(15) Volition to wean oneself completely from attachment to material or phenomenal existence (bhava) is closely related to one’s act of almsgiving and donation, as the relationship between the two is similar to that between substance and the form it (the substance in question) assumes. Practically speaking, the two are in a unity. But some people are ignorant of or even cannot properly understand the relationship between the two. Consequently, on the one hand, they advocate and uphold the course of action of almsgiving and donation propounded by Buddhism. On the other, they disapprove of Buddhism on the grounds that the latter is encumbered with passivism and taedium vitae. As a matter of fact taedium vitae entertained by Buddhism is not at all of a passive sort. In other words, the taedium vitae cherished by Buddhism neither is tainted with an emotional aversion to life nor seeks escapism from an ever-bleaker world. The taedium vitae entertained by Buddhism is in fact such an outlook as gradually instills, into the mind of a practitioner, a sense of transcendence over the nightmarish worldliness of the mundane life—such a sense of transcendence as would spontaneously fill a practitioner’s consciousness after he has awakened to the non-reality of the five skandhas and elements. Therefore the taedium vitae which is compatible with Buddhism is tantamount to such a frame of mind that totally renounces the worldly life. It is precisely in such a frame of mind that an awakened Buddhist’s positive and self-committing attitude toward life is fully demonstrated. And in such a frame of mind is also demonstrated an awakened Buddhist’s willpower to incessantly improve on the momentum generated on the basis of the progress he has achieved toward enlightenment. It is exactly due to the consolidated existence of such a frame of mind in an awakened Buddhist that Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, was moved, so it was alleged, to bestow on Buddhism the following encomium: “To embrace Buddhism is an act only the most brilliant of all male luminaries in our land can be expected to perform. None of the aristocrats, state ministers, or generals of my imperial court can be expected even to dabble in Buddhism.” Therefore it is simply irrational to equate the taedium vitae evinced by Buddhism and the taedium vitae fostered in some worldly-wise minds, or to equate the taedium vitae evinced by Buddhism and the taedium vitae shown by those who are too narrow-minded not to commit suicide for mere trifles in everyday life. As a matter of fact, the intensity of taedium vitae harbored by a Buddhist-Chan practitioner is an important indicator of not only the intensity of his aversion to worldly life but the distance he has successfully covered in his endeavor to approach his expected stage of Buddhahood attainment, because the intensity of taedium vitae harbored by a Buddhist–Chan practitioner is directly triggered off by his insight into the nature of worldly life. In this sense the intensity of taedium vitae harbored by a Buddhist-Chan practitioner is also an indicator of the level of wisdom he has gained. So far as a Buddhist-Chan practitioner is concerned, both the degree of maturity of his insight into the nature of worldly life and of the universe and the degree of soundness of his awareness of sunyata (the nature of the void, or immaterial, form of existence) constitute a reliable indicator of the intensity of his volition to forsake the worldly life.(From My Heart My Buddha)