Part 14-2
“World Honoured One, if there is anyone who, on hearing this sutra, conceives pure faith, he will realise the true form of everything. One should know that such a person has accomplished the rarest merit.”
“World Honoured One, this true form of everything is not a form: therefore, the Realised One says it is called the true form of everything.”
Commentary:
‘Conceive pure faith’ here means to see and hear things as they are without being deluded by forms and words. ‘The true form of everything’ implies Emptiness, the true-Self that is boundless, formless and changeless. Although realising the true-Self is referred to as accomplishing the rarest merit, the true-Self is never rare but too common. It is not because it is rare but rather because it is abundant that we have difficulty discerning it. So, we should not think that enlightenment is to get, or gain something valuable from outside by being deluded by the word ‘accomplish’. The true-Self, in fact, can be neither gained nor taken away since it, as mentioned above, is boundless and formless. It contains everything, and there is nothing that doesn’t belong to it. This is why this true form of everything is not a form: it is called the manifestation of truth.
Student: “What is this true form of everything like?”
Master: “There is nothing like it because there is nothing else but it.”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
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