Chapter 60 Alaya Consciousness of Love

From the so-called writing theory, each work must have the author's subjective color, they are like a child who can't lie, always revealing the author's real experience in the fictional story, this experience may be The ideal of life for many years may also be just the mood at the time of writing. They are like a seed that only grows in words, speech, and consciousness, leaving traces of sowing in every place without any control, which cannot be concealed, let alone destroyed.This kind of seed has a nice name in Buddhism: Alaya Consciousness. Alaya consciousness is a magical concept, explaining it requires a certain amount of wisdom and courage, and if you are not careful, it will be understood as the root of religious superstition.In my opinion, concepts such as reincarnation and retribution, which are easy to misunderstand Buddhism, have a great relationship with Alaya Consciousness.However, what is strange is that this concept exists in many Western philosophical systems, and even in the current prosperous philosophical thought. The thing that Western philosophers have spent a lot of effort to construct has long existed in ancient times with the concept of "Alaya Consciousness". in Eastern philosophy.

To put it simply, Alaya consciousness is a chip that stores what people see, hear, and think, so that any life background and experience can be recorded in such a seed.No matter what a person does or thinks, it is just the "fruit" produced by this seed.According to Buddhism, any sense organs and behaviors are the result of consciousness, but what is the control of consciousness? This is the alaya consciousness. Applied in the writing process, what is written in a story, why the character is made great, and why the ending is so tragic, these are dominated by the author's creative concept.However, why the author has such a concept stems from his alaya consciousness.At least, whether a work is noble or inferior in terms of theme or realm depends on whether there are more benevolent thoughts or more evil thoughts in the author's alaya consciousness, the seed of dominant consciousness.

So, in this popular story, what did the miraculous alaya consciousness do? In retrospect, the process of writing this story is amazing enough.Many people criticized it for being too "similar", and I don't refute it.In fact, if I hadn't, I wouldn't have thought of writing such a story at all.And the blunders, I think, can be explained by the role of Alaya Consciousness in this writing process. In June 2005, I converted to Buddhism under the guidance of Drikung Kagyu Gachen Rinpoche of Tibetan Buddhism. Since then, I have been exposed to a lot of Buddhist knowledge.It was months before I accidentally read it.In fact, the book had been around for a while at the time, and I read it very late.However, it was this time difference that made me suddenly realize that similar stories could be written with Chinese history and Buddhist knowledge.

Anyone who has played Go understands the importance of "order". For two moves in the same position, the effect of who comes first is related to the outcome.And this kind of situation happens from time to time in life. Which one of the two things to do first will even affect the trajectory of life. As for the extent of the impact, no one can tell, because there is no possibility of doing it again. This is the function of the Alaya Consciousness. The first thing to do will form a "seed", which will affect the next thing to do.This process is irreversible. Perhaps, if I read it first and then came into contact with Buddhist knowledge, there would be a difference in the order of "sowing" of the Alaya Consciousness, and there would not be such a story of using Buddhism and Chinese history to guess puzzles.

The idea of ​​writing a story like this stayed in my consciousness like a "seed".There were countless times when I wanted to conceive a complete plot and have all the material ready.But it was not until I sat in front of the computer more than a year later that I realized that I just had such an idea. As for what to write, how to write it, and even how many characters are needed in the story, I have no idea at all. It's been an amazing writing experience.Almost every day, after writing all the plots I can imagine, I have to look through Buddhist knowledge books in a disorganized manner, hoping to touch a certain nerve, because I have no idea what to write the next day.Many times I have pushed myself into a dead end. Such a story must be interspersed with real historical events and Buddhist knowledge, and it is almost impossible to use the so-called "writing skills" to make any tricks.However, when I almost wanted to give up this story many times, I believe that the alaya consciousness played an indescribable role.When I can't go on, I am often excited by the plots that suddenly flashed in my mind. They seem to have not been designed by me, but fell from the sky, or like a seed that has stored the twists and turns of the plot, it has been there quietly, Waiting for me to find out.

