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The Noble Eightfold Path
Look into your hand to see that you are the continuation of your parents, and that your mother is alive in every cell. The peace and happiness of children and grandchildren are the peace and happiness of grandparents and ancestors. Birth and death are only surface phenomena, like waves and water. From the perspective of the wave, there is rising and falling, high and low, big and small, long and short; but from the perspective of the water, there are no such signs. When we recognize that the wave is water, we transcend suffering and fear, and see the ontological ground of no birth and no death.
A banana tree may die after bearing fruit, but the huge root system underground continues to sprout; life always finds a way to manifest. Facing impermanence and the uncertain accidents that can happen at any time, we need to practice:
- Living the present moment worthily, with mindfulness and peace.
- Breathing, smiling, and treating those around us with compassion.
- Accepting impermanence as the nature of life, because without change, a grain of corn cannot become a corn stalk.
We have undergone rebirth into the ten directions through our descendants and what we have transmitted. Penetrate the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra to see that the nature of all dharmas is empty: no birth and no death, no impurity and no purity, no increasing and no decreasing.
