(Photo by Chen Ya Yin)
Someone asked Master Cheng Yen, “How did you view life when your foster father passed away?”
The Master answered:
The incident prompted me to recognise the true value of life. I was a child during the Second World War. During wartime, I only had rice with salt for meals, and I was hiding from air raids almost every day. I deeply felt the sorrow of human beings killing each other, and the war filled my mind with many questions about life. After the war, the nation slowly recovered and progressed into prosperity and peace. However, my father suddenly had a cerebral haemorrhage. He was a very healthy person, yet, he just collapsed suddenly and was declared dead 24 hours later. His funeral was also conducted within 24 hours. Although the funeral procession was quite grand, everyone just returned home after his body was buried, and that was it. His passing on shocked me about how short and fragile life could be. My late father did not leave a single word and just passed away like that. It made me wonder what life is all about.
After my father’s death, I started searching for the origin of life and got involved in religion. I visited Catholic and Christian churches, and then a friend took me to a monastery to hold a seven-day puja for my late father. During the seven days, the Master chanted the scriptures, and I followed him. Every sentence in the sutra touched my heart and made me understand that this world is impermanent. This impermanence made me realise how precious life is and that I should cherish it deeply. As for what attitude I should adopt to live in this world and how to live out the true meaning of life, these questions made me ponder deeply.
Turning the sufferings of separation from loved ones into a great love for all sentient beings
Even if you have a happy family, the people you love and dedicate your life to are only a few. It is so painful to have such intimate relationships, yet such relationships can be very short-lived! My father was only 51 years old when he died. The time we had together before he passed away was so short. I could not cry due to the indescribable bitterness in me because I had lost my father, who loved me so much. I was suffering to the extreme, and my heart felt empty. When I finally calmed down, everything that I saw made me feel like crying. Everything that I heard also made me feel very suffering. That is why it is so hard to talk about love. If a family could give me a lot of love, I may still be very miserable in the end because no matter how close the family is, we will have to be separated someday in the future.
That is why it is not worth spending our life this way. Although we give and receive a lot of love in life, what is life’s true meaning? Therefore, instead of confining my love to a small area, I thought it would be better to extend the love to all sentient beings on Earth to be genuinely at ease and liberated. The death of my father had a profound impact on how I view life.
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