Freeing Ourselves from This Prison

A human being is part of the whole, called by us “universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest – a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.

~ Albert Einstein

Not Waves or Surf, But Water

When we, as ordinary people, look around us, we see only the illusory, ever-changing phenomena, not the truth of these phenomena. It is like looking at a stormy sea. We tend to see waves and surf. We forget the truth. What is the truth? The truth is that the waves and surf are water.

We see that the universe is ever changing, and the changing never stops for a second. Buddhism calls this “instantaneous arising and ceasing.” When the tide rises, it is “arising”; when the tide ebbs, it is “ceasing.” We usually see only the constantly changing phenomena, but we do not see the noumenon that manifests these changing phenomena.

Although all phenomena arise and cease instantaneously, and are constantly changing, the noumenon of the universe that manifests and makes changes possible does not change at all. It has the qualities of neither arising nor ceasing, neither coming nor going, neither eternal nor impermanent, and neither one nor many. These are the qualities used to describe the noumenon of the universe. It is our “original face before birth.”

The terms suchness, the absolute, self-nature, the true mind, and the fundamental substance all refer to this noumenon as well. Why did the Buddha use so many terms to refer to the same thing? Because he wanted us to not be attached to any term. All these terms are expediencies to help us understand the truth. We only need to know what they refer to and should not be attached to the terminology.

~ Based on Ven. Master Chin Kung's 2003 lecture series on the Amitabha Sutra

Think "Kaleidoscope"

 

As children, we delighted in looking through kaleidoscopes. What we saw changed from moment to moment. We never saw that change as bad or upsetting. To the contrary, it was the changing patterns that so fascinated us.

With each change, we ooh’d and ahh’d at the beautiful combinations, so caught up in the current one that we didn’t miss the one that was gone. Nor did we worry whether the next would be as beautiful. We just watched as though entranced, thoroughly absorbed in the moment.

This was mindfullness without regrets or expectation. In innocence, we did it as children. With practice, we can do it as adults. 

Everything Will come Back to Us, and More

Patriarch Yin Guang repeatedly emphasized the need for people to understand cause and effect. Li Bingnan was a student of the master and he too emphasized the need to understand causality. As did his student, Ven. Master Chin Kung, who is my teacher. So I come from a line of Chinese Pure Land teachers who stress that people need to understand that their thoughts and behavior will have consequences.

Everything we think, everything we say and do will at some time come back to us.

Everything.

But there is more.

If I say something and another person acts based on what I said, I’m connected to that action as well. For example, if I tell someone to steal a piece of jewelry and they do so, I am linked karmically to that theft and I will also experience adverse consequences. This is one of the reasons we NEED to understand cause and effect.

Our one action can have a seemingly endless chain of consequences.

And my point is?

Think first before you say or do something.

Consider what the retailing analyst Victor Lebow said after the end of World War II about the US economy: “Our enormously productive economy. . .demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption. . .we need things consumed, burned up, replaced and discarded at an ever-accelerating rate.”

American business took this idea and ran with it. What are the results? The depletion of the earth’s resources, the extinction of many species, the contamination of our air and water, and the suffering of countless people. Mr. Lebow had a hand in all of this. The consequences he will undergo are truly frightening.

We must learn from this.

We need to be aware that our speech and behavior and can have far-reaching consequences.

We need to think before we speak and act, and then, proceed responsibly and wisely.

There is Nothing to Seek

By "not craving (ch'iu) anything" is meant this: Men of the world, in eternal confusion, are attached everywhere to one thing or another, which is called craving.

The wise however understand the truth and are not like the ignorant. Their minds abide serenely in the uncreated while the body moves about in accordance with the laws of causation. All things are empty and there is nothing desirable to seek after. Where there is the merit of brightness there surely lurks the demerit of darkness.

This triple world where we stay altogether too long is like a house on fire; all that has a body suffers, and nobody really knows what peace is. Because the wise are thoroughly acquainted with this truth, they are never attached to things that change; their thoughts are quieted, they never crave anything.

Says the Sutra: "Wherever there is a craving, there is pain; cease from craving and you are blessed." Thus we know that not to crave anything is indeed the way to the Truth. Therefore, it is taught not "to crave anything".

~ D.T. Suzuki, Manual of Zen Buddhism