Text | Xingzhi

The full name of "Diamond Sutra" is "Vajra Prajna Paramita Sutra", which comes from the early Mahayana Buddhism in India. Among the six translations, the one that usually circulates is Kumarajiva's first translation. Among them, there are two most famous sentences, one of which is: The past mind cannot be grasped, the present mind cannot be grasped, and the future mind cannot be grasped.

Usually when many people see this sentence, their first reaction is to think, what’s the explanation?

In Zen Buddhism, there is an allusion of "picking up a flower and smiling". It is said that once when the Buddha Sakyamuni was preaching, he picked up a golden flower but said nothing. None of the disciples present understood what he meant and looked at each other in confusion. Only Mahakasyapa suddenly smiled softly. The Buddha was very pleased and immediately announced that he would pass on the mantle to him.

This story is actually not complicated. It tells a kind of "understanding" that omits explanation and does not explain it. Two friends who have been friends for many years can form such a tacit understanding after becoming accustomed to knowing each other's temperaments. On special occasions, you don't need to speak, just look at each other and you can communicate. It can have an effect similar to "holding a flower and smiling".

I used to be with a friend, and his biggest hobby was going to the streets to look at beautiful women. Every time I see a beautiful woman, I have to comment on her, but sometimes it’s inconvenient to talk if I’m too close to a beautiful woman. At this time, he gave me a look and said, Oops, I'm a little annoyed. From the look in his eyes, I knew that he actually meant to say, Ouch, this girl is pretty.

"The past mind cannot be grasped, the present mind cannot be grasped, and the future mind cannot be grasped." This kind of Buddhist scripture cannot be directly explained in essence. Just like the Yi Jing, no matter how you interpret it, it will be correct. What nonsense. This kind of text is similar to Wang Wei's Tang poem, "The bright moon shines among the pines, and the clear spring water flows up the stone." The direct explanation is that the bright moonlight shines among the pine branches, and the clear spring water flows on the stone. It's boring once you understand it. Its real charm is the smile hidden behind the words. Once you feel this feeling, you have everything. If you don’t feel it, it can only be ten words arranged together in a daze.

Many of the great truths in the world are nonsense. Nonsense will only exude its original temperament when you have a certain moment of enlightenment. Just like minced garlic, it usually smells mediocre, but once it is stir-fried in boiling oil, the smell of fireworks will instantly waft out. "A long journey will tell you a horse's strength, but time will tell you a person's heart." It sounds simple, but children have no feeling. Only adults who have traveled thousands of miles and met countless people know the weight of this sentence.

At the beginning of the movie "Roadside Picnic", the subtitles quoted the "The past mind cannot be grasped, the present mind cannot be grasped, and the future mind cannot be grasped" from the Diamond Sutra. This can easily give people a pretentious feeling. In any work related to literature and art, if the theme and lines cannot be sustained, in order to pretend to be profound, it is easy to quote a few lines of Buddhist scriptures that even the author himself cannot understand. In some TV dramas, as long as an old monk appears, he will insist on a few Buddhist quotes such as "Form is emptiness, emptiness is form", but completely ignores the setting of the background and the foreshadowing of the plot, which makes people feel awkward and want to watch it. Slap him.

Any movie that quotes the Buddhist scriptures, the Book of Changes, the Book of Songs, the Tao Te Ching, etc. from the very beginning and is related to the scriptures will not make the audience cry, but will only make them roll their eyes. The male protagonist in "Roadside Picnic" shed tears only once. The camera was focused on his back, but in front of him was a mirror. Through that mirror, the audience could see that he had actually cried. The so-called flower in the mirror, the moon in the water, everything is an illusion, and the mirror has the meaning of "false", but people's crying is the expression of true feelings. When true and false merge into one, many emotions cannot be explained clearly. This is a sad smile.

The male protagonist of "Roadside Picnic" finally meets a woman he likes in a small town barber shop many years after his wife's death. After not singing for many years, he even volunteered to sing "Little Jasmine" for her. After a song, he gave the woman a cassette tape and said, "Don't you like listening to music?" This is "Farewell" by Li Taixiang.

