Why Mahasiddha Drink Poisoned Wine?

Why Mahasiddha Drink Poisoned Wine?

Xuemo

In Ancient Tibet, there was an old man and his name was milarepa and he achieved a sublimed level, in which, he could know what the other people thought about. A GeShe (Geshe is a Tibetan Buddhist academic degree for monks.) was jealous of him crazily, for Milarepa had a significant influence and reputation around so that Geshe’s position was threatened. GeShi wanted to kill Milarepa. He asked his woman to offer a cup of poisoned wine to Milarepa. And he promised this woman that she could have a very beautiful jewelry for that. So this woman offered the cup of wine to Milarepa. Milarepa got the wine and said that I could think this wine. But if I drink it now, you can’t get the jewelry you wished for. You’d better to get the jewelry first and I will drink the wine. As Milarepa said, he drank the wine, after the woman had Jewelry. His only purpose is to let the woman have the jewelry. So his death was awed and worshipped by the following saints in the west. His death is comparable to the death of Socrets. Lot of people says that Chinese can’t die in a way of Socrets did. No, it is not true. There were lots of people in western China who died in a significant and valuable way. The death is a significant behavior in their lives. This significant behavior is the last one of their lives. His last behavior interprets his dignity and existence and pursuit for the most valuable. This is the behavior which is more important than staying alive.

Today, lots of people, including me, we meditate and do something related. All of these behaviors are to realize the value we pursue before we die. At this time, to live or to die, it is not important, only attitudes towards it, matters. Yinger died (Yinger, the character in xuemo’s novel (strategic post of white tiger). She died at the moment her dignity was stained and her belief was destroyed. And her human dignity was devastated ruthlessly. Finally, she choosed the respectful death, to realize her final transcendence. This is the attitude towards death that we are talking about.

So lots of people don’t understand this. In western culture, there is a philosophy. She takes lots of things, as a reason for her life. For example, love, if the love disappears, she dies. It is reflected in lots of Liangzhou local songs. This philosophy exists and prevails in that land, for thousands of years.  But lots of easterners can’t understand and they think the death is the destruction. But sometimes death can be also a kind of transcendence. Like LiuHuLan,if she didn’t die and her physical body would have been in the process of aging and disappearing. But her death let her name and spirit eternal, as a totem. So westerner takes death as the most beautiful life moment which freezes there. There were some of examples in eastern history too. For example, Su XiaoXiao, when she had to face the death at a very young age, she takes the death as a great blessing from God and she could die at the peak of her life. Afterwards, she is most respected and worshipped woman, by lots of scholars. As new cultures developed in the East, woman like Xu Xiaoxiao became rarer and rarer. Most of people prefer to drag out their ignoble bodies, without any purpose, rather than to freeze the valuable moment in a noble way.  So this is the significance of the death of YingER.

Secondly, suffering in Easterner’s view is not the same for westerner. Lots of people say that I experienced lots of sufferings. But it is not true. All I want to tell is  I didn’t experience any suffering. Why? I had a very happy childhood. I talked about it with my son yesterday. I was very happy when I rode on a horse galloping over the field, while the other boys in my village had no donkey to ride. I dreamed of becoming the MonkeyKing. Childhood with such fantasy is beautiful.,I have no conception about suffering at all. Lots of people said that I expericnecd many sufferings, but I don’t think so. All I got though is poetic romance.,and mang western civilians fell the same. In fact, the adversity in easterner`s opinion is a kind of utilitarianism. This contract occurs when they judge the westerner's fresh and alive soul with their opinions and conceptions.

