Chapter 55 sentient beings

I really like a short poem by the British poet Blake: Every cry of the hunted rabbit, Just tore out a nerve in the brain; The lark is wounded on the wing, An angel stopped singing. Because in just four lines of poems, he expresses a poet's compassionate heart, seeing the hunted rabbit and the injured skylark, the poet's mood turns into a rabbit and a skylark, and then writes a warning for life.It can be said that this poem secretly fits the thoughts of Chinese Buddhism. Are there really sentient beings among the beings around us that we see (that is, the "six realms of beings" as Buddhists call them)?Does the "benevolent people love things" mentioned by Chinese Buddhists mean that things are as sentient as people?

Every time I see the singing birds in the forest, I am always moved by their happiness; I am always moved by their mutual help and support when I see the northern geese forming human characters in the sky and flying all the way south; , always moved by their affection; seeing swallows flying together in light rain, always moved by their love.These winged birds show innocent emotions everywhere, not to mention the huge and well-developed beasts on the ground. Even the plants around us sometimes express a subtle emotion, or more precisely, opportunity and vitality; as long as we carefully observe those plants that are happily unfolding their leaves in the sun and rain, feel the spirit and breath of tall trees , Experience the budding flowers, and the grass swaying with the wind in the field, can make people feel really moved.

Sometimes, I also feel suspicious that these simple plants may not really have feelings, and their feelings are because they are connected with people's thoughts; just like the Buddhist saying "enlightenment from fate"; There are many such views, some enlightened by seeing green bamboos, some enlightened by seeing yellow flowers, some enlightened by seeing pine trees broken by strong wind at night, some enlightened by seeing cattle grazing grass, some enlightened by seeing snakes swallowing toads in caves , are all because of the inanimate things and the observation of sentient beings.The world-honored Buddha Shadi Muni also enlightened by watching the stars at night, leaving behind the euphemism of "Enlighten the Tao through the stars, and the enlightenment is not a star, not chasing things, not being ruthless".

We should do the same with our emotions expressed by all inanimate things.Lu Dongbin has two poems: "The world is hidden in a grain of millet, and the mountains and rivers are boiled in half a liter of pan", which originally put the mountains and rivers of the world into one's personal observation of sentient beings;It is precisely that many plants and trees are heartless and ruthless, and they have an aftertaste if they want to touch people's inspiration. We may not pay attention to the vegetation, but the vegetation can convey meaning; we should not lament that the vegetation is ruthless, because the vegetation can reflect the true nature.In the eyes of those with love, blue fields can warm the sun, and good jade can produce smoke; the early wind can move the autumn grass, and the side horses can also return to their hearts; the forest becomes quieter in the voice of cicadas, and the mountains are quieter in the sound of birdsong; , hating other birds is also shocking... let alone seeing a plant and a tree in the temperament?

ivy There is a small wooden house in the alley of my house, and there is an old man who sells beef noodles.The wooden house may be an illegal building. Due to years of disrepair, the whole wooden house is inclined to the south and forms an angle. The wooden house is located between two buildings. Pieces of wood. Anyone who passed by that wooden house would not be in the mood to look directly at it, unless they saw the old man pushing the noodles out, they would know that there were still people living there. But in the oblique place on the south side of the broken board and broken tiles, there is an ivy growing silently. It is the most beautiful one I have ever seen. Blooming unscrupulously, its leaves grow to the size of lotus leaves, and the whole plant is transparent emerald green, that green is like the color of the morning glow shining on the distant mountains.

Along the corner of the wooden wall, ivy almost covered half of the wall, and every green branch was pressed by the wall, so they all looked up backwards, as if they were stretching out a row of thick palms looking at the sky; It grows towards the wall, and it still extends around the ground, covering the entire ground. It looks a bit like a lotus pond that hasn't bloomed yet. Although there are many foliage plants planted in my home, I only prefer the ivy behind the log house.In the evening when I had nothing to do, when I was walking nearby, I would always turn to the alley to see the ivy tree. Sometimes I was fascinated by it. After a few days, I found that it had grown into different postures, and each posture was beautiful. to the extreme.

A few times in the early morning, the dewdrops on the leaves were still wet, and the round ones turned around on the leaves with the wind. I looked at the leaves carefully, and each leaf was complete and full, without any damage. , and there is no trace of dust; probably because it grows in the corner, even dust cannot reach it, let alone kittens and puppies.I love the ivy that grows at the entrance of the alley so much, and I always want to transplant it to my home to plant one. I met the old man by chance a few times, but I dare not speak.Because it was growing by a window facing the south of the old man, if he cherished his ivy as much as I do, I am afraid that he would not let it be cut and planted.

