The Chan Master Damei Fachang knew that he would soon pass away, so one day he said to his disciples: “As for what is about to come, we cannot possibly resist it, nor can we possibly detain what has just passed even for a moment!”

Chan Master Damei Fachang was composed and fearless. Just as he was about to close his eyes and depart from this world, he heard the call of a squirrel outside the window.

The Chan master smiled and said, “What practitioners pursue all their lives is this present moment. Nothing else. You should all practice hard, for I will leave you now.”

The moment before his nirvana, Chan Master Damei Fachang only heard the call of a squirrel-nothing else. Within that sound is contained all phenomena, and yet there is nothing within it. Not abiding in life and death is applying prajna to transcend life and death. Not abiding in nirvana is applying great compassion to serve humanity and liberate living beings.

The Perfection of Great Wisdom Sutra describes great bodhisattvas as being free from any attachment to nirvana, and thus being able to move from the shore of birth and death to the other shore of nirvana. If a great bodhisattva had even the slightest attachment, then he would be unable to go from this shore to the other shore.

The Japanese Chan Master Taigu Ryokan entered nirvana on January 6, 1831. Just before he passed away, he said that death was just like going to sleep, and that the most wonderful moment of all was when death came. He instructed us to not abide in the past, present, or future, and that only by enjoying death’s tranquility with no-mind can we enter the Buddhist path. He left behind the following verse:

Signs of spring are on the branch tips;
The cuckoo calls deep in the mountains.
Red leaves swirl away in the wind,
Leaving nary a sign or trace.

Ordinary people often are afraid of the uncertain future, feel regretful about the past, and cannot be present in the now. We often have mixed and confused feelings about the present moment. We worry that the good times will not last, and blame ourselves for the past when we are feeling depressed. Sometimes people will go crazy and contemplate suicide, and other times wish that they could live forever. Sentient beings are always thinking this way and that, back and forth. Their minds are like wild horses that stir up clouds of dust wherever they go.

During the final years of the Tang dynasty the Daoist Lü Dongbin took the imperial examination on three occasions but failed each time. By chance he met the Daoist Zhong Liquan in a small wine shop, and Zhong Liquan passed on to him the magic art of prolonging life. From that point onwards, Lü Dongbin turned away from public life.

One day as Lü Dongbin was passing Mount Huanglong, he saw purple clouds billowing above the mountain, and he knew that some extraordinary individual must be there, so he went there to visit him. As Lü Dongbin entered the hall and joined the crowd, Chan Master Huanglong was beating a drum.

Chan Master Huanglong saw Lü Dongbin as he entered and later shouted, “There is a thief here stealing the Dharma!”

Lü Dongbin stepped out of the crowd, faced the Chan master, and recited a couplet:

‘”A grain of rice contains the world; a small pot can cook the earth.’ Can you tell me what it means?”

Huanglong said, “You are nothing more than a ghost that will not leave its own dead body.”

Lü Dongbin said, “You have nothing that can compare with my elixir of immortality.”

Huanglong replied, “Even if you live for countless thousands of years, you will end up with nothing.”

These words frightened Lu Dongbin, so he threw a sword directly at Huanglong, but the blade could not pierce his skin. Unable to harm Huanglong, Lu Dongbin knelt down and asked Huanglong to teach him.

Huanglong said, “I will not ask you about the pot that can cook the earth, but what is this grain of rice that can contain the world?”

Lü Dongbin was suddenly enlightened, and thereafter wrote the following verse:

Casting away the gourd elixir bottle, smashing the lute,
I no longer yearn for the alchemy of metal in water.
As soon as I met with Huanglong and ever since,
I began to realize how my previous efforts were all wrong.

Lü Dongbin threw away his elixir of immortality, for he now realized that, for a long time, he had been clinging to his physical body and wasting his mental energy. Even if one’s physical form can persist for over one hundred million kalpas, it will still degenerate in the end. This physical body is merely a combination of the causes and conditions of the four great elements. Why must we wrack out brains trying to sustain it?

Everything in the world arises and ceases through a process of formation, abiding, decay, and extinction. Death is not only something that happens to our bodies, but can also describe the arising and ceasing of each thought. When fame and fortune die, when love dies, when our reputation dies, when our power and influence dies, or when any such thing comes to an end we are left feeling like we have nothing to rely on. We must develop a deep understanding of how causes and conditions work, for arising and ceasing do not inherently abide in anything, and only when we understand this can we remain carefree as conditions arise.

At the beginning of the chapter on Contemplating Causality in the Treatise on the Middle Way there is a poem called the “Hymn in Praise of the Eightfold Negation Causality;’ which can explain how the essence of the Dharrnakaya lacks the delusional notions of arising, ceasing, eternity, nothingness, sameness, difference, corning, or going:

Not arising and not ceasing;
Neither eternalisrn nor nihilism;
Not the same nor different;
Not corning and not going;
Is how causality can be described,
Which excels at demolishing all sophistry.
I bow in homage to the Buddha,
For this is foremost among all his teachings.

Life is connected to death and death is connected to life, for what has life will die and after death there is life. Life and death have always been but temporary states of existence. What is the use in worrying about them? Why not be free?

To live without abiding means not letting external things determine our happiness, nor the self determine our sadness. It is to live by transcending external circumstances and not clinging to one’s own mind. What the Buddha reveals in the Diamond Sutra is not a set of mysterious principles beyond this world, but rather how ordinary people can illuminate the intrinsic nature of prajna in their lives, and thus live a freer existence.

Life and death are both parts of this world. If we only see life, then we will be happy as a lark; but if we only see death, then we will be miserably sad. Whether we only focus on life or death, only seeing one part of the world makes us unable to appreciate that the cycle of life and death is like a flame being passed from candle to candle without pause. Indeed, life and death are not two separate things at all: Life is not truly life, and death is not truly death, for our lives are unborn and undying.

Buddhist practitioners are experts at understanding life and death. While it is said that the life between each breath cannot be known and that the present moment is impossible to control, we must master each and every thought and clearly understand the value of the spiritual world. This understanding can allow us to cherish the things and feelings of our world even more, and to develop determination to build a pure land of truth, goodness, and beauty.

Source: Hsing Yun. Four Insights for Finding Fulfillment: A Practical Guide to the Buddha’s Diamond Sutra. Los Angeles: Buddha’s Light Publishing, 2012.