Zen Meditation Community, LA (Thursdays)

All things are as empty as the enso

For years, Zen came to Pasadena through PasaDharma -- under the auspices of Founder Roshi Jeff Albrizze (aka Rev. Lotus Peace) and successor Meditation Guide Seven and PasaDharma's friends at:

• Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church
• Pasadena Library (Rose Bowl branch)
• Ahiah Center for Spiritual Living in Pasadena
• Mindfulness Meditation Center
• Los Angeles Buddhist Vihara, Pasadena,
• Vipassana Meditation Center (Tha Bar Wa) until the Panda from Wuhan stopped our weekly sangha ("spiritual community") from meeting in person.

Art by Rev. Seigaku Amato

But there's a new Pasadena Zen Sangha, a practice community (affiliated with Dharma Buddhist Meditation (Disclosure Project, Nature Center, and PasaDharma), Long Beach Buddhist Church, Yokoji Zen Mountain Center of Idyllwild, and Angel City Zen Center (now free of bothersome Brad Warner), to serve Los Angeles at the Foothills of the Angeles National Forest, and all of the San Gabriel Valley:

• Weekly Zen Meditation
• Pasadena Zen Sangha (free or by donation)
• Every Thursday from 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
• Orange Grove Friends Meeting House
• 520 E. Orange Grove Bl., Pasadena, 91104

The Bodhisattva of Compassion: Kanzeon

TEACHER: Sensei Seigaku Amato

Seigaku Amato, Hossenshiki ceremony, Japan

Sensei or Reverend Seigaku Amato, who was educated in a Sōtō-Rinzai Zen blend, leads us every Thursday in:

• shikantaza or "just sitting" (zazen),
• mindful walking (kinhin),
• perplexing riddles to help us overcome rigid and limiting habits of mind and get us thinking outside the box (koans),
• questions and answers, and
• an open group discussion.

Sensei completed his Hossenshiki ceremony in Japan, a necessary step for a Sotoshu novice to take toward becoming a full-fledged Zen Buddhist priest, as he became Zagen (pictured above), then Osho. He is also the author of a very helpful Guide to Zen:

• PHOTO GALLERY (Facebook)

HIS BOOK: The Complete Illustrated Guide to Zen

The Complete Illustrated Guide to Zen

With 4.3 out of 5 stars (38 reviews), this 2021 Simon & Schuster introduction to Zen is unlike any readers have ever seen — inspired by manga and graphic novels. It offers a comprehensive overview of Soto Zen Buddhism in a delightfully captivating way.

Complete with dynamic, detailed illustrations, American Soto Zen Priest Seigaku Amato uses a semi-narrative style to take readers on a visual tour of Buddhism and, using specifics to illuminate universals, dives deeply into the practices and forms of Soto Zen.

In honor of our teacher the Buddha Shakyamuni

Whether we are just taking our first step or have been practicing Zen for years, this creative and profound book can serve as a constant companion and guide on the journey as it explores topics such as:

• a brief history of Buddhism
• an iconographic overview of various buddhas and bodhisattvas
• an introduction to the various practices of Zen, including
• meditation (zazen)
• work practice (samu)
• meditative eating (oryoki)
• a what’s-what of:
• holidays
• ceremonies
• temple instruments
• religious vestments
• a how-to guide for setting up a home altar.
• BOOK: The Complete Illustrated Guide to Zen (Simon & Schuster)
• Seigaku Amato's ART — Pasadena Zen Sangha

OTHER LOCAL PRACTICE OPPORTUNITIES

• Zenshuji Soto Misson, in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, the first Soto Zen temple in North America, established in 1922
• Taichi (Calendar - Neighborhood UU Church) Feb. 7, 2026, 8:00- 9:15 am
• (Japanese) Pasadena Buddhist Temple (of Altadena)
• New Science of Spirituality Meditation Center opens in Pasadena (former home of the LA Buddhist Vihara)| Science of Spirituality
• Buddhist groups increasingly taking root in Latinx communities | Lion’s Roar
• Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Dhr. Seven, Jen Bradshaw, Wisdom Quarterly

Alan Watts explains "Nothingness"

Nothingness: Alan Watts Official

(Alan Watts Org) "Nothingness" is one of eight programs recorded for The Essential Alan Watts aboard the ferry boat S.S. Vallejo in Sausalito, California, in the spring of 1972. The recordings by Alan were taped by his son Mark and sound engineer Henry "Sandy" Jacobs.

