If No Trivial Matter Clings to the Heart, Every Season on Earth Is a Good Season
It is said that Li Ka-shing's desk has not a single scrap of paper; whatever must be done that day is done that day, leaving nothing to linger in the heart overnight. That a businessman so successful could be this composed is no wonder that, nearing ninety, he is still clear-headed, spirited, and healthy.
Li Ka-shing received Buddhist training and can cut off afflictions at any time, so his business is no burden to him. As a tuberculosis patient and a businessman with such a large enterprise, that Li Ka-shing lives so long with undiminished vigor shows that good spiritual cultivation can make a person full of spirit and prolong life.
The Song-dynasty monk Wumen wrote a Chan poem: "In spring there are a hundred flowers, in autumn the moon; in summer cool breezes, in winter snow. If no trivial matter clings to your heart, every season on earth is a good season." This is the display, across the four seasons, of the carefree, at-ease mind of one who has cut off afflictions.
In life it is truly impossible to escape trivial matters; even hiding deep in the mountains, or staying year-round in a study like me, it is not easy to truly be free of "trivial matters" disturbing us. Only by meeting the ten thousand changes of life with an unchanging mind, laying down the various "trivial matters" from the heart at any moment, and not breeding affliction from outside disturbance, can one achieve "no trivial matter clinging to the heart."
The sutras often say the Buddha "abides in great samadhi." What is great samadhi? It is the state in which, amid the complex and tumultuous outside world, the heart remains as calm as still water; the state in which even if Mount Tai collapsed before one, one could remain composed. In the state of great samadhi, even if a thousand trivial matters come crowding in, they are laid down as they arrive; having achieved this, a person could probably direct an army calmly amid ten thousand horsemen.
To achieve having no trivial matter cling to the heart truly requires seeing through and letting go of everything in the human world, as well as an attitude of being willing to enjoy "thin blessings." It is said that before Master Yinguang died, a devotee sent him white fungus; the old master felt his own blessings were too thin to receive it and gave it to an older nun. This attitude of feeling one has no blessing to enjoy can help a person resist endless temptation and extinguish various improper desires.
The late Qing grand official Zuo Zongtang had a couplet: "Form the highest aspirations, form middle karmic conditions, enjoy the lowest blessings; stand on the highest ground, dwell on the level ground, walk toward the broad place." If a person has this heart of enjoying the lowest blessings, he will not be greedy in dealing with people. With this heart of walking toward the broad place, he can think things through when trouble comes. Not being greedy, one is not easily attached; being tolerant, even if there is some small attachment, it can be laid down at any time. If one can do this, then the trivial matters on the heart are almost none.
In being a person, taking more losses, enduring more slander, bearing more grievance and more blows is a good thing; in these setbacks one's heart is smoothed flat. Afterward, whatever one meets, one can respond calmly, until at last no person and no matter can affect our mood. Once the heart is settled, everything can be accomplished.