**"Borrowed Body"**
The body is borrowed. The matter that constitutes the body arises from causes and conditions—it is a temporary aggregation. What is borrowed must eventually be returned. The physical elements will dissolve and transform into new forms. This idea is deeply rooted in Buddhist teachings:
> “Monks, you should always be single-minded in your practice, diligently seeking liberation and not indulging in the five desires. Like borrowed possessions, they must eventually be returned to their original owner.”
> — *The Sutra of the Buddha’s Last Teaching (Yijiao Jing)*
> “If you wish to understand how the body arises from the realms of cause, observe that space gives rise to your physical body. Within this body, all sensations of cold, heat, movement, and awareness come from empty space. The Four Great Elements are illusory in nature.”
> — *The Śūraṅgama Sūtra*
> “This body is truly foul, full of diseases, fragile and decaying. Life hangs by a single breath.”
> — *The Dhammapada*, Verse 148
> “Just as a painter uses various colors to depict human figures—though the images may be pleasing, desirable, beautiful, and refined—they are not real. Likewise, the physical body may appear desirable and beautiful, but it is not real; it is merely a temporary combination of causes and conditions.”
> — *Saṃyukta Āgama*, Sūtra No. 1169
> Commentary by Kumārajīva on the *Prajñāpāramitā Heart Sūtra*:
> “The body is a composite illusion, like a bubble or a shadow.”
**“Worldly Dharma”** refers to the principles and methods of dealing with people and matters in daily life—within the family, society, education, and work. It is called "worldly" because it does not concern issues of birth and death or liberation from the cycle of rebirth (samsara).
Both **worldly dharma** and **transcendental dharma** are dharma. The levels or meanings of “dharma” can be illustrated through the word “heaven” (天, *tian*):
* **Heaven** refers to the sky above.
* **Heaven** refers to time, such as today and tomorrow.
* There is **innate heaven** and **acquired heaven**; the former belongs to the past, the latter to the present.
* Heaven also represents **principle**—as in heavenly principle, human sentiment, and national law. Heaven is reason or truth.
Heaven includes the **desire realm**, **form realm**, and **formless realm**—that is, the three realms of existence.
**Heaven** is also the **heaven of true nature**: to realize the mind and see one’s nature. It refers to our very thought in this present moment;
When the mind is pure, it is heaven; when the mind is impure, it is hell.
They are all called “heaven”—and yet none of them is truly heaven.
They are all dharma—and yet none of them is ultimately dharma.
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**Abiding Constantly in the Nature of Equanimity**
To understand “equanimity” (*śama* or *upekkhā*), one must first understand “grasping” (*upādāna*). Grasping means to acquire, to take possession. When the eye sees something pleasant, joy arises; when it sees something unpleasant, affliction arises—this is called “grasping.” The mind, having contacted the forms perceived by the senses, generates discriminative thoughts, leading to attachment and aversion, and consequently, a series of mental states regarding what exists and what does not. Not only the eye, but all five senses and mental movements are inseparable from grasping. Grasping gives rise to discriminative consciousness.
Equanimity is the opposite of grasping. It is described as: the eye sees form, yet there is neither joy nor sorrow; one abides peacefully in equanimity, with right mindfulness and clear awareness. Likewise, the ear hears sound; the nose smells scent; the tongue tastes flavor; the body feels contact; the mind perceives mental objects—all without joy or sorrow, peacefully abiding in equanimity, with right mindfulness and clear awareness.
From equanimity arises the purest Dharma: six kinds of supreme purity arise from transformation of the basis. This is the ultimate, uninterrupted, flawless, unstained, constantly equal abiding. Whether walking or sitting, whether perceiving forms with the eye or mental objects with the mind, one abides constantly in equality.
Thus, **to abide constantly in the nature of equanimity** means to remain unwavering in a state of non-grasping. Not acquiring, not possessing, seeing all things as equal and without distinction—this is what is called the pure Dharma.