Both Tibetans and Westerner lives very well. How well? They hold a different standard from ones’ of easterners. Westerners treat man’s success not up to his material possessions, but his life goal’s realization, personality’s sublimation and moral perfection. When he perfects his moral, he succeedes. He can give. Why does he give? Because if he could live well with one orange, he will not rob more oranges from others. He also rob no bananas mineral water and so on. He may let the oranges owned by  who needed. and ,save bananas for who really want it., adequate water would save for descendants. because people can live very well with plainly material supply. Besides thoese, we need to sublimate ourselves, in the rest of our lifes. We need to practice, with the hope of sublimating ourselves in some way, from the new born, to the end of our life. Western people take life as a long trip, when they sublimate in the process, they will continue their path in the next life. They don’t think human being disappear completely at last, and for them it is a process which they could achieve their targets. So they are more focus on the attitude though their life. That is why lots of people don’t need to dress extravagant, keep warm is just enough. They don’t need to eat wastefully, keep appetite full is just enough. Why? They know that they could have fatty liver or something else illness, if they eat too much.. Many people think that celestial burial of Tibetan is ignorant, and feed eagles with human body is quite foolish. It is not true. For them flesh body is useless without soul. But we can use the fleshes to feed the eagles, and other raptors. When these raptors are well fed for one day, and they don’t need to hunt other small birds that day. This is the opinions they hold. They don’t think it is bad. Instead, physical body can be used to save some other lives, when body doesn’t mean anything for us. They live in a quite different perception. The lack of communication causes the gap between easterner and westerner. So,easterner think westerner is foolish, and westerner think easterner is foolish too. Why? You eat well and dress finely,why don’t you let your life sublimate to a higher level? Why do you keep pursuing more material? We can’t full fill all desire of material.but life time is only once.

Westerner doesn’t measure a man with the amount of material and fortune he processes. They focus more on whether he is pursuiting an everlasting value, which called “Merit gained” . It is not “blessing and morality”, which is the fortune. But MG is a value, which can’t be destroyed by time. It is a spiritual existence. After body vanishes, the spirit will pass down to descendants and influence children, maybe by a storyor or by a local song. It enables our later generation be benefited by this spirit. This is the MG, which can’t be destroyed by time. Westerner doesn’t pursue fortune, for the fortune is not the MG. If they are rich, they are happy about it. If they don’t, we are happy too. When I own the fortune, I give it out for charity. So when easterner concerns and tries to improve the west, westerner get confusesed. My son can’t enjoy his stay in Shanghai, he says, why couldn’t I use my life time to do more useful and meaningful thing? Why should I spending hours and hours in metro and social engagements. He prefers to stay in West and sublime his life, at this period of time. And this is the same while I wrote my books.

In addition, there are two reasons caused me to write novels. Firstly, everything is passing away fastly and changing all the time. There is nothing eternal we can hold. So dose my life, I am getting old quickly. It has been 10 years, since “A Cult of Vast Desert”’s publishing. I am 10 years older. Life goes away rapidly, and I’ve known that since I am a boy. But I wanted to establish an everlasting thing and to pursuit a relative eternity. Therefore I chose to write.

Secondly, I want to reserve the existence while our world fades away and we can do nothing to hold it back. We have thousands years of agriculture civilization in China. But there were few works which truly reflected the agriculture civilization and the spirit of the son of the soil , I, as a writer, should reserve some spirit as above, before this civilization submerged by the endless darkness of history. And by doing this enable our sons and grandsons to know how  peasant in this land thousands of years ago lived. Their have been lived this  simple, painful, and of course natural, pure and tough way for thousands years. They had pursuited and pained, I want to saving these.

Besides all above, Besides, I hope to see it published. It's better to have it published, and to read it is better than not to read it.  I wish this book could bring some better thing to the world as well as to that land. These are the purposes I pursue in my writing.

