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This Floating World

Republished in Lion's Roar, (June 30, 2016)
One of our Western sutras is the children's round that goes:

  • Row, row, row your boat,
  • Gently down the stream.
  • Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
  • Life is but a dream.
The image of a human life as a small skiff on the wide waters of the world has been around as long as people have had boats, and the thought that life is a dream is no news flash either. But what does it mean that there is something happy, maybe even beautiful or consoling, in thinking so?