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There were a few acres of land at the temple used for growing vegetables. In the first year, just after the seeds sprouted, insects came and ate most of the seedlings, leaving very few to grow. Someone suggested using pesticide, but the monks at the temple said, “No chemicals. Let’s wait and see what happens next year.”
In the second year, as soon as the seedlings emerged, the insects returned. People said, “We should use pesticides quickly, before all the seedlings are eaten.” The monks replied, “No chemicals. Let’s just treat them as a group of hungry beings who have come to the temple for alms.” Eventually, the seedlings were completely devoured by the insects.
In the third year, when the seedlings sprouted again, the insects came back. But this time, they only ate half of the seedlings, and the other half grew into vegetables. The monks said, “The hungry beings are living a little better this year than last. Still, let’s not use chemicals.”
By the fourth year, there were far fewer insects in the vegetable garden, and most of the seedlings were able to grow into mature vegetables.
Venerable Mahāmaudgalyāyana once used his supernatural powers to visit another Buddha-land to listen to the Dharma. The beings in that world were much larger in size than him, so some Bodhisattvas mistook him for an insect listening to the teaching. The Buddha there explained to them that it was not an insect, but the great disciple Mahāmaudgalyāyana from the Saha world. Someone reading this scripture had an ant crawl onto the page and stop right at this very passage.
An old woman once placed a solar-powered player on her windowsill that continuously played a recording of the Buddha’s name. One day, she noticed a cockroach lying still next to the player. At first, she thought it was dead, but on closer inspection, she saw its antennae were moving slightly. The next day, the same cockroach returned and lay motionless beside the player again. This continued for several days—the cockroach kept appearing next to the player.
In ancient times, there was a tavern keeper who would always scoop out flies that had fallen into wine vats and release them. One day, he was wrongly arrested by local officials for a robbery case. Just as the county magistrate was about to write his verdict, a swarm of flies suddenly flew in and landed on the brush he held. No matter how he waved them away, they kept returning. The magistrate found it strange and felt that there must be a reason, so he stopped writing. The case was later reopened and the tavern keeper was found innocent.
“Lift the curtain so the little swallow can return to its nest, poke a hole in the paper window to let the dull-witted fly find its way out, often leave some food for the mice that sneak into the house, and show compassion for moths by not lighting the oil lamp..”
—Su Shi
**Three Kinds of Ultimate Truths:**
1. **Not harming any sentient beings.**
2. **All conditioned phenomena are of a nature to cease** — one observes arising and cessation throughout all worldly existence.
3. **There is no self, no place of self, and no possessions of self.** In the entire world, there is no appearance or likeness of a self.
The First White Hair
The wise and virtuous King Makhā governed his kingdom with great care. The nation was prosperous, and the people lived in peace and happiness. One day, the king said to his personal attendant—whose duty was to comb and wash his hair, “When you notice a white hair on my head, be sure to inform me immediately.” From then on, the attendant paid close attention to the king’s hair.
Many years later, while combing the king’s hair, the attendant discovered a white strand. He respectfully plucked it and presented it to the king. Upon seeing it, the king thought to himself, “I am already old—how many days do I have left? I have dedicated the first half of my life to the nation; now it is time to find a new path for myself. It is time to renounce the worldly life.”
He said to the crown prince, “Look, I now have white hair. I am old. I will entrust the affairs of the state to you. You must continue to lead the nation as I did—placing the people’s welfare as the highest priority, maintaining the wealth of the country, the peace of its people, and the harmony of society.”
After properly handing over state matters, the king retired to a monastery in the Makhā Grove to focus on spiritual practice. Because he was diligent and earnest in his cultivation, he quickly eradicated all afflictions. He found the monastic life—pure, detached, and free from worries—light and liberating. Moved by this peace, he vowed to pursue the monastic path in every future lifetime.
At this point in the story, the Buddha turned to his disciples and said, “That King Makhā was none other than myself in previous life.”
