Let Go-Put Your Heart Down


monks walking across a bridge at Beng Milea Temple
monks walking across a bridge at Beng Milea Temple
The image is from Scott Stulberg Photography.

One day, a Buddhist monk and his apprentice came to a big river and saw a beautiful woman standing by it. Because she couldn’t cross it, she was looking worriedly at it.

The monk walked over and asked the woman: “Do you have an urgent need to cross the river?”

The woman replied: “Yes, Master, my mother is seriously ill. I am hurrying to go back and see her. No one knows that I am at the river, and I am worried I will not get there in time.”

The Buddhist monk said lightly: “This is indeed urgent, let me carry you across the river.”

The woman looked at the two monks in front of her and was hesitant, but when she thought of her mother who was lying in bed, she had no choice but to agree.

The Buddhist monk stepped forward and held the beautiful woman firmly in his arms, rushing past the turbulent river and bringing her to the other side of the river.

Afterward, the monk and apprentice continued on their journey.

After a half-day journey, the young apprentice couldn’t help but ask him: “Doesn’t the master say that monks should not be close to a woman? Why did you carry the beautiful young woman across the river?”

“Oh, do you mean that woman who couldn’t cross the river and needed help?” said the monk casually. “I already put her down when we passed the river and crossed to the other side. Why have you held onto her?”

The monk then said to his apprentice, “if you want pure land, you need to purify your heart. That is to say, to establish a pure land, first of all, purify your heart. Buddhist practice cultivates the mind. The heart is clean so that all beings are clean.”

The woman who was waiting for crossing the river, in the mind of the older monk, was just a human being and someone who needed help. When the monk put her down on the riverbank, he put her down completely. But the young apprentice, though not directly carrying the woman across the river, “carried” her in his heart and was unwilling to put her down. He, as we call it, “could not put his heart down.”

有一天,坦山和尚和他的徒弟化缘来到了一条大河边,看见河边站着一位漂亮的女子,因为过不了河,正满脸焦急地对着河水发愁。

坦山和尚走了过去,问那女子:“施主,您一定有什么急事需要过河吧?”那女子回答道:“是的,师傅,我母亲病重,我正急着赶回去探望,谁知来这里却被河水所阻,正在犯愁呢。”

坦山和尚淡淡地说:“施主,既有急事,那就让我抱你过河吧。”

女子看了看眼前的两个和尚,心里犹豫不决,但一想到正卧病在床的母亲,只好无可奈何地应允了。见到女子已经应允,坦山和尚便走上前去,将那个美丽的女子牢牢地抱在怀中,淌过湍急的河水,送到了河的对岸。

事后,坦山和尚与徒弟继续赶路。走了半天路程,年轻的徒弟终于忍不住问坦山:“师傅,不是说出家人是不应该接近女色的吗?刚才你为什么还要抱那个年轻漂亮的女子过河呢?”

“哦,你是说那个过不了河需要‘普渡’的女人吗?”坦山和尚不经意地说,“我早就已经把她放下了,你为什么一直在紧‘抱’着她不放呢?”坦山和尚接着对徒弟说,“欲得净土,当净其心,随其心净则佛土净。”这就是说,要建立净土,首先要净心,心净则国土自净,国土净则佛土亦净。坦山的教诲,使自己的徒弟豁然开悟,同时也给了我们许多启迪。

那个等待渡河的女子,在坦山和尚的心目中,不过就是一个普通的“众生”,并没有什么男女的分别,仅仅是一个需要帮助,需要“普渡”的众生而已。所以,坦山和尚在将她抱到岸边放下的时候,也就全部把她“放下”了。而那个年轻的和尚,虽然没有直接抱那女子过河。但心里却一直在“抱”着她不肯放下,这也就是我们平时所说的“放心不下”。

作者:心无挂碍_4e2e
链接:https://www.jianshu.com/p/16b01fbd54a4
来源:简书
简书著作权归作者所有,任何形式的转载都请联系作者获得授权并注明出处。

Note:

The original Chinese text is from https://www.jianshu.com/p/16b01fbd54a4.

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