The Zen zero: Enso

In the West we tend to believe “you can't get something for nothing,” but in this program Watts explores the possibility that nothing may be the very basis of something — and uses the example of sounds emerging out of silence to explain what is discovered in Zen practice.

Watch the full 26-minute version of "Nothingness" along with 33 more full videos and over 70 more audio programs with a low-cost subscription to the official Alan Watts streaming platform COMMERCIAL-FREE at play.alanwatts.org. #alanwatts #alanwattsphilosophy #alanwattswisdom

• Alan Watts via Something's Happening on LA radio: KPFK
• Online Archives of Pacifica Free Speech Radio, Los Angeles (KPFK 90.7 FM)
• Alan Watts (alanwatts.org), Aug. 16, 2024; Dhr. Seven, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

The True Nature of Existence (Class 3)

Bhikkhu Bodhi, Tape  3, The True Nature of Existence

• The Five Aggregates clung to as self (kandha)

There's another BuddhistSummerSchool.org?

What is the Heart Sutra really about other than realizing that all of these "heaps" or "aggregates" are devoid of self, empty (shunyata), without self, not the property of a self, not under the control of a self? But there seems to be a "self" (atta, atman, or soul). What is that? That is the functional integration of the Five Aggregates: form, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, consciousness.

But if 'I' am not I, what am I?

(Buddhism Podcast) The Observer is the Observed. Who am "I"?

Who created creation? Who's the Creator?

Siddhartha in awakening, found 'the Creator'

It's interesting that when the wandering ascetic Siddhartha became "the Enlightened One," the Buddha, he found the Creator and said so. The words are famous in Buddhist history for what they say about our present situation even though we have not yet realized it. But we will at our awakening, when and if we become enlightened. It's not guaranteed that we will. In fact, if we do nothing, it's guaranteed that we won't. The Buddha's final words were, "All things are hurtling towards destruction; work out your salvation (enlightenment) with diligence." So what did he say?

"Through the round of many rebirths I roamed without reward, without rest, seeking the house-builder. Painful is rebirth again and again. House-builder, you are seen! You will not build a house again. All your rafters broken, the ridge pole destroyed, gone to the unformed, the mind has come to the end of craving."

— Dhammapada 153-4

I’ve seen you, house-builder!

You won’t build a house again!

Your rafters are all broken,

your roof-peak is demolished.

The mind, set on deconstruction,

has reached the end of craving.

Dhp 154—Bhikkhu Sujato (edited trans)

If there's no Creator, why does the Universe exist? A Buddhist answer

(Buddhism Podcast) June 4, 2025: Buddhism Explained. The universe exists not by a creator, but through endless cycles of conditions. The Buddha (in Buddhist cosmology) presents Dependent Origination, where everything that arises does so from interconnected causes, challenging traditional and scientific quests for a first spark [or prime mover].

Understand why the Buddha redirected focus from cosmic origins to the immediate path of ending suffering right here right now.

This profound wisdom finds surprising parallels in modern scientific thought, revealing a cosmos shaped by karma and interdependence. Learn how to transform external questions into inner clarity and liberation, finding peace in understanding reality as it truly unfolds.

• 00:00 - The human longing: Who made this?
• 06:12 - No creator: the universe of conditions
• 13:29 - The six realms [31 Planes of Existence] — where consciousness can reappear
• 17:43 - Waking from the cosmic dream [Maya]
• 21:20 - The real answer: From external questions to inner freedom

Ironic sarcasm (with a point)

Black Joshua, how shall we live? - It's all yours.

