth;
Earth must learn from the Heaven;
Heaven must learn from the Path;
And Path must learn from Mother Nature.\`
Lao Tze advocated:
\`Nature is the end of the path;
And the instincts of the path is none other than nature itself.\`
It was a marvelous experience looking at the Caribbean from the Big Red Ship. Apart from Earth, Heaven, Path and Nature, perhaps we could also learn something from the Sea, which is mercurial and yet never uninteresting. The Caribbean was so huge that we may conclude that it is the whole world. It is always very difficult if not impossible to understand the mystery of the sea.
Whether it was early in the morning, high noon, or misty night with sea breeze, I liked to embrace the sea, and engage in deep thought.
Embraced by the sea, I seek the eternal bliss.
