Part 14-6
Buddha said to Subhuti, “It is so. It is so. If anyone, on hearing this sutra, is not shocked, not frightened, and not intimidated, you should know that this person is extremely rare.”
Commentary:
‘It is so. It is so’ means that a person who, through hearing this sutra, believing in it, understanding it, accepting it and upholding it, is free from all images and is never deluded by any images, is called the Buddha.
So, if we have become free from all images through reading this sutra and are never deluded by any images, we should not be deluded any longer by the words in ‘If anyone, on hearing this sutra, is not shocked, not frightened, and not intimidated, you should know that this person is extremely rare’. Instead, we should be able to realise the function of the true-Self in each word and feel oneness with it.
‘This person is extremely rare’ means that he is like the Buddha. When it is said that the true-Self, or the Buddha is extremely rare, it is referred to as rare not because it is actually rare but because it is rarely perceived. In fact, it is the most common and the most abundant once we discern it since there is nothing that is not it.
Student: “What is rare?”
Master: “It is rare when you can’t see it, but nothing is more common and abundant than it when you can see it.”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
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