Posted inHeart Sutra, Henry's Messages

Message from Henry: More on Emptiness

October 11, 2016

Gone, gone, completely gone, totally completely gone.

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To see definitively at least once that “I” do not exist…

To see the world without “me,” clearly and unquestionably….

To see that there is no world at all, that the entire earth is a great mirage, an illusion, a mere reflection on indescribable nothing…

To see both these aspects at once, no self, no world, nin-ku, hok-ku

Kanzeon clearly saw that all five skandhas are empty.” That’s what this line of the Heart Sutra refers to. Not only is there no me, there is no world. The first and the fifth skandhas – object and subject – and the three in between, are all empty. And empty means gone. Not there, not here. “Gone, gone, completely gone, totally completely gone,” as the Heart Sutra says…

Sometimes “emptiness” is glossed in other ways: “no boundaries,” “no separation,” “no self-substance,” “all is one.” These are all aspects of it to be sure. Yet the Zen tradition contains innumerable hints and pointers and explicit statements about the fundamental “content” of awakening or realization.

The fact is, one has to see it once and for all for oneself before one can say definitively and clearly: the whole thing is one great illusion. We must continue to trust in the wisdom and insight of the ancestors, our forebears in Zen, and be grateful that a path to real liberation has been kept open.

Message from Henry taken from our October 11, 2016 Newsletter
Image: Vanished by Tanti Ruwani, CC by 2.0, from Flickr.com

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