"When The Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara"

The opening words introduce the one practicing the Dharma. The Prajna teachings were spoken by the Buddha during the fourth stage, his purpose being to guide those practicing what later became the approach of the Theravadins toward the practice of Mahayana Dharma. Whoever practices according to the Small Vehicle practices virtuous conduct and Dharma primarily to benefit self. The Mahayana practice, on the other hand, is aimed to benefit self and others. To liberate all sentient beings implies concern for the well-being of all people. Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara was chosen to demonstrate to the person of the Small Vehicle mentality the full dimension of Mahayana teaching. The name Avalokitesvara lends itself to several interpretations: The Chinese version, i.e. Guan Zi Zai, means the attainment of the bodhisattva stage and the cause-ground for practicing Dharma.

Why did the Chinese, choose to call the Bodhisattva Guan Zi Zai? Because he has attained the fruition of the path. Visualizing and contemplating the name we come to understand its meaning. Guan means to observe and to illuminate: The one who practices the bodhisattva path not only illuminates own mind, but the world as well; practicing in that manner one can be sure to obtain liberation. That is what Guan Zi Zai means.

What is the meaning of Zi Zai? The one who is able to halt the two kinds of birth and death and the five fundamental conditions of passions and delusions can be called Zi Zai. To observe own self is to discover body and mind bound by five skandhas and six organs with their corresponding six data; we are not free, and therefore, not Zi Zai.

The name Avalokitesvara comes from the ground causes of the Bodhisattva's Dharma practice while on an island, perceiving the sounds of the world, rooted in time as they are, rising and failing with the ebb and flow of the ocean. From the sound of the tide rising and falling, the Bodhisattva attained enlightenment, perfectly and completely comprehending the Dharma of birth and non-birth. Someone asked how and why did the Bodhisattva attain the Tao and became enlightened by observing the ebb tide? The Bodhisattva, while practicing by the sea, contemplated the sound as it increased, decreased and then came to full stop, occurring simultaneously with the ebb tide. He pondered the root of causes and finally attained enlightenment by understanding that all existence is subject to birth and death and, therefore, is impermanent. Yet the hearing is timeless, hence beyond birth and death. Those without practice can hear, but do not listen. While hearing the sounds they only think of "outside"; the sound of the tide has birth and death, but the nature of hearing does not. Why? Because even when the sound of the tide stops, our capacity or nature for hearing does not. We can still hear the wind in the branches of a tree, the songs of birds and the shrill sound of the cicadas. Had our capacity for hearing vanished with the sound, we should not be able to hear ever again. Even when all is quiet late at night, we are aware of silence or non-sound, because of our capacity for hearing. There are two kinds of hearing: One comes and goes in response to stimulation, the other functions independently of it. Thus we can safely say that although sounds have birth and death, the hearing capacity does not. It actually never vanishes. All existence, including dharmas, is impermanent and therefore subject to birth and death - just like magic, like bubbles or like shadows. The nature of hearing, on the other hand, can never be destroyed.

In that manner we come to know the bright and accomplished nature of hearing. Our mind accords with whatever we observe: If we observe birth and death, there is birth and death. If we observe non-birth and non-death, there is no birth and no death. All things are produced by the mind; they are completed through contemplation. Everyone has a mind and consequently a potential to formulate the world according to own intentions, but without effort he/she will not succeed. Nature is the substance, mind, the function. The function never separates from the substance, nor the substance from the function. Function and substance, though separate, are causally connected.

Nature governs the mind and the mind is the nature's function; they mesh. Although both retain their own character, they are inseparable. Dharma practice can start right at this point. One needs to understand one's mind, see one's True Nature and following that, attain the Tao.

The Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara practice makes one listen to, and be mindful of one's own nature and by means of listening attain the wonderful function. Listening to own nature has no boundaries and it can accommodate all sentient beings while saving them. We worldlings only react or become concerned about what we construe to be external or outside sound. Negligent of our True Nature, we hardly ever try to listen to it and our hearing is partial as a result of it. When we listen to own nature, our listening is not delimited by time. Perceiving one's nature thus, one's listening is complete and continual and one's joy and happiness are permanent.

When phonetically transliterated into Chinese, the Sanskrit word "Bodhisattva" produces two characters: Pu Sa or Bo Sa. Bodhi (Pu or Bo in Chinese) means perfect knowledge or wisdom by which person becomes buddha. Sattva (Sa in Chinese) stands for an enlightened and enlightening being, which is to say that person has already enlightened his own nature by freeing him/herself from birth and death, and helps other sentient beings to do likewise. Worldlings, however, hold on to feelings and disregard or oppose the doctrine. Confusion and frustration take them through the samsaric suffering in the cycle of existence. To perceive one's Self-Nature by listening is the bodhisattva's way out of the round of birth and death.

The first line of the sutra informs us of the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara as the appointed practice leader of the Prajna Assembly. He is going to teach us how to follow his Dharma practice and establish mindfulness by listening to Self Nature.

"Was Coursing in the Deep Prajna Paramita"

This line specifies the Dharma of the Bodhisattva Practice. "Coursing" and "deep" relate to its quality. At one time, one thousand, two hundred and fifty-five bhiksus attained the four fruits of the Arhat; they practiced the Dharma of the Small Vehicle which leads to the end of their birth and death allotment. What is the birth and death allotment? It means every sentient being's body is merely a portion, or a part; whether short, long or middle length, the life of sentient being must end. One round of birth and death is referred to as allotment. Whoever practices the Dharma of the Small Vehicle will have the conversion of birth and death even after he/she has come to the end of the allotment of birth and death. What is the conversion of birth and death?

Our distorted thought pattern is the root of our failure to escape to escape from the cycle of birth and death. One of the recognized features of thought is to quiver and to move on, and the pattern and its movement normally neither change nor become suspended as long as there is consciousness. Every thought has its beginning, its duration and its end. Due to feelings, perceptions, volitions and consciousness every thought has its conversion into birth and death.

The activity is never suspended, and thus the conversion of birth and death takes place, generated by feelings, perceptions, volitions and consciousness. Every rise and fall of delusive thought marks the conversion of birth and death. If our Dharma practice does not take us back to the truth, we are not going to be able to end the conversion of birth and death and that would hinder us from discerning the Buddha's point of view. To practice Dharma correctly, one should endeavor to liberate one's thought from delusion; the attainment and practice of truth are the means to the attainment of Prajna. Without these, how can we say we are coursing in the deep Prajnaparamita?

To end the samsaric cycle, but not the conversion of birth and death of thought is a wisdom that is shallow. The Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara attained Truth, thereby bringing the two kinds of birth and death to a complete halt. That is the deep Prajna, the awe-inspiring wisdom: It is beyond discriminating knowledge, has to be, since discrimination is one of the manifestations of duality, or birth and death. Paramita is a Sanskrit term meaning virtue perfected to the level of transcendence. In the context of Buddhist practice it means to traverse the sea of Samsara, or the sea of birth and death, and reach Nirvana. The words "coursing in the deep Prajnaparamita" attest to the Bodhisattva's practice of all three kinds of wisdom, i.e., listening, thinking and practice; thus he attained the radiant wisdom, or the Ultimate. This paragraph offers description of correct Dharma practice and its purpose is to provide guidance for the assembly, including those who have attained partial understanding and insight.

"He Perceived that All Five Skandhas are Empty"
	During his practice of contemplation and illumination the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara attained Truth. By means of his minutely subtle Dharma practice he penetrated the five skandhas, perceiving them as empty.

