Part 17-1
Then Subhuti asked the Buddha, “In the final five hundred years after the demise of the Realised One, if there are people who aspire to unexcelled complete perfect enlightenment, what principle would they live by, and how should they conquer their minds?” Buddha says that they would be determined to liberate all living beings. Having liberated all living beings so that they have realised Buddhahood, they are not to entertain the notion that they have liberated even one living being. Why? In order to get rid of the sense of subject and object, to get rid of the notion that there are living beings, and also to get rid of the notion of themselves seeing.
Commentary:
This part explains what mind those who have a mind to attain unexcelled complete perfect enlightenment should have. They should be determined to liberate all sentient beings from being deluded by illusions. However, they should be aware that they never freed any sentient beings after having liberated them, because everything is empty.
Seeing things as empty is compared to seeing things as rabbit horns, which are not real but imaginary. When we see sentient beings as rabbit horns, no matter how many sentient beings we may liberate, in fact, we don’t liberate even a single one not only because all the sentient beings are not real but imaginary like rabbit horns, but also because we who liberate them are empty as well.
Student: “How is it when our freeing all sentient beings is not freeing any sentient beings?”
Master: “Your death is not death.”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
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