Fragment from my book
Simple Teachings on Emptiness and Buddha nature
“The eye coursing in conceptuality
Simple Teachings on Emptiness and Buddha nature
“The eye coursing in conceptuality
Is very mistaken.
What is seen by mistake is
unreal.
A Buddha does not have the
unreal.”[1]
All Dharma gates speak about suffering and the end of suffering. In Jodo Shinshu we do the same, so what is the origin of suffering? Generally speaking, suffering comes from ignorance which means taking as real and permanent that which is unreal and impermanent, desiring unreal objects, identifying with an illusory sense of self and pursuing unreal and useless goals. All that we experience, individually and collectively, with our bodies and unenlightened minds is samsara. Depending on our karma these experiences are classified into the six realms of existence: hell dwellers,hungry ghosts (pretas), animals, humans, asuras (demigos) and gods (devas)[2].
Simply
stated, all beings are in a collective dream where they experience the joys and
sorrows they themselves created with their own minds. Just like a beautiful
dream or a nightmare is caused by the good or bad thoughts we had during the
daytime, we also experience life in the above dreamlike samsaric states due to
our own thinking, words and actions.
A
dream and a magical display of our own minds – this is the definition of samsara. A dream is
“real” only for the dreamer immersed in his own self-created fantasies, but not
real for an Awakened One (a Buddha). A dream exists as long as fantasies and
delusions exist and disappears when these disappear. Thus, we can say that the samsaric dreamlike experiences,
good or bad, happy or painful, are the effect, while the delusions and
attachments are the causes. As long as the causes for samsara are there in our
minds, samsara will continue to exist for us. It is as simple as that. For the sleeping (unenlightened) mind all the
worlds he sees and all the experiences he has are real, although from the
perspective of true reality, they are just a dream or a magical display,
“The triple realms of illusory wind
Are seen as like dreams in dreams.”[3]
Because
all phenomena of the samsaric existence arise due to the various combination of
causes and conditions and disappear when such causes and conditions disappear,
they are said to be empty and without self, that is, without a self existent
independent reality of their own. You often hear the concept of emptiness or
voidness (sunyata) in the Buddhist texts, so this is exactly what it means –
the non-reality (non-real in the ultimate sense) of samsaric phenomena who are
constantly changing and do not exist independent of causes and conditions.
Anything
that exists due to the combination of causes and conditions cannot have a true,
genuine reality. Although the samsaric
phenomena appear as real to our unenlightened eyes, they are actually unreal
and not true to the enlightened eyes of the Buddhas. From the perspective of
the unenlightened beings, samsara exists, while from the perspective of the
Enlightened Ones, samsara is empty or void,
that is, it exists only at a relative level, but does not have true existence.
This
is exactly why it is said in the Heart
Sutra:
“When Holy
Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva performed the deep practice in the Perfection of
Transcendent Wisdom, He contemplated that there were five aggregates (skandhas)
but observed that they were devoid of
essential nature.
In this case, Shariputra,
form is voidness (emptiness) and
voidness (emptiness) is itself form; voidness is not different from form, and
form is not different from voidness; that which is form is voidness, and that
which is voidness is form. So it is for perception, conception, volition
and consciousness.
O Shariputra, all things have the characteristics of
voidness.[4]
All the physical
and mental elements of a being are classified in five types of aggregates
(skandhas): 1) form (a generic name for all kinds of matter and the body), 2)
feeling or sensation, 3) perception, 4) mental formations (mental states), 5)
consciousness or mind. All these elements of a person are considered empty or
devoid of essential nature because they depend on various causes and conditions
and are always changing just like a guy in his twenties will not be
exactly the same when he will be fifty. Here the words “devoid of essential nature” are extremely important as they point
to the deep truth that samsaric phenomena are not the ultimate
reality or the Buddha nature, which is the essential nature, uncreated,
unchanged and indestructible, hence not empty.
In the Sublime Continuum of the Great Vehicle
it is said,
“The aggregates
[and so forth] which are the fruitions of afflictive
emotions and [contaminated]
actions
Are like a magician's
illusions, emanations, [because although
they appear
variously in dependence upon conditions,
Also, Shakyamuni
encourages us in the Diamons Sutra to,
As a star at dawn, a bubble in a stream,
A flash of lightning in a summer cloud
A flickering lamp — a phantom — and a dream.”
A flash of lightning in a summer cloud
A flickering lamp — a phantom — and a dream.”
[1] Buddhavatamsaka Sutra,
The Mountain Doctrine by Dolpopa, translated and introduced by Jeffrey Hopkins,
Snow Lion Publications, Ithaka New York, Boulder, Colorado, 2006, p530
[2] I already talked about them in detail in The Four Profound Thoughts Which Turn the Mind Towards Amida Dharma,
so I will not describe them again, here.
[3] Vajra Garland Tantra, The
Mountain Doctrine by Dolpopa, translated and introduced by Jeffrey Hopkins,
Snow Lion Publications, Ithaka New York, Boulder, Colorado, 2006, p.69
[4] Translation by Zuio Hisao Inagaki, http://web.mit.edu/stclair/www/horai/heart-sk.htm
There
are many other English translations from which I mention the one made by
Nalanda Translation Committee, “Noble
Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva Mahasattva, said to venerable Shariputra,
‘O Shariputra, a
son or daughter of noble family who wishes to practice the profound
Prajnaparamita should see in this way: seeing the five skandhas to be empty of
nature. Form is emptiness; emptiness also is form. Emptiness is no other than
form; form is no other than emptiness. In the same way, feeling, perception,
formation, and consciousness are emptiness. Thus, Shariputra, all dharmas
(phenomena) are emptiness.”
Nalanda Translation Committee,
https://www.dharmanet.org/HeartSutra.htm
[5] Maitreya’s Sublime Continuum
of the Great Vehicle, The Mountain Doctrine by Dolpopa, translated and
introduced by Jeffrey Hopkins, Snow Lion Publications, Ithaka New York,
Boulder, Colorado, 2006, p110
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