Long or Short Life, Rich or Poor 壽夭窮通 from Collection of Rain Blossoms

Longevity and wealth -a matter of perspective. Image: Shutterstock

In the Buddha’s way, we don’t see long life, short life, poverty, or wealth as something fixed or absolute. These are just labels people make up to compare and measure each other by. The truth is, there’s no real limit or standard for what we call a “long life.” Someone who is sixty or seventy may feel they’ve lived a long time, but to someone who is ninety, that’s still passing away young. And to Peng Zu — the ancient man said to have lived more than eight hundred years — we’d be like mayflies, living only a single day. Even if you lived to a hundred, to us you would still be like a seventy-year-old child. Think of it this way: in the mountains, a week might pass while thousands of years go by in the world. When time looks so different depending on where you stand, what’s the point of calling life “long” at all?

A Matter of Perspective

And if that’s true of what we call a long life, the same is also true when we talk about a short one. If someone passes away at the age of one, compared with a baby who only lives a few months, they have already lived longer. And compared with someone who lived only a few days, it could hardly be called short at all.

In the same way, when we talk about being poor or being rich, it also depends on where you stand. You may feel you’re poor, but compared with someone sleeping on the streets, your life already looks different. And wealth? Maybe you have a million, but there are people with ten million, or a hundred million, far above you. Even the richest person in the world can’t take a single thing with them when they go.

The Lasting Life of the Heart

So whether it’s life or death, poverty or wealth, they’re just temporary ideas people hang on to. What really matters isn’t adding more years to the body, but discovering the true life of the heart.

And what is the life of the heart? The heart guides all our thoughts. When the heart is calm and steady, the breath becomes steady, and when breathing is deep, vitality is abundant. With abundant vitality, the body is naturally well. In that state, sickness has no place to stay.

If we truly wish to live long, then remember these five words: “unmoved within the heart.” Practice them well, and your strength and vitality will grow naturally. And beyond this, try to stop thinking about life only as being long or short, rich or poor. This is my deepest and most heartfelt hope for you.

壽夭窮通

 雨花集

濟公活佛

壽、夭、窮、通, 在佛門中人是無此四字的, 俗人卻有分別。其實壽是絕無範圍的, 絕無標準的, 六七十歲之人叫做壽, 但以一個九十歲的人看來, 仍然是夭; 彭祖看你們不過是一隻蜉蝣, 縱使你有百歲, 以我們看來, 不過是七旬的孩子; 山中方七日, 世上幾千年, 何足謂之壽!

又說到夭, 一歲而卒, 比之數月而亡者, 經已長壽數月, 而比數日者, 又不能稱夭。

窮呢, 你今說窮, 比一比街頭露宿者又如何? 通嗎? 百萬家財, 更有千萬, 萬萬, 在你之上; 縱使世界大富翁, 撒手歸西後, 所得是什麼?

故此說到壽、夭、窮、通, 完全是世人不足之想我輩既經學佛, 則莫求化身之壽, 應永心壽, 何謂心壽呢? 心為百念之主人, 能心靜心平, 自然氣足神充, 氣充自然體健, 百病自無由生, 故求壽需緊記「無所動於中」五個字, 勤修自可體力充沛, 其次莫存世俗壽夭窮通之想, 至盼至盼!

A Personal Reflection

This teaching gave me a fresh way of looking at things. I always thought about the health of the heart in a physical sense — like exercising to keep it strong. When my heart is strong, I have more stamina, and my breath is steady and even, even when I run up very steep hills. But I had never thought about the health of the heart in another sense — the mind.

When the mind is weighed down by the three poisons, it’s clearly not healthy. Real well-being starts with the mind. That’s why it’s so important to guard it, to keep it clear and calm.

It’s a bit like guarding the entrance to a building. You watch who comes in and who goes out, and you notice right away if something looks off. In the same way, the mind is a field of awareness — that’s a phrase I borrow from Western Buddhism — where thoughts and emotions come and go. The question is, are we paying attention to what’s moving through? Over time, I’ve realized that not every thought or emotion is helpful. In the past, though, I used to believe them all without question — and no wonder my path felt so rocky.

These days, when I catch myself before reacting, I find I’m calmer. I respond to people in a better way, so I don’t have to clean up the damage afterward. And I notice my stress goes down too, because I can handle the million things on my plate with more ease. Even if I fall short on sleep, I can see that my well-being is steady and strong.

This translated text is a chapter from Collection of Rain Blossoms, a scripture written by JiGong Living Buddha in the 1900s through spirit writing. Here the link to the original Chinese source.

If you are interested in other chapters of this book, here is the link to the table of contents.