When she met Little Shramanera, a trace of tenderness deep in her heart was suddenly reawakened. She remembered seeing him the first time — her eyes suddenly brightened: such a sunny boy. Even now, more than a year later, she could still recall clearly how he looked that day: freshly styled, fashionable short hair; a pale purple striped shirt paired with white casual pants; a bouquet of blue roses in his hand; a face lit with a sincere smile; his eyes shining bright—like a cool breeze blowing in suddenly from the clamor of the marketplace.

He had come to her clinic that day to ask a few psychology questions. He said he had read a book she had written on psychotherapy, and that a friend of his was suffering from depression—he had come to consult on the friend’s behalf. As he was leaving, he lifted the roses toward her and said he didn’t know what blue roses stood for, but he thought they were very beautiful, so he had bought them for the psychologist—to express sincerity and admiration.

She smiled and accepted them. They had hit it off that time, and later their conversation turned in many directions to Buddhist belief, since both of them were studying the Dharma at the time. She recalled again the scene and content of their conversation that day.

She remembered asking him whether he had taken the Three Refuges and the Five Precepts. He gave a faint smile and said, “I just read the Buddhist sutras on my own and regularly recite the Great Compassion Mantra. I think taking refuge is only a formality, not really important. And after receiving the precepts, if you can’t uphold them, breaking them is worse than never having taken them at all.”

She spoke seriously. “How can taking refuge be unimportant? Although in the Buddha-dharma the ultimate liberation is attained through the Buddha’s wisdom, when we first begin studying the Dharma and have not yet gained wisdom, the teacher and the Triple Jewel — the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha—are where our body and mind find reliance, like an infant depending on its mother. Besides, the Buddha-dharma relies on the Triple Jewel to abide in the world, to spread and flourish—they are the source of our study of the Dharma. We revere the Triple Jewel as one remembers the source when drinking water. Otherwise, wouldn’t we be forgetting kindness?”

“Though the Buddha has entered nirvana and only images remain, and the Sangha today is not the holy Sangha of the age of the true Dharma, I believe that those who cultivate and realize the Buddha-dharma should behold the Buddha image as though seeing the Buddha himself, and regard a renunciant as though seeing an Arhat. They should use this ‘mind that sees things as they truly are’ to rely upon the Triple Jewel and make offerings to the Triple Jewel. In this way, not only can one use this as a ‘Dharma door of cultivation and realization’ to break one’s own discriminations and attachments, but one can also obtain even greater merit, which serves as provisions for cultivating the Way and realizing the Way.”

“And, receiving the Three Refuges and Five Precepts allows one to obtain the precept substance through the ‘transmission lineage.’ The monastics who transmit the precepts have passed them down generation after generation, from the time the Buddha first established and conferred the precepts, in one unbroken succession. Even if the precept transmission is not entirely in accordance with the Dharma and one cannot obtain a pure precept substance, one can still obtain a Dharma transmission distinct from that of sentient beings on non-Buddhist paths, planting ‘a cause for leaving the cycle of rebirth.'”

She said that she herself had taken the Three Refuges, the Five Precepts, and the Eight Fasting Precepts. Her teacher had said that if, due to various causes and conditions or defilements in the red dust, one cannot uphold them, one may also set the precepts aside. Later, after repentance, one may still receive them again.

“To receive the precepts and then set them aside when one cannot uphold them—what meaning is there in that? Better not to receive them at all and save the trouble.” Little Shramanera furrowed his brow and said this lightly.

“How can there be no meaning? At the very least, it makes a person frequently give rise to a mind of shame and remorse, reminding them that what they are doing is something the Buddha declared should not be done—giving them a place of reliance even when they repent. Otherwise, as the days and months stretch on, one grows numb in ever-deepening indulgence and degeneration, from never knowing repentance all the way to discarding even shame and remorse, unknowingly losing human character and morality.”

Wu Aizhen remembered that she had probably been too earnest and serious at that moment. At her words, Little Shramanera reddened a little and gave an awkward laugh.

“Why does Buddhism prohibit alcohol? Because of my work, I often have to drink with clients and friends. That alcohol precept is very hard to keep. Look, Daoism doesn’t prohibit alcohol—those accomplished Daoist masters always have wine gourds hanging at their sides. As for me, I follow the Dao when there’s wine, and follow the Buddha when there’s none.”

“In Buddhism, one attains samadhi and wisdom through the precepts. For someone whose samadhi power is insufficient, alcohol causes confusion and intoxication, stripping away clear mindful awareness and thereby causing the loss of samadhi and wisdom. Other religions follow different Dharma doors—for example, those that emphasize cultivation through the energy channels sometimes use alcohol to open the meridians and vital energy pathways; using it as medicine is not necessarily wrong. But those who cultivate the Buddha-dharma must understand the principle at work here.

“If you truly cannot uphold the precepts over the long term, you could also receive and uphold the Eight Fasting Precepts. The Eight Fasting Precepts are observed only six days each lunar month: the eighth, fourteenth, fifteenth, twenty-third, and the last two days of the month—these are called the six fasting days. On these six days, observe a vegetarian fast, recite the Buddha’s name, and contemplate the Four Noble Truths, the thirty-seven factors of enlightenment, and so on spoken by the Buddha. The sutras say that upholding the Eight Fasting Precepts can close the door of birth and death and is the mother of all Buddhas. Even if you cannot complete all six days, the merit of upholding them for just one full day and night is still immense.

“The Buddha said in the sutras, ‘When Maitreya appears in the world, receiving the precepts for a hundred years will not equal upholding the Eight Fasting Precepts for one day and one night in my age.’ Though the Buddha has entered nirvana, we are still fortunate — after all, we can still hear the Buddha-dharma. So how could anyone who believes in the Buddha’s words give up this upholding, which is so simple and easy yet immeasurable in merit? I trust that someone who studies Buddhism and is as intelligent as you will immediately decide to faithfully accept and practice it …”

She remembered that after she finished saying this, they both laughed, and the atmosphere grew much livelier. He said he would go back and look through some books on the precepts again.

A few days after that conversation, Little Shramanera called to invite her. He asked her to accompany him on a Sunday to the Master’s place, where he took the Three Refuges and the Eight Fasting Precepts. And because of this cause and condition and their shared interests, their communication grew more and more frequent, until it finally developed into the relationship they had now as lovers …

At this thought, she smiled quietly on her meditation cushion, feeling a faint tenderness ripple outward from the depths of her heart …

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