Chapter 21 Deeply attached to me, in love with narcissus (19)

During Chinese New Year, a friend gave me a pot of narcissus.The white petals and yellow stamens are slim and elegant.And the narcissus is just like the legend, hanging down, looking at the clear water in the basin. According to Western legends, Narcissus is the result of a narcissistic teenager who stared at his own reflection in the water and died.Sixteen-year-old Narcissus came to a pool of clear spring deep in the mountains, and when he lowered his head to drink, a beautiful boy appeared in the water!From then on, he fell in love with him madly, looked at the shadow in the water day and night, talked to himself, and finally lost weight and died by the water.On the grass where he sat before his death, a small yellow flower grew out of a white petal, and that flower always drooped towards the pond...

Each of us is a daffodil looking at our own reflection -- self-centered at all times.The Buddha said: What people love most is themselves, and because they love themselves, they cling to everything that they think belongs to me.When we say "I love you" over and over again, what we love is not the person who lingers in our dreams, but ourselves! The grandmother of a mage passed away, and she was in constant grief.In the pain, she suddenly discovered that her heart of gratitude to her grandmother was actually very weak. The strongest thought was that her grandmother had left, and it seemed that she had taken all the love she had had with her...

She realized that the real pain is not the death of her grandmother, but that since then, there is one less person who loves her in the world.It turns out that all the decay comes from a "self" love! What's wrong with "love yourself"?The problem is that we think that there is an eternal and unchangeable self that always dominates, and we develop deep attachments in it, which leads to the importance of troubles. The Buddha once encouraged monks in the "Snake Sutra" to get rid of arrogance, craving, greed and other afflictions, and abandon this life and the next life, just like a snake shedding its old skin.When we gradually shake off the misunderstanding of the concept of "self", just like the old skin is no longer attached to the body of the snake, the state of life that is comfortable, cool and complete will no longer be out of reach.

Daffodils also remind me of two mages who have passed away.One of the mages, every Chinese New Year, would tie the narcissus flowers in Honghua Hall on red paper and decorate them very festively to welcome the believers who came to the mountain.In their short thirty to forty years, they devoted themselves wholeheartedly to Buddhism, practiced the Dharma, saved all living beings, and guided many to find the light of life. Isn't this another practice of "selflessness"?When they dedicate themselves through the power of the Bodhisattva's vows and plant trees that can let all beings enjoy the shade, then the grass of their afflictions will have nowhere to grow, and the "self-attachment" will disappear bit by bit invisibly.

(This picture is provided by Wu Xiaodan)