The five skandhas, namely form, feelings, perceptions, volitions and consciousness continually provide five occasions for craving and clinging. Two types of craving and clinging characterize the human mind: 1) Craving and clinging to form and 2) Craving and clinging to mind. Clinging to form is the domain of the form skandha; the remaining four skandhas constitute the domain of the mind and the clinging to mind is generated in those four realms. All our grasping, manifested in our attachments and aversions, is generated and developed due to the activity of these four skandhas. Craving and clinging emerge at birth, and the Buddhadharma aims to sever them.

The initial clinging is ego bound. Ego is the anchor of our volition to grasp and to possess, the root of our attachments and aversions, and via these, the root of our suffering. Clinging to the body as the true self begins to manifest in the early childhood: Normally, the six organs produce six types of data, six kinds of consciousness and the four skandhas along with them; jointly these constitute the delusory ego. Craving and clinging is spontaneous at birth; at that time, ego is formulated simultaneously with the form skandha. The rest of our existence is built up by our countless ego-affirming acts involving all the skandhas, but most prominently the skandha of feeling; its domain contains pleasant, unpleasant and neutral or indifferent types of feelings.

The body depends on the mind to be provided with pleasant occasions and protected from discomfort. There must be thinking, i.e., perceptions, followed by action, and action means volition. They, in turn, require established bases of knowledge, and that is the role of the consciousness skandha. Children are sent to school to learn, to acquire knowledge that prepares them for the future. When there is sufficient knowledge, there is action, invariably preceded by thinking as planning, imagining, remembering and so on. The body then receives the support it needs. There is ego--grasping, and confusion is generated by the five skandhas as the ego-notion imposes itself on the process of experience.

Once it has become clear beyond any doubt that this present body is not the self, that one can only say "mine", or "my body", all delusion regarding the five skandhas is broken off, and ignorance along with it. What a pity that worldlings get so deeply confused and completely fail to understand this brilliant doctrine; grasping the skandhas and the ego-notion, they twist the data to fit their own picture as to how reality should be. Actually, the body is not the self; it is like a house that I might call mine all right, but to consider it to be myself would be a ridiculous error. In the same way, I can't say "this body is myself' but I can say "this body is mine."

What is the real self? Our Original Nature is our real self. It depends on the body temporarily; the body is not different from a house. A house is completed and then gradually deteriorates; similarly,the body has birth and death and the part in between. Our True Nature (real self), on the other hand, has neither birth nor death. It is enduring and unchanging. The teaching of Real Self and of illusory ego is basic to all Buddhadharma. When it is understood, clinging is easily broken off.

The teaching related to the five skandhas is referred to as the Dharma of Assemblage. Skandha is a Sanskrit term used by the Buddha in reference to the five components of human so-called entity. A skandha is a constituent of personality and it also means accumulation in the sense that we constantly accumulate good and bad in our mind. The Dharma of Five Skandhas is comparable to five kinds of material. The mountains, rivers and the entire universe, the buddhas and bodhisattvas in the three periods, even the six realms of existence and the four kinds of worthies-all are produced solely by the five skandhas.

Who are the four worthies? 1. The Arhat of Theravada, 2. The Middle Vehicle of Prayeka buddha, 3. The Mahayana Bodhisattva, 4. the Buddha, the ultimate fruit of the path. What are the six realms of existence? Three are good and three are evil. Devas, humans, and asuras inhabit the three good realms; animals, hungry ghosts and hell-dwellers belong to the three evil realms. It does not make any difference whether mundane or supramundane; they are all produced and completed by the five skandhas. By taking the right path, (the ultimate path) one may become an Arhat, Pratyeka-buddha, Bodhisattva, or Buddha.

A good action can be good in three different ways; likewise, an evil action can be so in three ways. Worldlings, confused because of not knowing or knowing wrongly get carried away and lose control over their actions; evil in the world increases, giving rise to five turbidities. There is the turbidity of kalpa in decay, turbidity of views, turbidity of passions, turbidity of living beings and turbidity of life (the result of turbidity of human beings). Turbidity means turmoil. The turmoil of kalpa in decay is the product of the form skandha; Sentient beings in the Saha world grasp form or material (body), misconstrue that as their True Self, not realizing that all dharmas are produced by the mind, and give rise to the skandha of feeling. The egocentric bias goes hand in hand with craving for gratification of the senses or body and the result,is turbidity of view. Turbidity of passions is generated by the perception skandha. Seeking gratification of the senses brings greed in its wake, manifesting as desire for wealth and subsequent strife for personal gain. Sooner or later, sound ethics are abandoned and volition to grasp and to possess is given free rein. At this point the worldlings become totally engulfed in self-delusion, generating unspeakable amount of defilements.

Turbidity of passions comprises family defilements, societal defilements, national defilements, world-defilements. While they are alive, human beings are the victims of turbidity in the realm of volition. The egocentric bias engenders the cyclic pattern of existence and perpetuates itself until the end of time. However, tirne is moving on; no matter how much of it we might have, still, we will die in the end. The confusion of worldlings as regards the real or True Self is the turbidity of living beings. Turbidity of life is caused by the consciousness skandha. The turbidity of living beings will eventually produce a decrease in the life span as well as in size of each individual body. The Agamas speak of a certain stage in the history of mankind, when the life span was eighty-four thousand years and the individual height was one-hundred-sixty feet. There was a gradual decrease in both the life span and the height. Presently, to live seventy or eighty years is considered long life, and the average height is five to six feet. Somewhere in the very distant future, claims the ancient text, the life span of humans will last ten years and the average height will be close to three feet. It will be the time of upheavals and disasters of all kinds.

Actions considered sound today may be viewed as unskillfal, even unethical tomorrow as a result of the ego inserting itself into the field of perception. Countless defilements develop when skillful or beneficial actions are re-evaluated, come to be viewed as lacking in expedience, and Buddhadharma is dismissed as irrelevant. Confusion resulting from ignorance is conducive to a lifestyle that has a detrimental effect on both the life span and the condition of the body. Turbidity first corrupts, then sooner or later takes over. Worldlings need to generate compassion for this declining world, resolve to uphold at least the basic code of ethics and, perhaps, study the BuddhaDharma; furthermore, they should refrain from taking the life of any living being and be mindful of their actions. These should be skillful and cause no harm to others. If that is accomplished, there may still be time to save this world.

In a few words, the five turbidities are completely within the realm of the five skandhas. The skandhas combined constitute the basis of all dharmas, of all sentient beings in the ten directions and of all worlds in all the universes. The skandhas are, furthermore, the substance of the incandescent True Existence, being at the same time the transcendental Void or Emptiness. (The relation of true existence to transcendental Emptiness will be discussed later). Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, relying on his luminous wisdom, "perceived that all five skandhas are empty." The Bodhisattva practiced deep Prajnaparamita, i.e., the root of Ultimate Reality, and attained the supreme Tao, realizing that skandhas are empty of self. To arrive at that stage is enlightenment, the state completely clear of turbidity. From then on, all dharmas are understood as one's True Nature. When that level is attained, the mind comprehends the universe as the Self, and the Self, as the universe; the grand view is boundless. In short, Void or Emptiness means the absence of duality, of accepting and rejecting. There are five categories of void: the obstinate void; the annihilation void; the void of analysis; the void of global comprehension; the void of true supramundane existence.

