Ello’s Paul Budnitz • Brooklyn Zen • 5 Buddhist Slogans for the Office • Buddha’s Birds

sBuddhisthambhala wisdom for our time sunjanuary 2015

If you want to be unhappy, think of yourself. If you want to be happy, think of others.

— Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche Compassion Changes Everything

5 Baby Steps to Kindness Judy Lief’s tips to develop more compassion

Everyone Is Your Guest How to be a bodhisattva

No Boundary Why love and emptiness work together

Radical Compassion 4 activists working for a better world Love + Wisdom = Buddha The Insight That Brings Us to the Other Shore Zen teacher Norman Fischer looks at the famed Heart Sutra and explains why compassion and The insight of prajñaparamita, the perfection of wisdom “The Eighteen Realms of Phenomena as taught in the Heart Sutra, is the ultimate truth, transcending which are the six Sense Organs, Thich Nhat Hanh emptiness go hand in hand. Plus, offers his new translation of the Heart Sutra, of all conventional truths. It is the highest vision of the Buddha. the six Sense Objects, which teaches the transcendent wisdom that frees us from fear, wrong perceptions, and suffering. Prajñaparamita is the liberating insight that helps us to and the six Consciousnesses overcome all pairs of opposites, such as birth and death, are also not separate self entities. being and non-being, defilement and immaculacy, increas- “The Twelve Links of Interdependent Arising he key term in Buddhism’s Heart Su- Sutra, which seems to be rather philosophical and ing and decreasing, subject and object, and so on. All phe- and their Extinction tra is the Sanskrit word shunyata, usually dour, is the necessary basis for compassion. Empti- nomena are products of dependent arising: that is the main are also not separate self entities. point of the prajñaparamita teaching. This helps us to get in translated into English as “emptiness.” ness and compassion go hand in hand. Compassion “Ill-being, the Causes of Ill-being, touch with the true nature of no birth/no death, no being/no As the sutra says in its opening lines, “All as transaction—me over here, being compassionate the End of Ill-being, the Path, Tdharmas [things, phenomena] are empty.” Eyes, ears, to you over there—is simply too clunky and difficult. non-being, etc., which is the true nature of all phenomena. insight and attainment, noses, tongues, bodies, minds: all external objects— If I am going to be responsible to receive your suffer- This is a state of coolness, peace, and non-fear that can be are also not separate self entities. and all Buddhist teachings—are empty. ing and do something about it, and if I am going to experienced in this very life, in your own body and in your own five skandhas. It is nirvana. As it is said in a very beauti- “Whoever can see this The word “emptiness” is a fair translation of shu- make this kind of compassion the cornerstone of my no longer needs anything to attain. nyata, but it has the drawback of sounding negative, religious life, I will soon be exhausted. But if I see the ful sentence in the nirvana chapter of the Chinese Dharma- even despairing. The emptiness of the Heart Sutra is boundarylessness of me and you, and recognize that pada, “Just as the birds enjoy the sky, and the deer enjoy the “Bodhisattvas who practice something else entirely. It’s good news of joyful my suffering and your suffering are one suffering, meadow, so do the wise enjoy dwelling in nirvana.” the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore freedom and liberation. Commentators to the sutra and that that suffering is empty of any separation, —­ Thich Nhat Hanh see no more obstacles in their mind, and because there often ask the question, “Empty of what?” and answer, weightiness, or ultimate tragedy, then I can do it. I are no more obstacles in their mind, “Empty of separate self, empty of weightiness, empty can be boundlessly compassionate and loving, with- Avalokiteshvara they can overcome all fear, of burden, empty of boundary.” out limit. To be sure, living this teaching takes time while practicing deeply with destroy all wrong perceptions the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore, The Chinese, searching for a word that might and effort, and maybe we never entirely arrive at it. and realize Perfect Nirvana. translate shunyata, used the character for “sky.” All But it’s a joyful, heartfelt path worth treading. suddenly discovered that dharmas are empty like the sky—blue, beautiful, ex- In Mahayana Buddhism, compassion is often all of the five Skandhas are equally empty, “All Buddhas in the past, present, and future pansive, and always ready to receive a bird, a wind, a discussed in terms of absolute and relative compas- and with this realization by practicing cloud, the sun, the moon, or an airplane. The empti- sion. Absolute compassion is compassion in the light he overcame all Ill-being. the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore are all capable of attaining ness of the Heart Sutra isn’t the emptiness of despair; of emptiness: all beings are empty; all beings are, by “Listen Sariputra, Authentic and Perfect Enlightenment. it’s the emptiness of all limitation and boundary. It is virtue of their empty nature, already liberated and this Body itself is Emptiness open, released. pure. As the sutra says, suffering is empty, and relief and Emptiness itself is this Body. “Therefore Sariputra, This Body is not other than Emptiness it should be known that When I am bound inside my own skin and oth- from suffering is also empty. p ers are bound inside theirs, I have to defend and But this would be one-sided and distorted. Relative h oto © DV8OR / S toc k s y U nited and Emptiness is not other than this Body. the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore protect myself from them. And when I do place compassion—human warmth and practical emotional The same is true of Feelings, is a Great Mantra, myself among them, I must do it carefully, which is support—completes the picture. Absolute compassion Perceptions, Mental Formations, the most illuminating mantra, hard work, because I am often hurt, opposed, and makes it possible for us to sustain, joyfully, the endless and Consciousness. the highest mantra, a mantra beyond compare, thwarted by others. But when there’s openness, no work of supporting and helping; relative compassion “Listen Sariputra, the True Wisdom that has the power boundary between myself and others—when it turns grounds our broad view of life’s empty nature in heart all phenomena bear the mark of Emptinesss; to put an end to all kinds of suffering. out that I literally am others and others literally are connection and engagement. Either view by itself their true nature is the nature of Therefore let us proclaim no Birth no Death, me—then love and connection is easy and natural. would be impossible, but both together make for a a mantra to praise no Being no Non-being, This is why the emptiness teaching of the Heart wonderfully connected and sustainable life. the Insight that Brings Us to the Other Shore. no Defilement no Immaculacy, no Increasing no Decreasing. “Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha! Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha! “That is why in Emptiness, Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha!” ♦ Body, Feelings, Perceptions, Mental Formations and Consciousness * Thich Nhat Hanh translates this Sanskrit mantra as: Gone, gone, are not separate self entities. gone all the way over, everyone gone to the other shore. Enlightenment!

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