A Dharma Talk given by Thay Phap Niem on August 26th, 2009 during the retreat “One Buddha is Not Enough”

Once, while sitting before a group of people, the Buddha held aloft a lotus flower for a long time without saying anything.  Only one person received the message - Mahakassyapa.  He smiled at the flower.  He saw the sunshine in the flower.  The Buddha said that “Mahakassyapa got the eyes of the Buddha."  We generally see with ordinary eyes, in the historical dimension - we don’t see the sunshine in the flower.

In the Diamond Sutra it says that “when your mind does not stick to anything then the beautiful mind will be born."  It means that when our mind is not attached to any particular form, sign, or appearance then we can see the ultimate Buddha.  When our mind is absent of the insight of interbeing (non-self) then our mind functions in the context of discrimination and we dwell in the historical dimension. With the insight of interbeing, of non-self - that self is made of non-self elements - we can transcend form, sign, and appearance and dwell in beautiful mind, in the ultimate dimension.

The Diamond Sutra teaches us that there are 4 notions that we need to transcend in order to be free, to be truly happy. They are the notion of self, the notion of human being, the notion of living being, and the notion of lifespan.  Human beings, living beings and lifespan can not exist by themselves - they interare with the animals, minerals and plants. If we know how to look deeply with the insight of interbeing, we know that everything is interconnected to everything else.  We learn how to be humble with ourselves and loving and compassionate to other living beings.  The four notions trap us like the four walls of a prison.  Our practice is to remove these notions, these walls.

Last Updated (Thursday, 03 September 2009 20:09)