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"Todos os fenômenos são vazios." "Eles não nascem". "No vazio não há
consciência, nem corpo, nem mente".
Eu quero falar com vocês hoje sobre algo que não falamos antes. Eu quero ter
tempo para dar muitos exemplos, então vocês precisarão seguir de perto . Eu
gostaria de começar revendo alguns pontos que já podem ser familiares para
vocês.
Assim, cada uma dessas formas - embora essas formas tenham algo em
comum - têm um começo e um fim (e, novamente, independentemente de
serem materiais ou imateriais). Cada uma dessas formas é limitada no tempo
e no espaço. Portanto, cada um é impermanente, transitória.
Seria como uma onda no oceano que aparece e desaparece e não deixa
nenhuma marca no oceano ... então nessa condição não há você - não há
você após esta condição de presença na vida, e depois disso não há você nem
mesmo para saber que você já existiu, ou mesmo saber que alguma coisa já
existiu.
Assim, o ponto disso é que, no sentido último, tudo que você diz, faz, pensa
ou sente são manifestações deste ser sempre presente... mas essas aparições,
essas formas, são carentes de realidade última. Então, no sentido final,
nenhuma dessas aparências importa. O vazio é a condição real e duradoura.
No Sutra do Diamante, Buda diz que nenhum começo é a mais alta verdade.
Sem começo, sem fim - a mais alta verdade. Em outras palavras, esse vazio é
a verdade mais alta. Os ensinamentos de Advaita pretendem nos apontar em
direção a ajata, que é o ensinamento mais profundo ou a verdade mais
elevada. Ajata é escrito a-j-a-t-a e significa não criação. Sem criação.
O sexto patriarca chinês Hui Neng em seu poema disse nas duas últimas
linhas: Se não há nada desde o início, onde pode o pó pousar. (Na verdade, se
não há nada desde o início que não haja poeira), mas seu ponto é que quando
reconhecemos que a condição última é vazia, onde todas esses problemas
surgem para nós? Nesta condição última, nesta presença vazia, não há
mentes. Não há nada desde o começo. Na verdade, não há coisas relativas lá,
não há absoluto.
"Não há forma, não há origem." Então, vemos todas essas formas e as vemos
como existentes ... mas toda a existência é temporária. Tudo tem a qualidade
de um sonho ou uma ilusão, não persistentemente real, sobreposta ao vazio.
Buda, no Sutra do Diamante, disse: "Uma ilusão, um sonho, se todos vocês
criassem coisas assim." Alguém me mandou um livro recentemente do Dalai
Lama e ele fala lá sobre a praticidade de reconhecer esse vazio ou nada.
Porque quando vemos que essa é a condição última, ela tem um efeito sobre
como nós vivemos nossa vida. Deixe-me ler algumas citações: "Todos os
fenômenos estão vazios".
"O vazio impregna não apenas nosso ego individual ou senso de si mesmo,
mas o todo da realidade ... Esse vazio é a sua natureza última ou modo de
ser. Perceber isso, é ver através do engano da ignorância. Liberdade da
ignorância é chamada Nirvana. Perceber o vazio está diretamente relacionado
a nossa busca de purificar nossa mente de emoções aflitivas como ódio, raiva
e desejo. Nós projetamos nas coisas um status de existência e um modo de
ser que simplesmente não está alí. Essa compreensão do vazio é um dos
principais fatores do verdadeiro caminho para tal insight; ela corta através da
ilusão criada pelo mal entendido de ver as coisas e os eventos como
existentes. Percebemos o vazio de todos os fenômenos, não apenas a mente e
o corpo do indivíduo ".
"All phenomena are emptiness." "They are not born. In emptiness there is no
consciousness, no body, and no mind."
I want to talk to you today about something that we haven't talked about
before. I want to have time to give many examples, so you'll need to follow
closely. I'd like to start by reviewing a few points that may already be familiar
to you.
So, each of these forms - although these forms have something in common -
they all have a beginning and an end (and again, that's regardless of whether
they're material or immaterial). Each of these forms is limited in time and
space. Therefore each one is impermanent, transitory.
The spiritual writings, the spiritual scriptures in every spiritual and religious
tradition they speak of the infinite, the eternal, that which has no beginning
and end. So if there is that which is infinite and eternal and has no beginning
and end it would not be limited to a form. If there is that which is infinite it
would have no boundaries, perimeters, or borders and it would not be relative
to time or space. Time as a measure. Time begins here, ends here. Space
begins here, ends here. And so this which is infinite would not have any
relationship to time or space. When you see in the spiritual writing the word
nonduality - this is what is being referred to.
It's like if there were a mountain - people on one side might have a name for
that mountain, people on the other side might have a different name for that
mountain. Same mountain. In the spiritual writings we see the word relative
which relates to duality and we see the word absolute which relates to
nonduality. The point is that these are not two different or separate things.
You've probably heard the expression: form is formlessness, formlessness is
form. That sometimes said as form is emptiness, emptiness is form. This
formless beingness is always present. If we were to ask "What is real?" that
which is real must be real at all times under any circumstance. Not, real now
but later disappears. So these appearances of manifestation, these forms, by
comparison would be unreal.
