朋友最近买了一辆新机车，骑起来轻盈快速，令人有前程似锦之感，但停车时，却多了一项困扰；万一被偷了怎么办？我告诉他，"只要别忘了上锁；上了被偷，就只好自认倒霉了！"
      人真是一种奇怪的动物，当你缺乏某物时，会拼命想去获得，一旦获得了，则又加添烦恼--患得患失。
      佛经上有一个故事：有一个穷人家，过着十分清苦的日子，但由于省吃俭用，还可维持温饱；也由于生性乐观，晚饭后，一家大小围坐在庭院，父亲弹琴，全家唱歌、跳舞，其乐融融！穷人家的隔壁，住着一户大富人家。富翁拥有数不清的金银财宝，每天为着财产而忧心，因此一点也不快乐。富翁很羡慕穷人家快乐、融洽的生活气氛，便找来管家商量，管家告诉他，如果给穷人家一笔钱财，他们就快乐不起来了。富翁于是给了他们十万元；这意外之财，他们一辈子也赚不到。当天晚上，穷人家的夫妻俩，整晚为着找不到安全的藏钱地方而失眠，他们深深感觉到，钱太多也是一种困扰，甚至因此快乐不起来。没等到天亮，他们就把钱退还给富翁，然后回家睡个无忧无虑的觉。
      没钱的人，担心的只是温饱问题；大富人家，所担心的却是许多旁人无法思量的问题。得与失，原没有一定的标准，颜回的居陋巷，一箪食、一瓢饮，人不堪其忧，他却能不改其乐；佛门中的苦行者，不食人间烟火，以禅悦为食，得到的是无上的法乐。世俗中人，虽有酒池、肉林，吃多了，厌烦者有之、闹肠胃病者有之，更严重的，酒精中毒、肝硬化、心肌梗塞，乃至于罹患癌症......试问，何乐之有？
      不过，一切都是缘生、缘灭，是你的，不会失去；不是你的，求也求不到，纵然求到了，也是稍纵即逝。一切随缘不变，不变随缘吧！得之，我幸；不得，我命。如此而已。

Drifted With Fate

Recently, one of my friends bought a new motorcycle. It ran fast and got him in comfort and style. What worried him most was the problem of parking. What if the motorcycle was stolen?
I told him that, "As long as you don't forget to lock the bike up every time you park it, if anything, it is doomed to your fate."
Men are strange: if they lack something they are dying to get it; once they get it, they get into trouble as well--men are usually swayed by considerations of gain and loss.
There is a story from the Buddhist s cripts: a family led a poor life. But as they were economical, their earnings were enough to keep them warm and full. And their optimistic nature brought them a happy life: everyday after supper, they sat in a circle at the courtyard, where the father played the musical organs and the rest of the family members sang and danced. Their neighbour was a rich man who possessed numerous money and treasures; but he was no happy at all because he worried about his possession everyday. Envying the happy and harmonic atmosphere of his poor neighbour, the rich man consulted his steward and the steward told him, if the poor family were given some money, they would be no more happy. Following this advice, the rich man gave the poor family 100,000 dollars which their could never earn all through their lives. That night, to the poor couple was a sleepless night because they can't find a place to safely deposit the money. They deeply felt that, too much money was a kind of agony, more accurately, a happiness-killer. Before dawn, they returned the money to the rich man and then had a sweet dream.
The penniless care only about the dress and meat; while, the rich care about things that might be unthinkable to us. There is no fix criterion of gain and loss. For example, YanHui lived simply on a bamboo dish of rice and a gourd of drink, which was a deep worry to other people, but to him was an addicted pleasure. The disciplinants abiding by the Buddhism treated themselves the law of Buddhism rather than the worldly food, from which they benefited the supreme pleasures. By contrast, the common people in the world, though accompanied by the wine pool and flesh wood, will sooner or later be fed up with them--to see how many people suffer from anorexia or gastroenteritis, more severely, hepatocirrhosis, alcoholism, myocardial infarction or even cancer… What pleasures they get on earth?
It is, however, our fates that decide all. If something is fated to you, it comes to you; if not, it never occur to you even you beg for it. Or even you get it by chance; you will never keep it long. So, let our lives drifted with fate: to gain is fortunate and to lose is fate. So be it.