The Eternal Spring
(The Year of Mouse – 2008)
“The spring comes the spring goes, think the spring ends,
Flowers fade flowers blossom, but the spring is still the spring.”[5]
Normally, people often think the coming spring is the gone spring, the going spring is the finished spring, but towards the Awakened Ones, especially Zen Master Chan Khong, who do not think so. They think though spring that comes goes, comes back, and arrives, but the spring is still the everlasting spring, which is authentically present in you and in us, that is, the love spring and the heart spring.
We each have the everlasting spring if we know how to cultivate and water it with our lovers by our conscious breath, good thought, good speech, and good action. Our lovers can be our teachers, our disciples, our father, our mother, our children, our friends, and be our darling, etc.
In the second sentence, we see flowers blossom they fade, but the spring is still the spring. Flowers are plants that fade bloom, exist, and end, but love flowers and heart flowers that are everlasting no birth and no death. Their meanings are beyond the time and the space. We are the Buddha’s children; we can gather these real and fresh flowers right in the present moments if we steadily practice the Buddha’s teachings.
“Not to do the evil,
To do the good,
To purify one’s mind,
This is the teachings of the Buddhas.”[6]
“As the spring flower of freshness and beauty,
With charming colour and with fragrance,
Even so, our well-spoken words,
Flowers indicate the time and spring indicates the space. Flowers and spring, time and space, both mingle with one another like a body and its shadow inseparably. There are flowers that are with spring and there is spring that is flowers. There is time that is with space and there is space that is with time.
Flowers symbolize beauty and freshness. We each are the symbol of beauty and that of freshness for many persons. Each time we are not happy, we are angry, our spring flower gets faded, and we cannot bring beauty and freshness for everyone. Each time we are happy, we are peaceful, our spring flower is beautiful and fresh, and we can bring peacefulness and happiness for everyone. Cultivation is in order that we can gather flowers and fruits of peacefulness and happiness for many persons.
“The spring comes all over our native land,
We are the Buddha’s children, we are the Vietnamese people, despite staying any place, when the spring comes back, we each remember fatherland and ancestral country and remember the motherland spring and the national spring. Owing to the motherland spring and the national spring, we remember our spiritual ancestors and blood ancestors.
Our spiritual ancestors are the Buddha, Bodhisattvas, sages, and holy sangha, etc. our blood ancestors are paternal grandparents, maternal grandparents, parents, etc. The spring that comes is to remind us of our spiritual ancestors and blood ancestors.
The Maitreya Buddha[9] appears right in the first Day of the Spring Festival, the new Spring of New Year, the day of Lunar New Year, and Tết of the Vietnamese people, He always opens a smile of joyfulness and freedom to bring peacefulness and happiness for everyone and every family. We each are each present and future Maitreya Buddha so that we can establish His joyfulness and freedom to bring joyfulness and happiness for the many.
The Maitreya Buddha[9] appears right in the first Day of the Spring Festival, the new Spring of New Year, the day of Lunar New Year, and Tết of the Vietnamese people, He always opens a smile of joyfulness and freedom to bring peacefulness and happiness for everyone and every family. We each are each present and future Maitreya Buddha so that we can establish His joyfulness and freedom to bring joyfulness and happiness for the many.
In brief, despite flowers that bloom fade, despite spring that comes goes, though we are far or near, our heart always remembers the love spring and the heart spring, remember the fatherland spring and the national spring, and remember our spiritual ancestors and blood ancestors as we are childhood.
On the occasion of the coming spring, we respectfully wish the Honoured Monks, Nuns, and far-near Buddhists full enjoyment of the Everlasting Spring – Joyfulness and peacefulness.
May you all be peaceful and happy all the time!
[1]Thơ của Thiền sư Chân Không (1046-1100) ở thời Lý (1010-1225) ở Việt Nam . “Xuân khứ xuân lai nghi xuân tận, hoa lạc hoa khai chỉ thị xuân”
[2] Pháp cú, kệ số 183.
[3] Pháp cú, kệ số 52.
[4] Người viết.
[5] Verse of Zen Master Chan Khong (1046-1100) in the Ly dynasty (1010-1225) in medieval Vietnam .
[6] Dhp. v. 183.
[7] Dhp. v. 52.
[8] The writer.