《193》有时,我在行禅时,天上落着微微的小雨,我会想放弃,到茅篷内避雨,但是,忆起昔日在稻田里工作的那段时光:我的裤子通常从前一天湿到隔日,但黎明前又得起床,再把它穿上,然后走到屋子下面,将水牛牵出牛栏。那里面一片泥泞,我捉起牛绳,而牛绳通常都被牛粪给覆盖着,然后水牛会摆动牠的尾巴,沾在上面的牛粪会溅得我一身都是,我的脚因患有香港脚,所以很痛。我会边走边想:「为何生命会如此痛苦?」而今,我在这儿经行,一点雨又算得了什么呢?这样的想法,使我在修行中激励了我自己。
Sometimes when doing walking meditation, a soft rain would start to fall and I’d want to quit and go inside, but then I’d think of the times I used to work in the rice paddies. My pants would be wet from the day before but I’d have to get up before dawn and put them on again. Then I’d have to go down below the house to get the buffalo out of its pen. It was so muddy in there. I’d grab its rope and it would be covered in buffalo dung. Then the buffalo’s tail would swish around and spatter me with dung on top of that. My feet would be sore with athlete’s foot and I’d walk along thinking, "Why is life so miserable?" And now here I wanted to stop my walking meditation…what was a little bit of rain to me? Thinking like that I encouraged myself in the practice.