“Cease to do evil, learn to do good, and purify your mind. Hurt none by word or deed. Be moderate in satisfying your needs. Live in inner solitude and seek the deepest consciousness.” Siddattha Gotama Buddha
Buddhism is very interesting, because it teaches you to be at peace. Instead of a world where good battles evil, there is a world of illusion that we seek to detach ourselves from. Because when you fight, it’s difficult to know if you are doing good or evil. Maybe it’s better not to fight at all, and then maybe the fighting will stop? Or else evil will win….. But maybe Buddha is not saying that the world is an illusion, but that our thoughts about it and perceptions of it create an illusory world that obscures reality. Instead of seeing reality, we create a reality in our minds based on our prejudices and beliefs.
Anyway, the key point is that you need to let go of your ego, your self, you. No ego, no pain. No ego, no using or abusing others. No ego, no fear. And then you can do the right thing.
The Essence of Wisdom Teaching [a.k.a. The Heart of Wisdom Sutra]
The Buddha, thinking deeply, saw the emptiness of all things, and thus freed himself from all suffering.
He said to his friend, Sariputra:
“Existence and non-existence are the same; not two things, but the same thing.”
“Feeling and the absence of feeling, thought and absence of thought, awareness and absence of awareness, desire and the absence of desire are likewise not opposites, but the same thing.”
“All of these things are empty and without substance. Nothing is created or destroyed. Nothing is pure or impure. Nothing increases or decreases. Where there is emptiness, there is no perception or thought. All of the senses and the mind are gone. Ignorance is gone too, and illness, and death.”
“There is no craving, no extinction, no path, no wisdom, and no attainment, for there is nothing to be attained.”
“Those who understand this have no fear. All attachment and illusion are overcome, and one reaches enlightenment.”
“The truth-seekers of the past, present, and future all live this deepest wisdom and therefore reach the most supreme enlightenment. This wisdom beyond wisdom is the greatest teaching, the brightest teaching, the highest teaching, the peerless teaching. It completely ends all suffering. Know this as truth and do not doubt. Spread this profound wisdom.”
“Gone, gone, gone beyond, all the way to the other shore. Hello awakened mind.”
Now here is an excerpt from the Diamond Sutra:
4. Unattached practice of charity
“Furthermore Subhūti, when saints practice charity, they should not be conscious of practicing charity. This is what is called ‘practicing charity without form,’ and ‘practicing charity while not abiding in sound, odor, taste, touch, or conceptions.’ Why? If saints practice charity while not consciously practicing charity, their merit will be incalculable. Subhūti, what do you think? The space in the easterly direction is incalculable, is it not?”
“You are right, World Honored One, it is not calculable.”
“Subhūti, is all of the space in the four cardinal directions, the four intermediate directions, the zenith, and the nadir calculable?”
“It is incalculable, World Honored One.”
“Subhūti, the merits attained by saints who practice charity without practicing charity are also incalculable like this. Subhūti, the saints need only focus themselves on this teaching.”
9. The four lesser vehicle realizations
“Subhūti, what do you think? Does a practitioner who has attained the first stage of enlightenment think: ‘I have attained the first stage of enlightenment?’ “
Subhūti said, “No, World Honored One. And why not? Because a person who achieves the first stage of enlightenment is called a ‘stream-enterer,’ and there is in fact no stream to be entered. One does not enter form, sound, odor, taste, touch, or concepts. Therefore one is called a stream-enterer.”
“Subhūti, what do you think? Does a person who has achieve the second level of enlightenment think, ‘I have attained the second level of enlightenment?’ “
Subhūti said: “No, World Honored One. And why not? Although a person who achieves the second level of enlightenment will go and come only one more time, there is, in reality, no going or coming. Therefore he is called ‘one who will go and come only one more time.”
“Subhūti, what do you think? Does the adept who has attained the third level of enlightenment say, ‘I have achieved the third level of enlightenment?’ “
Subhūti said, “No, World Honored One. And why not? A person who achieves the third level of enlightenment will not return again to this world, but there is, in fact, no such thing as returning. Therefore this person is called ‘one who will not return to this world’.”
“Subhūti, what do you think? Does the person who reaches personal enlightenment think, ‘I have attained personal enlightenment?’ “
“No, World Honored One. And why not? There is, in reality, no such a thing as personal enlightenment, World Honored One. If someone who achieved personal enlightenment should give rise to the thought, ‘I have attained personal enlightenment,’ this would mean that he is attached to the notions of self, person, sentient being, and life span.’ “
“World Honored One, you have said that I am the most proficient in terms of the attainment of the meditative absorption of non-contention, and that I am the personally enlightened one most free from desire. But I do not give rise to the thought that I am someone who is personally enlightened and who is free from desire. World Honored One, if I were to give rise to the thought that I have attained the level of personal enlightenment, then you would not have said of me that I enjoy the practice of forest-dwelling, since there is in actuality nothing for me to practice. Therefore I am called ‘Subhūti, the one who enjoys the practice of forest-dwelling.’ “
Got it?