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大成就者为什么喝毒酒？

雪漠

西藏古代有一个老人，他叫密勒日巴。他修行了一辈子，修得非常好，他修到什么层次呢？他知道每个人的心中在想什么。有个人非常嫉妒他，这是一个格西，是佛学博士，因为这个密勒日巴的影响非常之大。大到什么地步呢？大到影响到了这个博士的饭碗，所以这个博士想把他害掉。他就让跟他相好的一个女人，端了一杯毒酒递给密勒日巴，并许诺这个女人只要把这杯酒供养给密勒日巴之后，他就把非常好的首饰送给她。于是这个女人端着这杯酒供养密勒日巴，密勒日巴端过来说：“我可以喝这杯毒酒，不过我如果现在喝了这杯毒酒的话，你就得不到那个首饰。你先去让他把首饰给你，得到这个首饰之后你再把这杯酒端回来我再喝。”于是这个女人得到首饰之后，密勒日巴就端了毒酒喝了。他所有的目的就是为了让这个女人得到那个首饰。所以他的死成为西部许许多多伟大人物敬畏的一种行为，这种死可以和苏格拉底的死媲美。许多人说中国人不能像苏格拉底那样去死，不是这样的，西部有好多人就是这样死的。他们的死在他们的人生中间是一个非常重要的行为。那么这样非常重要的一个行为是他最后的行为，是他最后向这个世界展示他的尊严、存在和追求最值得珍视的一个行为，这个行为比他活着更重要。

今天我们好多人，包括我在内，坐禅也罢，做什么也罢，就是为了让自己在死的时候能实现自己追求的那个目标。这时候，生、死并不重要，重要的是态度。所以莹儿的死，是她在面临她的尊严被玷污、信仰受到毁灭、她的人格受到世俗无情摧残的时候，她会用高贵的死来实现自己最后的升华。这是关于死亡的态度。

所以，好多人不明白这一点，西部文化中有这样的理念。当她把生命中的许多东西作为她活着的理由的时候，比如爱，那么她为了这个活着的理由她就不活。这一点在凉州民歌中多有反映。那块土地上就是这样一种观念，千年来都是这个样子。所以，东部人好多人不太了解，就觉得这种死是一种毁灭。其实，许多时候死是一种升华。比如刘胡兰死了，刘胡兰如果活着不过是一个肉体迅速地在岁月当中腐朽、衰老、消失的过程，她的死让她得到一种永恒，像图腾一样，成为一种永恒。所以西部人认为死是人生最美的一种定格。这一点东部人也有过，像苏小小，她在很年轻死的时候，却要面对死亡，她认为这是上天给她最大的恩赐，在她最美丽的时候死去。因此很多文人把苏小小作为他最值得尊重的一位女子来看待。后来东部出现了好多文化，于是像苏小小这样的女子越来越少了，好多人宁愿苟且地活着却不愿高贵地定格自己的生命。所以，莹儿的死有这样的一种意义。

第二呢，许多时候东部人眼中的苦难，西部人看起来却不是苦难。好多人说雪漠你经历了好多苦难。不是这样的，我告诉大家，雪漠从来没有经历过苦难，为什么呢？小时候我非常快乐，昨天我和儿子谈到这个。小时候我骑着马，打着马奔驰的时候，村里好多孩子连驴都骑不到，这时候我是非常快乐的。所以，我整天幻想变成孙悟空呀，有这样幻想的童年是非常美的，我从来没有这种苦难的概念。后来好多人说雪漠经历了好多苦难，我说没有。我经历的是诗意不是苦难，西部的好多老百姓也是这样的。东部人眼中看到的他们的苦难实际上是东部人非常功利的一种观念、一种概念，是他们用自己这种概念去衡量西部人非常鲜活的灵魂时出现的一种反差。

