Comment:
Some thought that strictly keeping life within familiar routines and spheres would constitute living a simple life. In fact, if mind could transcend the bondage of all sorts of fixed views, then no matter how worldly affairs twist and turn, to a mind that is free from fixed views there is no instant when life itself is not intrinsically simple.
Fundamentally the distinction lies in whether one is grasping to forms or not. When one could not comprehend this point clearly and thoroughly, then there would be no possibility of attaining the ultimate emancipation as revealed through Buddhist teachings. Some practitioners had self-confined their practices within the commonly recognized sphere of "purity" due to their lack of the wisdom of not grasping to forms. Alas! Pursuing enlightenment and yet remained stagnant within attachments.
Written in Chinese on November 7, 2004
Translated on November 28, 2004
El Cerrito, California