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(In ancient India,) there was a group of monks who followed the Buddha, and every day they would go out to seek alms. One day, as one of the monks was on his alms round, he caught sight of a beautiful girl from a household. Though the young monk had already been ordained as a monastic, he could not help falling in love with her. But as he could not express his feelings to the girl, he felt extremely depressed. Because of that, he could neither eat, drink nor sleep, and eventually fell ill.
Many of his fellow monks were concerned about him, and one after another, they came to see him. One day, the young monk could not keep the matter to himself any longer and revealed to the other monks the cause of his troubled heart. The other monks took pains to counsel him, but he would not heed their words. Eventually, they dragged him to see the Buddha and told the Buddha about his problem.
“Is that what troubles you?” asked the Buddha.
“Yes! I just cannot erase the image of that girl from my mind,” replied the monk.
The Buddha then told the monk: “It is not a difficult matter. You go and have your meal first. After you have eaten and regained your strength, I will bring you to her home to visit her.”
The monk did as he was told, and then set off together with the Buddha to the house where the girl lived.
Upon entering the house, they found out that the girl had already passed away three days before. Her parents could not bear to bury her just yet, and so her body was still lying in the house.
The Buddha took the monk to see the girl’s body. Even before stepping into the room where the body laid, they could smell the stench of rotting corpse. When the shroud covering the girl was lifted, they saw that her body had already started to bloat, with putrid fluids seeping out of its orifices. The young monk was shocked and terrified by what he saw, and he soon came to realise the impermanent nature of life.
At that moment, the Buddha took the opportunity to deliver the Dharma. He said that because of the parents’ attachment to their daughter, they didn’t want to bury her even though her body was already rotting. The source of the young monk’s affliction was similarly, the infatuation he had for their daughter.
After hearing what the Buddha said, the girl’s parents finally came to understand that family karmic affinities were merely temporary, and when one’s karmic affinity with one’s family came to an end, they should give each other blessings and let go.
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I often remind everyone: “A single deviant thought may lead to countless lifetimes of suffering. If we do not awaken now and cultivate ourselves in this life, when again will we have the opportunity to do so?
Hence we must quickly use our present life to learn the Dharma to transform and better ourselves. If our mind goes astray and we lose ourselves, it will be difficult for us to practise spiritual cultivation in this life.”
Extracted from Master Cheng Yen’s Daily Journals (Spring 2003)
Translated by the Tzu Chi Singapore translation team
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