What is obstinate void? Clinging to the space in front of us. What is annihilation void? It is the kind grasped by those on the heterodox or outer path; the views that abounded in India, as well as the assorted philosophical positions based on cognitive patterns which neglect the Buddhist axiom stating that all is generated by the mind; claims to the effect that there is existence beyond one's cognitive realm and that is where the dharmas are. Heading full speed into large-scale confusion, the supporters of such views choose to grasp that void, positing it as the prevalent characteristic of existence.

The remaining three kinds of void are introspectively oriented Buddhadharma and constitute the Dharma of Void or Emptiness as the true nature of the mind, in contrast with the teaching of the Small Vehicle that focuses on form (rupa skandha). The supramundane path of the Small Vehicle (Theravada) and that of Sravaka and bodhisattva of the Great Vehicle (Mahayana) are rooted in the last three kinds of void just mentioned. They are neither the obstinate void of worldlings nor the annihilating void of the outer or heterodox path. The concept or the doctrine of the void is sometimes called the nature of the void or the theory of nature: The meaning is the same.

I shall discuss presently the four subdivisions of Buddhadharma according to T'ien T'ai, and the three kinds of void relevant to Buddhadharma as they are understood and applied in each of the four subdivisions, to wit: 1. Tsang Jiao (Theravada teachings based on the Tripitaka), 2. Tung Jiao (Theravada and Mahayana interrelated), 3. Bie Jiao (particular or distinctive Mahayana, characterized as the bodhisattva path), 4. Yuan Jiao (original or complete Mahayana).

The mundane path of Theravada does not accommodate the radiant Truth at its fullest, although in some cases a Mahayana teaching may be perceived as Theravadin by a practitioner of the Small Vehicle. The mundane path is grounded in minute analysis of form (rupa) Dharma and mind (nama) Dharma, and how their interaction contributes to the illusion of a separate ego. The term dharma may be interpreted as meaning things, method, formula or standard; form is distinguished through shape and color, mind through its function of knowing. Our body is composed of four elements, i.e., earth, water, fire and wind; these have the character of solidity, viscosity, temperature and vibration, respectively.

The body is a mass of material and does not possess the faculty of knowing an object; matter changes under physical conditions and because of this feature it is called form. The element of earth is like the body, complete with skin, flesh, tendons, bones in terms of weight, softness and hardness. The element of water includes all bodily liquids, all that relates to fluidity and viscosity.

The element of fire covers temperature in terms of warmth in varying degrees of intensity up to the absence of warmth. The element of air manifests as vibration in terms of movement. The body manifests the three characteristics of existence, i.e., impermanence, unsatisfactory condition and the absence of selfhood. Illness and death are caused by an imbalance of the elements, their scarcity or absence according to the Theravada teaching. Birth and death are the natural result of body being compounded from these four elements.

What is mind? Mind is knowing without form. What is form? Form is shape without the capacity for knowing. Uninstructed worldlings view their physical body (form), actually a collection of elements, as their self or ego and therefore cannot leave the ocean of birth and death. Deeply confused about truth, they feel oppressed because of wrong views. The only correct way to put it is to say "this body is my body; the mind is my real self." The knowing consciousness is the master; the body, only a slave. Let us consider, for example, someone who, though interested in attending this lecture, initially did not want to make the effort because of feeling tired. But then he/she had the following thought: "Hearing the commentary on that sutra will increase my wisdom and reduce my defilement; I must go and listen to the Dharma." Having persuaded him/herself, he/she got on the bus and came here to hear this Dharma. Where did the initiative originate? Clearly, it originated in the mind; the mind is the master and the body is the slave.

Unfortunately, a person of mundane concerns is very confused, mistaking the slave for the master, and consequently there is birth and death., To perceive the brilliant Dharma is to enlighten the mind to itself; originally the mind had neither birth nor death. Although the body dies and vanishes, the mind is imperishable and indestructible: Understanding this experientially marks the end of the cyclic pattern of existence, the exit from the ocean of suffering.

Mind is seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching and knowing. The six natures or capacities for seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching and knowing are the nature of the mind. The Buddha spoke Dharma on numberless occasions for forty-nine years. All of his teachings were expedient means, and all his explanations and discourses were delivered for the purpose of helping sentient beings to be freed from attachment and delusion and to return to the Truth. He dealt predominantly with two dharmas: Form and mind. According to the teaching later formulated as the Small Vehicle, form and mind are two. The practitioner should know the mind while not abandoning the form (body). Where does mind dwell? According to physiology the heart is also the mind (the organ) but efforts to prove it have been inconclusive so far.

According to some religions, the mind resides in the brain; however, all attempts to find some proof to support such theory proved, again, negative. Whenever people tried to find the very source, to pinpoint the exact site where the mind is, the results were nil in each case. Since mind is neither form nor name, in the context of BuddhaDharma it is expediently termed "Emptiness" or "Void" (Sunyata in Sanskrit).

On that particular day, represented for us by the eighth of December, while he was absorbed in deep samadhi, the Buddha attained complete enlightenment. Noticing the bright morning star in the eastern sky, he observed that the nature of seeing can be a kind of connecting: He realized his own nature of seeing is boundless, and his first statement following his enlightenment was: "Wonderful, wonderful! All sentient beings have the same wisdom and virtue as the Tathagata, but because of the obstacle of illusion and grasping they cannot attain."

The expression "sentient beings" means produced by, composed of many, not being just a separate "one". The human body, for example, appears to be of one piece, yet it is composed of many concealed parts, such as the heart, liver, kidneys, spleen, the lungs, the pores, even some parasites. This means that a person, even though being an entity, is also sentient beings. To reiterate, the Buddha's view was that all sentient beings have the same virtue and the same wisdom as the Tathagata - the pure, luminous virtue of Dharma-dhatu. However, the sentient beings are confused, do not return to their Original Nature and do not purify the Dharma-kaya and therefore they are called sentient beings, or different from buddhas.

The Buddha saw a star in the eastern sky following his enlightenment, and the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara practiced the three kinds of wisdom of the instructed ones, meditated on sound and attained the stage of Bodhi. When all conditions are generated by one's own mind, that is the Original Mind. The ordinary person of mundane concerns looks at an object and considers that seeing, and from that moment on adheres to the view that a table is a table, a person is a person; taking the object of seeing he/she fails to realize its subject. The view prevents him/her from being able to abandon both subject and object (meaning duality); how can he/she ever understand original seeing? He/she twists the process of experience to fit his/her own concept of reality, intensifying the delusion. To perceive one's Original Nature as shapeless and formless is to perceive the true Void. People's potentials are dissimilar. Whoever can understand his/her Original Nature is clear-eyed; the one who takes the object of seeing and grasps the form is caught in turbidity.

Practitioners of the method promulgated by the Small Vehicle perceive mind as mind, form as form, and conceive them as distinct and different. That method focuses on observing the observer.

The connection with one's own nature is apparently not taken into consideration.

Seeing is the nature of the eye; hearing is the nature of the ear organ; smelling is the nature of the nose organ, tasting is the nature of the tongue organ; touching is the nature of the body and knowing is the nature of the mind. If the practice is based on this point of view, only partial Void can be attained, although it can also be termed "enlightenment" according to Buddhist understanding. Followers of Theravada hold that clothing, nourishment and lodging are deemed to result from conditioning causes and are not the concern of full-time practitioners. These have surpassed the worldlings and therefore are viewed as holy by the devotees sharing the same tradition.

The Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva attained enlightenment by perceiving his Original Nature; he abandoned the duality inherent in subject and object, whereupon he attained the Middle Way perfectly and completely. That is the pure, radiant Dharma-kaya, quite different from the accomplishments in the tradition of the Small Vehicle. At one point in history one thousand two hundred and fifty-five disciples of the Buddha became Arhats: Nonetheless, their attainment was not exhaustive regarding the Ultimate Truth, but merely the end of the birth and death allotment.

The study and practice of the bodhisattva Path was their opportunity for expanding their practice by following the example of Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva. Comprehension of the immaterial substance of Reality marks the intermediate level of the bodhisattva career, sometimes referred to as the first gate of Mahayana and of the Middle Vehicle.

It is considered to be a higher doctrinal accomplishment than that of the Small Vehicle. In the intermediate level the Void of the five skandhas is attained and, accordingly, obstinate view is abandoned.

The immaterial substance of Reality is perceived, but the perception of five skandhas as the superb existence is still lacking. It is not actually necessary to abandon the body after the attainment of the Void. Everyone has form (body) and knowing; having attained the Void does not mean one has to endeavor to abandon the body. Void means simply the absence of grasping.

True existence is Emptiness not of this world. The complete, perfect meaning of true existence is Void not of this world; containing neither partial existence nor partial Void, it is the Middle Way, also known as the Ultimate Reality. In short, a mind that does not discriminate by means of craving and clinging is the mind that understands the meaning of "not of this world"; though non-existent, it is the True Existence. There is no void, yet it is the supramundane, recondite Emptiness. The Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, in his great wisdom, does not allow his mind to discriminate: Seeing is seeing, hearing is bearing, smelling is smelling, tasting is tasting, knowing is knowing, understanding is understanding; the six organs do not dwell on the six types of data. Enlightened by means of perceiving the sound of the tide, he comprehended the nature of hearing as non-abiding; mind freed of grasping attains the wonderful Dharma of the Inconceivable: That is the "True Existence in the supramundane Void."

"Thus He Overcame All Ills and Suffering"

He perceived that all five skandhas are void, thereby transcending all suffering. Of suffering there are two kinds: 1. The suffering of birth and death of allotment, 2. The suffering of birth and death of mortal changes. All ills and defilements mean suffering. According to the interpretation of the teachings, when it is fully understood that all five skandhas are empty five fundamental conditions of passions and delusion are severed and two kinds of birth and death are over. What are the five fundamental conditions of passions and delusions? They are: 1) wrong view, very common in the Triloka (three realms); 2) clinging, or attachment in the realm of desire; 3) clinging or attachment in the realm of form; 4) clinging or attachment in the formless realm (mundane); 5) the state of un-enlightenment or ignorance in the Triloka, held to be the source of all the distress -generating delusions. The five fundamental conditions of passions and delusions depend on the five skandhas for their existence and when the skandhas are found to be empty the five fundamental conditions of passions and delusion vanish. Everyone is equipped with five skandhas, and those uninstructed in BuddhaDharma cannot eradicate the five fundamental conditions of passions and delusions because they are unaware that these are originated by, and dwell in the mind. Such being the case, sentient beings have no other choice but to endure suffering in the present and turn in the cyclic pattern of existence until they recognize the cause of their suffering and enter the path to enlightenment.

What are the wrong views common in the Triloka? To see the object; to be confused by the object and to give rise to greed as the result of that confusion is the root of defilement. Let us suppose that someone who meets some wealthy, influential, high--ranking official and from that is given to of no use, he/she cannot obtain what he/she wants. Greed becomes entrenched in the mind and as such is very difficult to extirpate. Defilements of this kind are most common. Those unexpectedly promoted and prosperous, those in humble circumstances or those destitute, those who enjoy long life and those who die young, even the smart and the dull ones, all are in that situation because of cause and effect. Good causes in previous life will produce good effects in the present. Good causes in the present will produce favorable effects in the future. The law of cause and effect is all-pervasive, excluding nothing and no one. The practice of this Dharma and the understanding of obstinate void sever eighty-eight wrong views in the three realms and lead to the attainment of the first fruit of the path, i.e., Stream Winner.

What is meant by attachment in the realm of desire? To recognize greed as objectionable and to relinquish it is expedient and noble: Not to see the object, not to give rise to clinging and not to be moved by outside things leads to great liberation. Poverty, wealth, success and failure can all be endured. The next rebirth will be in the heavenly realm of desire and when his/her blessings run out in that realm, he/she will be reborn a human. That cycle will be repeated four times and then the second fruit and the path will be attained, that of Once Returner. One more rebirth is required to attain the third fruit (Non Returner), which means the end of all delusion in the realm of desire.

With the cessation of all desires at all levels in all three realms, the fourth path and fruit is attained, i.e. that of the Arhat, or saint. In the realm of desire, six layers are generated by the worldlings' giving in to the attractions of the senses.

Attachment in the realm of form: Those who freed themselves from wrong views and clinging, but still hold on to the analysis of the theory of voidness will be reborn in the realm of form (rupa loka), which includes eighteen layers of heaven. These are divided into four dhyanas according to the depth of absorption: Each dhyana dissolves nine kinds of illusory thought, which means that thirty-six illusory thoughts are brought to a halt by the four dhyanas. If the one reborn in the realm of form still has a form-body, it would not be that of a woman: Those reborn in that realm have the form-body of a man. It is also called the Brahma sphere because the beings there have renounced sense desires and delight in meditation and dhyanic bliss. For that reason we speak of attachment in the realm of form. The beings in that realm have all necessities of existence attended to without any effort. The realm of form is beyond the reach of ordinary people with mundane concerns.

The nourishment in these realms is of four kinds: Solid nourishment, especially of the palatable variety; fragrant nourishment; the nourishment of delight in dhyana; the nourishment of delight in Dharma. The first kind, or the solid nourishment, is the same as what people eat every day: It is the manner of humans in the six realms of desires. The second kind, the fragrant nourishment, sustains devas (heaven-dwellers) and ghosts. The nourishment of delight in dhyana and Dharma is for those in formless realm.

Attachment in the formless realm: When wrong view with its concomitant grasping no longer contaminates the realm of desire and the realm of form, rebirth in the formless realm follows. That sphere is free from form (body); there is only the knowing consciousness and, therefore, we speak of clinging to the formless realm. Denizens of that realm are no longer preoccupied with matter or material. The Dhyanas and the Dharma are their repast and their bliss.

The formless realm is divided into attainment in meditation on the void; attainment in meditation on consciousness; attainment in meditation on nothingness; and attainment leading to a state of neither perception nor non-perception. Consider for a moment the difference between Dharma talk offered by an Arhat, as compared with that given by someone of lower attainment. The attachment to formless realm still manifests.

Vast differences are noticeable when the two traditions, namely the Theravada and the Mahayana, are viewed in juxtaposition. Why? Because meditation according to the Theravada does not single out wisdom, yet the five fundamental conditions of passions and delusions require the practice of both activity and principle and equate meditation with wisdom; it is not comparable to the realm of form and the formless realm. Even the third stage of liberation according to Theravada, i.e. the Non Returner, does not imply liberation from the three realms.

The state of ignorance in the Triloka: Ignorance and delusory views still predominate, as countless as the atoms in the universe, although beings in that realm have relinquished some part of both. Their understanding as to action and principle is far from clear and therefore they cannot stop the conversion of their thoughts into the cycle of birth and death, although they were released from the four states or conditions found in mortality. The Arahat who completed the fourth and the highest stage, attaining the fruit and the path is, likewise, liberated from these four. Worldlings cannot escape the two kinds of birth and death no matter how long their earthly existence might last. Reborn in the formless realm, they still have birth and death, even after eighty-four thousand kalpas. That is a very long time.

