A. Reading thousands of books and the Sutras is not as good as grasping a single word out of the books you read. Trying to realise the true meaning of a single word of the Sutra is much more beneficial than reading the Sutra a thousand times.
You should know that all books including the Sutras are not the essence of the true-self but only a kind of manual that describes the true-self. In other words, the core of what the Sutra says is not in the Sutra but in you who are reading the Sutra. You should know that the true Sutra is not the one made of paper put before you, but your true-self that is making your body read it.
You should also know that each word of the Sutra contains all the contents of the Sutra. So, if you can grasp only a single word from the Sutra, you can know the rest of the Sutra, which is enlightenment. You should think that each word is the gate to enlightenment, and try to understand it clearly rather than read many books, or read a book many times. Then it takes longer to read the Sutra than before. It may take more than a year to read the Sutra that you could previously read in two hours. Then your reading is not reading any more but practice. This is the way of reading the Sutra that I’d love to recommend.
Master: “What did you do last night?”
Student: “I read the Diamond Sutra.”
Master: “What does it say?”
Student: “It says that everything is empty.”
Master: “Did you read only that one sentence?”
Student: “I read many other sentences as well, but I don’t remember all of them.”
Master: “Don’t say that you read the Sutra after picking up and eating black beans.”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
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