Once it was dusk, I squatted there, and saw that the ivy sprouted many new shoots. When I was in a trance, the old man was pushing the cart to go out to do business. When the wooden door creaked, he smiled kindly at me. Taking the opportunity to say: "Old man, can you give me some of your ivy?" He smiled and said, "Okay, come tomorrow, and I'll cut some plants for you." Then I watched his back and walked out of the alley with the setting sun on his back. The old man gave me ivy as promised, not one or two, but a lot of ivy, all of which were the tenderest ones that he had carefully picked and grown on the wall.I happily planted it in a pot.

Unexpectedly, the typhoon came on the third day, not only blowing down the old man's wooden house, but also blowing away the entire ivy plant, leaving only a stump and a leaf. The green area was cleaned up, and the wooden house was straightened.I felt sad, and I wanted to return the handful of ivy that the old man gave me. He only wanted one, and he said: "This kind of grass has strong endurance, and one plant will grow into a whole." The old man's ivy was only planted casually, and he was not seen watering and weeding, but only received the moisture of sunshine and rain.My ivy is carefully raised in the pot, watered at the same time every morning and evening, and also receives sunshine and rain on the balcony.

Then I watched the two ivy grow in different places. The old man’s ivy sprouted and pulled out leaves angrily, while mine grew gently and slowly; his buds grew longer and longer, and the leaves grew bigger; mine The buds are getting thinner and the leaves are getting smaller and smaller.Compared with the past, it is always inferior. That was last summer.Now, half of the old man's wooden house has been covered with ivy, even growing to the window; in my flowerpot, the ivy has grown into a literati painting in the Song Dynasty, thinly hanging over the branches and leaves.We studied it for a long time, and the old man said: "Your grass has no soil, and its roots have no place to go. No wonder it can't grow. Ah! Also, I'm afraid it has feelings for this muddy land!"