One particular sutra teaches that a very, very long time ago, people lived eighty-four thousand years, but the life span gradually decreased, shortened by greed, hatred and delusion, and the process continues at a steadily accelerated pace. Thoughts of the past or future tend to make people uneasy or jittery. According to the T'ien T'ai method of counting kalpas, the life span of eighty-four thousand years is taken as the basis; it is reduced by one year a century till the life span has reached ten years, at which point the counting is reversed and years are added, one at a time, up to eighty-four thousand. Such full cycle is called small kalpa. Twenty of those produce one middle kalpa and four middle kalpas are called the great kalpa. Several different systems of calculating the kalpa exist, depending on the cosmology used as the point of departure. The heavenly existence in the realm of form is eighty-four thousand great kalpas long, yet these beings must die in the end if they do not understand the Buddha's teaching and do not practice accordingly. They may be reborn in any circumstances and may suffer a great deal, depending on whether their causes were good or evil; it is quite reliable.

The preceding explanation dealt with the five fundamental conditions of passions and delusions. We understand presently that neither the heaven-dwellers, nor the worldlings can escape the suffering in the wheel of birth and death unless they terminate the five fundamental conditions of passions and delusions. There is, however, more happiness in heaven than in the world. To end the two kinds of birth and death and the five fundamental conditions of passions and delusions one must make the great vow to attain enlightenment; to be able to do that one must study and practice Buddhadharma. The passage we just concluded was related to the two kinds of birth and death and the five fundamental conditions of passions and illusions as dependent on the five skandhas, namely form, feelings, perceptions, volitions and consciousness. At the time of his attainment of the radiant wisdom, the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara conquered all ills and suffering by means of apprehending beyond any doubt that all five skandhas are devoid of independent existence.

"Oh Sariputra, Form does not Differ from the Void, and the Void does not Differ from Form. Form is Void and Void is Form; the Same is True for Feeling, Perceptions, Volitions, and Consciousness"

In this part of the Heart Sutra the Buddha expounds the luminous Dharma of the Middle Way or "When coursing in the deep Prajna Paramita," so the saints of three kinds have the occasion to relinquish their less-than-perfect views. The sutra was translated by the Tripitaka Master Hsuen Tsang who depended on the Buddha alone for its meaning and therefore we should consider this teaching to be spoken by the Buddha.

The Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, while practicing deep Prajna Paramita, attained radiant wisdom through a full understanding of the ultimate Void of the five skandhas. The Dharma of Skandhas is a teaching of existence rather than of emptiness, but due to the depth of his Prajna contemplation, the Bodhisattva acquired full, complete understanding of True Reality. He ended simultaneously the two kinds of birth and death and the five fundamental conditions of passions and illusions and irreversibly overcame all suffering.

Turning once more to Sariputra, the Buddha reiterated the essential point for the benefit of those not understanding clearly. Sariputra was the best of the best, the most advanced Sravaka or "hearer", renowned for his sagacity. According to an established Indian custom regarding personal names, a person may decide to use either his/her mother's name, or father's, or both. The word sariputra (Chiu Lu Tzu in Chinese) literally means certain species of waterfowl similar to an egret. Sariputra chose to use the name of his mother, who was said by those who knew her to have luminous eyes like that particular bird. She had the reputation to surpass her brothers in wisdom and keen spirit. Sariputra's mother was an adept of the heterodox path and as her name suggests, she was a person of the highest wisdom.

"Form does not differ from the Void, and the Void does not differ from form; the same is true for feelings, perceptions, volitions and consciousness." This statement highlights and expands the foregoing sentence of the Sutra, leading toward a deeper, sharper understanding of the Sutra's essential teaching. This Dharma might not be clearly understood without some explanation.

I have already introduced the fivefold interpretation of the meaning of Void or Emptiness, i.e., the obstinate voidness of worldlings; the annihilation voidness of those travelling the outer or heterodox path; the voidness understood by means of analysis as practiced on the path of the two vehicles; the Void perceived by bodhisattvas as the true substance of the universe; the supramundane Void of True Existence. "Form does not differ from the Void", is an observation of inconceivable wisdom rooted in deep practice of Prajna Paramita.

The sense-organ group produce three types of experience: Touching combined with seeing; one sense-organ door alone; activity of the mind alone. This point relates to the six kinds of data, i.e., sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch and thought, and the corresponding six material-sense-organs, meaning eye, ear nose, tongue, body and mind. All our experiences, physical and mental, are generated and accumulated by this group. During their interaction with their objects the senses are affected or contaminated by earthly views. The result then is dust (attraction or aversion of the senses) which characterizes the sentient sphere or Kamaloka. Dust of that kind is one of the major hindrances to enlightenment.

Let us proceed with an analysis of these three types of experience. The first is experienced through contact with form, any form, by means of combining seeing and touching and includes mountains, rivers, houses, flowers, dogs, our body and all the other forms that have corporeality and can be touched as well as seen; the result of that contact is the dust of form. The second quality is produced separately by one of the four based on touch, i.e., hearing, tasting, smelling and touching. Hearing is accomplished by the ear and produces sound-dust; smelling is accomplished by the nose and results in smell-dust; tasting is done with the tongue, generating taste-dust, and touch informs of bodily states thereby producing touch-dust.

The third quality is the mental activity alone. It engenders mind objects or thoughts or ideas and eludes both sight and touch. While each of the five organs has its own specialized field, the mind knows and receives all of them. Mind-object or mental formation is a shadow of the five kinds of dust; the mind knows all of them, but they do not know, cannot know one another. The six kinds of dust generate three kinds of experience; but where do the six kinds of dust come from? With our five physical sense organs, we experience the material world. When a sense-organ relays information obtained through contact to its corresponding consciousness, the dust is produced. The six kinds of dust involve the participation and combination of numerous forms in the process of generating the three types of experience. How can form be considered the true existence of the supramundane Emptiness? How can we call void what our eyes can see and our hands can touch?

We may believe we see with our eyes but actually, it is our seeing nature that sees. A dead body, for example, though having eyes, cannot see, because its seeing nature is no longer there. The nature as substance has no specific residence. It is neither the brain nor the mind. It is vast and boundless, signless, unattainable. Despite the fact that we can see whatever is in front of us, we cannot see our own seeing nature. Because our seeing nature cannot be traced and cannot be fathomed, we assign to it the term Emptiness or Void.

We say, furthermore, that Emptiness is the substance of our nature. Speaking of the nature of seeing, the number of colors seen, as well as their characteristics, are of no relevance. To put it simply, form is nature is form. Nature being void, form is void also. What does it mean when we say that form is nature? Because our six sense-organs, namely eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind give rise to the six natures, i.e., seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching and knowing, countless forms combine and manifest themselves as three kinds of experience and in the process generate six kinds of dust. Yet form is not separable from nature and nature cannot separate from form. When it is separated from form, nature is non-form; form separated from nature is non-nature,

We have another example, in case some people are not completely clear regarding the doctrine. Ask yourself, which comes first: Form or nature? If you answer that the nature of seeing comes first, then consider how can it manifest itself in the absence of form? If, on the other hand, your answer is "form", then ask yourself, how can you become aware of it without your seeing nature? There is really no difference between form and seeing - all of it is relative dharma. The nature of seeing, or the seeing consciousness is like this and the hearing, smelling, tasting, touching and knowing consciousness also. The just concluded study of form and nature according to Yien Yai helped us to realize they are inseparable or nondual. Since Void is the substance of nature, it must be the substance of form as well. Accordingly, to perceive that "form does not differ from Void, Void does not differ from form", is to understand that they are inseparable. It is the Dharma of Nonduality.

