From: Frank Kuan
Message: 3120
Date: 2003-07-30
>From a Taoist sage:will
>A lifetime is just a dream, like an out breath which
>does not guarantee the in breath after it, and today
>does not insure the morrow. If life is passed
>aimlessly with death ever coming unexpectedly, the
>bones of the body will disperse, the four elements
>will scatter and deluded consciousness will
>transmigrate through another realm of existence
>without knowing what form it will take in another
>life. So birth and death will remain ignorant and
>delight in laziness without a chance to awaken todo
>Reality.
>
>Now that you have heard about the precious teaching
>not go away empty-handed. If you do not listen to itjokes;
>you will not escape from illness and death when you
>grow old and will thus waste a lifetime in the human
>world.
>
>Therefore take a bold resolution and start to train
>seriously. As from today you should dwell in
>singleness of thought; your eyes and ears should
>disengage from their objects; regulate your diet;
>reduce your sleep; refrain from futile talk and
>stop thinking and worrying; cast away soft comfortand
>cease to discriminate between the handsome and thedew
>ugly so that you can be like the cicada feeding on
>to preserve its unsullied body and like the tortoise---
>absorbing vitality from sunlight to enjoy long life.