Acosta's Blog: Watch ---- (2009-11-28 11:43:14) Tags: The Message, Mulan, Twilight, 2012, Miscellaneous
(1) Watching "The Message". Surprisingly moved by the professionalism of those revolutionaries back then—such as their idealism, piety, bravery, and tacit cooperation. I wonder if these qualities have now become rare?
(2) Watching "2012". Scenes of mountains collapsing and sea waves roaring feel like we're witnessing our past lives. This lonely planet, traveling through the vast star systems for 4 billion years, must have seen similar farewells and destructions in the history of our ancestors. It seems we are looking at the past, but we are also gazing into the future. So, what is there left to hold on to?
(3) Watching "Conversations with God". Each of us has a god within, restraining our excessive selves, planning for our immature selves. The god within each of us possesses noble, affluent, and gentle qualities. Therefore, Buddha says that everyone can attain Buddhahood. For some, this inner god eventually overcomes the small self; whereas for many others, greed conquers the divinity within.
(4) Watching "Common Sense". Often, common sense is regarded as trivial talk because we've heard it since we were young, such as respecting our parents, maintaining good health, being tolerant towards others... Later, we begin to recklessly trample on our families, our bodies, treating innocent people with harsh words and violence. We are all on the path away from common sense.
(5) Watching "Twilight". I wonder if there truly exists love between humans and gods. Their love must be different from the ones in this world—for instance, free of deception, rumors, infidelity, and gradually turning into enmity. In fairy tales, when two people meet, they live happily ever after.
(6) Watching "Mulan". I always feel that grand official histories are often false, while unofficial stories, poems, and legends passed down among people are true. Because those great things are always "the only creation of the gods that decays, carrying an irresistible speed towards death." Greedy individuals leave their marks in history, while the weak slowly become part of legends. On this foggy day, I recall Mulan's loves and hatreds from a thousand years ago, and the heroic spirit amidst national turmoil. At one moment, it really became the path where we met.
(7) Listening to Master Hsing Yun's talks. The most wonderful realm in this world is to treat oneself as oneself, others as others, oneself as others, and others as oneself. We always know the principles but choose to violate common sense, arbitrarily placing ourselves in inappropriate positions. There are two different lives, yet both can claim the name of "treating oneself as oneself, others as others, oneself as others, and others as oneself." May we lead a life filled with Zen, not wandering homeless, but living beautifully.
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Note: The repeated parts in the original text seem to be redundant or possibly due to formatting issues. They have been omitted in the translation for clarity and conciseness.