Scientists tell us that we every night go into a deep dreamless sleep and in
that condition there are no forms. There's no self, no mind, no thoughts, no
relationships, no others, no world, no universe. Simply empty formless
presence.
Superimposed on this empty presence is the dreaming condition, when the
mind is present and the waking condition, when we are a form among other
forms. But, if you were to ask what is my existence, in its simplest most basic
form, it would be this condition when you are alive and yet empty. In other
words, in this condition of deep sleep there is no you. This empty formlessness
is prior to the condition that we call our life. In other words, our life as a form
- it has a beginning, it has an ending. This empty presence is prior to that,
actually runs through our life, and is after that. Our life begins and ends with
in this empty presence.
It would be like a wave on the ocean that appears and disappears and leaves
no mark on the ocean…so in that condition there is no you - there's no you
after this condition of presence in life, and after that there is no you to even
know that you ever existed, or to even know that anything ever existed.
So the point of this is that, in the ultimate sense, all that you say, do, think or
feel are manifestations of this ever-present beingness…but these appearances,
these forms, are lacking in ultimate reality. So in the final sense, none of
these appearances matter. Emptiness is the real and lasting condition. In the
Diamond Sutra, Buddha says no beginning is the highest truth. No beginning,
no ending - the highest truth. In other words, this emptiness is the highest
truth. The teachings of Advaita intend to point us towards ajata, which is the
deepest teaching or the highest truth. Ajata is spelled a-j-a-t-a and it means
no creation. No creation.
The six Chinese patriarch Hui Neng in his poem said in the last two lines: If
there is nothing from the start, where can the dust alight. (Actually if there's
nothing from the start there is no dust) but his point is that when we
recognize that the ultimate condition is empty, where do all these problems
arise for us? In this ultimate condition, in this empty presence, there are no
minds. There's nothing from the start. In fact, there is no relative things there,
there's no absolute.
The relative and absolute are teaching pointers, but when we speak of
nothingness, there's nothing there. In fact, in these spiritual writings they
often say that nothing ever happened. There's nothing there to happen. The
word emptiness is another word for nothingness, but emptiness suggests that
there's something that could be empty, something to be empty. When we
speak of nothingness, there's not even that— there's nothing. So from the
standpoint of this emptiness, or nothingness, we don't ask does it exist, or
doesn't it exist. This is beyond existence or non-existence—nothing. In the
Heart Sutra it says, "All phenomena are emptiness."
"They are not born. In emptiness there is no consciousness, no body, and no
mind."
"There is no form, no origin." So we see all of these forms and we see them as
existing…but all existence is temporary. It all has the quality of a dream, or an
illusion, not lastingly real, superimposed on emptiness. Buddha, in the
Diamond Sutra said, "An illusion, a dream, if you all created things like this."
Someone sent me a book recently by the Dalai Lama and he speaks there
about the practicality of recognizing this emptiness or nothingness. Because
when we see that that is the ultimate condition, that has an effect on how we
live our life. Let me read a few quotes from it: "All phenomena are empty."
"Emptiness pervades not only our own individual ego or sense of self, but the
whole of reality.…That emptiness is its ultimate nature or mode of being. To
realize that is to see through the deception of ignorance. Freedom from
ignorance is called Nirvana. Realizing emptiness is directly related to our
quest to purify our mind of afflictive emotions like hatred, anger, and desire.
We project on the things a status of existence and a mode of being which is
simply not there. This understanding of emptiness is one of the principal
factors of the true path for such an insight cuts right through the illusion
created by the misapprehension of grasping things and events as existing.
We realize the emptiness of all phenomenon, not just the mind and body of
the individual."
I'd like to add to that a few quotes from my books. "In my estimation, any
teaching which assists one to connect with the reality of the sheer emptiness
of their existence, in life or death, is a practical teaching. Fortunately, we have
the capacity to realize while we are alive that ultimately nothing really
matters. Considering that ultimately nothing really matters, how much anguish
should we invest in our temporal, impermanent, relative fixations in the
meantime? It is this awareness which is the conscious state of the thoroughly
self-realized as a consequence his attention is merely on the moment as one
is when witnessing the unfolding of a dream. Wherever he looks and what ever
he views, he sees only impermanence, emptiness. Recognizing that he who
sees is no less empty. His life, the world, the universe can cease to be—even
to have ever been at any moment. This recognition, this awareness dictates
his every movement. Every one which holds the amusing importance of
potentially being his last. So he has in a sense died before one dies and his
absence or non-existence is as much in his conscious awareness as is his
momentary presence."
My favorite anecdote about Ramana Maharshi is that one day a man walked
into the hall where Ramana gave satsang and said that he had written a
biography of Ramana - "I would like to read it."
Ramana smiled, nodded his head. The man sat down and he read his
manuscript.
It was full of inaccuracies and errors. For example, he said that Ramana had
been married and had a family; that Ramana had been a socialist before he
became enlightened, and so on and so on. So when he finished Ramana
smiled nodded his head.
The man picked up his manuscript and left. One of the disciples of Ramana
said, "Master, did you hear what that man read? Is any of that real?" Ramana
who waved his hand as if taking in the universe and he said, "Is any of this
real?"