Aha, Buddhism must be wrong because obviously Creation must have a Creator. It's built right into the word. All of this was created by someone somewhere somehow at sometime. That much we know. The rest is a mystery. The Black God came down to Earth after it evaporated from being the "face of the deep," a great big sea or primordial soup, and he made a matching pair called Steve and Eve, or was that Adam and Lilith? And He, it was a he, right? We can all at least agree He was a white man, very Germanic, kind of Ashkenazi Scandinavian, but the Pair in the Garden got tanned from not wearing clothes or using the sunblock the Lord provideth... Preposterous, but so many of us buy into our society's creation myths without thinking.

Who created us? - We looked...

The Native American stories are best, very direct and campfiery. The Indigenous people were living by the beach in Tovaangar (future Los Angeles) and the Creator made a Rainbow Bridge for people to go to Catalina Island, saying, 'Don't look down as you cross over the ocean.' But some did, and as a result they fell off the bridge and became our brothers and sisters the dolphins."

Now that's a creation tale we can embrace, living on the beach, traversing rainbows, swimming with the dolphins.

down and fell. It had to be the Great D!

As Westerners invading the area, we laugh, but we can't imagine anyone laughing out our nonsense: "Once upon a time, before time, there was this nothingness but this Guy lived alone, very lonely, nothing to do all day but putter about, so he created us, put us in a Garden, male first to set the social order, populated the place with plants and animals, everyone living in peace, no one eating anyone else, everyone purely vegan and peaceful.

Should I have mentioned my Snake?

Except for this one snake jerk, a real troublemaker, doubting the Lord, and contaminating the mind of the Jenny-come-lately female pulled out of the male's rib. The Great Creator God wanted to keep us pig ignorant, and this dang Serpent (Reptilian) had to go and lead the Pair to the fruiting body of some kind of psychedelic mushroom growing off the lignans of a tree the Lord God forbade us from ever eating from. It's not like He set us up for failure or anything. We are full of sin and sinners, most of us unrepentant, so we deserve all we get. (Ya think maybe Natives roll their eyes at hearing such campfire tales from Bible thumpers?)

Both sound good. Don't know which to believe

Get real and stop joking around

Isn't the Buddha just another philosopher? NO!

Is irony any way to teach? Probably not given that we live in a Post-Ironic Age and everyone suffering from irony deficiency.

The Buddha often spoke of an imagined "Creator," Brahma ("Supremo") or Maha Brahma ("Great Supremo"). There are gods. Gods have powers and can create things. Now imagine a God creates something, as the creative gods can do on higher planes. That would not mean that they really bring us into being or end us, save us from bad karmic ("sin") results, or get us into heavens, of which there are many, none of which are actually permanent. No God creates new beings, new souls, new selves and individuals. But, then, what is creating ALL of this?

In a sense, each of us is the creator of our experience. This is deep and hard to understand by our usual way of thinking -- all of the misguided assumptions we've inherited. The Buddha was well aware of these philosophical problems and questions. Some are good. Most such questions do not lead to freedom, liberation, the end of suffering, enlightenment, or nirvana.

Indeed, there was once a dissatisfied Buddhist monk (Malunkyaputta) who, failing to meditate, got to thinking: Who am I, why am I here, is life infinite or not, what happens after death, and many such perplexing questions. He realized he had never asked the Buddha and gotten clarity on these philosophical conundrums, yet he was a monk.

So he went over to the Buddha and said, "If you cannot answer these questions to my satisfaction, I will stop being a monk and leave the sangha." Rather than answering him, the Buddha asked if they had ever entered into an agreement that if he became a monk, the Buddha would answer all of these perplexing questions.

The monk agreed that he did not. The Buddha further pointed out that what he said was for fast progress toward enlightenment and freedom. And these questions, whatever the answer, were not conducive to that.

It was far better to follow the Path than to remain stuck pondering all of these types of questions (which probably included the Four Imponderables). Become enlightened and see for yourself is the spirit of the matter. The monk was flummoxed by this logic.

