Return to the Land of Bliss-‘Home’ of Eternal Reunion
There is a saying: "One will miss one's family even more during every festive season." However, for Buddhist practitioners and Pure Land practitioners, we should think about and we should "feel more strongly about impermanence during every festive season.”
The so-called "there are no feasts that will not disperse in this world, and there are no families that will not separate in this world,” "they can be compared to the dispersal of an audience at the end of a show, which is like a dream, in which prosperity declines and becomes emptiness in the end." After the New Year holiday, relatives who have been briefly reunited will wave and say goodbye to one another, and depart one by one and return to their respective homes. Everything is clearly impermanent. Nothing is eternal, no matter how prosperous it is. Everything will return to silence and normalcy in the end, no matter how splendid it is. The Prosperity, and the hustle and bustle,and dynamics, of everyday life are all momentary.
As the Infinite Life Sutra says:
Attachments, desires and worldly splendor cannot last long. They will all be gone, and bring no joy.
Amid worldly desires and attachments, we come and go alone. We are born alone, and we die alone.
After death, we go to a painful or joyful place. We experience our consequences, which no others can bear on our behalf.
Therefore, we come and go alone as we undergo rebirth in the Six Realms. Although we have companions now, we will have none in the future. The Ksitigarbha Sutra says: "A father and his son have their separate crossroads, no matter how close they are. They are unable to bear the karmic consequences for each other, even if they cross each other’s path." Each of us in this world is subject to our own karma. This world is not our hometown, as we are only here to accept our karma. Those who yearn for eternity, happiness and reunion must return to the Land of Bliss, the hometown of our Buddha-nature. (Master Huijing)
Namo Amituofo
回到極樂永团聚的家
文：慧淨法师
有句話說：「每逢佳節倍思親」，但對修行人、念佛人來講，則應是「每逢佳節，倍感無常」。
每逢過年，倍感無常。所謂「天下無不散之宴席，世上無不離的親人」」、｢曲終人散都是夢，繁華落盡一場空｣，春節假期過後，短暫團圓的親人就要互相揮手說再見，紛紛離開，返回各自的地方。可知，萬事萬物都是無常的，不是永恆的，再怎樣的繁華，最後還是回到寂靜，再怎麼樣的絢爛，最後還是回歸平常。繁華、熱鬧、感動、踴躍是一時的。像《無量壽經》所講的：
愛欲榮華，不可常保，皆當別離，無可樂者。
人在世間，愛欲之中，獨生獨死，獨去獨來；
當行至趣，苦樂之地，身自當之，無有代者。
所以，在這六道輪迴當中，我們都是孤獨而來，也是孤獨而去，雖然現在有伴，但將來無伴。《地藏經》說：「父子至親，歧路各別，縱然相逢，無肯代受。」我們每一個人在這世間都是隨業流轉，這世間不是我們的故鄉，我們是接受這個業而來，要想長久的、安樂的、團聚的，就必須回歸極樂世界，我們佛性的家鄉。
南無阿彌陀佛
