We dedicated the merit generated from our prayer
tonight to the People of Japan who suffered from the major earthquake hitting
Japan on 11 Mar 2011 - may Buddha bless them.
There is an increasing number of disasters
occurring in the world today. Some people thought that we Singaporeans are very
fortunate because Singapore is almost free of natural calamities. Although we
live in a land free of major crisis, it will be meaningful if a crisis helps to
engender a sense of impermanence in us.
The Japanese live in constant fear of earth
quakes. In 1923, a 7.9 magnitude earth quake killed 140,000 people in Kanto,
Japan. The People of Japan live in fear every day, worrying about Japan being
completely flattened by earth quakes one day. In fact, the earth is rocked by
tremors every second daily, but most of them went unnoticed. Major earth quakes
are expected to occur once every hundred years. But in the two recent decades,
major earth quakes occurred frequently, including the big tsunami hitting
Indonesia (Aceh), the major earth quake hitting China (Wen Chuan), New Zealand
(Christchurch), Taiwan (921) and Japan (Kobe), causing the loss of millions of
lives. The People of Japan live in fear of earth quake daily; it will be great
if they can turn their fear into a strong sense of impermanence which could
propel them into a vigorous practice of the Dharma.
On the contrary, Singaporeans live in a land free
of major disasters and tend to take things for granted. Most people do not seem
to have a sense of crisis when major earth quakes hit other countries, for they
seemed too remote. Some people seemed to worry more about having paid for the
tours to Tokyo or Hokkaido and insisted on going on the tours. They did not
seem to consider the possibility of losing their lives in an earth quake. When
impermanence or a major disaster strikes, one could perish immediately regardless
of whether he is a president, a prime minister or a billionaire.
I watched the news yesterday and I found the
earth quake hitting Japan appeared similar to the scenes depicted in the movie
"2012". The tsunami was 10 meter high and it swept away people,
boats, cars, trains, houses standing in its way. Had you been there on the
spot, you would have felt completely helpless and realized that mankind is just
too insignificant in the face of mother-nature!
Sakyamuni Buddha said, if you simply enjoyed the
materialistic wealth of your life but know nothing of the Dharma, you are
simply wasting your time, your life and the resources on earth. We should turn
our sense of impermanence into a motivation for practice. Practice with vigour
till you reach the state of enlightenment, and you will be able to help the rest
of the sentient beings. Do not just live your life as a routine, day after day,
year after year, wasting your valuable time - your entire life will just pass
you by in a blink of eye! Bodhisattva Shamanthabhadra gave a good analogy – we
are just like a fish living in a fish tank, where the water level in the tank
recedes gradually. One day, we will suddenly realize that the water in the fish
tank has completely run dry and our life will soon come to an end. In fact, our
death will come sooner than expected.
Two nights ago, while I was driving home from
work, I suddenly felt that my neck became stiff and I could not turn my head.
When I reached home, I could not alight from my car because my left leg became too
stiff to move. I had to massage my leg for awhile before I could start dragging
my feet home. At night, half of my body became too stiff to move. On the
following day, Japan was hit by a major earth quake! Initially I thought I was
having a surge in my blood pressure, but the doctor advised me that my blood
pressure was actually normal. My body was very stiff and I felt very
uncomfortable throughout the period. Fortunately the stiffness suddenly
disappeared today; it came and went like a gust of wind! This is just
impermanence!
While the news of Japan earth quake was reported
widely, I got a SMS from Dharma Brother Liang. He informed me that his wife
fell on her way to a hospital for a check up. Her elbow was dislocated and her
bone was fractured. She is now being hospitalized. Like I said, anything can
happen at any moment. Impermanence is staring at us right in our face! Please
practice your mind-training and do not succumb to your hatred, lust and
ignorance – do not be deceived by your own thoughts. The fall can be fatal! I
had survived several falls, thanks to the blessing of the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas
and Dharma Protectors. One day, I went to a hawker centre for my breakfast.
Someone dropped his bowl of noodles on the floor. I stepped on the spillage and
slipped. I was flung a few feet away from the spot and landed with my back on
the floor. Fortunately I survived the accident unscathed. Some people could end
up with broken limbs after a fall. We had a Dharma Sister who fell in Malaysia
in the past and needed to rest at home for the next one year. Some even died
from their falls.
You should not assume that you are still young
and you still have plenty of time – you will not know when you will die. You
could get into your bed tonight but you may not be able to wake up the
following day to put on your pair of slippers again. Do not assume that you
still have plenty of time. When tsunami or earth quake strikes, there is no
more time left. Do not waste your time on frivolous matters or arguments. When
a disaster land on you, your four elements (earth, water, fire, wind) will
decompose and you will not even have time to repent. I hope all of you can turn
a sense of crisis engendered by the Japan earth quake into a sense of
impermanence, and practice with vigour!
The Japan earth quake is not totally unrelated to
us. I was born in Japan in one of my past lives, as a Vajrayana practitioner.
So, Japan is one of my homelands. My feelings for Japan and Tibet are equal.
Tibet is one of my past homelands too. I was born in Tibet as a practitioner in
one of my past lives. The trail of practice is non-erasable. The Japan earth
quake saddens me. I felt as if my homeland is destroyed. However, this cannot
be helped due to the collective karma of the sentient beings. I hope the People
of Japan can rise from the devastation, and the mind of people will turn
towards virtue, in order to avoid future crisis. If the mind of people
continues to turn towards evil, crisis will just continue perpetually. There
are still many people buried underneath the rubble. We pray to the Buddhas,
Bodhisattvas and the enlightened ones to help the People of Japan, help them
return to their homes, help more people practice the Dharma and transform the
collective bad karma into good karma.
Date: 12 Mar 2011