Then the Buddha removed all doubt by teaching this monk using an amazing analogy: The Parable of the Poisoned Arrow

#BuddhistCosmology #Buddhism #NoCreator. Channel's purpose and commitment: This channel is committed to sharing the beauty and wisdom of Buddhist teachings with the purpose of education and inspiration. All content is created with deep respect for the [historical] Buddha’s teachings, aiming to promote understanding, mindfulness, and compassion in everyday life. The goal is to present the values and practices of Buddhism in a way that is accessible and beneficial to everyone, regardless of their background or [religious, agnostic, or atheistic] beliefs. It does not seek to influence or alter anyone’s faith but simply to offer insights into the timeless wisdom of Buddhism as a source of guidance and positivity. This channel is a space for learning, reflection, and connection, guided by the principles of respect, kindness, and truth. Feedback or concerns are welcomed as is open and respectful dialogue. Thanks for supporting the mission to share the meaningful messages of Buddhism with the world.

• Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy, American Dad); Buddhist Podcast (video), June 4, 2025; Bible stories with Mrs. Betty Bowers, America's Best Christian; text by Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Amber Larson, Xochitl, Wisdom Quarterly

"The Heart Sutra" (RAP version)

The Heart Sutra [Mantra] by MC Yogi (feat. 10,000 Buddhas) is closer to an actual RAP song

"Heart Sutra - Rap" by Chogyal Rinpoche

Avalokita [Kwan Yin] hears the cries of the world

(Chogyal Rinpoche) 🇬🇧 This rap was composed with the intention of making the daily recitation of the sacred Heart Sutra easily accessible to young people. May it be of benefit. [Don't show it to your grandmother or her head may explode.]

ma sam jö mé sherab parol chin

makyé mingak namkhé ngowo nyi

soso rangrig yeshe chöyulwa

dü sum gyalwé yum la chaktsal lo

• VIDEO: The Mexican Buddhist Cholos of Thailand (AFP)
• VIDEO: "Reincarnated" rap music by Kendrick Lamar

diké dak gi töpa dü chik na

chomdendé gyalpö khab jagö pungpö ri la gelong gi gendün chenpo dang

changchub sempé gendün chenpo dang tab chik tu zhuk té

dé tsé chomdendé zabmo nangwa zhejawa chö kyi namdrang kyi ting ngé dzin la nyompar zhuk so

yang dé tsé changchub sempa sempa chenpo pakpa chenrezik wangchuk sherab kyi parol tu chinpa zabmo chöpa nyi la nampar ta zhing

pungpo ngapo dedak la yang rangzhin gyi tongpar nampar ta o

dené sangye kyi tü

tsé dang denpa sharibü changchub sempa sempa chenpo pakpa chenrezik wangchuk la diké ché mé so

rik kyi bu gang lala sherab kyi parol tu chinpa zabmo chöpa chepar döpa dé jitar labpar ja

deké ché mepa dang | changchub sempa sempa chenpo pakpa chenrezik wangchuk gi tsé dang denpa shara datibu la diké ché mé so

Wait, wait! Shouldn't we decide if we're East Coast or West Coast first? (sanghabuild.org)

.

teyata | om gaté gaté para gaté | para samgaté | bodhi soha

sharibu rik kyi bu am rik kyi bumo gang lala sherab kyi parol tu chinpa zabmo chöpa chepar döpa dé ditar nampar tawar ja té

