All conditioned phenomena
Are like dreams, illusions, bubbles,
Like dew drops and a lightning flash:
Contemplate them thus.
(The Diamond Sutra)
Each moment contains the ephemeral phenomena that are born, live, and die. Watching the objects of sight, whether people, cars, animals, or the weather, they are seen to come and go. They are indeed like dreams and illusions; bubbles that quickly burst into nothingness. And what of the mind? Thoughts, feelings, memories, fantasies – they are akin to dew drops melting away in the sun of awareness, gone in a lightning flash. Reflecting on the nature of everything that we see, hear, taste, touch, smell, and think, we can see not only their ghostly existence, but also our own. This is wisdom.
5 comments:
Hi there G,
I just found your blog, and i believe by no accident. :)
have read some of your post and I'm loving it. :)
am putting your link up at my blog! thank u for sharing....
Cheers,
Tim
We must pay attention, indeed. This enables us to see truth.
And then, at least some of the time, we must *do* something - function in a beneficial way.
Zen Master Seung Sahn used to say, "How does the truth function?"
Thanks Tim & Barry for your comments.
Tim: Nice to know that you are loving the blog - I'll take a look at yours soon...
Barry: Seeing & doing, doing & seeing. And yet, there is no seeing & no doing, for when 'I' look home, there's no 'I' to be found. What's that line from the Visuddhimagga? "Deeds are done, but no doer of the deeds is found..."
Be well,
G.
Reminds me of another Diamond Sutra quote on the fleetingness of the moment: http://moonpointer.com/new/2009/01/ending-happy-or-sad
The past mind cannot be grasped [because it is already gone]
The present mind cannot be grasped [because it changes in the moment]
The future mind cannot be grasped [because it has not yet arisen]
Amituofo :-]
Thanks for the great quote, Moonpointer.
Now, where did I put that mind...?
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