Let me give you another example: A mirror is made to reflect whatever is in front of it, The "whatever" may be near or far, round or square, green, yellow, red, white or all four. The mirror will reflect all with equal clarity. Facing clothes, the mirror will reflect clothes, facing a table the mirror will reflect a table, and when made to face the sky, the mirror will reflect it. Mirror always reflects something and, therefore, it is comparable to our Self Nature; the reflection can be compared to dust. A person of mundane concerns will misunderstand the situation, hold the reflection (dust) for the real thing, and struggle to grasp it. Who would believe that mountains, rivers, the earth, even the entire universe are a mere reflection or dust, and as such, they must all rise and vanish in the cyclic existence? What this means is that phenomena are the Dharma of Birth and Death. The mirror's reflective capacity is like the True Nature of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching: being true Suchness, it is unmovable, and cyclic existence cannot touch it. But without a mirror, how can there be reflection?

Their relationship is immutable yet clearly defined in terms of sharp contrast. Similarly, form and mind-nature are one and the same. One can became enlightened and see one's own True Nature practicing this dharma, The Surangama Sutra says: "When you see light, your seeing is not the light and when you see darkness, your seeing is not the darkness; when you see void, seeing it is not the void and when seeing a slab, the seeing is not the slab. When your absolute seeing perceives the essence of seeing, the former is not the latter; they still differ from one another; how can your affected seeing reach that absolute seeing?" In the part of the sutra we are presently studying, "seeing" applies in the first instance to subject seeing and in the second one to object seeing. This point should be cogitated and comprehended intuitively. Without form there is no nature - form and nature are of the same substance and there is no inside or outside. This is the stupendous Dharma of Suchness.

Let us return to the example of the bright mirror. The worldling, unlike the saint, is interested solely in the reflection, never giving as much as a thought to the mirror's reflectivity. Clinging, grasping the reflection, the worldling grasps an incidental occurrence on the mirror's surface and mistakes it for the original. The uninformed fail to understand that all that exists has its nature; earth has earth nature; fire has fire nature; water has water nature; wind has wind nature and consequently the mirror has mirror nature. Our True Nature is also like that and yet most people are confusing illusion with reality, quite unaware of their True Nature. They grasp and cling to reflections and dust. For them the Tao of Bodhi is difficult to attain. The Buddha made use of many expedients while teaching the Dharma of Truth. He repeated over and over again so those who listened could follow his example and attain enlightenment. Reflection in the mirror is impermanent, but the mirror-nature is constant. Reflections come and go, but the reflectivity of the mirror remains. However, the enlightened practitioner in the tradition of Theravada holds form and mind to be two, distinct and separate.

A bodhisattva who attained the intermediate level of practice views the reflection as the characteristic of the mirror's nature, and the mirror's capacity for reflecting is not held as separate from the reflection. There is a cohesive hold, meaning that form and mind are inseparable. It is the material entities that are unreal; that is what "immateriality of substance" means. Although it is true that a bodhisattva is enlightened and the Mahayana doctrine more accomplished then the Theravada one, there is still more that needs to be done. The only complete enlightenment is that of the buddha, and it is attainable only by means of mindfulness, by being observant and by awakening to the Ultimate Truth. Form is mind, mind is form and they are neither two nor one: That is the fundamental Buddhadharma. True Existence is the supramundane Void, and the True Void inconceivably exists.

In the forthcoming paragraph we will direct our attention to the interpretation of "he perceived that all Skandhas are empty, thus he overcame all ills and suffering." The adherents of the Buddha needed to understand clearly that the form-skandha is the first one of the five. The question is, why? Why is form different from the Void, and why is the Void different from form? Form is one of the six dusts, and the first of the five skandhas. To consider form as having independent existence is one of the wrong views. Actually, form is not different from the Void. Someone asked why we talk only about the skandha of form; why not talk about all five?

Because form as shape is most confusing, particularly when applied to the materiality of the human body. Feeling or sensation, perception, volition and consciousness are the domain of mind. Sound, smell, taste, touch and mental formations are from the group of the six dusts also referred to as the six forms (to summarize the forgoing discussion of the three types of experience). The six dusts are generated by our five material -sense-organs, i.e., eye, ear, nose, tongue and body; each of these possesses both shape and form, being the first of the five skandhas. When we add the six dusts to the five skandhas, we arrive at eleven forms called collectively the Dharma of Form.

The remaining group of four skandhas is called the Dharma of Mind. The skandha of feeling and the skandha of perceptions jointly are amenable to fifty-one mental conditions; the skandha of volition has the form (or Dharma) of twenty-four non-interrelated actions. The skandha of consciousness is controlled by eight minds. The Dharma of Form and the Dharma of Mind jointly contain ninety-four Dharmas. In addition, there are six inactive supramundane dharmas (asamskrtas), which brings the number of Dharmas to one hundred, referred to as the Principal Sastras (commentaries). The Buddha's teachings contained originally eighty-four thousand of them, but Maitreya Bodhisattva, by condensing them, arrived at six hundred and sixty Dharmas.

Vashubandhu, the Bodhisattva of non-attachment, distilled their content further to obtain one hundred sastras, simplifying it for future students. The domain of the mind is vast; it contains four skandhas out of five and its cultivation is the means to the attainment of the path. Returning to the analogy of the bright mirror, the reflection or image is composed of the ninety-four form and mind Dharmas, while the six inactive supramundane Dharmas (asamskrtas) constitute the mirrorness or True Nature of the mirror.

Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara practiced the deep Prajna Paramita and perceived that all five skandhas are empty. The radiant, all-encompassing wisdom is the Dharma of Reality as Non-action. In terms of our analogy, the mirror's True Nature is the Ultimate Reality. It reveals the five skandhas as essentially void. But without practice and study, how can we understand True Reality?

The skandha of form embodies eleven dharmas, all of which are "not different from Emptiness" therefore "form does not differ from the Void, and the Void does not differ from form."

What is the true Void? True Void is the luminous wisdom of the enlightened mind; without wisdom, how could the Emptiness of the skandhas be disclosed? And, for that matter, how could anyone overcome all ills and suffering? In reality, to break off the eleven form Dharmas is far from easy. Nonduality of form has the inconceivable, brilliant form of supramundane Void - the True Existence. Such is the meaning of "form does not differ from the Void, and the Void does not differ from form." The Buddha was aware that some of his disciples continued approaching form and Void as two, as left and right for instance, and therefore he elaborated further, in depth: "Form is Void, and Void is form."

Form and Void initially are nondual. All present form empty of self is the supramundane Void of True Existence: It is the stupendous Dharma of Nonduality and Nongrasping. Merely by comprehending this concept the five skandhas are already broken off. That is the meaning of "the same is true for feelings, perceptions, volitions and consciousness." Once the skandha of form was disclosed as void of separate, lasting self, the mind- skandhas, similarly, were found to be void. To break off one skandha is to break off all of them.

