明天

Until Tomorrow

喇嘛钦！

Lama chen!

如果没有尽快修行，何时才会有修行的机会啊！

If we do not practice as quickly as possible, when will we get the chance to do it?

明天是否还在世上也很难说，翻开《因缘品》，里面讲道：“明日死谁知，今日当精进。彼死主大军，岂是汝亲戚？”

No one can confidently say that he will still be living tomorrow. Turning the pages of The Collection of Deliberate Sayings, I found this passage: “Who is sure he will live until tomorrow? Today is the time to be ready, for the legions of Death are not on our side.”

元朝的石屋清珙禅师长年以岩石为居，清心寡欲，与世无交，其为我们后人留下的山居诗，却篇篇沁出山野的清香。“岩房终日寂寥寥，世念可曾有一毫？虽着衣裳吃粥饭，恰似死了未曾烧。”

Shiwu Qinggong, an ascetic Zen master of Yuan Dynasty, lived in rocky caves for years and had little contact with the outside world. He passed down poems on life at the mountainside; every one of them is imbued with refreshing valley flair:

Tranquil is my cave dwelling all day, could there be one flicker of earthly thought?

Wearing clothes and eating porridge I must be, yet unmoving as dead with no fire burning is my being.

表明禅师虽已超越生死之境界，却劝导世人要放弃世念，而以舍身赴死之心虔诚求道。

This poem shows that the Zen master has transcended life and death. He advises that one should renounce worldly preoccupations and be willing to sacrifice oneself for the pursuit of truth.

生命如风中之油灯，随时面临熄灭的危险。米兰·昆德拉说：“生活是一棵长满可能性的树。”谁也难以断定，下一步可能面临什么。

Life is like an oil lamp wavering in the wind; at every moment it faces the danger of being blown out. Milan Kundera said: “Life is a tree laden with potential.” Nobody is certain what one will encounter at the next moment.

明天能否醒来，谁也难以断定。龙树菩萨在《亲友书》中言：“寿命多害即无常，犹如水泡为风吹，呼气吸气沉睡间，能得觉醒极稀奇。”

Neither can anyone be sure of waking up the next morning. Lord Nagarjuna says in Letter to a Friend:

Life flickers in the flurries of a thousand ills, more fragile than a bubble in a stream.

In sleep, each breath departs and is again drawn in; how wondrous that we wake up living still!

麦彭仁波切的弟子单秋大师在班玛的多科森林中闭关时，每天晚上不论何时，只要一醒来，就开始修法、磕头或做转绕。他说：“难道你知道你明天还在吗？难道你还要睡吗？”

Master Dan Cho was a disciple of Mipham Rinpoche. When he was doing a retreat in the woods at Panma de Duoku, he would prostrate or circumambulate immediately after waking up at night. He says: “Are you so sure that you will live until tomorrow? Do you really want to go back to sleep?”

世间有智慧的人，对寿命无常也有很深的认识。康纳勒普说：“今天的事要今天做完，太阳绝不会为你而再升。”清朝的文嘉有在《明日歌》中也说：“明日复明日，明日何其多，我生待明日，万事成蹉跎。”

Wise people in the world also appreciate acutely the impermanence of life. Konnerup says: “Finish the task today that’s assigned for today. The sun never rises again just for you.” In The Song of Tomorrow Master Wen Jia of the Qing Dynasty says: “Tomorrow after tomorrow, too many tomorrows. Waiting always until tomorrow, nothing ever gets accomplished. ”

我与和我一样的假修行人，常常将事情推至明天，在散乱中抛掷了大好时光。看到前辈们的言教，我必须督促自己：放下一切琐事，去修吧！

Fake practitioners like myself and others always put off things until tomorrow and waste precious life in distractions. Now, having the instructions given by the masters, I must urge myself: Relinquish all the trifling affairs, just practice!

壬午年正月十一日 　
2002年2月23日

11th of January, Year of RenWu
February 23, 2002