摆渡

词：释继程

你唤彼岸来
彼岸不来
到彼岸去吧

由此岸 渡往彼岸
筏在两岸间

你撑筏 抵彼岸 舍筏登岸去
回头望 看彼岸 此岸成彼岸

此故彼 彼故此
此彼本不二

此岸去 彼岸来
摆渡两岸间

缘生缘灭
不生不灭
诸法空无性

此岸彼岸非二
不来不去
无相无性无心


Song taken from the album "摆渡". One of the best Buddhist album I came across :D You can still get it at Awareness Bookstore at KMSPKS temple. The shifu that writes the songs should be at Malaysia.

This album is a compilation of wisdom and effort. The lyrics are not very easy to understand but have profound meanings. Selected this song to share.

It is actually a commonly used Buddhist analogy of crossing over to the shore of enlightenment. And the river is the river of suffering. This song talks about how the raft is used to cross over the river of suffering. Yet, the lyrics also focused on having the wrong view of duality in perceiving the shores.

Raft is just a tool to cross the shore and raft can be seen as the Dharma or also the worldly encounters we face everyday. If there is no source of suffering, its hard to gain enlightenment. Having an idea of this shore and that shore seems to be a limited parable used to simplify the process. Yet one should not stick to an idea there is a place or a shore to go to.

Samsara is also a pureland. And it is actually the pureland of Sakyamuni Buddha. Someone asked Buddha why his pure land is not as nice as other Buddhas. How we perceive the pureland is based on the purity of our own mind and perception. Different between an enlightened being and an unenlightened being is different in the mind and its perception.