宗教

More than two thousand five hundred years ago, the Buddha attained enlightenment. Teaching the Dharma for forty-nine years in the world, he listened to countless afflictions of sentient beings, told innumerable stories, and applied infinite analogies and metaphors, all in the hope that everyone would have the causes and conditions to listen to the Dharma and be transformed.

Master Cheng Yen has made a vow to spread the Buddha-Dharma and benefit all sentient beings. For decades, she has led Tzu Chi volunteers to walk the Bodhisattva-path joyfully, without regret. Over the years, Master Cheng Yen has gathered many stories from the Buddhist sutras as well as from real life. Based on the conditions and people’s capabilities, she kindly guides everyone with these stories. Each story provides teachings that illustrate the principles taught by the Buddha.

The various forms of suffering, afflictions, and joys experienced by sentient beings are all created by the mind. Thus, we must safeguard our minds at all times. We can give rise to a thought of kindness within the span of a second; if we can seize it and mindfully put it into practice, it can influence our entire lives. By upholding such kind thoughts, we can prevent ourselves from going astray on our path in life.

This book gathers many stories told by Master Cheng Yen that describe situations we may encounter in our daily life. In addition to spreading the Buddha-Dharma in the form of literature, these stories are also examples showing us how we can polish the most precious mirror of our minds so that we can all return to our pure intrinsic nature.

Even if a person lives a hundred years, he will die eventually. This is the natural cycle of life and death, which was determined before we were born. Nonetheless, when we face this final parting from life, how many of us can do so without sorrow? How many of us are able to thoroughly penetrate the truth of life and death and let go?

In this book, Master Cheng Yen teaches us when faced with the lessons of living and dying, we must learn how to let go. Moreover, we must strive to truly make good use of each moment as we live. The most important thing we can do is to make full use of this life to train our minds; then we will not be easily influenced by external conditions. We can create good karma for the future and eliminate the afflictions and karmic obstacles we have now. We must not waste time, but make good use of our lives. Only then will we truly understand and be at peace with our own living and dying。

The book begins with “Warriors of Life” and “Stories of Life and Death,” which include true stories from modern times and classic Buddhist tales from more than 2000 years ago. These two chapters complement each other, for the Buddha-Dharma can be used to help us establish a spiritual foundation, while these real-life stories teach us how to calmly face death. Through other people’s experiences, we can find answers for ourselves. In doing so, we will be able to leave this life freely and peacefully and move toward our future path.

The third chapter, “Lectures on Living and Dying,” is a collection includes discussions on organ donation, and it also recounts several catastrophic events that occurred in Taiwan and abroad and the lessons we learned from these situations. The next two chapters, titled “Conversations on Living and Dying” and “Questions and Answers on Issues of Life and Death,” address questions regarding life and death. We hope you will be able to use these accounts to find answers to your own questions about life and death.

　　人生百年終一死，這是未生之前就已註定的自然循環，

　　但是面臨生離死別之際，多少人能不悲傷？多少人真能看透、放下？

　　若是根本不知生從何來，不知死往何去，又怎能毫無牽掛的慷慨就死。

　　這是一本有關生死問題的專書，也是面對生命的極佳參考，期待讀者們找到生命的解答，

　　清除內心對死亡不必要的錯覺與糾纏，認真地活在當下。