Hsin Shin Ming: “18. The moment you are enlightened, you go beyond appearances and emptiness.”
Enlightenment means to see things as they are, and seeing things as they are means seeing things without labelling them, which is to see things as empty. So, ‘you are enlightened’ means that you see everything as empty. ‘Appearances’ means forms or things. When everything is empty, all appearances are not appearances anymore because they become oneness as emptiness. Then, there is just emptiness and nothing else. When there is only emptiness, emptiness is not emptiness anymore because there is nothing else to distinguish from it. Therefore, when you are enlightened, you are not deluded by appearances and don’t cling to emptiness. That is to go beyond appearances and emptiness and to see things in both ways; as appearances and as emptiness.
Student: “How can I see things in both ways; as appearances and as emptiness?”
Master: “When you see your question as appearance, it is a question, but it is an answer to your question when you see it as empty.”
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