Today is a memorable day on which my mentor had his nirvana. At this time of each year, I always have so many thoughts in mind that I want to pour them out but there is no one to share my thoughts deeply any more.
Thinking about my dear mentor, I feel that the encounter in this lifetime seemed like a dream, for his perfection was very unique and I have always been astonished by the supreme reliance, as his student, on him.
I really have thousands of words about his merits and kindness but it is hard for ordinary people like me to tell you all of these, even we are not able to take the principles of being a human as good as him. Just like Samantabhadra's declaration, 「To purify all of the unlimited world, release all the sentient beings, distinguish all the teachings of Buddhism, understand the wisdom of truth deeply, clean all Bodhisattva’s minds and actions, perfect all the wishes of Bodhisattva, offer all of the Buddhas closely, and practice these seven principles above tirelessly.」
Compared with his frugal life, a life that he had never thrown away anything even a needle because he had an affluent heart desiring nothing about his personal expenditure, his kind behaviors which benefit all the sentient beings seem like 「non-frugal」— in his heart, he only cares for the benefits of sentient beings and he even spent a lot of efforts on light offerings annually. Conversely, we ordinary people are always stingy about profiting others but non-stingy about our food and clothes, etc. Our heart is so penniless that we desire more and more.This is the difference of affluent heart and poor heart between my dear mentor and us.
He treated every sentient being fairly so we have extremely respected him, while we feel good about ourselves and exhibit our pride to others so we are seldom respected no matter how hard we try. This is the difference of honorable heart and menial heart.
Buddha and Bodhisattva have returned to Samsara to experience estimable dreams with us again and again to perform the perfection of lotus having no water by their body, words and minds. The elegance in the superficial world pales in comparison to my mentor’s purest merits, which should be called 「dignity」, from inner heart to his outside behaviors.
I hope we sentient beings can be as purest, genuine and perfect as the lotus having no water, just like my mentor did, indiscriminately.