情誼如潮,
来時湧湧, 去無聲色. 若有緣, 多留幾回,
無緣者, 一夜清風去. 何因何故, 不須問.
得了因果又如何? 天下無不散之宴, 鍾子期死, 伯牙破琴絃絕. 人生速短,
何尋自煩? 只有新潮不断湧, 潮池眾生 繼續存.
能對得良心, 夜半門敲當借宿人.
友誼情深, 多珍惜. 一旦烟消雲散,
當塲春眠醒. 醉生夢死, 蠢者思惟也. 是恐晚来夢不成乎?
人生似夢, 夢如人生. 夢時真假難分. 分別尋常,
何必太認真? 能再重逢最是好, 永別不聚非命絕.天跌當被鋪,
地破作瓜裂.
口講易, 事做難. 雖此, 為何以痛苦渡生? 以快樂為本比悲哀作礎佳. 朋来友去, 天之理, 人之常, 可苦恋恋不舍? 懂得此道, 善大莫極矣.
Friendship is like the waves, gushing forth and yet when it leaves, nary a sound heard nor any sight seen. If fated, it will stay a bit longer. If not, gone like the breeze of the night. For whatever reason or cause, need not ask. Even when you have the answer, so what? There is never any unending party. When Chung Tzu Chi died, Bo Ya destroyed his zither by snapping its strings and breaking it into pieces. Life is swift and short. Why seek self-exasperation? Only with unceasing surging of new waves, would life in the tidal pool continually exist. If one's conscience can be faced, even a knock on the door at midnight will only cause you to think that some weary traveller is seeking shelter.
If the friendship is deep, then cherish it. Once it is gone, just treat it as if a spring
nap awakened. Leading a befuddled
existence because of it, is a stupid person's idea. Could not another dream be
dreamt once more in the night? Life is
but a dream or a dream is life? What is
real or false is difficult to distinguish as you dream. Parting is nothing unusual. Why take it so
seriously? To meet once more is of course the best but to be separated
eternally is not life threatening. If
the sky falls, treat it as a blanket covering.
If the earth breaks, treat it as a melon being split.
It's easy to utter but difficult to accomplish. Even so, why let pain and bitterness lead you
in life? Is it not better to have happiness than sorrow to be the basic
building blocks of life? Friends came
and friends went. This is natural and
life's normality. Why can't it be let go? When you finally understood this
principle, you find joy without limit.
Bo Ya was a great musician and zither player. Chung Tzu Chi was only a woodcutter but was able
to understand and interpret his music and its meaning. They struck up a great friendship and became
sworn brothers. When Chung Tzu Chi died,
Bo Ya deemed that no one else can understand his music. So he broke his zither and never played
again. From this allusion, we have the
term, "知音" (know the sound) to mean great friendship through
understanding each other.
Monday, June 16, 2014
This essay was a result of one night’s tossing in bed. It came to me like a fleeting troublesome gnat. It gave me no respite until its outline was formed.