The first white hair was a sign—a reminder to leave behind the past and open the door to the future. In Buddhism, white hair, as a symbol of aging, serves as a reminder of life’s impermanence and fleeting nature. Upon seeing his white hair, King Makhā awakened and chose to let go of worldly power and status, opting instead to seek inner peace and liberation. This reflects the Buddhist teaching of “letting go”—only by releasing attachment to worldly concerns can one attain true liberation.
In this story, the Buddha uses his past life to emphasize the importance of spiritual cultivation and continuous awakening.
In Buddhist scriptures, the method of cultivation is summarized in one sentence: “Cultivate all wholesome dharmas with no perception of self, others, beings, or life span.” Wholesome dharmas include the Six Pāramitās (perfections): generosity, morality, forbearance, diligence, meditation, and wisdom.
Generosity includes both the giving of material wealth and the sharing of the Dharma.
Morality involves abstaining from killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, intoxicants, greed, and hatred.
King Makhā used a single white hair as a point of departure—to say farewell to the past—and also as a starting point to give his life the most precious meaning.
Modern readers who encounter the story of King Makhā should reflect on themselves:
• Each day, are we breaking precepts or keeping them?
• Each day, are we getting closer to purity or drifting farther from it?
• Each day, are our afflictions increasing or decreasing?
• And each day, we gain one more white hair.
A Long Discourse on a Loaf of Bread and Nineteen Years
Jean Valjean was originally a poor, ordinary man. With seven hungry nephews at home, he broke the window of a bakery during winter and stole a loaf of bread to feed the children. As a result, he was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison. However, due to multiple escape attempts, his sentence kept getting extended, and he ultimately served 19 years.
In Christian doctrine, “theft” is indeed one of the prohibitions in the Ten Commandments:
“You shall not steal.” — Exodus 20:15
Literally speaking, stealing bread clearly violates this commandment and is therefore considered a “sin.”
However, Christianity does not judge only by actions, but places great importance on a person’s heart, intentions, and repentance.
Mark 2:27: “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” — This implies that laws and rules should not override the basic needs of human beings.
In Buddhism, “not stealing” is also one of the Five Precepts:
The precept of “not taking what is not given”: taking anything that does not belong to you and without permission constitutes theft.
Therefore, from the perspective of Buddhist precepts, Jean Valjean’s act was a violation.
But Buddhism emphasizes karma, intention, and dependent origination, and does not judge sin in a mechanical way.
• Jean Valjean’s motive in stealing the bread was compassion: to feed starving children.
• He did not act out of greed or attachment to pleasure, but out of desperation.
• As the Dharma teaches: “Abstain from all evil, cultivate all good, and act with compassion as the foundation.” When an action is motivated by the intent to relieve others’ suffering, the karmic consequences are fundamentally different.
In the Upāsaka Precepts Sūtra, it is stated that if one temporarily violates a precept in order to save a life, such an act can be understood or even transformed.
In Buddhism, attachment (taṇhā) is the root cause of samsāra (the cycle of rebirth and suffering). However, in this case:
• What Jean Valjean was truly “attached” to was his sense of responsibility and familial love — more a manifestation of compassion than craving.
• He had no greed for the bread itself; his aim was survival.
From a deeper Buddhist perspective:
• The suffering he endured (his imprisonment) was the karmic fruit of past lives.
• The bread was merely a condition (a “link in the chain of dependent origination”) that triggered the ripening of that karma.
• So the real reason for his imprisonment wasn’t the act of stealing bread per se, but the maturation of karmic seeds from past lives.
His 19 years of suffering was a fruit, but it might also be the cause of his liberation.
Buddhism does not see suffering as inherently negative. On the contrary:
• In prison, Jean Valjean underwent immense suffering and was transformed.
• After his release, he was deeply moved by the compassion of a bishop and resolved to lead a new life.
• He gave up his former identity, cared for orphans, and devoted himself to doing good.
This is very much in line with the Buddhist teaching of “taking suffering as a teacher, turning pain into the path.”
His suffering helped him let go of past resentment and attachments, giving rise to compassion and wisdom — a process known as “transforming consciousness into wisdom” (轉識成智).