pungpo ngapo dedak kyang rangzhin gyi tongpar nampar yangdakpar jesu ta o

zuk tongpa o | tongpanyi kyang zuk so

zuk lé tongpanyi zhen mayin no

tongpanyi lé kyang zuk zhen mayin no

dezhindu tsorwa dang | dushé dang

dujé dang | nampar shepa nam tongpa o

sharibu detawé na chö tamché tongpanyi dé

tsennyi mepa | makyepa | magakpa

drima mepa | drima dang dralwa mepa

driwa mepa | gangwa mepa o

sharibu detawé na tongpanyi la zukmé

tsorwa mé | dushé mé | dujé nam mé | nampar shepa mé

mik mé | nawa mé | na mé | che mé | lü mé | yi mé

zuk mé | dra mé | dri mé | ro mé | rekja mé | chö mé do

mik gi kham mepa né yi kyi kham mé

yi kyi nampar shepé kham kyi bardu yang mé do

marikpa mé | marikpa zepa mepa né gashi mé

gashi zepé bardu yang mé do

dukngalwa dang | künjungwa dang

gokpa dang | lam mé | yeshe mé | tobpa mé

matobpa yang mé do

teyata | om gaté gaté para gaté | para samgaté | bodhi soha

sharibu detawé na changchub sempa nam tobpa mepé chir

sherab kyi parol tu chinpa la ten ching né té

sem la dribpa mepé trakpa mé dé

chin chi lok lé shintu dé né nya ngen lé depé tarchin to

dü sum du nampar zhukpé sangye tamché kyang sherab kyi parol tu chinpa la ten né

lana mepa yangdakpar dzokpé changchub tu ngönpar dzokpar sangye so

detawé na sherab kyi parol tu chinpé ngak

rigpa chenpö ngak | lana mepé ngak

minyampa dang nyampé ngak | dukngal tamché rabtu zhiwar jepé ngak

midzünpé na denpar shepar ja té

sherab kyi parol tu chinpé ngak mepa

teyata | om gaté gaté para gaté | para samgaté | bodhi soha

• Tibetan and English translation of the Heart Sutra: lotsawahouse.org/words-of...

THE HEART SUTRA (English)

Standard English translation (by the great Edward Conze) with minor edits by Wisdom Quarterly (The Heart Sutra | Buddhist Traditions | Amherst College)

Om! Homage to the Perfection of Wisdom, the Lovely, the Holy!

Avalokita, the Holy Lord and Bodhisattva, was moving in the deep course of the Wisdom which has gone beyond.

He looked down from on high, beheld but five heaps, and saw that in their own-being they were empty.

Here, O Sariputra,

form is emptiness, and the very emptiness is form;

Emptiness does not differ from form, and form does not differ from emptiness; whatever is emptiness, that is form.

The same is true of feelings, perceptions, impulses, and consciousness.

Here, O Sariputra,

all dharmas [phenomena] are marked with emptiness;

They are neither produced nor stopped, neither defiled nor immaculate, neither deficient nor complete.

Therefore, O Sariputra,

in emptiness there is no form nor feeling, nor perception, nor impulse, nor consciousness;

[There is] no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind; no forms, sounds, smells, tastes, touchables [tangibles], or objects of mind; no sight-organ element, and so forth, until we come to:

[There is] no mind-consciousness element; there is no ignorance, no extinction of ignorance, and so forth, until we come to: there is no decay and death, no extinction of decay and death. There is no suffering, no origination, no stopping, no path.

There is no cognition, no attainment, and no non-attainment.

Therefore, O Sariputra,

it is because of one's non-attainmentness that a bodhisattva, through having relied on the Perfection of Wisdom, dwells without thought-coverings. In the absence of thought-coverings one has not been made to tremble.

One has overcome what can upset, and in the end one attains to Nirvana.

All those who appear as buddhas in the three periods of time [past, present, future] fully awake to the utmost, right and perfect Enlightenment because they have relied on the Perfection of Wisdom.

Therefore one should know the prajna-paramita as the great spell [mantra], the spell of great knowledge, the utmost spell, the unequalled spell, allayer of all suffering, in truth -- for what could go wrong? By the prajnaparamita has this spell been delivered. It runs like this:

gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha.

(Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone altogether beyond, O what an awakening, all-hail!)

This completes the Heart of perfect Wisdom.

What's rap if not bad lyrics 'n a good beat?

Wisdom Quarterly COMMENTARY

Grandmaster Flash on "The Message"

Greatest rapper of a generation Justin "Elvis" Biel?

Get Out The Way: "Move B**h" (Ludacris)

It's a beautiful sentiment to present this timeless classic of the Perfection of Wisdom (Prajna Paramita) literature to youth in an idiom they might appreciate and listen to more than grandmotherly droning and chanting in a temple setting. But it does bring up one minor problematic question: What is rap? Is it like poetry in that anything is if it says it is? The phonebook well-read can be [made to be] "poetic." So drop a beat behind it and any ol' grouping of words is "rapping"? May be. We can ask Weird Al or Justin Timberlake. But it seems to us that real rapping, which is why the young at heart like and relate to it so much, is its brutal honesty, simplicity, and funky @$$ beat.

