Date: 01/20/2024 01/21/2024
Location: Star River Meditation Center
Teacher: Lucy Zhou
Dharma talk
Layer-by-layer breakthrough method – the view of the Culasubbata Sutta
Once, the Buddha was living at the Lu Mu Preaching Hall (Pubbarama Migāramātupāsāda) of Shiravasiti, the capital city of Kosala kingdom.
On this day, the venerable Ananda came to see the Buddha at the end of his meditation in the evening and asked the Buddha:
“The Blessed One! I remember that once you taught me in the Nāgārjuna, the city of the Shakya clan, saying, ‘Ananda! I always abide in the view of emptiness.’ The Blessed One! Did I mishear or misremember?”
“Ananda! You have not misheard or misremembered. I have always abided in the view of emptiness in the past. Ananda! For example, in this Lu Mu Preaching Hall, there are no elephants, horses, cows, sheep, rice, gold, silver, slaves, men and women gathered here. Only the bhikkhus present emptiness. So, Ananda! What is not here is empty, and what is left is known to exist. Ananda! This is the true, non-inverted, pure view of emptiness.
Just like a bhikkhu who does not think of the village, does not think of the crowd, but only thinks of the forest, which is far away from the hustle and bustle of the world. He enters into the contemplation of the forest thought with a confident, solid, and firm mind. He knows that at this time in his thoughts, he is empty of the village thought and empty of the crowd thought, but not empty of the forest thought alone. He does not have any disturbance from the village and crowd thoughts, but only the disturbance of the forest thought. In this way, he regards the non-existent village thought and crowd thought as empty, but the forest thought that remains that he knows it is still there. Ananda! This is the true, unconverted, pure view of emptiness.
Again, Ananda! The bhikkhu does not think of the crowd, does not think of the forest, but only of the flat earth. He enters into the contemplation of the earth thought with a confident, solid, and firm mind. He knows that at this time in his mind, he is empty of the crowd thought, empty of the forest thought, and not empty of the earth thought alone. He does not have any disturbance from the crowd, and the forest thought, but only the disturbance of the contemplation of the earth. In this way, he regards the non-existent crowd thought and forest thought as empty, but the earth thought that remains that he knows is still there. Ananda! This is the true, unconverted, pure view of emptiness.
Again, Ananda! The bhikkhu does not think of the forest, which is nothing, and does not think of the earth, but only thinks of the emptiness of the boundless place. He enters into the contemplation of the emptiness of the boundless place with a confident, solid, and firm mind. He knows that at this time in his thoughts, empty of the forest thought, empty of the earth thought, but not empty of the boundless place thought alone. He does not have any disturbance from the forest and earth thoughts, but only the disturbance of the contemplation of the boundless place. In this way, he regards the non-existent forest thought and earth thought as empty but remain the emptiness of boundless place thought. He knows that it is still there. Ananda! This is the true, non-inverted, pure view of emptiness.
Again, Ananda! The bhikkhu does not think of the earth, does not think of the empty of boundless space, but only thinks of the boundless consciousness. He enters into the contemplation of the boundless consciousness with a confident, solid, and firm mind. He knows that at this time in his thoughts, he is empty of the thought of the earth, empty of the thought of the boundless space, but not empty of the thought of the boundless consciousness alone. He does not have any disturbance from the thought of the earth and the boundless space, but only the disturbance of the contemplation of the boundless consciousness. In this way, he regards the non-existent thought of the earth and the thought of the boundless space as empty, but the thought of the boundless consciousness that remains. He knows that it is still there. Ananda! This is the true, non-inverted, pure view of emptiness.
Again, Ananda! The bhikkhu does not want to think of emptiness of boundless space, does not think of boundless consciousness, but only thinks of nothingness. He enters into the view of nothingness with a confident, solid, and firm mind. He knows that at this time in his thoughts, he is empty of the thought of boundless space and empty of the thought of boundless consciousness but not empty of the thought of nothingness alone. H does not have any disturbance from the thought of emptiness of boundless space and the boundless consciousness, but only the disturbance of the view of nothingness. In this way, he regards the non-existent thought of boundless space and the thought of boundless consciousness as empty, but the remaining thought of nothingness. He knows that it is still there. Ananda! This is the true, non-inverted, pure view of emptiness.
Again, Ananda! The bhikkhu does not think of the boundless consciousness, does not think of the nothingness, but only thinks of the thought of neither thought nor non-thought. He enters into the thought of neither thought nor non-thought with a confident, solid, and firm mind. He knows that at this time in his thoughts, empty of the thought of the boundless consciousness, empty of the thought of the nothingness, but not empty of neither thought nor non-thought alone. He does not have any disturbance from the thought of the boundless consciousness and the thought of the nothingness, but only the disturbance of the thought of neither thought nor non-thought. In this way, he regards the non-existent thought of the boundless consciousness and the thought of the nothingness as empty, but the thought of neither thought nor non-thought remains. He knows that it is still there. Ananda! This is the true, non-inverted, pure view of emptiness.
Again, Ananda! The bhikkhu does not want to think of nothingness, think of the thought of neither thought nor non-thought, but only thinks of the thoughtless and concentrated mind. He enters the thoughtless and concentrated mind with a confident, solid, and firm mind. He knows that at this time, in his thoughts, he is empty of the thought of nothingness, empty of neither thought nor non-thought, but not empty of the thoughtless and concentrated mind alone. He does not have any disturbance from the thought of nothingness and the thought of neither thought nor non-thought, but only the thought of the six roots that are still attached to the body and the thought of life that is still alive. In this way, he regards the non-existent thought of nothingness and the thought of neither thought nor non-thought as empty. He knows that the physical six roots and life remain and that they are still there. Ananda! This is the true, non-inverted, pure view of emptiness.
At this point, he thinks: this thoughtless and concentrated mind must be something, a product of contemplation, an impermanent extinction, so it is not something that I should rejoice in, seek, and dwell in. When he has such a view, his mind is freed from the worries of craving, the worries of life, and the worries of ignorance. Then he is able to prove that: my life and death have come to an end, the practice of purity has been established, all that should be done has been completed, and he knows that there will be no more next life.
In this way, he knows that he is empty of greed, life, ignorance and vexation, but not empty of the physical six roots and life. He has no disturbance from greed, life or ignorance, but only from the six physical roots and life. He regards the non-existent greed, life, and ignorance as empty and still has the physical six roots and life, then he knows that they are still there. Ananda! This is the true, non-inverted, pure view of emptiness.”
