Chapter 45 Falsity and reality are plantains, but also life (43)

In front of my secluded hut, there are several plantains. In the long summer, banana leaves form a large shade, and the windows are full of green, and the wind eaves are used to display books and read, which makes you feel refreshed and happy.On rainy nights, the drizzle sprinkles plantains, and listening to the sound of rain through the window is a special experience. Plantain, also known as "Green Sky", is a very interesting plant.The ancients said: "Banana leaves don't fall, and when one leaf is stretched, the other leaf is scorched, so it is called banana." The old leaves of plantains must wait for a new leaf to fall.It is a large perennial herbaceous plant. From the appearance, the pseudostem like a trunk is formed by overlapping leaf sheaths, so there is no annual ring of the trunk, and it is not as solid as a tree.

In the Buddhist scriptures, the hollow heart of the plantain is often used-"There is no firmness, no solidity, and nothing is solid" to describe the emptiness and unreality of the world. Dust, plantains”; "Great Wisdom Theory" said: "All dharmas are like plantains, everything comes from the heart, you should know that the dharma has no reality." But we live in "banana leaves"—the Yami people of Lanyu have a ballad, singing: "The emerald banana leaf is Taiwan Island, and the banana leaf has a big dewdrop, which is Lanyu." Taiwan The shape of the island is like a banana leaf, hanging over the Pacific Ocean. We live in a corner of the leaf and share a common destiny and future.

Although the world is impermanent and illusory, every moment of life is so real and full of unavoidable challenges.Who doesn't live in a world where reality and illusion are intertwined?We can't grasp tomorrow, and we can't change the past. The only thing we can do is to cherish the present and work hard until we say goodbye to the world. I remember that when Zen master Hongzhi of the Song Dynasty was dying, he wrote a verse: "Fantasy and empty flowers, sixty-seven years. The white bird smoke is gone, and the autumn water is in the sky." Then he threw a pen and passed away.What a boundless and quiet state of life is this, and what a vast, free and easy scenery of the heart!The last scene of such a waving life is extremely beautiful.

In the world of impermanence and emptiness, we have lived seriously; when we leave the world, we are as calm and serene as a white bird spreading its wings and flying over the misty autumn water.How much love and hatred, looking back, is just a dream. It’s just that most of us are like “Who is so busy planting plantains? It’s too early and it’s too late”, always living in remorse and complaints. I don’t know that it’s because you are too bored, planted plantains, and Blame Basho", I can't bear it. The plantains have recently matured and taste very sweet.The original old plants gradually aged, and a few new seedlings grew around them.In a short time, maybe plantains will become forests, and the green shade will be like clouds, which can be regarded as "green sky and banana shadows"!

This kind of life and death, false and true, is plantain and life. (This picture is provided by Wu Xiaodan)