Perhaps

佛友 TLing 策划在她的淨心中心主辦八堂给九至十四歲青少年及家長的親子教育課程，TLing 交给我一本法鼓山教育部的中文書＜大智慧過生活第一册＞，要我翻譯其中一課為英文。

我已作了翻譯也想把这篇文章作者黄俊偉（取材自聯合報＜現代人的大夢＞專欄），以及＜與你談心＞的分享。

A Buddhist friend, TLing plans to organize an eight session “life skills” class for 9 to 14 year olds with their parents in their Pure Mind Center. TLing passed me a Chinese book from Dharma Drum Mountain. She wanted me to help translate one of the chapters from the book into English.

I translated it and thought to share an article and the message from there with you:

‘Perhaps This Is the Last Time’ written by 黄俊偉

“We can’t avoid feeling bothered or getting mad when interacting with others sometimes: mom wants me drive her to go shopping; my elder brother wants to borrow my car; my younger brother calls and wants me to pay his book fees again; student’s parents come and talk about the problems raising their kids; a co-worker calls and complains about personal issues; the dog smells bad and needs a bath……. Sometimes, I feel bothered by life’s little things; ordinary, routine things, even the need to move and open my mouth to eat. It seems everyday has a bunch of matters that I cannot finish!

Then, one day, I went to the hospital and visited a friend who was careless and got poisoned by breathing in carbon monoxide. Previously, my friend was a genius, full of energy and very active; but now he is covered by a diaper, because he cannot use his arms and legs. His nose had a tube to his stomach and there was an open hole at his throat to put another tube.

When it was mealtime, I heard a nurse say, “Time to eat.” Then the nurse used a huge injection tube to inject the food paste into my friend’s feeding tube. It was fast and only took one or two minutes. After that the nurse said, “Okay, done!” - - My friend looked at me, helpless.

At a meal, the day before his accident, I got my food and sat down with him. I remembered he was complaining while he was eating. If he knew that this would be the last meal which he could chew food in his mouth and taste delicious food - - I think he probably would have had a nice, delicious meal that day.

As I left the hospital, I thought about my life and told myself: I should feel happy driving mom to go shopping; letting my elder brother use my car; paying book fees for my younger brother; listening to student’s parents; washing the car; bathing the dog……. All these little things in life that bother me…maybe they won’t be ‘routine’ again. Perhaps this is the last time in my life.”

‘The Message:

We always hope tomorrow will be better, wishing for a great tomorrow. In fact, to be here now is the best. If we focus on our expectations for tomorrow and we don’t put effort into this moment, then tomorrow will not be pleasant. On the other hand, if we always think about the past and feel pleased or regretful about past issues, then it’s also meaningless. So, are we supposed to have a grateful heart for whatever we have? Live usefully in the present moment and you won’t have regrets in your life!’

‘Only this moment is real, because the past has passed and the future has not come yet.’