No Death, No Fear ---- "When conditions are sufficient things manifest."

《你可以不怕死》（一行禅师著，胡因梦译）Part 1

In my hermitage in France there is a bush of japonica, Japanese quince. The bush usually blossoms in the spring, but one winter it had been quite warm and the flower buds had come early. During the night a cold snap arrived and brought with it frost. The next day while doing walking meditation, I noticed that all the buds on the bush had died. I recognized this and thought, This New Year we will not have enough flowers to decorate the altar of the Buddha.

在我法国的隐居处，有一丛山茶花，属于日本榅桲类植物。它开花的时节通常在春天，某一年的冬季气候特别和暖，所以花开得早。深夜里一股冷风来袭，还夹带着霜冻。第二天行禅时，我发现那丛山茶上的幼蕾都死了。看着这幅景象，我心里想着，“今年我们布置佛坛的花可能不够了。”

A few weeks later the weather became warm again. As I walked in my garden I saw new buds on the japonica manifesting another generation of flowers. I asked the japonica flowers: "Are you the same as the flowers that died in the frost or are you different flowers?" The flowers replied to me: "Thay, we are not the same and we are not different When conditions are sufficient we manifest and when conditions are not we go into hiding. It's as simple as that."

几星期之后，天气转暖了。我在花园里漫步，看见那丛山茶又生出了新一代的花蕾。我问它们：“你们和那些在霜冻里死亡的花是相同的，还是不同的？”花儿们答道：“我们既不相同，也不相左。条件如果足够，我们就展露出来；条件不足，我们就藏起来。事情就是这么简单。”

This is what the Buddha taught. When conditions are sufficient things manifest. When conditions are no longer sufficient things withdraw. They wait until the moment is right for them to manifest again.

这便是佛陀的教法之一。当条件充足时，事物自然显现出来。条件如果不够，事物就会隐退。它们静待着适合它们显现的时刻。

Before giving birth to me, my mother was pregnant with another baby. She had a miscarriage, and that person wasn't born. When I was young I used to ask the question: was that my brother or was that me? Who was trying to manifest at that time? If a baby has been lost it means that conditions were not enough for him to manifest and the child has decided to withdraw in order to wait for better conditions. "I had better withdraw; I will come back again soon, my dearest." We have to respect his or her will. If you see the world with eyes like this, you will suffer much less. Was it my brother that my mother lost? Or maybe I was about to come out but instead I said, "It isn't time yet," so I withdrew.

在生我之前，母亲曾怀过另一个孩子，后来流产，所以那个人未曾降生。年少时我经常有一个疑问：那个想示现（Manifestation）［1］于人间的，是哥哥还是我？母亲失去了一个儿子，这意味着他示现出来的条件不够充分，于是他决定隐退，静待更好的因缘。“我还是退回去吧，最亲爱的母亲，不久我就会回来的。”我们必须尊重他或她的意愿。能够以这样的见地来看待世界，你就不会那么痛苦了。母亲失去的真的是我哥哥吗？或许当初想出生的是我，不过后来我说“时候未到”，于是我又缩回去了。