"The same is true of feelings, perceptions, volitions and consciousness"; feelings, perceptions, volitions and consciousness are, likewise, recognized as void of selfhood: The Void is their essence. The Dharma of the Five Skandhas is the teaching of things in general - one is all, all is one. Consequently, by understanding one skandha one understands all five. The Buddha continued to expand the scope of this teaching, once more turning to Arya Sariputra. First, the skandhas were revealed as void of self, and now Void is revealed to be their true essence.

"Oh Sariputra, the Characteristics of the Voidness of All Dharms are NON-Arising, NON-Ceasing, NON-Defiled, NON-Pure, NON-Increasing, NON-Decreasing"
	The above paragraph proclaims Emptiness as the substance of all dharmas: That being the case, there can be neither birth nor death; no defilement; no purity; no increase or decrease. What holds true for the Dharma of Skandha applies equally to the rest of dharmas, and therefore all dharmas are presently void.

An ordinary person views all things of this world as possessing their own shape or form, he/she grasps and clings to them, not understanding that their presence is empty of a permanent, separate self. The Buddha, mindful of some of his adherents who still grasped worldly dharmas as if they were real, addressed once more the problem generated by the perception of dharmas as increasing, decreasing, defiled or pure. Explaining in. more detail, he reiterated that since all dharmas are void, there is no birth and no death, neither an increase, nor a decrease, no defilement and no purity. The pre-eminent theme of this sutra is the essential Emptiness of all dharmas and the distinguishing marks of their emptiness are defined as non-arising, non-ceasing, non-defilement, non-purity, non-increasing, non-decreasing, non-birth and non-death.

The Vaipulya Sutra speaks of "neither existing nor extinct, neither permanent nor annihilated, neither identical nor differentiated, neither coming nor going." The history of Buddhism is replete with illustrious sages who pondered and expounded this doctrine at great length. To the deluded worldlings, it makes no sense to speak of no birth and no death: They hold birth and death as essential; all of us were born and must die, in the same way the grass sprouts and grows in the spring and summer and dies in the fall. That is clear to everyone, so how can anybody teach that there is no birth and no death? Thus worldlings come to perceive objects as permanent (the view called parikalpita in Sanskrit).

In the Madhyamika Sastra, Bodhisattva Nagarjuna says: "For the one who is already born, there is no birth; nor is there birth for the one who has not been born. The one who was born and the one who was not born, neither has birth-nor the one being born has birth at the time of his/her birth." To give an example, grass that is one foot tall is no longer sprouting. That is what is meant by "no more birth for the one already born." Supposing the grass that is presently one foot tall is allowed to grow one more foot: It still cannot be said to have birth, because there is no manifestation of birth. That is meant by "what has not been born yet has no birth." The grass cannot be said to "have birth" or "being born" at any specific time during its sprouting and so it is said that "the one being born does not have birth at the time of birth." The mark or the sign of birth does not obtain at any one moment. Bodhisattva Nagarjuna demonstrated by means of this example that the doctrine of no-birth makes perfect sense and that it is relevant to an understanding of the teaching.

I have already explained birth and non-birth. Let me explain now the opposite to non-birth. For the one already dead there is no death; for the one not dead yet there is no death, either. At the time of dying there is not one specific point in time for death to manifest itself. The explanation should clarify the eight dharmas of form, i.e., "neither existent nor extinct, neither permanent nor annihilated, neither identical nor differentiated, and neither coming nor going." A simple statement of non-birth and non-death would not be convincing enough. To counter the argument, the Buddha said: "Neither permanent nor annihilated" for those holding on to the doctrine of permanence. To make it succinct in terms of the luminous Dharma, "if you open your mouth you are already wrong, if you give rise to a single thought you are in error." All of this is, in fact, inconceivable. To quote once again the Surangama Sutra: "the language we use has no real meaning."

I would like those who hold things as permanent to explain why we cannot see at present all those who lived before us? The impermanence of human existence becomes immediately apparent. Similarly, those who subscribe to the annihilation theory should tell us how is it possible for us to eat last year's rice? Today's rice is the seed from last year's plant, which, in turn, grew from the seed of the previous year. That should be evidence enough that the annihilation theory does not work, as asserted by the above "neither birth nor death, neither permanence nor annihilation."

As to "neither identical nor differentiated", it means not being the same (or alike), and not being varied, either; being neither one nor many. Consider the human body, for example; it is a collection of many dissimilar parts, i.e., skin, muscle, tendons, bones, blood, viscera and more. Though we refer to it as one body, one sentient being, there are, actually, more than one there. Yet our body cannot be called a group or a composite, because of being perceived as entity. The quote under discussion can be reformulated as "one is all, all is one." The Ultimate Dharma is the silence that follows after the sound of discussion: has ceased and when the role of thought is over.

"Neither coming nor going" addresses the view of things as having independent, lasting existence. By "coming" and "going"' we mean questions such as "where do people come from and where do they go?" Or, similarly, some may wonder where do mountains come from and where do they go? The view that holds everything in the world to be in some way continuing is called in Sanskrit parikalpita. The view is based on a fundamental cognitive distortion, bringing further distortions in its wake: From there on, there is birth, death, permanence, annihilation, sameness, differentiation, coming and going.

The foregoing discussion of the superb doctrine dealt with "neither birth nor death, neither permanence nor annihilation, neither sameness nor differentiation, and neither coming nor going." Presently, we are going to turn our attention to the doctrine of Ultimate Reality as "not defiled, not pure, not increasing and not decreasing," dependent on the substance of Prajna (or the Voidness of all things).

Defiled and pure both are without definite form, thus leaving everyone to his/her own resources or subjective point of view. Rejecting "defiled", clinging to "pure" gives rise to yet another defilement because of our natural tendency toward opinions and prejudice. It is only when discriminating thought no longer arises that liberation can be attained. Let us imagine that someone slipped while walking on a country road; while getting up he/she put his/her hand in some dung. He/she washed the dirty hand, and having done that, considered that hand clean again. Had a piece of cloth been used instead, it would have been considered somewhat soiled even after many launderings; it might even be discarded because of it. However, the hand could not be discarded since it forms an essential part of the owner's body; he/she had no other alternative but to wash it carefully and then accept it as clean. The handkerchief would be easy to abandon and for that reason there would be no need for mind to hold on to "soiled."

A lady scholar named Lu Mei Sun once told me a story about a friend of hers, a lady who lived in a village. Once her friend went shopping in the nearest town, where she saw a pretty enamelware receptacle she liked well enough to buy; she derived much pleasure from serving food in it. About six months later she invited several of her friends for a special meal and used her favorite vessel to serve it in. Her guests, however, were repelled by it, because they identified the vessel as a chamber pot. In spite of the fact that the pot was never used for anything else but food since the lady brought it home brand new from the store, her friends were taken aback. We can appreciate how the view of "soiled" and "clean" is totally grounded in the assumption that things have permanent and, therefore, independent existence.

There is a certain soy condiment that is very popular, but most of those who consume it are not aware of the process used to make it. During its fermentation, the condiment harbors colonies of maggots; they are carefully removed, prior to the product being offered for sale. People enjoy its flavor, but were they reminded, while eating it, that it was once populated by maggots, they might suddenly consider the condiment dirty and stop eating it.

Clearly, the maggots feel perfectly at home in the midst of the decomposing material, and the question of dirty or clean does not arise. Yet rotten or decomposing material has a connotation of dirt in the minds of people.

