Chapter 7 Prose: From the Moon to the Heart of Heaven - Lin Qingxuan

There were no street lights in the countryside more than 20 years ago, and it was almost dark to walk across the fields to get home at night. In normal days, I would grope my way home by the dim light of the sky. Occasionally, when there are stars, it will be much brighter, and I feel that there is also the light of stars in my heart. If it is when there is a moon, the whole heart will settle down, and there will be no fear of the night at all.In southern Taiwan, especially at night in summer, the light of the moon is extraordinarily brilliant, which can clearly extend the entire mountain road.

The moonlight in the countryside is hard to describe. It is not like the shadow of the sun coming from the outside. Its light seems to seep slightly from the grass and trees, from the street, from the flowers and leaves, and even from the eaves and the inside of the wall. I mistakenly think that everything has its own light.If there is fog in the night, there is fresh air everywhere, and when fireflies fly by in groups, they seem to be spirits dropped by the moonlight. How good it is that every thing under the moon has light! Even better, under the moonlight, we also feel that we have the moon and light in our hearts. Although the light is not as warm as the sun, it is cool, and we can feel the coolness of the moon from the hair on the top of the head to the nails on the toes.

Walk for a while, look up, the moon always follows us and shines on us.In the years of childhood, the moon in our mind had a kind life, just like someone holding a lamp to guide us.We are on the road, the moon is on the road; we are on the top of the mountain, the moon is on the top of the mountain; we are by the river, the moon is in the river; when we return home, the moon is just in front of the house. Until now, the scene of looking at the moon in childhood and the countryside under the moonlight are still vivid.But there is a bit of myth about the moon following people. Is the moon following us forever, an illusion or reality?It can be said that it is both an illusion and a reality.Since we know there is only one moon, everyone thinks that the moon follows us, which is an illusion; but when the moon is with us, we feel that the moon is the only one, shining only for me, which is true.

After growing up, I realized that the real fact is that everyone has a moon in their hearts, which is unique and bright. When the moon shines on us, it reflects the moonlight, and we feel that the moon in the sky is also the moon in our hearts.In this world, everyone has the moon buried in their hearts, but they don't know it.Only a very small number of people, in the darkest moment, still radiate the light of the moon, and those are the people who realize that they are the moon. This is why Zen calls pointing directly at the heart of the heart as "pointing to the moon". Pointing to the moon in the sky teaches people to see it, but they should forget to point when they see the moon.It is nothing more than marking that the moon in the heart and the moon in the sky are corresponding and inclusive, so it is said that "a thousand rivers have water and a thousand rivers and moons, and thousands of miles of cloudless sky", even if there are thousands of rivers, there is a bright moon in each.I have read many poems about reciting the moon, and some of them can describe the realm of "the moon in my heart", such as Wang Yangming's "Mountain House Covered by the Moon":

The mountain is close to the moon and far away, and the moon is small, so the mountain is bigger than the moon; If a person has eyes as big as the sky, he should see that the mountains are taller and the moon is wider. Indeed, if we can open our minds to be as big as the sky, wouldn't the moon be in it?It's just that ordinary people have small eyes, and it seems that the mountain is bigger than the moon.There is also a song "Qing Ye Yin" written by Shao Yong, a Neo Confucianist in the Song Dynasty: When the moon reaches the heart of heaven, when the wind comes to the surface of the water;

Generally clear meaning, few people know it. The moon to the heart of the sky, the wind to the surface of the water, all have the meaning of coolness and clarity, which can only be experienced by subtle emotions, and ordinary people cannot know it. When we look at the moon, if we only see the moon in the sky but not the moon in our soul, then the moon is just a very short encounter, so how can we talk about eternal beauty? So go back to yourself and let yourself be bright!