The Voice of Master Jingzong - Q and A about the Purpose of Life
淨宗之聲 - 人生目的問答
Q5: Buddhism emphasizes the escape from reincarnation within the Six Realms; but, reincarnation doesn’t sound so bad to me. Life would be meaningless without birth, aging, illness, death, happiness, or sadness. If after escaping from reincarnation within the Six Realms, we don’t have any of these experiences, what is the meaning of life?
Answer:
A person who thinks like this doesn’t really understand what reincarnation is. He is like a person sitting inside a warm house, watching the wind and snow outside his window, and feeling that a snowstorm is not a big deal.
The Buddha says all living beings suffer, and reincarnation is an even greater form of suffering. Suffering is an undeniable truth in our world.
1. If you haven’t had many painful personal experiences or traumas, you may say, they’re no big deal. If you haven’t experienced aging and illness, you may say, it’s fine to grow old and sick.
When you actually experience the process of aging and illness or see a loved one go through: intestinal surgery, the insertion of a catheter, or chemotherapy, in which your mind and body will suffer from all kinds of changes one after the other. If either you or a loved one are desperate to live or die, you would not say something like that.
Furthermore, the suffering of death and illness in just this life are far less than the endless suffering of reincarnating within the Six Realms, particularly the Three Wretched Realms.
(to be continued tomorrow)
問(5):
佛教講究出離六道輪迴,可我覺得輪迴挺好啊。有生老病死、高興悲傷,人生才有意義;脫離六道,不悲不樂,又有何意義可言呢?
淨宗之聲:
我想,之所以抱有這樣的觀念,可能還是不知道輪迴是什麼,只是一種觀念。
這就好像一個人,坐在一個溫暖的房間裡面,有暖氣烤著,透過玻璃窗看見外面風雪交加、寒風呼號,覺得“外面也挺好啊,沒有什麼了不起啊”。
佛說人生是苦,輪迴是大苦。“苦”稱為“苦諦”,是一個真理,是一個事實。
1
如果閲歷比較淺,沒有切身切膚的感受,就覺得“還可以啊”。所以在說的時候,是因為自己沒有老,才說生老病死可以;自己沒有病,才說病可以。
當我們真正面臨衰老,面臨痛苦萬分的疾病,讓你到醫院裡去割腸子、插管子、化療,身心有很大的變化,不適應,一次二次三次,反覆無常;或者是自己精神抑鬱,晚上睡也睡不著,想死也死不了,想活也活不下,我想那些冠冕堂皇的話都煙消雲散了。
這還是簡簡單單的病苦。那面臨死亡的巨大威脅呢?何況將來還要墮落地獄、輪迴六道,無窮無盡,在三惡道中永無出離。
Namo Amituofo!
