Part 13-3
“Subhuti, what do you think — are there many particles of dust in a billion-world universe?” Subhuti said, “Very many, World Honoured One.” “Subhuti, all those particles of dust the Realised One says are not dust, they are just called dust. The universe that the Realised One says is not the universe, but it is just called the universe.”
Commentary:
This scripture shows another example of how to see things without dwelling on images and words. By these words, the Buddha means that when he says that everything is empty, even the universe and dusts in it cannot be an exception. To quote from the Avatamsaka Sutra, it says, “If we dwell on illusions, we, having the pure eye damaged, cannot see the Buddha forever, with foolish ideas increasing.” If we dwell on illusions, the words such as dust and universe spoken by the Buddha, we cannot see the true-Self, the real Buddha, no matter how long we may struggle to see it. To introduce one more scripture from the Avatamsaka Sutra, it says, “In seeing things, if there is no seeing, it is truly seeing, and then you can see everything. If there is seeing in seeing things, you cannot see anything.”
Student: “How is it if the universe is not the universe?”
Master: “Things you see and hear are not things.”
Student: “How is it when things are not things?”
Master: “Although your eyes and ears are full, there is nothing to be seen.”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
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