Those who inhabit heavenly realms consider us, 'the earthlings, dirty, yet they, in turn, are deemed dirty by the Arhat or the saint of the Theravadin tradition while he, the Arhat, is perceived as dirty by a bodhisattva. Thus the demarcation between pure and impure is far from clear. If your mind is impure, the world appears correspondingly impure, and vice versa. All these distinctions are arbitrary, yet people grasp them, and cling to their views as if they were carved in stone.

And, finally, we are going to talk about increase and decrease. As it is to be expected, these two terms are, likewise, completely relative: There may be an increase in a decrease, or a decrease in the increase. Let me give you an example: There are ninety days of summer. Presently, thirty days of summer have already passed. We might say that hot weather has been increasing over the past thirty days, or we can put it differently by saying that the hot season has already decreased by thirty days. An idiomatic saying puts it as "months and years have no feelings, they just decrease while they increase." While the years increase, our life span decreases says the same thing using different words. I am eighty-four years old. If I am to live till ninety, I have six more years, and if I live one more year after that, it means an increase, yet it is also a moment to moment decrease in my life span. That is the meaning of an increase in the decrease, and a decrease in the increase.

In a few words, there is neither birth nor death, neither impure nor pure, neither increase nor decrease: That is the wonderful doctrine of the Middle Way; but most people twist their perception to make it fit their picture of how reality should be. Then there is birth and death, impure and pure, increase and decrease, all being produced by ego-notion and its concomitant craving. For that reason the Buddha taught the true nature of reality: To point out that the notion of separate ego is an illusion, and to emphasize the necessity to eliminate craving if we want to bring the round of suffering to a halt.

The point is that the skandhas are all empty at this very moment; since the Skandha-Dharma is central to Buddhadharma, the rest of Dharmas are equally empty. To reiterate once more, there is no birth and no death, neither pure nor impure, neither increase nor decrease. According to the Prajna Paramita Heart Sutra, Emptiness is the substance of all dharmas.

"Therefore, in the Void there are No Forms, No Feelings, Perceptions, Volitions or Consciousness"

The Buddha knew that repetition is essential to learning; he explained further that there is form because the mind craves it, and when mind releases its hold, form ceases to exist. It does not have any independent nature of its own. Additionally, there are no feelings, no perceptions, no volitions and no consciousness in the supramundane Emptiness of True Existence. He returned to the fundamental Skandha Dharma again and again to explain the essential Emptiness of all existence. He hoped to make the path of liberation be known by teaching it continually.

In this paragraph I will shed light on the meaning of the phrase "all Dharmas are Voidness." The fundamental Dharma of Five Skandhas teaches that all five skandhas are empty, which means that there are really no skandhas. They are not the substance, but only the function, or worldly dharma; just as all buddhas and bodhisattvas, the skandhas are rooted entirely in the Dharma of Emptiness.

"No Eye, Ear, Nose, Tongue, Body or Mind; No Form, Sound, Smell, Taste, Touch or Mind Object; No Realm of the Eye, Until We Come to No Realm of Consciousness"

This portion of the Sutra is the Teaching on Emptiness in connection with the eighteen worldly dharmas, or the eighteen realms; the uninstructed lack understanding of the Dharma, of Emptiness and repeatedly yield to the play of delusion as permanence and as independent existence. Ultimate Emptiness is not the obstinate void of the worldlings nor the annihilation view of those on the heterodox path; it is not the analysis of the Void as practiced by Theravadins, nor the Void of the present moment as perceived by the bodhisattva.

The supramundane Emptiness of True Existence is not possessed by buddhas alone: All of us are endowed with the same truth and would come to know it, if only we relinquished our discriminating mind; that is the supramundane Void of True Existence. In order to have correct practice it is not necessary to apply the method of Theravada, the Middle Vehicle or the Mahayana. Anyone can become buddha spontaneously by deeply comprehending that "all existence is Void." The Arhat of Theravada is equal to a worldly person of great potential.

A worldling of superior potential can sharpen his/her wisdom and receive the radiant Dharma at any time. People of mundane concerns wear themselves out in the realm of the eighteen mundane dharmas that lead to confusion and craving; for them there can be no salvation. The six organs, i.e., eye, car, nose, tongue, body and mind, and the corresponding six sense- data or dust, i.e., form, sound, smell, taste, touch and mental formations generate the six kinds of consciousness, i.e., eye consciousness, ear consciousness, nose consciousness, tongue consciousness, body consciousness and mind consciousness. The group is referred to as the eighteen realms or the eighteen mundane dharmas. To be conscious means to be conscious of something, to distinguish or to discriminate

The average person works to make a living, eats and drinks every day always bound by the eighteen realms. He/she always sees with his/her eyes, hears with his/her ears, smells with his/her nose, tastes with his/her tongue, touches with his/her body and knows mental objects with his/her mind. The cognitive objects are discerned, produce sense data and from the six kinds of consciousness arise all the other functions.

People assume the reality of subject and object behind the process, unaware as they are of it being a mere assumption unverifiable by experience. To understand this doctrine means liberation, but getting confused about it means falling into the ocean of suffering. Six kinds of consciousness arise from the six organs and the six data. The six organs are useless to a dead body. How could the six kinds of consciousness receive the six data and act upon receiving them? Since Emptiness is the substance of the six organs and, consequently, of the six kinds of data, what do the six kinds of consciousness depend on for their existence? The sutra says: "No realm of the eye all the way up to no realm of consciousness," meaning no realm of eye consciousness, no realm of ear consciousness, no realm of nose consciousness, no realm of tongue consciousness, no realm of body consciousness and no realm of mind consciousness.

The mundane Dharma of eighteen realms and their range is clear: Each of them has a character of its own. As a matter of fact, just as one hundred rivers merge into one ocean, all dharmas are contained in one teaching, the teaching of Emptiness. To attain enlightenment instantly, all one needs is to comprehensively understand the Dharma of Emptiness as the essence of reality. The uninformed majority submerge their True Nature in confusion resulting from misconception regarding the eighteen realms, a concept that has no counterpart in reality. Whenever mind touches a point, there is feeling; it may itch, hurt, feel numb, burn, or produce any of the countless sensations, and the knowing consciousness is alerted. When the taste buds are stimulated, there is the knowing of tasting. There is sweet, bitter, sour, etc. and the tasting nature becomes confused by the variety and the complexity. Similarly, the moment the eye makes contact, the eye consciousness engages in making distinctions in terms of light/dark, and the pristine seeing nature gets covered over by them. When the ear catches a sound, the hearing nature gets lost in judgments regarding it. These cognitive patterns are so deep it is difficult to trace and abandon them. And yet, it manifests complete misunderstanding of the original nature of consciousness. Looking at the city at night, we see the brilliant lights of ten-thousand households: Such is the form of light. During blackout we are able to observe the form of darkness. Light and darkness both have birth and death, yet the nature of seeing is free of cyclic existence. It is in the nature of seeing to perceive darkness in the absence of light and light in the absence of darkness. This should help us to understand the timeless nature of seeing. Our tendency to crave and grasp the object of seeing is a major obstacle to an understanding of the true nature of reality.

Attachment resulting from pleasurable eye contact, once established, is exceedingly difficult to relinquish. Most people do not have any understanding of the subject of seeing. The organ of the eye does not have the ability to see - only the nature of seeing does. The one who can enlighten himself/herself as to the subject of the nature of seeing can understand his/her own mind and see his/her own nature immediately. Whether a person is holy or worldly depends entirely on his/her ability (