The uncensored (explicit) version just has more umph and gusto.

It's the beat, the beat, the beat propelled by a propulsive lyrical accompaniment consistent with the feel or underlying sentiment of the genre. One has to wonder if N.W.A would have had as much success -- with the exact same musical elements -- if their lyrical content and message were "Officers Is Nice" instead of "F*** the Police." Similarly, what is arguably the greatest rap song ever [if such a thing were possible to accurately determine] might not really be with weaker lyrics. In the case of Ludacris' "Excuse Me, Miss, If I May Just Get Through," or as it is known on internet radio "Move B*tch," where "bitch" refers, of course, to a pregnant dog driving in front of him and his featured artists. Ergo, if we're going to really have a Heart Sutra Rap, methinks we need to get real, gritty, and street, not simply rely on poetic feet.

• When is music Cultural Appropriation: Elvis Presley vs. The Beatles

The corrosive effects of listening to rap music on violent office workers

• MC Yogi, "Heart Sutra [Mantra] Rap," 2023; Chogyal Rinpoche, Sept. 18, 2022; Edward Conze (trans.), "The Heart Sutra"; Office Space (Mike Judge); Grandmaster Flash; Weird Al Yankovic, "White & Nerdy"; Ludacris, "Move B*tch"; Dhr. Seven, Seth Auberon, Amber Larson, Brother Jason (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Jan. 4, 2025

Alan Watts: Who am "I"? (Heart Sutra)

COMMENTS

Edited by Wisdom Quarterly

(@Michael-qi7in) This man is brilliant. I never in my life expected this much in a video of less than half an hour in length. Alan Watts, to my amazement, explains in one video everything I've come to personally understand about Buddhism (a term I don't even like) which to me is a philosophy [not a religion].

The Buddha was one of the greatest philosophers -- and for this he's not credited, not, I think, understood....

Whereas a lot of others, many Buddhists included, may see this video as just another Westerner trying to explain Eastern Philosophy and failing to do so, no, this is wrong. He gets to the heart of Buddhist philosophy, far beyond many long practicing Buddhists, at least as I understand reading the Heart Sutra, the Tripitaka [Three Collections of Buddhist texts], and the other Mahayana Sutras.

He doesn't mention bodhisattvas in a video on Mahayana Buddhism until 25 minutes in. Up until then, and to my disappointment, he had explained in an absolutely brilliant way the Buddhist concept of anatta or anātman, "non-self," anicca, anitya, or "impermanence," and he made reference to dukkha ("unsatifactoriness"), commonly translated as suffering or unease. These three things are the Three Universal Marks of All Existence in Buddhism, called the tilakkhana, trilakshana.

Around my neck I wear a cheap vajra pendant, and my impulse to buy this had less to do with Buddhism, I admit, but more to do with my own personal "spirituality" and understanding of existence and phenomena at the time.

I was fascinated with the sphere [enso] at the center, which is said to represent -- Mr. Watts said it at the very end -- it's commonly translated as "nothingness, voidness, emptiness" or as I've heard from certain speakers and readers, "zero," that of emptiness/śūnyatā which, in my understanding, is a representation of all Three Marks of Existence in Buddhism, the trilakshana represented in śūnyatā.

To say I'm satisfied having discovered this video does what words often do, fail. It's an injustice. I'm so satisfied that I wish I found it a long, long time ago. It's brilliant!

To quote the Heart Sutra, invoking the concept of śūnyatā and the trilakshana as I understand them, I encourage everyone to go read the whole Heart Sutra.

It's less than a five-minute read [when you don't count the 100,000 lines of the Prajnaparamita leading up to what everyone thinks is the Heart Sutra, which is just the closing summary and climactic conclusion that includes the famous mantra gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi swaha or "Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone altogether beyond, oh what an awakening, so it is"] as recited by the Triratna Buddhist Community:

"Here then, form is no other than emptiness, emptiness no other than form. Form is only emptiness, Emptiness only form."

