Second flower bloom

Chapter 16 Mother
Family reunion has never been the embodiment of happiness in our minds. Our greatest happiness is liberation, so as long as the whole family walks on the road to liberation, we are satisfied.

I left home to study at 14 and have not lived with my family since.

My mother worked hard to bring up the four of us, four brothers and sisters. In 1995, she, my sister, and her two daughters were ordained ordained at Wuming Buddhist College.Although we are both in the college, we have very few opportunities to meet each other.The college has strict discipline. Monks and nuns live in different areas, and they are not allowed to visit each other. If something happens, everyone goes to the public area to talk.Later, a telephone was installed, and usually things can be explained clearly on the phone, and there is no need to meet in person.

Mother is quiet and reticent, and never likes to walk around.Sometimes she would rather sit at home and chant mantras.My sisters and nieces are usually busy listening to the Fa and doing homework. Unless I have something for them and they need to go to the public area to pick it up, otherwise they will not call me easily. People also occasionally meet in scripture halls and other places.

Still, our family bond runs deep.Tibetans are enthusiastic and unrestrained in some aspects, but they are very reserved in the expression of feelings among family members.Although they trust and support each other in their hearts, they don't express much in words.Family reunion has never been the embodiment of happiness in our minds. Our greatest happiness is liberation, so as long as the whole family walks on the road to liberation, we are satisfied.

My mother suffers from severe arthritis and can barely walk in winter due to the cold and humidity.In a college with relatively difficult conditions, the inconvenience in her life can be imagined.Although I often persuaded her to spend the winter elsewhere, she stubbornly refused to leave the college.Having lived on the plateau all her life, she likes and gets used to the thin and cold air, the vast and clear blue sky and the simple interpersonal relationships here.She is very particular about etiquette, cares about other people's feelings, and always takes care of everyone around her to be at ease.This kind of temper is indeed very troublesome in a place with many people and small personal space.So if she insists on staying in the icy and snowy Tibet in winter, I won't force her to change her mind.

This year, I brought my mother, sister and others to Tashi Chilin, which made our family have a rare reunion.On sunny and warm days, we would light a fire and make tea by the nearby hot springs, chat while enjoying the sunshine, and talk about various things at home and relatives and friends who have passed away or are still alive.At this time, I seem to be back to my childhood.

At that time we were always moving, sometimes living in the mountains, sometimes living by the Rongca River.Everywhere I went, I was constantly causing trouble.A few days ago, when I was giving a lecture in the Tashi Chilin Nursing Home, all the people who sat down and listened to the Dharma came from Cuo'a Township and were not much different from me in age. When I asked them, there was no one who hadn't eaten my fist back then. Or let me eat the fist.Even those people who are much older than me and who I, a naughty boy, can't and can't provoke at all, have mostly been tricked by my pranks.

I have been an expert in trouble since I was a child, and my mother was very angry about it.What she usually does is wait for me to come home, grab my ear and spank.While begging for mercy, I yelled in a bravado, and after twisting and turning, I broke free from my mother and ran away.

Of the four children in my family, I am the least worrying.My mother rarely took me out to visit, because she was afraid that I would lose face if I got into trouble.If relatives came to the house as guests, my mother always kept one eye on me while greeting the guests, for fear that if I missed the prison, I would do something that would embarrass her.

Thinking about it, my mother was really tossed by me!Later, I studied abroad for many years, and I no longer troubled her all the time like when I was a child, but made her shed tears of missing and caring.

Mother is not good at talking, all her emotions are contained in her big clear eyes and shy smile.Until now, she still looks shy like a little girl when she smiles.A pair of beautiful eyes are much cloudier.Poverty, tiredness, family, and children have made the once beautiful and light-hearted girl look like an old man now.

When a person reaches old age, he is very fragile and critical, because at this time the distance to the afterlife is so close.Cattle and sheep can walk on their own and live independently within a few days after birth, but human beings are different. From being born to growing up, they have to be raised by their parents for more than ten years.By the time we are able to take charge of our own lives, most of our parents are getting old, and some of them have passed away.

I am grateful to my mother, not only because she gave me life and raised me up, but also because she has lived safely until now, so that I, a son, have the opportunity to take care of her life in her later years, so that she has no worries about food and clothing, and can practice with peace of mind.

Many people are not as lucky as me.There was a young lama who went to India to study Buddhism with fellow Taoists.The sum of all the money they had on hand was less than 1000 yuan, so they decided to go to India.Before leaving, the lama's mother fell ill, so he had to stay in his hometown and wait for his mother to recover before leaving.Unexpectedly, this wait is 14 years.

Fourteen years later, when his sick mother passed away, he embarked on a pilgrimage to the Vajra Throne in India.Under the great bodhi tree where Buddha attained enlightenment in Bodh Gaya, he performed one hundred thousand prostrations.Among his many prayers, one is to ask Buddha and Bodhisattva to bless his 14-year-old father in his hometown to be safe and healthy during the three years he left home to study in India, and to see him come back alive alive: "In this In an ancient and sacred place, my heart is always melancholy; just because my parents are not around, go back, go back to my hometown."

From another perspective, he is lucky again, which makes me very envious.Many Tibetans have vowed to go to the Vajra Throne in India to worship in their lifetime, but not many finally fulfill their wishes.A person like him who not only saw the Vajra Seat with his own eyes and touched the Bodhi tree with his own hands, but also successfully completed one hundred thousand prostrations under the same tree shade that once shaded the Buddha, is a truly blessed person!His deceased mother, living father, the whole village who saw him off with tears, and all those who rejoiced and helped him will all benefit from his good deeds.

As a relatively enlightened Buddhist, I do not reject other values ​​and belief systems.If conditions permit, I am willing to increase my understanding of them, but my forty years of life experience and the stories that happened to the people around me have convinced me that the wonderful teachings preached by Shakyamuni Buddha can bring people to life in this life. happiness and liberation in the afterlife.

Lady Maya, the biological mother of Buddha Sakyamuni, was reincarnated in the Trayali Heaven after her death, where the fairy mountains and seas of clouds are extremely beautiful, and people live a long life with abundant benefits.Everything that a filial son expects his parents to enjoy in the world is available there.After Shakyamuni Buddha became enlightened, he ascended to the Trayastrim Heaven on purpose, and gave lectures on how to escape reincarnation for his mother and the heavenly beings there.The only way to get my mother out of pain is to help her get rid of reincarnation, which is also the best way to repay her mother's kindness.

Some people think that Shakyamuni Buddha was completely enlightened from an ordinary person through practice.There are also some people who think that he has already become a Buddha, but when the time was ripe, he was born in the world in the sixth century BC to show all living beings how to achieve enlightenment through systematic and effective practice, and help other living beings to achieve liberation.

We take the second view, that the Buddha's life was a demonstration for our inspiration, for our study, for our imitation.Although we are not fully enlightened like the Buddha, we can still help our parents and family members understand the way of liberation, and do our best to create support for their practice.

The fate between people, for Mahayana practitioners, regardless of good or bad fate, is the fate of realizing Bodhi in front of the eyes!

(End of this chapter)