Inseparable Emptiness

色不异空．空不异色．

色即是空．空即是色．

So a week ago, we celebrated the birthday of Avalokitesvara here at the temple. I'm not sure when is the exact day of his birthday. But after doing some research, apparently there are three important days that we commemorate for him: The 19th of the 2nd lunar month is to commemorate his birthday, 19th of the 6th lunar month to commemorate him following the Boddhisatva's way (I think) and 19th of the 9th lunar month commemorating him becoming a Boddhisatva. Although I'm not too sure how these dates come into tradition. But nevertheless, it's always good to contemplate and to reflect on these date.

Like I once blogged last year, Avalokitesvara (or Guan Yin) is someone I strive to be. He is the Boddhisatva of Compassion, and his name means "the lord who observes the sounds of the world". So I deeply and gratefully celebrate these dates. The temple was filled with people last week as we chanted sutras in that lovely evening. Felt good to see the temple crowded with people. Young and old, chanting sutras together.  I love chanting sutras because it brings me great peace.

There are a lot of famous sutras in Mahayana Buddhism. But I suppose the two really famous ones are The Great Compassion Mantra (大悲咒） and The Heart Sutra (般若波罗蜜多心经). Okay I suppose I am a bad Buddhist. Before I know Buddhism as well as now, I thought these two sutras are like "Chinese Sutras" that's not really related to Buddhism heh. But of course not. I discovered later that 大悲咒 is Nilakantha-Dharani and 般若波罗蜜多心经 is Prajna-Paramita sutra. I realised that the Chinese words share the same meaning and translation of the sutras!

I've been researching about these sutras and recently, I've been reading up articles on The Heart Sutra. This has become my favourite sutra. "Prajna Paramita" means the Perfection of Wisdom and well at first I don't really get the "wisdom" of this sutra, until I read and read the sutra again and again, and do some research of different translations and interpretations of the sutra, that I realised how beautiful it is!

I think the beginning of the sutra already has so much wisdom we can take. It says:

色不异空．空不异色．

色即是空．空即是色．

受, 想, 行, 识, 亦复如是

It translates to: 

Form is inseparable from emptiness, emptiness is inseparable from form.

Form is emptiness, emptiness is form.

The same goes for feelings, conceptions, mental formations and consciousness.

Okay first of all, form, feelings, conceptions, mental formation and consciousness are the five aggregates (or skandhas) in Buddhism. To give an easy example, here is how it goes. We pick a flower and hold it in our hands (form), we smell it and the smell is picked up by our nose (feelings), we discovered that the flower is a jasmine flower (conception), jasmine flower reminds us of tea or whatever feelings we had encountered in the past (mental formations), we are aware of all of these (consciousness). And the cycle goes on and on in our lives.

It is said that clinging to any one of these aggregates is the cause of suffering. And hence, in the Heart Sutra, these aggregates are inseparable from emptiness. This is a reminder that we should not cling to all of these, if not we'll just continue to suffer, forever, trapped in Samsara. These few lines alone have made me fall in love with the Sutra. It is so simple, yet so profoundly beautiful and rather difficult to practice. How do we practice it? I'm not exactly sure how, but this is my take on it.

The five aggregates work in a chain, together, to form consciousness. From this consciousness we'll create suffering, if we ever cling to them. So I suppose reminding ourselves of this inseparable emptiness can help us to stop clinging to all these? Let's do this in another example.

Say someone says something hurtful to you (your ear picked it up (form)), and then you felt angry and annoyed by it (feelings), you discovered that those words hurt you (conception), and suddenly you just think of all the negative things this person did to you (mental formations) and then this feeling of you, needing to be angry and to be made at this someone arises (consciousness). 

Now you remind yourself of the sutra, that these aggregates are inseparable from emptiness. And you realise that these aggregates are nothing but emptiness. They come, and rise, and... Go away. This will prevent you from clinging onto these aggregates and congratulations, you're one step closer to becoming the happiest person ever alive in this world! Now keep on practising this.

The Buddha said that no matter how many times you read the holy words, they mean nothing if you don't practise them. So yep, you can chant the Heart Sutra like 100 times everyday, but they mean nothing if you don't understand and apply the teachings. I do read the Heart Sutra everyday. To me reading these sutra is a reminder for me to apply this technique every day. And also, I realised that the more I read this sutra, the more insights and wisdom I get from it. Hence, more application!

Okay what a long post! But I've always wanted to blog about this. I hope you enjoy reading this post and may it help you in life as well. Have a great day everyone :)

Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha.