Rinzai 105

If you take these empty names as being real, you make a big mistake. For although they exist, they belong in the realm of dependent change and are like robes to put on and off. There is the robe of Bodhi, of Nirvana, of deliverance, of the Trinity, of objective wisdom, of Bodhisattvas and of Buddha.

Commentary:

All names are just imaginary labels we have attached, for the sake of convenience, to whatever reaches our eyes and ears. ‘They belong in the realm of dependent change and are like robes to put on and off’ means that all names do not exist on their own but are created by us. Such names are dependent on our decisions, and so they are compared to robes that are put on and taken off, or changed and even discarded as we please. There are a lot of names that sound attractive and plausible such as Nirvana, Bodhisattvas, Buddha and so forth. We should not be dazzled by such names, aware that they, however wonderful they may sound, are not the essence of the true-Self just as the clothing a man is wearing is not the essence of him.

©Boo Ahm

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