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The Venerable Master has employed all manner of means to teach stubborn living beings. All these years he has exhausted himself mentally and physically and eventually become sick. In order to gather all the gathas written by our Venerable Master, I reviewed my diary and unexpectedly found the following paragraphs spoken by the Venerable Master over three years ago. They reveal the great determination and willpower of the Venerable Master, so we decide to include them here.
Sunday, November 17, 1991
The Master said, “My wish is to take on the sufferings of living beings. I will suffer for the sake of living beings, especially in the last few years. I have a lot of offense karma, though it’s gone now. Even offenses that fill up the sky will dissolve with one act of repentance.”
“Master, why do you say you’ve a lot of offense karma?” I asked in a puzzlement.
“I scold people all the time. I take up the offense karma of living beings and place it in my physical self. I’ve been scolding good people, and not the bad.”
Before, some disciples did not know why they got punished or scolded, and they could not accept it. (The Venerable Master treats left-home disciples and lay disciples the same way.) Now that you’ve read the above passage, you shall understand that the Venerable Master actually has done you a favor. Realizing the difficulty of saving living beings, the Venerable Master expressed concern in the following two gathas:
The Difficulty of Saving Living Beings
Written by the Venerable Master on the night of August 1, 1958.
Getting up early and retiring late,
Whom am I busy for?
Living beings are hard to ferry over,
How sad it is!
Fallen into this world of earthly dusts,
Their self-natures are upside-down.
Constant reminders are of no avail,
No other way I can employ.
The Grandeur of a Dream
What’s there to admire in the grandeur of a dream,
Since the wealth and honor in front of your eyes are not real?
Why is it that fools are so attracted to them?
What a pity that they live drunk and die dreaming!
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