Old Age<\/strong><\/p>\nLook into the mirror and see how your face has changed, how climbing the stairs can take your strength.
\nYou let out a sigh: now you are old, going forward to bow, still your body is lacking.
\nYour body is like a tree grown near a precipice; your mind is like a sea turtle longing for the ocean.
\nStill indulging in your outflows, yet unwilling to study the unconditioned Dharma.<\/p>\n
Sickness<\/strong><\/p>\nSuddenly you contract a fatal illness, and because of this, become bedridden.
\nWife and children are silent and sad, friends dislike being near you.
\nYou suffer\u2014pains in thousands of veins, groaning so that the entire neighborhood hears.
\nNot knowing the dangers that lurk ahead, you still indulge in desire and anger.<\/p>\n
Death<\/strong><\/p>\nConsciousness bids farewell to life, a wandering spirit enters the gates of death.
\nCountless numbers have departed\u2014I have not seen a single person return.
\nThe favored horse waits with a shrill neigh in vain, the flowers in the courtyard will no longer be picked.
\nHurry and seek the supreme Way and avoid the four sufferings.1<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
1: Literally \u201cthe four mountains,\u201d a reference to the four masses of suffering mentioned in the poem: birth, old age, sickness, and death.<\/em><\/p>\nMaster Fu Ta Shih (Literally) Bodhisattva Fu, (alias) Shan Hui<\/em>.\u00a0From Ch\u2019an and Zen Teaching, Series One by Lu K\u2019uan Y\u00fc (Charles Luk), Rider & Co., London, 1960, pp. 143-145.\u00a0<\/em>Translated from The Imperial Selection of Ch\u2019an Sayings (Yu Hsuan Yu Lu) \u00a0[Yuxuan yulu \u5fa1\u9078\u8a9e\u9304 (Imperial Selections of Recorded Sayings \/ Emperor\u2019s Selection of Quotations)]<\/em><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u56db\u76f8\u8a69 Poems on the Four States Bu Fu-Ta-shih \uff3b\u5085\u5927\u58eb\uff3d\u00a0(497\u2013569) Fu Ta-shih was a householder, whose teachings and actions led him to be revered as an incarnation of the Bodhisattva Maitreya. Birth Relying upon the ovum, consciousness arises, birth arises from love and desire. In a time now past he grew up, today he returns […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n