宗塔

Zong Ta

暴雨一夜的肆虐终于偃旗息鼓，太阳从云层中探出了笑颜，经过雨的冲刷，空气变得格外透明，草场也绿得令人心醉。白色和金黄色的天鹅在天空中优雅地滑翔，淙淙溪水缓慢地滋润着宗塔草原，白色的野花繁星般地扑满视野，蜜蜂蝴蝶在花间轻快地畅游着，青蛙在草丛里欢快地跳跃着，青山环绕，森林茂密。

The thunderstorm raging all night finally stopped. The sun came out smiling from behind the clouds. In the washed, transparent air, the green fields were simply enchanting. White and golden swans glided gracefully in the sky while the brooks ran gently, nourishing the Zong Ta prairie that is surrounded by verdant mountains and dense forests. Bees and butterflies danced merrily among the sprawling white wildflowers and frogs leaped playfully in tall grasses.

我来到了过去的母校宗塔中学的原址，如今这里已改建为一所小学，过去的教室已破败不堪，以前住过的宿舍已不复存在，原址上新修了一栋平房。

Here I was revisiting the place where my alma mater, Zong Ta Middle School, used to be. The old classrooms were in ruins and had been replaced by an elementary school. The old dormitory where I used to stay was gone, a newly built bungalow now stood there.

朝气蓬勃的中学时光，如同电影般一幕幕地在脑海中闪现。那时，我们是那么地充满活力，仿佛有使不完的精力。如今，青春已弃我而去，空剩下一把老朽的身骨。过去的师长大多撒手人寰，同窗的好友纷纷与世长辞。栽植于校园旁的树木早已枝繁叶茂、参天林立，当年参与植树的同学却音讯杳无、难觅踪迹。站在学校对面的山上，回首俯视曾经生活的故迹，人事皆非，生起感慨万千。无常真是毫无情面的裁判，吞噬了过去的一切，也使人不敢留恋现在的拥有。更使人晓知幻化的山川、假合的身体都不离无常的实质。

My lively middle school days flashed through my mind like scenes in a movie. In those days, we were bubbling over with life as if loaded with inexhaustible energy. Nowadays, my youth is gone, leaving behind only a sack of worn flesh and bones. The majority of my old teachers have passed away, as have many of my schoolmates. The saplings we planted around the campus are now towering trees adorned with luxuriant leaves, but the classmates who planted them are heard from no more or are nowhere to be found. Standing on the hill overlooking my old school, I was choked with emotion; as things change, so do humans, only worse. Impermanence, like an iron-faced umpire, swallows up all there was in the past. It allows us no clinging to what we have now. It forces us to see the fleeting nature of the illusory landscape and the composite human body.

略感欣慰的是，一位当年的同窗拉布，现已出家，在对面山上有四、五十人的寺庙里担任住持，每天为他们宣讲佛法。使我在满目的无常中感受到一丝永恒的光芒。

But there is also something to be happy about. My classmate Lhapu has taken the Buddhist ordination and is now the head monk of a monastery on a facing mountain, teaching Dharma to 40 to 50 monks every day. Thinking of him made me catch a glimpse of the everlasting beacon amidst the rumbles of impermanence.

壬午年六月初九　　
2002年7月18日

9th of June, Year of RenWu
July 18, 2002