DHS 2/100

For most of a decade, i considered one segment of the Heart Sutra more than all the rest as an absolute favorite.

Fu ku jū metsu dō

There is no suffering, no origin of suffering, no cessation of suffering, nor path leading to the cessation of suffering.

For the longest time that seemed like the heart of the sutra. Stop clinging to the message. The sutra isn't saying that everything is empty with the exception of the Four Noble Truths. No, even those are empty. It seemed obvious that a true understanding of what the Buddha was saying had to include letting even the message go.

Then, sometime last year it dawned on me — as important as it is to give up clinging to the Four Noble Truths as absolutes, that was wasted effort if i didn't know why i was giving them up.

I wrote a little about this in a blog entry that i called Egomaniacs late last year. In it, i quoted Paulo Coelho from his book The Pilgrimage as he said "The only reason for seeking a reward is to know what to do with that reward."

Likewise, i wondered about the Four Noble Truths. If i give them up, i should understand why i'm giving them up; beyond the obvious "Emptiness" of the concepts. If there is wisdom in giving them up, where does that wisdom lead?

And slowly, after years of fermentation, the next section made its appearance. No longer just the next few kanji, now they seemed to stop my hand. I used to miss them all the time because my conceptual brain froze on the previous line. Now it was as if they were crying out for attention.

Mu chi yaku mu toku; I mu sho tokko

There is no wisdom, nor is there attainment; For there is nothing to be attained.

"Stop searching for the masters of old, search for what they sought," as someone once wrote in calligraphy for me, and which still hangs on my dining room wall.

Stop searching. Stop! Just STOP! Quit looking for the Buddha's wisdom, the words in all the thousands of books that explain, dissect, summarize, hypothesize, categorize, idolize, and everything else they can do to those words.

Go past that. What was he looking for? Not what was he saying, but before that — what was he looking for before he tried to say anything at all. Forget what he said, what did he see? He sat under the tree and swore he wouldn't get up again until he had found it. Found what? (And the answer doesn't involve words.)

Mu toku; I mu sho tokko

There is no attainment; For there is nothing to attain.

Sweet Jesus! Holy Cow! Mon Dieu! OMG! There is nothing to attain. Nowhere to go. Nothing to find. Nothing to accomplish. Nothing to learn. No one to become. No end of the rainbow. No pot of gold. That stinky fool of a human being sitting on my zafu is it! Shit for brains and all!

...And, unfortunately, this is now my favorite segment of the sutra. Unfortunately, because i wonder what else this new blindness is causing me to overlook. But, hey, grasping is what Lao Bendan's do; it's what they're good at. I'll get over it some day. I hopeassume.