The monk asked, “What is the mother?” The master said, “Coveting and thinking are the mother. If you, entering the realm of desire in one thought to look for ‘coveting and thinking’ and realising that everything, including ‘coveting and thinking’, is empty, are not attached to anything, this is harming the mother.” The monk asked, “What is the bleeding of Buddha’s body?” The master said, “In the realm of purity, if you do not give rise to any itch of knowledge, all is darkness itself; this is bleeding the Buddha’s body.”
Commentary:
The realm of desire means the mundane world, or the world of forms. In the middle of trying to find and remove ‘coveting and thinking’ in the world of forms, if you happen to realise that everything, including ‘coveting and thinking’, is empty, that is, if you realise that every illusion is no other than the function of the true-Self, and cease to be attached to anything, this is harming the mother that is ‘coveting and thinking’. The realm of purity implies Emptiness free of illusions. ‘All is darkness itself’ represents the state without any discrimination just as there is no discriminating in perfect darkness. This is why ancient masters, in order to emphasise the brightness of wisdom that comes from ceasing to discriminate, would say, “The brightness of wisdom is as bright as midnight darkness.”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
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