不做守尸鬼

摘要：定在一个位置、一种身材、一种状态上，实际就是想固定自己，把自己定在某个因缘上。那这个被固定的生命就会被迫于变化，稍有变化，人就会惶恐不安。

很多人怕老，怕病，怕身材走样，这不敢吃，那不敢穿的，“哦不能吃，吃了腰围就出问题了”，这样我们会把自己定在一个模式上。就即便如此，很多人还是一身病，为啥呢？因为该老的时候不老，该变化的时候不变，那不符合自然规律。

实际上，该变的时候你一定得变，好比说少男少女时期是什么样，中年时期是什么样子，老年什么样子，那么自然！有人说，我们一定要把自己定在一个年轻的位置上，实际上这就是拿一个不变的东西在折磨自己。定在一个位置、一种身材、一种状态上，实际就是想固定自己，把自己定在某个因缘上。那这个被固定的生命就会被迫于变化，稍有变化，人就会惶恐不安的，怕老啊、怕病啊……善待身体，无可厚非，但是如果在色身上过分用力，反而只会束缚自己。

人生就是生老病死这么多内容。为什么不去体验它，一定要把自己绑在一个位置上呢？那我们要怎么主动去运用我们人生的变化呢？就是要找到人生究竟不退的愿望，学会运用慧命、超越生命，我们的生命就会广大而无碍。

佛教讲人身难得，并不是让我们坚固不变地守色身这个东西，也不是守我们的一种感受，是要善于知道这不过是无量生命中的一个状态罢了。在这个状态中能不能去觉悟无量的生命?支持无量的生命?善待无量的生命？当然也包括我们自己这个生命。那我们这个生命的价值就不是个守尸鬼了，就不是身见坚固的一个困惑者了。你为色身伺候得越多，它越困惑你，因为色身终将以死掉作为结局，没有一个人能逃掉的。古往今来，这是一个亘古的东西。我们人类为色身存活造了很多业，花了很多精力，做了很多事情，但最后色身还是会不可挽留地离我们而去——死掉。

了解生命的常规状态，会帮助生命的拥有者真正地来觉悟生命。善待、善用我们自身的生命与周边一切众生的生命，是十分大的一个愿望。希望我们能通过身见、身受的一个观察，来了解我们的愿望与生命正面的作用，对生命有一个反思。

Don’t Be Your “Body’s Guard”

Many of us hate to get old, fall sick or gain weight and therefore are too particular about eating and dressing. “Better not eat that, or I’ll be sorry about my weight.” Thus we cling to a certain life style. Despite all these efforts, many of us nonetheless fall sick. Why? Well, it’s because we go against the rules of nature by resisting the process of aging when getting old and refusing to change when change is actually happening to us.

Actually, when it’s time for you to change, you should change. For example, when you are a teenager, you have the shape of a teenager. And when you are a middle-aged or an elderly aged person, you own the appearance of that age. It is natural. “I must stay young,” you may say, without realizing that you are merely torturing yourself with your persistence. The longing to stay at a certain position, figure, or state of being is actually a longing for freezing ourselves in certain status. And thus when change does happens, no matter how small it is, we are compelled to accept it, with an inevitable fear of change, like aging, falling ill, etc. It’s OK to take good care of our body, but if we overdo it, we will get nothing but bondage.

Birth, aging, illness and death, etc., make up our colorful life. So why attach ourselves to only one aspect of it while we can experience them all? But then, how can we experience life’s changes in a proactive way? We should embrace a wish that encompasses our whole life. And we should learn how to use our wisdom life to transcend the limitations of our body. As a result, our life will be broad and be free from worries.

Buddhism holds that we are very lucky to own the body of a human being, which does not mean we need to cling to our physical body or a certain state of mind, but rather it is about knowing that this life is but one of the countless states of being we may be in. Can we reach the enlightenment of these countless forms of being? Can we support and treasure these lives regardless of the different stages? Once we realize this, we will not be our “body’s guard” or be a bewildered person with strong attachments to our body any more. The more we serve our body, the more it confuse us. There is no escaping from death. No matter the cost of keeping our body alive, in the end our body will leave us inevitably.

Accepting and understanding the natural ways of our life will help us enlighten our life. It is a great wish to take good care and make good use of our own life as well as those of all the other sentient beings around us. Let’s hope that, through observation of our body, its sensations and its ever-changing quality, we all discover the positive effects of our wishes over our life so as to make us rethink profoundly about it.