Our True Nature and What to Do With It
To realize our true nature is not easy. In the Buddha’s case we hear myths about his many lifetimes of struggle, to accumulate positive imprints to his mind, before he finally became the enlightened one. We are in luck though; the Buddha’s teachings give us a guide on how to realize our true nature and that is what this article is about. This article is partly based on teachings given by H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama in 2009 and those of the Vimalakirti Nirdesa Sutra.
Readers might also be interested in reading What the Buddha taught on Emptiness – A Commentary on the Golden Light Sutra which give the philosophical explanation for the view below.
Our True Nature
The true nature of living beings is described in numerous metaphors in order to illustrate their non-inherent-existing nature. These allegories also attempt to clarify how a bodhisattva sees livings beings:
“A Bodhisattva should look at living beings like an illusionist does at the illusory men (he has created); and like a wise man looking at the moon’s reflection in water; at his own face in a mirror; at the flame of a burning fire; at the echo of a calling voice;” – Vimalakirti Nirdesa Sutra
As the conditioned self is no more real than an animated character in a movie – or cartoon – it should be given no more importance than such; and so exists only as a playful existence in the mind, similar to that of a movie on a theatre screen. When we watch ourselves in the mirror it is obvious that we are not the face in the mirror and exactly like this we are not the self and our true nature is the mirror and not the reflection. Our true nature is that which make it possible to happen, not the play itself. It is said that we are not the waves but the ocean underneath. Hence, identifying with the “I” is like identifying with a cloud in the sky instead of the sky itself, in which everything materializes, or as a great poet put it:
“We are not a drop in the ocean; we the ocean in a drop.” – Rumi
Continue reading Our True Nature and What to Do With It
What the Buddha taught on Emptiness – A Commentary on the Golden Light Sutra
This article is a commentary on the sixth chapter of the Golden Light Sutra. The sutra itself is believed to be very precious and to purify karma upon hearing it. The verses have profound meaning and to understand these in depth a qualified teacher is required. Hence, reading this article is merely the first step towards understanding emptiness.
New readers might refer to Crash Course in Buddhist Emptiness before reading the rest of this article.
The Buddha begins by separating the physical from the mental:
The body is like an empty village or house;
Senses are like soldiers and thieves.
Although they live in the same village,
They are unaware of the each other.
As described in the Abhidharma teachings on the five Skandhas, the Skandhas are the mental qualities of mind that are used to register sense objects, whereas the body is the result of physical causes coming in to place. The body is believed to exist of the four elements: Water, wind, fire and earth. A more contemporary understanding is that the body consists of atoms and molecules and so forth, while the cognition of sense data is mental. Then the Buddha continues by elaborating:
The eye sense runs after forms;
The ear sense indulges in sounds;
The nose sense captures numerous smells;
The tongue sense always hunts tastes;
The body sense pursues tactile sensations;
And the mental sense grasps the phenomena.
This is a list of the six senses and there functions. The first five senses (eye, ear, nose, tongue & body) are used to register objects of the form aggregate (Skandha) – meaning the physical, while the sixth (mental) registers objects of the consciousness aggregate – meaning mental appearances like thoughts and so on. Then the Buddha expounds on the nature of the sense:
These six individual senses
Are each absorbed in their objects.
The mind is capricious as an illusion –
Its six senses thoroughly engrossed –
Like a man who runs to an empty village
And resides there among soldiers and thieves.
When the six senses are completely overwhelmed by the experiences of gross objects, the mind becomes confused, whimsical and ever changing – like the experience itself.