西藏人也罢，其他西部人也罢，他们其实活得非常好，怎么好呢？这种标准和东部人不一样。西部人认为一个人的成功不是拥有多少物质，而是看他是不是实现了自己的人生、是不是升华了自己的人格、是不是完善了自己的道德。如果在完善了自己的道德之后，那么他就觉得他是成功的。他可以舍，为什么要舍呢？他觉得人活着有这么一个桔子就活得很好的时候，他不会掠夺别人的桔子，他不会去掠夺香蕉，不会掠夺矿泉水。他觉得别的桔子让其他人去需要吧，这个香蕉让其他人去用吧，这个水留给子孙。因为人只需要简单的一点物质条件就可以活得非常好，剩下来就是这个生命中间让自己得到升华，看能不能在走过这段人生旅程的时候比出生时升华了一点儿。西部人认为生命就是走过一段路，走过的时候，如果升华了，下一辈子他会接着走。他认为人不是从这个世界上完全消失，而是实现人生的某一种“盼头”的过程中间的一段历程而已，他们更注重活着过程中间的一种态度。这就是为什么那么多的人穿的不一定很好，暖和就够了，冻不死就够了；吃的不一定很好，能饱就够了。为什么呢？他们也知道吃得很多的时候就可能出现脂肪肝等那些乱七八糟的东西，越简单越好。有些人把西藏人死后将自己的肉体天葬、喂鹰当成是一种愚昧。其实不是这样的。他们认为这个肉体没用的时候，可以拿没有用的肉体去喂养许许多多的猛禽，像老鹰呀这些东西。当它们这一天吃饱之后它们不会去伤害更小的鸟，西部人是这样一种观念。他们不是觉得这个不好，而是觉得这个肉体没有用了，可以拯救其他的生命。所以，他们活的观念不一样。这种观念缺乏沟通，就造成了东部人看西部人的一种落差，把这认为是愚昧。恰好西部人也认为东部人很愚昧，因为什么呢？你们穿得那么好，吃得那么好，已经很好了，为什么不让自己的生命得到一种更高的升华呢？为什么不择手段地去追求一些物质呢？这些东西永远追求不完，但生命只有一次。

一个人的价值，西部人并不以他得到多少物质、财富来衡量，而是看他是不是在追求一种不朽的价值，西部人称为“功德”。它不是福德，福德就是财富，功德是岁月毁不掉的东西，一种精神的东西。比如，肉体消失之后，精神会影响他人。这种利众的精神可以传递给儿子、孙子，通过一种故事，通过一种民歌，传递给子孙，让他们拥有这种精神，这就是岁月毁不掉的功德，它不是财富。西部人不追求财富的，有也好，没有也好，有了我就把它布施出去。所以当东部人关怀西部的时候，西部人就觉得莫名其妙。我的儿子来上海就呆不住，他说我的生命几十年中间为什么不做一些更有意义的、能让自己生命消失之后继续有价值的事情呢？却在上海坐地铁好几个小时，来来去去将生命消耗在地铁中间和忙忙碌碌地应酬中间。所以，他拒绝这种生活，他宁愿呆在西部让自己的生命在这段时光得到一种升华。我写小说就是这样。

另外，我之所以要写小说，第一我觉得一切都在很快地消失，哗哗哗地在变，没有一点能留住的东西，没有永恒。我的生命也是这样的，在很快地在衰老。《大漠祭》到今天快十年了，我老了十岁。所以，生命在飞快地消失，我很小的时候发现就生命在飞快地消失，但我却想建立一种消失不了的东西，追求一种相对的永恒。所以，我去写作。

第二，当我们的世界在飞快地消失，没有任何办法挽留它的时候，我想用文学来定格这种存在。因为中国的农业文明几千年了，但真正写出农业文明和农民精髓、灵魂的作品寥寥无几。所以，我觉得一个作家在这个农业文明被历史亘古的黑夜淹没之前，应该保留一种东西，让我们的子孙看一看几千年前的农民就这样活过，就这样非常纯朴地、痛苦地，当然也自然地、简单地、干净地、坚韧地活过。他们有过追求，也过痛苦，我想把这个留下来。

另外呢，还希望这部书的存在，有它比没有它好，读它比不读它好，能够给这个世界或者那块土地，带来稍微更好些的东西，带来一种善的东西。我的所有创作追求就这么几点。

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