What is Life?

M: Master S: Student

S: Master, what is life? Is life just about growing up, get a job, then struggle in a job and mortgage, then fall sick when getting old and die?

M: What do you think?

S: If life is like this, it's suffering most of the time, except first few years of childhood...but it doesn't quite make sense if life is a suffering.

M: If not, then what you think it should be?

S: Why life cannot be happy?

M: Yes it can, and it is, just most people don't know.

S: How can we have a happy life then?

M: We are all happy by nature, we are all love by nature, we are all bliss by nature.

S: Why don't we feel all these?

M: This is because of the mind, the ego, the mind is making us miserable.

M: Can we get rid of the mind?

S: We don't need to get rid of it. We just need to make it our servant, when we need it, we ask it to come and help, when we don't need it, we tell the mind to take a rest. We should always be the master of our mind. We control the mind instead of letting the mind control us.

S: How can we make the mind our servant?

M: By practice.

S: What to practise?

M: Say, when you play basketball, how can you score?

S: When the ball pass through the hoop...

M: If you want to score, you need to focus on the hoop, right? We need to train our mind like this, establish a one-pointed focus, so it won't wander here and there.

S: That's it?

M: You also need to practise like a tortoise, what a tortoise will do when it doesn't feel comfortable with the outside world?

S: It will withdraw its limbs from outside to centre of the body.

M: Yes, this is also something you need to practise, withdrawing your senses inward (sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste) so you are not affected by the outside world.

S: Why we need to withdraw our senses?

M: Our senses, together with the mind, are binding us, these senses lead to attachment, either we want more of this, or we don't want that, we live our lives with a lot of cravings and aversions, the attachment to these sensual pleasures are the source of sufferings, they are stopping us to see something much bigger, something which is eternal.

S: So if we practise the one-pointed focus and withdrawal of senses, we will feel the bliss as you said?

M: Yes, think about it, if the mind is quiet, and your senses are all turning inward, what can you see/feel then?

S: The pure me.

M: Yes, that is the Self, the Pure Consciousness, and you will be able to taste the bliss, eternal bliss. When you have tasted this bliss, your life is not going to be the same anymore.

🙏🙏🙏

M: Master

S: Student

S：Master，人生到底是什麼？人生只是讀書，長大，然後工作，然後拚命的工作和供樓，然後老去，生病，死亡？

M：你覺得如何呢？

S：如果人生是這樣的話，除了童年的幾年時間，其餘大部分時間也是在受苦...但人生不應該如此吧，這樣受苦太沒意義了。

M：如果不是這樣，你認為是怎麼樣呢？

S：為什麼人生不可以開開心心呢？

M：是的，是絕對可以的，只不過大部份的人都不知道怎麼可以開開心心的生活。

S：那怎樣才能有開心的人生呢？

M：我們的本質其實是愛，喜樂。 我們理應常常在這個狀態。

S：那為什麼我們感受不到這些呢？

M：這是因為我們的頭腦，我們的小我。是頭腦，小我，思想讓我們痛苦不堪。

M：我們可以擺脫我們的頭腦/思想嗎？

S：我們不需要擺脫它，我們只需要把它變成我們的僕人，當我們需要它時，請它來幫手，當我們不需要它時，請它去休息便可。我們應該是我們思想的主人。我們要能控制我們的思想，而不是讓思想控制我們。

S：我們怎樣才能成為思想的主人呢？

M：透過練習。

S：練習什麼呢？

M：例如...打籃球的時候，你怎麼能得分？

S：當球穿過籃筐時...

M：如果你想得分，你需要專注於籃筐，對嗎？ 我們需要像這樣訓練我們的思想，讓它專注於一個點，不要讓它像野馬般東奔西跑。

S：就是這樣？

M：你還需要練習好像烏龜那樣...當烏龜感覺到不安全時，它會怎樣？

S：它會將四肢收回身體內。

M：是的，這也是你需要練習的東西，你要練習將你的感官 (五感）向內收攝，這樣你便不會受到外界的影響。

S：為什麼我們要將感官向內收攝呢？

M：我們的感受，加上頭腦的演繹後，便引致有很多的我執，我們喜歡這個，不喜歡那個；你看看，我們的人生是不是徘徊在貪愛及厭惡中？只要有新款電話推出，不少人便擁着去搶購；或是買了一大堆衣物，衣櫃也負荷不了；或是一大堆埋怨，埋怨家人，朋友，工作...，我們浮沉在物慾世界，我執，所以看不到更美好的東西，看不到生命的本質。

S：那我們練習把頭腦放在一點，然後將感官全部向內收攝，便能如你所說感受到喜樂嗎？

M：是的，試想一下，當頭腦沒有雜念，你所有的感官亦向內收攝，那你能看到/感受到什麼？

S：純粹的我。

M：是的，那就是本我，純粹意識，那便是永恆的喜樂。當你感受到這喜樂，你的人生便不再一樣了。

🙏🙏🙏