African red Three years ago, I saw a plant in a flower shop. The stems and leaves were all red. Although it was midsummer, it was full of autumn.It is planted in a dark black magnetic pot with white edges, which looks like a red maple in the snow at night.The flower seller told me that the name of the red plant is "African Red", which is a foliage plant imported from Africa.I have always loved maple trees, and I can't bear to love the "African red" with small round leaves and the color of maple leaves. I bought it and placed it on the balcony outside the study window, watching it swaying in the wind every day. "African red" is a very peculiar plant. When it is placed outdoors, its branches and leaves are all blood red; but when it is placed indoors, it slowly turns green, sometimes half red and half green. It's really beautiful. Its leaves have a short lifespan, and they all fall off every one or two months, and then green shoots sprout from the roots of the stems overnight, and the leaves are full of red leaves again within a week. "It made me really feel the speed of time variation and the movement of vitality. Over time, it has become a plant that I love very much in the yard. When I moved last year, because I planted too many bonsai, most of them were given away.There is no yard in my new home. I only brought a few pots of my favorite flowers and plants. Most of the flowers and plants are strong and can be transported by truck. Only African red, whose branches and leaves are very crisp and tender. I don’t trust the movers, so I use a wooden The box secures it for shipment. Unexpectedly, once I moved house and had everything to do, after a week of settling down, I thought of the African red wooden box; it turned out that it was placed on the balcony intact, and after I opened it, I found that the soil in the pot was all dry and cracked All the leaves have fallen, and even the branches have shrunk.Instead, my carefulness harmed a plant, which made me sad for a long time. My wife comforted me and said: "The vitality of a plant is very tenacious. If we take care of it, it may be able to revive it." We put the African red in a place where the sun can shine, and water it every morning and evening. When I sat on the balcony drinking tea at night, I looked at it with pity and prayed for its resurrection powerlessly.About a week later, one morning, I found that the African red took out green buds like jasper, and explored the world around it shyly and silently. My wife and I were more happy than the tulips we planted so hard. . I don't know if "African Red" really comes from Africa. If so, I bought it after thousands of miles of transplanting and cultivation by gardeners. There is indeed an indescribable fate among them.And it can be reborn from the cracked soil after suffering from drought. Its life is amazing.Now on my balcony, African reds are growing more vigorously than before, enjoying the sun's moisture with their red faces every day. From Africa Red, I think of a fairy tale "The Story of the Red Spring" in northern China.It says that there is a big maple tree on an uninhabited mountain. Every autumn when the maple leaves are red, a constant red spring seeps from its roots. As long as people drink the red spring, their whole body will be warm, and their complexion will be even brighter than peach blossoms. And the big maple tree stands on the mountain, watching those women drink its red spring water, it chooses the most beautiful woman among them to be its daughter-in-law, and when the snowflakes fall, that woman becomes a maple tree.This is of course a fictitious fairy tale, but in the minds of the Chinese people, maple trees do have spirits.Since the maple tree has a spirit, why not the African red, which is similar to the maple tree, also has a spirit? In Chinese tradition, people believe that all things have life, souls, emotions, and can be friends with people, and even fall in love and get married.In the same way, people also have this kind of induction to objects.I have a friend who loves orchids. If his orchid dies unfortunately, he will cry bitterly, like a bereaved relative.My soul is not that pure, but seeing the life and death of a plant will make people happy or depressed, I am afraid that this is the experience of ordinary people! African red has become my favorite bonsai. I think apart from fate, it can be reborn in a small pot of soil when it dies to the extreme. Mirabilis I am always curious and joyful about those plants that change their postures sequentially, or open and close regularly in the transfer of time, or respond immediately to external forces. The sunflowers planted in the garden or the sunflowers on the side of the country road, what force makes them rotate with the sun?Is it just a sensitivity to light? Like a water lily lying flat in a pool, it poses in the most graceful posture during the day, but why does it sleep in a shy ball at night?The epiphyllum is just the opposite of the water lily. It always waits until the dead of night before it smiles and emits fragrance.Tuberose, sweet-scented osmanthus, and seven lixiang, the more you can taste their fragrance in the darker night. And the mimosa and the pitcher plant, which, when shaken, nod silently like a shy girl.There is also Cordyceps sinensis, which is obviously a worm in winter, but turns into a grass in summer. In biology books we can all find an experimental reason for these plant variations, but these reasons are not enough for me.I believe that in the dark, there must be some spiritual aspects that we cannot find. In the spiritual level, maybe these plants have an invisible heart. Among the plants that can change posture and appearance, the one most closely related to me is mirabilis. There was a large uncultivated field behind my childhood home, and it often had beautiful flowers, small yellow or red flowers of clover, round yellow or white flowers of leucaena, morning glories of various colors, When autumn comes, it is full of reed flowers swaying in the wind...Among these various flowers, there are small purple jasmine flowers everywhere. Mirabilis is the most ordinary wild flower in the countryside. They grow in whole clusters. They are not surprising in appearance, but they have a special beauty among the greenery.In the country, mirabilis is called "cooking flower" because it closes tightly in the dewy morning, or at noon in the daytime, or in the dark night of the starry sky; it only opens for a short period of time. , It is at dusk when the sun is about to set, when the farmers have finished their day's work, and when the smoke rises, it seems that they are suddenly relieved and full of worries, and open up happily. Every peasant woman cooks at this time, so it is called "cooking flower". This one-two-year or perennial herbaceous plant has very strong vitality and strong reproductive ability. If you plant a Mirabilis in the wild, the ground will be full of Mirabilis flowers every other year; its flowering period is also very long. It blooms from spring to autumn, so no one can count how many flowers a Mirabilis can bloom in a year. It is a pity that it only blooms at dusk during the day, but this is also its favorite place.A botanist once called it "the timer of the agricultural society". When she was opened, all the children in the country knew that the sunset was about to set, and the sky would be full of red clouds. When I was a kid, my brothers and I used to play in the heath behind our house, and when we saw migraines bloom, we knew it was time to go home for dinner.My mother asked us to play outside, and she often reminded us: "When you see the cooking flowers blooming, you have to go home." We obeyed our mother's words, and we often watched Mirabilis blossom every day before walking home on the path under the setting sun. Coincidentally Yes, we got home and it was getting dark. Since I was a child, I have been a bit obsessed with it. I don’t understand why Mirabilis must choose to bloom at dusk. There are people sitting in the field many times watching the budding Mirabilis, watching how it slowly spreads its petals, and comes out to watch the sunset. view.I asked my mother, and she said: "Zhufanhua is a playful child who lost his way after playing until dark. He wants to tell you wild children, don't go home after playing until dark." My mother’s words are beautiful, but I don’t believe them. I always think that Mirabilis must like beautiful scenery just like people. What is better in the world than the scenery at dusk?So it chose dusk. Mirabilis was a very important flower in my childhood, so I planted one in a flower pot, and it grew very well. Unfortunately, in the city, it may not be able to see the beautiful scenery of the field at dusk, almost all day long. Open, the mirabilis in my pot may have been ruthlessly baptized by the sound of the city, and has forgotten that its ancestors were the best choice for the evening rosy clouds. Every day when I see the mirabilis I planted, I think sadly that not only people in the city tend to lose their hearts, but even the hearts of plants are lost without knowing it. —September 8, 1982