The Buddha gave this example. Imagine a cart rolling on the road. Whether the cart wants to go to the West or the East, a long way or a short distance, the most important thing is that the wheels of the cart always come in contact with the earth. If the road was this long [drawing a line on the white board with a marker], the past was over there and the future is over here. We have so many people around us — our parents, our teachers, our society — and they all teach us that our life is in the future. We have to be good and diligent in our studies, and when we get our jobs we put all our lives into them, and we continue to chase after something in the future. But when the cart is rolling close to the end and we know that death is approaching, we keep thinking of the past. Our life existed in the past. We always think of the past, and we keep forgetting that if the cart rolls over there, the only way it can go into the future is to come in contact with the earth.
BE LIKE A TREE
Zen Talks by Thích Phước Tịnh
Edited and Illustrated by Karen Hilsberg
Jasmine Roots Press – 2008
CHAPTER NINE
The Energy of Avalokiteshvara
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