Inspirational Wisdom by Master Hsing Yun: Who am I ?

Before I was born, who was I? After birth, who am I? We come into this world with happiness and depart with sorrow. Who is the one on the deathbed with his eyes closed?

This verse comes from the Qing Emperor Shun-chi's poem in praise of the monastic order. His questions are aply put. Do we know where we come from? Who were we before we were born?

The human body is made up of the four elements of earth, fire, water, and wind. When we die, these four elements scatter and are regrouped as we taken an another physical form with rebirth in one of the six realms of existence. We are lost as we move from one realm to another. We do not know what we are doing in the womb, and when we are born, we do not know who we are. Most people rejoice at births and lament upon deaths. What is true joy? What is true sorrow?

Once, a Zen master was going door to door to seek for alms. It happened that one of the families he visited just had a new baby and everyone was congratulating the new father. The Zen master, however, started crying out loud. The new father was very surprised and asked him why he was crying. He replied that he was crying because there would be one more death in the future.

Birth comes from death. If we do not want to die, then we must make sure that we break the cylce of rebirth within the six realms of existence. Once there was a famous poet, by the name of Po-hu Tang. He wrote this poem to illustrate the brevity of life:

It is is rare that we live to be seventy,
And my seventy years come as even a surprise to me.
The first ten years of life, we are too young to know anything.
The last ten years, we are too old to do anything.
This leaves only fifty good years, half of which we spend in sleep.
This leaves us only twenty-five years to truly live.
But do you realize how many obstacles
we have to endure in these twenty-five years?

Nowadays, people can live to be a hundred and twenty. In the boundless life of the universe, a hundred and twenty years, go by in a flash. Not to mention many of us will not live to be even a hundred. Many will pass away in their sleep, and we are never sure if we will continue living from one moment to the next.

The joy of birth and the sorrow of death are normal emotions for most people. But someone with wisdom will not allow this precious life to go by meaninglessly. They will not allow themselves to wallow in ignorance. We must beware of delusion and open ourselves up to understanding life and death.