Half 11-1
“Subhuti, suppose there have been as many Ganges Rivers as there are grains of sand within the mattress of the Ganges River: would the grains of sand in all these Ganges Rivers be many?” Subhuti mentioned, “Very many, World Honoured One. The rivers themselves can be numerous, not to mention their sands.”
Commentary:
The core of this Sutra is to see and listen to issues as they’re with out being deluded by photos and phrases. That is known as seeing issues as empty, or not dwelling on something. As put beforehand in Half 10-5, not dwelling on something means seeing every little thing as a rabbit horn that’s not actual however imaginary. Once we see each the grains of sand in all these Ganges Rivers and all these Ganges Rivers as rabbit horns, there isn’t a distinction not solely between a grain of sand and the Ganges River but in addition between a single grain of sand and billions of ones. This is the reason the Avatamsaka Sutra says that there isn’t a quantity within the features of the Buddha, and so the enlightened are removed from being deluded by numbers. In the identical method, upon listening to or studying the variety of the grains of sand within the Ganges River, we must always have the ability to hear it because the variety of rabbit horns as a substitute of being deluded by the phrases ‘the variety of the grains of sand within the Ganges River’.
For example this case, historical masters would ask their disciples in the event that they knew the precise variety of the hairs of their heads. They requested this query to see if their college students may see every little thing as a rabbit horn with out dwelling on photos and phrases. In the identical method, we must always have the ability to know the precise variety of the grains of sand in all these Ganges Rivers with out dwelling on something as we had been taught by the Buddha.
Pupil: “What’s the variety of the grains of sand in all these Ganges Rivers?”
Grasp: “A billion to the ability of a billion minus three.”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All photos ©Simon Hathaway
