“I Believe that the only paradise, I will ever find is my time here beside you. Here and now is my paradise. But if this is paradise, why must people fight and suffer from illness unable to escape the pain of death? I want you to find a way to escape all this suffering. ”母亲离开人世之前,交待给了8岁的道元这样一段话。从此,道元的一生都在寻找着真相与答案。
心碎的阿玲希望能在寺院中修行,因为她也想成为道元和俊了那样洁净庄严的僧侣。可是,她的心里无法摆脱过去的阴影,她曾经是妓女,她痛恨着自己的人生。道元叮嘱她,要“abandon your attachment to the past…..you shall be pure.”也许是为了这个“pure”,阿玲爱上了年轻英俊的俊了,她太需要这样一份洁净的爱做生命的洗礼了。当她为俊了吮吸腿上的蛇毒时,俊了再也没有控制住对阿玲肌肤相亲的爱欲。阿玲对俊了深深忏悔,她说:“I wanted you touch me , not for my female body, but as a real human being.”而俊了,深深哭泣着,脱下了他的僧衣,不顾道元的挽留,独自下山去了。阿玲赶来送他,俊了只用中文对她说了一句:我爱你,便此远去。镜头切回了阿玲的脸,山林空旷,只有风不断回荡着俊了的这句告白。
道元禅师是在和弟子们一起坐禅静观的时候离开人间的。“In the time of life, there is none other than life. There is none other than death.”说完这句偈语后,道元便缓缓阖眼,宛如还在静坐般安然。弟子们纷纷意识到道元的离去,强忍着悲痛,暗暗地哭泣着,禅堂出现了小小的骚动。寂元忽然呵斥一句:“continue, sit! ” 禅堂再度安静下来,僧人们继续开始了静坐,和他们的师父道元一起。只有燃着的檀香,偶尔掉落一小截香灰。