Empty Handed
The tedious, heavy heat of summer is over. Now the autumn is here. When we think of the seasons, we think of the passage of time. Some people are so happy and busy that they are hardly aware of the passage of time. Others are so sad that a single day seems like three years. Time is the same for everyone, even though we all feel it differently. Time goes by anyway…… Now autumn is here.
The leaves are turning to gold and red; soon they will fall to the ground. This is the Law of Nature. This is the season of sadness, the season of the beginning of the end of life. We watch the setting sun……we remember that we came empty handed to this world and we will go empty handed. We remember that even if we become millionaires, we cannot take anything with us. During this life, we do not know where we came from or where we will go to.
Life is a white cloud floating in the sky – it appears and disappears. Life and death also come and go – so why are we people so attached to our things, to our family and to each other? When all is well and we get something, we are happy. When things go badly and we lose, we are sad.
According to the Buddha, our body is nothing but the four elements – earth, water, fire, air – coming together for a brief period and then separating. Our body does not even belong to us. So why are we attached to it? Why do we make ourselves suffer?
When we climb a mountain or fly in the sky, we look down and see the buildings and houses like match boxes. We can imagine all the doll-like people inside. Some are fighting; some are happy; some are crying; all are in their match boxes. If we look at our own lives from far away, we do not take it so seriously. So let’s make a situation where we look at our lives from a great distance. Let’s look at our situation objectively and then we can be free from ourselves, from our money, from fame – all of which are nothing but a dream, a dewdrop, a flash of lightening.
Now autumn is here in all its splendor. Look at that white cloud up in the blue, blue sky. What can we learn from it?
Empty mind, detached Like a white cloud floating in the Blue, autumn sky!