As Donald Trump, along with his wife, stepped off Air Force One for the first time as President and set foot on British soil, waving and smiling at the crowd, at the same moment, in a tropical rainforest in Sri Lanka, a Rusty Spotted Cat was making its solitary way along the damp forest floor. Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the leaves to fall on it, as it darted through damp tree hollows and jumped over weeds. Suddenly, it stopped, its ears pricked up alertly, its eyes widened, and its nose continually sniffing. This creature, known as the smallest cat in the world, seemed to have discovered something.
At the same time, a battle was raging in Aleppo, the second largest city in Syria. Nineteen-year-old Assam was hiding in a ruin - formerly a large supermarket - clutching a gun. He had been injured in the leg, and not far from him was a dried, blackened pool of blood and an open can of beef. He heard sporadic gunshots and screams in the distance along with his own breathing and heartbeat. The pain made him feel like he was going to die. He thought about the girl he had seen the morning before. He had only seen her eyes - perhaps he could see her again - if he survived until tomorrow.
Simultaneously, in Antarctica, countless penguins were lining up and leaping into the sea. In Alaska, countless Chinook salmon were swimming upstream from the sea back to rivers to spawn. In mainland China, at a small train station in the central region, a group of people were having their tickets checked and were waiting to board. Their luggage was woven bags and cheap-looking suitcases. Their slightly nervous expressions suggested it was their first time traveling far from home. In Hanoi, Vietnam, a small shop owner was sitting in his shop, watching the passing crowd with a numb expression.
At the same time, in a nature reserve in Northern Africa, a leopard was scampering along with another leopard's thigh in its mouth. It had snatched it from the remains left by a lion, competing with two hyenas for this leg, which had left it with an injury to its face. It was trying to find a safe place to stash the hard-won food.
Our planet nurtures countless lives, every creature on this earth lives towards a common goal. Whether it's Donald Trump, Robert Downey Jr., or the Rusty Spotted Cat in Sri Lanka, all beings want happiness and do not wish for suffering. However, we usually don't know this. We only know of our own suffering and we are often ignorant of the suffering of those around us. We pay even less attention to the lives we cannot see - I'm not referring to intangible forms of life, but the lives on this planet that we neglect.
In this era of advanced internet connectivity, we know about Trump's travel itinerary, we know about the Federal Reserve raising interest rates, we know about the forest fires in the Amazon of Brazil, we know about Tesla's satellite project, we know that the political career of Britain's new Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has hit a snag, we know which celebrity has slept with which, and we think we know so much. But in reality, we know very little; countless lives are ignored by us. We don't know their stories, we don't know their experiences. The lives we know and care about are only one in a trillionth of the life on Earth, and the events we know and care about are also just one in a trillionth of the events that happen on Earth every day.
Compared to other forms of life, even the most humble humans have a chance to be noticed. Sometimes you see BBC carrying cameras to interview those in poverty, but have you ever seen them interviewing an ant or a tree beetle? - creatures that lost their homes due to the Amazon forest fires.
People often come and ask me about my opinion on a certain event that is happening, they may think I must know about it, but this is not always the case, as I do not focus solely on human affairs. And not only human matters are important to me. I pay attention to the cockroaches on the bathroom wall, the snails and earthworms on the neighbourhood road after the rain, any random person or insect walking past. Whether it's a janitor mopping the floor or a Rockefeller.
Most people focus on the Amazon forest fires, but they only care about the impact of the fire on humans. They are concerned about whether it will affect the earth's oxygen supply, about the impact on the EU's South American Free Trade Agreement. They do not care about the hundreds of billions of animals that have lost their homes and lives due to the fire. Most people's vision is limited to humanity, even limited to their own home and surroundings; and even among humans, they seem to only care about the big events that make the news. More selfish people don't even care about human affairs, they only care about those they have designated as "important". Have you ever cared about the mood of the security guard in your neighborhood? We feel that only those we consider "important" are the ones we need to pay attention to, and often we hardly feel the existence of others. In our eyes, the security guard downstairs is just a guard. He is not a flesh and blood person who can speak and laugh, he does not have emotions, he does not have children, he does not take a train home with a bag on his back during the New Year. In the eyes of many, he is just a guard. A useful machine. You might only look at him when you leave the gate of the neighborhood.
The same thing happens to animals, we don't care about any animals - except our cats. We don't care about their survival, whether they have a place to live, we don't even want to know about their lives. It's not surprising, we don't even care about humans, let alone animals. Human affairs are far more important than other life - this is the view held by the most decent and civilized people on this planet. As for the future of this planet, all life other than humans seems to have been deprived of the right to speak. We never want to hear what a koala has to say about the current situation in Australia - I don't believe they have no opinion on the rampant deforestation. You have to know, all lives on this planet are like us, seeking happiness and food, avoiding pain. They feel fear, they feel sad, they feel pain, they also want to be held, they also have hearts. Whether it's the Rusty Spotted Cat in Sri Lanka, the penguins in Antarctica, the salmon in Alaska, or the fisherman in southern India. They are all struggling for survival, just like us.
Due to karma, we are unaware and uncaring of the wars and political changes taking place in an ant colony in Africa, and likewise, they are unaware of what is happening in our world. For them, it's a big deal. But for us, it's nothing. We don't even know these things are happening. And this is only within the scope of the Earth, what if we broaden our view to the entire universe?
Every early morning, as you walk to work, the morning sun shines on your eyelids and you can barely open your eyes; fifty meters away, someone is in their room in deep sorrow. Someone is watching the morning news. Someone is frying a fish. At the same moment on the African continent, a caracal is staring at its prey slowly approaching in the grass - it adjusts its position, ready to strike; in Alaska, a salmon is leaping out of the water, causing a splash; not far away, a young brown bear is waiting by the river for its mother to return from hunting. Somewhere in the Atlantic, a group of dolphins are hunting a large group of panicked, darting sardines. In Tokyo, someone ended their life by burning charcoal; and in a dilapidated hospital in the suburbs of Bangalore, India, a small life just opened its eyes to see the world.
If you have practiced for many years, you should know these, you should sense these. Every life is equally important. Every event that happens to each person is significant, and it is the same for every life. Only by knowing these can you truly develop the Bodhi mind. The more you can sense the joys and sorrows of other lives, the closer you are to the Bodhi mind.
Written by Ling Shan Hermit on September 5, 2019.
灵山居士：当唐纳德.川普走下空军一号的时候世界在发生什么
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