In the summer of 2007, after making one last revision of the story and re-checking the Buddhist and historical details involved, I was suddenly at a loss.In essence, this is just a popular story, and the so-called suspense is just to ensure that it is not so boring.However, I was suddenly no longer excited about those fun-looking plot twists. I was thinking, are popular stories just good-looking, without having to carry more things? I believe that whether I use the so-called "writing theory" or start from the Buddhist alaya consciousness, this story must also reflect my attitude towards life.It was produced by my study of Buddhism and organized with Buddhist knowledge, so I am willing to believe that it is my experience of studying Buddhism.It's just that some people can write academic works, and some people can write prose and notes straight from the heart, but my way of expression is to tell stories.

It is not clear what learning Buddhism has changed in my life, let alone how many so-called profound and noble themes this story carries. This is actually the most basic characteristic of the Alaya Consciousness: instant extinguishment, no matter what you do , it exists, but if you want to find it, it disappears in an instant, and no one can tell where it is.Therefore, I can't tell what I realized in the process of learning Buddhism, and what kind of life insights I wrote in this story, which I regard as my experience in learning Buddhism. However, I know that they all exist, and they exist in the name of love, and what supports this concept is the simple idea of ​​Buddhism: all living beings are equal.

It is a song I like. It was the theme song of the 2005 "Love Knows No Borders" Hong Kong showbiz fundraising performance for the Southeast Asian tsunami disaster.It is adapted from Michael Jackson's famous "We Are The World", which was a song recorded by 45 popular American singers for African disaster victims in 1985 in response to the second year's "International Year of Peace".I really like its Chinese name - "One Family of Four Seas", which is the political and life ideal of Chinese people for thousands of years, and it is also the gene of Alaya knowledge planted in the minds of Chinese people by Buddhist thought.

In the summer of 2007, when I saw the news of heavy rain in Chongqing, I thought of this song again.In the face of disasters, human beings are small and weak so that they must rely on each other, and the strength of this dependence is not technology and material, but the simplest human emotion that is often ignored and hurt by human beings-love. I can't help but wonder why, we often only think about the theme of love and do something about it when someone is suffering from trauma and pain.However, from a certain point of view, we are used to giving love to vulnerable groups. When we face non-vulnerable or even strong groups, or that strong group hurts us at a certain stage, we don’t need love. are they?

Are we not equal beings at this time? I tried to use the concept of love to find a way to explain the past history. Perhaps this is not the only way, and it may not be a concept accepted by everyone, but because I study Buddhism, and this story is based on Buddhist knowledge and concepts are organized, so I believe that the alaya consciousness of love has been filled between the lines of fiction. I don't study Buddhism very deeply, I just pick the parts that I am interested in and understand. I can't say more about Buddhism, but I know that people who don't have love in their hearts can't understand the thoughts of Buddhism, and everyone People who study Buddhism have different opportunities, but there must be one thing in common, that is, they must all have love in their hearts.

This is a story about love, and it was written because of love. The main reference materials related to history and Buddhist common sense in this book: "Questions and Answers on Buddhist Common Sense" (Zhao Puchu/author) "Miscellaneous Research on the History of Buddhism" ("World Buddhist Classics Translation Collection" 41) "Basic Knowledge of Buddhism" (Zhou Shujia/author) "Chinese Zen History" (Yin Shun / author) "Sinicization of Buddhism and Buddhist Temples" (Baihua text/author) "A Small Dictionary of Buddhism" (Ren Jiyu/Chief Editor) "Life of Ancient Chinese Monks" (Li Fuhua/author) "Buddhism and Chinese Culture" (Xue Keqiao/author) "Chinese Religious Scenic Spots" (Ren Baogen, Yang Guangwen/edited) CCTV's "Discovery", "National Treasure Archives" and other columns