Chapter 63 mirror reverie

The mirror is one of the most used teaching tools in religious teaching.Many masters are always inseparable from the mirror when explaining and disseminating the principles of religious beliefs. It is through this teaching tool that we can discover some common things in various religious beliefs. In Zen Buddhism, Shenxiu, the great disciple of the Fifth Patriarch Hongren, compared his heart-his own soul to a mirror, and wrote the Zen song "The body is a bodhi tree, and the heart is like a mirror stand, always wipe it diligently, so as not to cause dust" Poetry expresses one's views on the relationship between soul, body and character.Hundreds of years later, Abdu'l-Baha described the same truth as Shenxiu understood in the book "The Answered Questions" in the language of modern people.He said: "The spirit never enters the body, nor does it leave the body. It does not need a dwelling place. The spirit is connected with the body, just like the light and the mirror. When the mirror is clean and complete, the light of the lamp is clearly visible." On the other hand, if the mirror is covered with dust or is damaged, the light will disappear." The "spirit" that 'Abdu'l-Baha is talking about here is what we mean by the soul.The spirit belongs to the spiritual world while the body belongs to the material world.The sun's light shines on the mirror, but it cannot be said that the sun has fallen into the mirror.Otherwise, we will make the mistake of monkeys fishing for the moon in the water.

Huineng, the sixth patriarch who challenged Shenxiu, also wrote a verse: "Bodhi does not have a tree, and a bright mirror is not a stand. There is nothing in the first place, so where can the dust be gathered?" He borrowed the metaphor of Shenxiu's mirror, but he said another Question, another world, a spiritual world that has nothing to do with the material world, a state of complete "selflessness" in Zen Buddhism.Whether it is Shenxiu, Huineng, or Abdu'l-Baha, they all spoke out the most essential characteristics of the soul very wisely. These are all metaphors after their meditation.

Gao Xingjian, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, wrote a script "Snow in June", which reproduces the Zen koan between the fifth patriarch Hongren and the sixth patriarch Huineng in a modern way.He compared Zen to June snow, which is snowflakes in the cold high altitude, but when the June snowflakes fall to the ground, the snow disappears and turns into water.At different temperatures, the state of water is completely different, sometimes it is liquid, flowing and low; sometimes it is solid, crystal clear;Likewise, Zen manifests itself in different ways in different environments.However, the script of Gao Xingjian's "Snow in June" is slightly different from the original legend: Huineng took away the mantle of the Fifth Patriarch, Shenxiu led troops to catch up with Huineng, and later Shenxiu and Huineng had a debate, and Shenxiu lost , and finally bowed his head in front of wisdom, and let Huineng take his mantle and leave. The script of "Snow in June" also further clarified the author's understanding of Zen through the debate between Shenxiu and Huineng.

The first sentence of the book "University" says "the way of university lies in Ming Mingde".That is to say, the principle and method of education is to polish the mirror in one's mind. The first "Ming" is a verb, and the second "Ming" is an adjective.This is completely consistent with what Plato said about education.Plato said that after a person dies, his soul goes to heaven, where he acquires all the knowledge and virtues. After a while, the soul returns to the world and forgets all these things. Therefore, the purpose of education is to enlighten it, wake it up, and bring it to life. It reproduces the knowledge and virtues acquired in heaven.This is the same principle as Confucius' "Ming Ming De", which is to polish the mirror of one's own soul.

After Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, became enlightened, he used a mirror (mirror of Buddhism) as a metaphor and imagination for him when he taught his son Luo Luo.Which is the real world?Which is the illusory world projected in the mirror?This has become the fundamental question that people have been thinking and asking for many years. Some metaphors may not be accurate, but they also reflect people's spirit of exploration and curiosity about the unknown world. As I write this, I flipped through Zhou Guoping's book that I bought many years ago.Re-reading this book today is completely different from when I read it a few years ago.There is a passage in the book: "In this world, some people believe in God, and some people don't believe in God. From this, they are divided into theists and atheists, religious people and lay people. However, this distinction is not very important. And A distinction that is much more important than this is that some people believe in holiness, while others do not, and people are distinguished from noble and base. One can not believe in God, but one cannot not believe in holiness. Believe in God or not God, Buddha, Allah, or other mysterious powers that rule the universe often depend on the national tradition, cultural background, and personal special experience to which the individual belongs, and even depend on a certain mysterious experience of the individual. This is unavoidable. A person without A person with these religious beliefs may still be a good person. However, if he does not believe in any sacred value in the world, he has no taboos and does whatever he wants, such a person is no different from a beast." I also borrowed many saints to teach us repeatedly I often use this "mirror" metaphor to remind myself: we must always polish and clean our hearts, only in this way can we realize the divine, and the divine sunlight can shine on our hearts and souls. Only then can our hearts gain warmth, and we can gain the virtue of love and justice.