Looking at the entire narrative of Les Misérables, Jean Valjean’s later life closely resembles the Bodhisattva path:
• He gave up himself to bring benefit to others;
• He bore no grudges and showed compassion even toward those who persecuted him;
• Ultimately, he sacrificed himself to ensure others’ happiness, attaining a kind of nirvāṇa-like fulfillment.
Though he initially “broke the precepts,” he went on to walk the path of benefiting sentient beings, forgetting himself in service of others.
From a Buddhist perspective, this is far more valuable than merely observing the precepts in form but lacking compassion in spirit.
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**On Time**
The earliest science to study time was not physics, but astronomy. One of the most important tasks in astronomy has always been the measurement of time — from determining the length of a day and the changes of the seasons to establishing calendars.
The most widely accepted cosmological theory today — the Big Bang theory — holds that time, like space and all the mass-energy within the universe, came into existence approximately 14 billion years ago. Current astronomical observations suggest that the expansion of the universe has no end, and therefore time is also likely endless.
In philosophy, there are two opposing views on time. One school believes that time is a fundamental structure of the universe — a dimension in which events occur in a linear sequence. Isaac Newton held such a view of time.
Another school of thought, including philosophers such as Gottfried Leibniz and Immanuel Kant, argues that time is not an independently existing dimension, nor is it a flowing entity. Instead, it is a concept created by the mind. Combined with space and numbers, it allows humans to sequence and compare events. In other words, time is merely a human-defined construct to help conceptualize the universe and categorize the motion of matter.
In Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity, time and space form a four-dimensional space-time continuum, which constitutes the basic structure of the universe. Neither time nor space is absolute — the flow of time varies depending on the observer’s relative velocity or the spacetime structure of the point of measurement.
Special relativity predicts that a clock in relative motion ticks more slowly than a stationary clock. Since the principle of relativity states that all inertial frames are equivalent, one may regard any inertial frame as stationary. Thus, a moving clock can consider itself at rest, while the stationary clock is moving relative to it — meaning both clocks perceive the other as ticking more slowly. This is known as the **clock paradox**, or more famously, the **twin paradox**.
In 1971, physicists Joe Hafele and Richard Keating tested the clock paradox in the famous **Hafele–Keating experiment**. They flew highly precise atomic clocks on airplanes around the world and compared them with identical clocks left on the ground. The results confirmed that time on the airplanes passed more slowly than time in the lab.
According to Einstein’s theory, the faster something moves, the more slowly time flows for it. At half the speed of light, time slows down by approximately 13%.
Additionally, general relativity predicts that mass creates gravitational fields that distort spacetime, and clocks near massive objects (like black holes) tick more slowly than clocks farther away. These predictions of time dilation have been confirmed by current instruments and are now applied in technologies such as the **Global Positioning System (GPS)**.
According to today’s physics, time is continuous, uninterrupted, and lacks quantum properties. However, some theories that attempt to unify relativity and quantum mechanics — such as quantum gravity, string theory, and M-theory — propose that time may be discrete and possess quantum characteristics. These theories have not yet been experimentally verified. Some theories also speculate that **Planck time** may be the smallest unit of time.
Stephen Hawking’s solution to Einstein’s equations in general relativity suggests that time had a beginning — the Big Bang — and that the concept of time before this point is meaningless. Matter and spacetime must coexist; without matter, time has no meaning.
Humans are born, grow old, and die — there is no reversal. A glass bottle that falls and shatters does not reassemble itself and leap back up. Classical mechanics cannot explain this **irreversibility of time**. In elastic collisions between two particles, forward and reverse processes are indistinguishable. The irreversibility of time can only be theoretically explained from the perspectives of **statistical mechanics** and **thermodynamics**. The **second law of thermodynamics** states that in a closed system (we can view the universe as the largest possible closed system), entropy can only increase, never decrease. Since entropy in the universe increases and cannot decrease, time is irreversible.