The Ninth Anniversary of Leslie Cheung's Final Day

Today is the ninth anniversary of Leslie Cheung's death. So those who still remember him, think of death, esp. today. As usual, this afternoon I opened 胡小林's website and listened to hiis speeches: Reflections on Studying Buddhism. Today it was his 7th episode. It was such a coincidence that he talked about death. One of the major pains we face is the fact some things in this world are out of our reach, no matter how powerful you are politically and how rich you are economically. One of the examples is eternity of life. No one can change this brutal reality. In a sense, every living creature is worth pitying. Everyone of them will die one day. They end up in a different place：heaven or hell. What is the chance of going to hell? Buddhist scholar Yin Guang gave this analogy: I have in my hand a handful of earth. Let's compare this earth with all the earth on Earth. Which is bigger? The answer is obvious! But you may never have thought of the connection between your chances of going to heaven and hell. Which is bigger? According to Yin, the difference between these two is like the difference between a handful of earth and all the earth on Earth. In other words, most people end up in hell. Every human being, old or young, has experienced some kind of pain all his life. But compared with the pain in hell, these are nothing. This means, it is very likely that we will go to hell and go through all the pains there. Why not start imagining the pain down there? Thinking of those pains often, compassion will be with you.