Dew...

 

The Vajra Sutra:

All conditioned phenomena
Are like dreams, illusions, bubbles, shadows,
Like dew drops and a lightning flash:
Contemplate them thus...

Venerable Master Hsuan Hua:

They are like states conjured up by magicians, not true and actual.
They are also like the states in dreams, which also are not real.
They are like the shadow of a tree as well, which constantly circles it, yet has no actual substance. They are like the echo or after sound when a bell is rung. One hears it for a time and then it fades and is gone. They are also like transformations that disappear and reappear in an endless series of changes.

Sixth Patriarch:

“Good Knowing Advisors, Maha Prajna Paramita is a Sanskrit word which means ‘great wisdom which has arrived at the other shore.’ It must be practiced in the mind, and not just recited in words. When the mouth recites and the mind does not practice, it is like an illusion, a transformation, dew drops, or lightning. However, when the mouth recites and the mind practices, then mind and mouth are in mutual accord. One’s own original nature is Buddha; apart from the nature there is no other Buddha.”

Dew and dewdrops...

Venerable Master Hsuan Hua:

Like dew drops and a lightning flash. If you look outside early in the morning you will find dew, but after sunrise the dew will have evaporated. A lightning flash is also quite evanescent.

Contemplate them thus. You should look upon all conditioned things in this way.

A dewdrop hangs precariously…it speaks of the transiency of conditioned things…

Dew glistening and sparkling in the sun soon evaporates and vanishes. Such are the illusory ephemeral nature of conditioned things…

Water

Frost

Raindrops

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