• [This could be interpreted to mean, "Within this Dharma (Doctrine), materiality (the Four Elements and their derivatives collectively) is impersonal (empty, not a self nor the property of a self, selfless), and the impersonal is none other than form. Form is impersonal just as the impersonal is form." The same is then said, of course, of the other four heaps or aggregates clung to as self/soul/I/me/mine. - Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly]

The Heart Sutra: Emptiness, an example

The Heart Sutra: Post canonical Buddhist discourse on the profound nature of reality

(Wisdom Tellers) Sept. 27, 2024: This video explores one of Buddhism’s most profound teachings — emptiness (the impersonal nature of all things). The heart in the Heart Sutra is the heart of wisdom. Discover the essence of emptiness, wisdom, and the path to enlightenment as taught in this timeless Mahayana text, chanted the world over with few penetrating its meaning.

#HeartSutra #BuddhasWisdom #MahayanaBuddhism #Emptiness #Shunyata #Enlightenment #Prajnaparamita #BuddhistTeachings #Avalokiteshvara #SpiritualWisdom

An example to explain emptiness

What is this phenomenon? Interaction of factors

If things are empty (without essence) then what is it that exists?

Constituents.

What does not exist?

Anything apart from those core constituents; there is no separate existence.

All is one?

Perhaps, but what is being said is that a thing is not anything (or is no thing) apart from its constituents (mere supporting causes and conditions).

Can you please give me an example? That sounds crazy.

Yes. Go get a candleflame or envision a real candleflame burning. Now ask, Does it exist?

Of course it exists. Why wouldn't it exist?

Where is it?

It's right here, right here in front of me. Don't you envision it, too?

Yes, but what I see right here is wax, wick, oxygen, heat, and a complex process of combustion. I do not find a candle "flame" itself.

Well, all of that is the candleflame, isn't it?

Is it? There are just those five, so where is the "flame"?

What do you mean, "Where is it?" It's right here!

But here are just five things. And the "flame" is the functional integration of these five. It is not a separate thing at all. It's only an illusion arising from the interdependence of these five. When these five are exhausted or fall away, the illusion of the candle "flame" is no more. It ceases.

What ceases? The flame?

No, the illusion. When it ceases one might ask, Where did it go? Did it go up, down, sideways, north, south, inside, outside?

No, none of those apply, do they? It simply went out, out of existence. It was annihilated. Having been born and created when the candle was lit, it died and ceased to exist.

No. It never was. The illusion fell away. It, not having been, could not cease to be. There were those five, which are not the candle "flame," and now they are no more, their functional integration having ceased.

So that's it?

Oh no, it's much more personal. If this can be said of a candleflame and other things (like constituent parts), what if one were to say it of me, myself, and I?

That's madness!

Madness it may be, but it's true. What is "I" but an illusion arising from five things clung to as "self"?

What five?

Form, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness.

The self has those.

No, those very things are the self, and there's no separate existence for the self apart from them, because they are the changing constituents of self. They cling to the illusion that there is a "self."

The self clings?

No, there is no self. They (the constituents) cling. Just as feelings themselves feel, and consciousness itself is conscious, so an illusion called "self" arises and is clung to, fearing that it might die and be annihilated, wishing that it could be born and last forever.

Okay.

If they are always changing, what can be said about a "permanent" self that endures from moment to moment or life to life or even enduring unchanged through one life?

It's an illusion?

Yes, it's an illusion. ALL things are empty (and illusory) in this way. Moreover, if the mind/heart can know-and-see this in a flash of clarity and insight, one can be free of clinging, free of rebirth, free of all suffering.

That's what Mahayana Buddhism believes?

No, Mahayana doesn't know what it means. That is to say, most Mahayanists do not know what it says. They imagine it means all sorts of other things, unconsciously clinging to thoughts of a self that will be eternalized and free and everlasting and luminous, all sorts of things held over from the Vedic Brahmanical and Hindu way of seeing things.

What is Mahayana?

Let's ask Asangoham to explain that.

• Wisdom Tellers (Video 1), 9/27/24; CC Liu, Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Bhante (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly