(a)

The teaching of a good teacher will only be most effective in good students.

This is a wonderful and indescribable echo process of internal and external cooperation.

"I give my whole body and soul into your hands. Like a blind man, on the path of sheep intestines with an abyss on both sides, he delivers his guiding staff and life to you. ”

"Your duty is to bring me, a blind man, to a safe place, even if you are to break your own bones. And my responsibility is to trust you completely, and I will definitely take me to a safe place - a trust that is unwavering, a trust that will not waver, and a trust that will not regret a hundred deaths! ”

Teachers and students must establish such an inseparable flesh-and-blood bond of life and death.

In this way, it is the way of the teacher!

In this way, Fang is seeking the way!

(b)

The feeling of happiness often makes people relaxed, not enterprising, and not wanting to leave.

Coveting the happy feelings of this world will lead to the future rebirth, that is, it will become the cause of future birth, old age, sickness and death, and endless reincarnation.

Therefore, when the root guru becomes aware of our craving for happy feelings, sometimes it suddenly causes us to feel disillusioned and pulls us out of our comfort zone to which we have become accustomed in order to regain a high level of alertness and clarity of mind about samsara.

Sometimes, he chooses to leave us forever and keep us with his teachings rather than with him personally.

The departure of the root guru, as is his birth, his growth, his encounter with us and his teaching of giving us a command, is an integral part of a perfect education.

Just like the growth of a baby, when you mature to a certain point, you need to cut off your dependence on external forces and let you rely entirely on your inner strength.

At this time, the best education is the permanent disappearance of the tutor.

One day, after you became terminally ill, we were going home together, and while we were riding to a fork in the road, you got out of the car and drew a line on the ground with a twig.

You say, "Take 10 steps forward." ”

I walked 20 steps and stopped, looking back at you.

You say, "Leave me." Otherwise, you can't get farther. ”

As you said, "There are some people who are the oars in your hands, and their role is to make you break - break in your strenuous rowing - but send you to the other side." ”

(c)

After you died, I knew I needed the help of an outside mentor.

Because when the lover I love dies, when the pattern of life that I dream of building completely collapses, the strength of my heart cannot effectively appease that intense pain.

Although I was briefly exposed to the theory that "color is emptiness and emptiness is color", I only had a theoretical understanding and could not implement it in direct experience.

Although I understood all the truth, in fact, I could not resist the impact of the monstrous flood stirred up by the changes in the outside world.

Therefore, it is very necessary to have a new mentor and friend who is external, flesh and blood.

This new mentor and friend is Kaohsiung, and later, Mr. Yichen and others.

In this volume of stories, I have shown the stories between them in turn.

As Kaohsiung later summed it up: "As long as you can still feel the fear and helplessness in your heart, and that tension, you still need friends." ”

And when we no longer have these negative mental obstacles in our hearts, we can become friends of all things.

(iv)

I am so grateful that in your short time with me, you have taught me how to perfectly integrate my daily life with my spiritual pursuits.

We face a lot of trivial things every day, eating, brushing our teeth, washing our faces, taking out the trash, and going to the toilet, but all of these can be used to increase the breadth and kindness of our hearts.

You took me to light a lamp in the main hall of the monastery and led me to make a vow: "May all sentient beings who have lost their way find their way, their path, and their home." ”

You took me to the clear water pool in the monastery, scooped water with a wooden spoon with a long handle, and led me to make a vow: "May all living beings have pure water to drink, and their bodies and minds are as pure as water." ”

We helped each other to tie up our clothes and shoes, and at the same time, we made a common vow: "May all living beings be able to restrain their bodies and minds, conform to propriety and righteousness, and follow the right path." ”

It took me almost 2 years to write this long story word by word, reliving the road we trekked all the way over, and reliving the warm and sad times with you.

I know deep down that this story, like every life we have experienced in the past, no matter how long, will have an end.

At the end of the story, we have to separate again in the story.

However, it doesn't matter.

As long as I follow your teachings every day, persist in practicing your teachings physically and mentally, and preach the Tao in the face of the true spirits, our lives will always merge together, and eventually, we will realize the inner indifference.

(5)

Every time I go to Paris, I always make time to visit Shakespeare's bookstore in the Latin Quarter on the Left Bank of the Seine.

In fact, this Shakespeare & Company is no longer the bookstore that came before.

The original Shakespeare & Company's bookstore was born after World War I and was a traditional bookstore that mainly sold books in English. Many of the English writers in Paris at that time, such as Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Stein and other writers of the "lost generation", were bookstore owners Sylvia? Sylvia-Beach's seating.

The bookstore was forced to close during World War II because of left-leaning ideas and harassment by the Nazis.

After the victory in World War II, in 1951, the American poet George ? WHITMAN ALSO OPENED A BOOKSTORE SELLING BOOKS IN ENGLISH AT 37 RUE BUCHERIE, ACROSS FROM NOTRE DAME CATHEDRAL. The name of the bookstore at the time was "Le Mistral", after the name of the first woman he fell in love with.

Like Sylvia in those days, the bookstore has many huge wooden bookshelves, exuding the unique aroma of wood and pages, and has a special charm that attracts literati and artists from all over the world.

He turned the second floor of the bookstore into a library, with sofas, chairs, and beds between the stacks of books, and became a place for Parisian literati to meet and even temporarily stay and live.

George? Whitman was closely associated with writers from the East Coast of the United States, and in the 50s of the 20th century, the bookstore became a meeting point in Paris for writers from the Downschool. Burroughs had read their work aloud in the open space in front of the bookstore, in front of the public.

Later, the owner of the "City-light –bookstore" bookstore in San Francisco also hung out in the bookstore at the time.

In the 60s of the 20th century, Whitman, with the consent of Sylvia's family, Miss Beech, officially changed the name of the bookstore to Shakespeare & Company, in order to continue the cultural spirit of the bookstore.

In fact, my favorite thing is the wooden staircase that leads from the first floor to the second floor.

Over the decades, this wooden staircase has been polished by the footsteps of loyal customers and tourists from all over the world, and the paint is peeling and the wood is white, giving it a sense of the vicissitudes of time.

On the side of each staircase, there are some english words, connected together, is a poem by Hafez:

“I -ish -I -could -sho -you -hen –you- are- lonely -or -in –darkness- the- astonishing- light- of- your- on- being.”

(I hope that when you are lonely, when you are in darkness, I can show you an amazing light, the light of wisdom that comes from within you, that is your own.) ）

I think this poem is especially suitable for you.

- And, of course, all the gurus and fellow Taoists who have illuminated my life.

Now, I will use this poem again to give it to readers who are lucky enough to read this book and have the patience to read it to the end.

If there ever was.

If there will be any more.

I love you.