Before
my recent trip to India to assist in Master's drought relief project,
I was often troubled by mundane affairs and aspired to live a free
and easy lifestyle in which I could take care of my living expenses,
minimize outside activities and thus help myself in my spiritual practice.
However, being unable to distinguish between "needs" and
"wants" in my life, I could never make ends meet. To my
surprise, this seemingly difficult problem was easily solved after
I returned to Formosa from India.
While
in India, our work team stayed mainly in the state of Rajasthan, which
was plagued for several years by a severe drought that reached crisis
proportions in the spring of 2003. Many parts of the state had suffered
from inadequate rainfall for seven of the past ten years, and several
areas had not seen any rain for four or five consecutive years.
The
local people thus lived a hard, simple life. Amazingly, however, the
unbearable heat gave one a pure sense of existence. Here, there seemed
to be no difference between "you" and "me"; social
status and career success seemed of little importance (everyone's
status and position were more or less the same anyway). The greatest
enjoyment for the people was to quietly wait until the scorching sun
and heat departed at nightfall, and good friends could get together
in small groups to leisurely drink warm milk tea or soft drinks and
share the coolness of the night.
My
greatest pleasure during this period was to return to my living quarters
after work and have a bowl of simple soup made of mineral water, noodles,
vegetables and a pinch of monosodium glutamate (MSG). The concoction
tasted just marvelous and I felt as if I were in Heaven every time
I ate it. I even began to feel thankful for the MSG although I formerly
used to shun it for health reasons.
After
several days of this "survival" training, I learned to be
grateful for "the pure sense of existence" I was experiencing
in India. In order to carry on, I learned to change some of my ideas
and came to understand what was "essential" for survival
and what was "surplus." In the past, the ability to make
such a distinction was something that could only come by coincidence
for me. So I had not expected it to naturally and miraculously emerge
after returning to Formosa. Now, no matter what difficulties I encounter,
my memories of life in India make them all easy to solve, and I can
quickly make decisions about what to accept and what to reject in
daily affairs.
Thank
God, a passage to India opened my wisdom eye about the nature of life
and forever erased my anxieties. It was truly a rebirth!
