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Poetry
Reading
and Appreciation ~
An Answer to Hamlet’s Anxiety
William
Shakespeare, one of the greatest playwrights in the world from
England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, had written
many famous soliloquies. “To be or not to be” by Hamlet
in Hamlet is probably the most famous among the well-known ones.
Prince Hamlet has found that his father was murdered by his uncle,
and the uncle has seized the crown and the queen, his mother.
The whole world seems to be bearing down onto his shoulders and
he finds it is now up to him to create order out of chaos. Having
procrastinated, he is now gripped by deep doubts on the meaning
of the world and human life. This soliloquy is delivered when
Hamlet is at his most anguished moment:
To be, or not
to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
– who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
...
Considering
all of literature, what Shakespeare had written can be said to
be a truly perfect expression on the fear, anxiety and bewilderment
that has always disturbed humankind on the issue of death. Being
born into this world, sooner or later, humans cannot help but
come to a face-to-face encounter with death. However, few are
those that could so profoundly encounter the thought of death,
and even fewer are those that could so powerfully express their
thoughts.
The reason that the issue of death
is so important to humans is that it is the core issue regarding
the meaning of the universe and human life. Is the universe simply
a material place where things come into being and finally are
annihilated, or is there indeed a spiritual world that exists
eternally beyond this world? Do humans have a soul or don’t
they? When humans die, do they simply disappear or will their
soul survive? If the soul survives, where does the soul go after
death? If the soul still exists, what should one do to care for
the soul when one is alive in this world?
As a matter of fact, Hamlet’s
soliloquy always makes one think of oneself. I, for one, have
had the same anxiety. Like many of us, I have been looking around
for an answer to the question.
Those who practice the Quan Yin
Method are truly blessed. Our Master has answered this ultimate
question, and the Quan Yin Method has answered the question. The
Quan Yin practitioners are also able to answer Hamlet’s
Question, a deep-seated anxiety for all humans. What a long way
Master has taken us along to reach where we are now! But, of course,
what’s more important is that this is not the kind of question
which is answered only intellectually. Once we truly understand
it, we also understand that there is no death. We transcend this
material world and enter into the spiritual world. What an excitement!
What gratitude there is in our heart to Master!
Of course, as far as this essay
is concerned, it’s not necessary to bring up details on
how we answer the question. My feeling is that, when we read this
poem of Master, “Since We Knew Each Other,” if we
are mindful of Hamlet’s question and the agony we personally
experienced with the issue of death, we would more deeply understand
this beautiful poem.
~ By Yiming, New Jersey, USA
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But
gone now are the stormy days: