A. Your question is similar to ‘What is Emptiness like?’. The Heart Sutra says that form is Emptiness and Emptiness is form. This means that Emptiness is like form. In the Avatamsaka Sutra the Buddha said, “My body appears all around the universe in various different shapes of all sentient beings and sounds like various words of all sentient beings and has various names of all sentient beings.” This means that all various shapes of all things are the way the Buddha appears. Seeing things as being different and separate from one another, just like seeing each wave in the ocean as being different according to its size and shape, is seeing things. Seeing all things as one, just like looking upon all waves as being the same oneness as water, is seeing the Buddha.
Student: “How can I see this mug as the Buddha?”
Master: “Seeing what can be broken is seeing the mug, and seeing what cannot be broken is seeing the Buddha.”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
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