Why "Farewell" by Li Taixiang? Is this a coincidence, or is it an echo of "the past cannot be grasped, the present cannot be grasped, and the future cannot be grasped"? After sending the tape, the actor left without looking back, without any further follow-up. He knew that nothing else would happen between him and this woman. Even if he fell in love, he could still take it back.

There is a difference between the emotion of an old man and that of a young man. Once a young man becomes in love, he doesn’t know where the emotion started and it goes deep. It's like a moth flying into the flame, like a drawing of the ground as a prison. But after the old man has seen through the world, he knows that "the past heart cannot be grasped, the present heart cannot be grasped, and the future heart cannot be grasped." He knows that things in the world are illusory and destiny is uncertain.

Human beings are the most emotional animals. Loving only one person in your life sounds wonderful, but it is always unrealistic. I know some married men and women, and they told me during chat that at their age, of course they would not fall in love with someone casually. Even if you like it, you know clearly that nothing will happen.

In the world of love, the beauty is always the promise, but the truth is just the sentence "It won't happen."

Why is it said that the past mind cannot be grasped, the present mind cannot be grasped, and the future mind cannot be grasped?

Past, present, future. It seems to be three states, but the past of last year was also the present of last year, and the future of the year before last.

From the perspective of the flow of time, these three states are constantly changing in a relay, starting over and over again, without stopping for a moment. In such a flow of time, everything we have will be fleeting. So what can you have? It's just the 0.1 seconds that are happening in every second.

Therefore, the past mind cannot be grasped, the present mind cannot be grasped, and the future mind cannot be grasped. In the long river of time, nothing can be truly achieved. If a person suddenly feels this kind of powerlessness at a certain moment, then the various forms in the world will no longer value it so much.

Zhuangzi was a talented writer and philosopher. The philosophy of life he believed in was "It is better to forget each other than to forget each other." To stay together is to try our best to maintain a relationship in the "present" state, and to forget each other in the world is to completely exile the past, present, and future. It is to forget the form and leave the most essential feelings in the vast world. This is another translation of the statement in the Diamond Sutra that the three hearts are unattainable. Because it is unavailable, it is best to forget each other. But who can really clear their own memories? It is just the transparency of suppressing the heartache to the lowest level when facing reality.

Although "Roadside Picnic" emphasizes the unavailability of love, it is still romantic:

Today's sun

is like a paralyzed truck

Carry the whole afternoon heavy

White Vinegar Chunmengye Yuzu

Put the memories into the veins of the palms

The light of the flashlight shines through the back of the palms

It was like seeing a dolphin falling into the clouds

The male protagonist in the movie heard the woman he admired saying that he wanted to see the sea and dolphins, so he asked her to turn off the light and pulled her hand. Hand, shining a flashlight through the base of her palm, telling her that the dolphin looked like the back of her hand. At this time, the romance of the male protagonist is like the fragrance of osmanthus in August, faintly touching people's hearts. Even though he is unavailable, at least at this moment, his true feelings are eternal, enough to compete with the flow of time.

There are two ways for a man to like a woman. One makes a bowl, the other makes a candy. Comparing women to porridge, some men choose to make bowls, steadily put the porridge into their arms, and take possession of every grain. Some men choose to make sugar and fall into the arms of the porridge. After melting, the sugar decomposes into every grain of rice, but without a trace.

The male protagonist in "Roadside Picnic" obviously doesn't want to make a bowl, because for porridge, it can be served in different bowls, and gathering and dispersing is just a formality. Once the sugar melts away, although it is difficult to see the essence, it is inseparable no matter how you look at it. If you insist on possessing many things in the world with a "want to get" mentality, it will definitely add a lot of troubles. If you understand that you can't get it without asking for it, the burden on your shoulders may be much lighter. In fact, these burdens are often imposed by ourselves.

One of the two most famous sentences in the Diamond Sutra is: All conditioned phenomena are like bubbles in dreams, like dew or lightning, and should be viewed as such. In fact, isn't this the most direct and best explanation for "Why can't we get the past, present, and future?"

2016-10-25