Bill chats with Joe as they watch ephemeral fireworks burst into the night sky at a great party:
Bill: It’s hard to let go, isn’t it?
Joe: Yes, it is, Bill.
Bill: Well, that’s life.
Death personified had taken on Joe’s human form to experience Life, and it was time for him to go, to let Life go… but he had grown attached to Life, even tearing a little. It is hard to let go of life only when attached to it, while not understanding death itself. The truth is, since we get reborn as long as attached and not liberated, life is never really let go of, with death never being departure forever.
Life and death are but two sides of one same spinning coin. However, we do need to learn to let go of a life within an expiring body, to move on peacefully to the next. What matters most is to ensure we get to the ideal destination – such as Amitabha Buddha’s (Amituofo) Pure Land, where Dharma learning and practice for progress towards liberation from the cycle of birth and death is swiftest.
In the mean time, may we all live well, to die well, and be reborn better, ideally the best, at the above! And do not be too attached to the colourful yet very transient fireworks of life. Cherish them while they last, but never indulge, lest that you want more, so much so that you refuse to let them go, even when you have to go. Make peace, share peace, and be at peace.
