The noble bodhisattva, Avalokitevara, engaged in the depths of the practice of the perfection of wisdom

Publish Date:2024-12-03

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A passage from the very beginning line of Prajna-Paramita-Hrdaya Sutra reads as follows:

The noble bodhisattva, Avalokitevara, engaged in the depths of the practice of the perfection of wisdom, looked down from above upon the five aggregates and saw that they were empty in their essential nature. So listen, Oāriputra, emptiness is form; form is emptiness. Apart from form, emptiness is not; apart from emptiness, form is not. Emptiness is that which is form, form is that which is emptiness. Just thus are perception, cognition, mental construction, and consciousness. Listen, Oāriputra, all phenomena of existence are marked by emptiness: not arisen, not destroyed, not unclean, not clean, not deficient, nor fulfilled.”

Buddhism adheres to the concepts of pratitya-samutpada (dependent origination) and sunyata (everything one encounters in life is empty of absolute identity, permanence, or an in-dwelling 'self'). But some people have gone so far as to assert that the core doctrine of Buddhism consists of only the concept of sunyata which has been, as once it was the case decades ago, widely misconceived as a doctrine of nihilism. Thus they have reasoned that since the world as well as the mundane life is altogether phantom, it is foolish for people to take it seriously. And they even think it stupid to behave responsibly in everyday life. What they are ignorant of is the very motive dictating Buddhist formulation of the concept of sunyata. Sakyamuni teaches the immateriality of the nature of all things from the motive of exhorting all sentient beings to overcome their attachment to the mundane life by revealing to them—

*that everything one encounters in life is empty of absolute identity, permanence, or an in-dwelling “self”',

*that this is because everything, being inter-related and mutually dependent, is never wholly self-sufficient or independent,

*that all things are in a state of constant flux where energy and information which flow eternally throughout the natural world give rise to and at the same time make themselves undergo major transformations with the passage of time, and

*that a direct realization of sunyata is required to achieve both liberation from the cycle of existence (samsara) and full enlightenment. 


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