09. You don't have to run behind phenomena

Verses

Mo Zhu has 縁
Don’t live in an empty space and endure it

No hay que correr detrás de los fenómenos
ni apegarse a la vacuidad.

In our daily lives, we are immersed in a constant flow of stimuli, events, emotions and thoughts, what in Buddhism is called “phenomena” or “dharmas”. These phenomena are changing, transitory and lack fixed essence. However, the conditioned mind tends to cling to them, to see them as something concrete and stable. This attachment to phenomena causes suffering because we forget their impermanent nature.. We run after them in a futile effort to find security or happiness in what, by its very nature, cannot offer us stability.

In the Sutra of Great Wisdom² we recite every day:

Shariputra, the phenomena are not different from shûnyata³. Shunyata is not different from the phenomena. The phenomena are shûnyata. Shunyata is phenomena.

Phenomenon and emptiness are part of our existence and, however, our conditioning does not allow us to perceive emptiness, Generally we are only capable of perceiving independent objects to which we give their own entity.. But, There is no real separation between what we consider “something” and “emptiness.”. What we perceive as a phenomenon, what seems solid and real, It is essentially empty., lacking an independent self. The Zen master Dogen expressed this truth in his famous phrase “shin jin datsu raku”, “abandon, body and mind”⁴. Emptiness and phenomena are not separate, They are two sides of the same coin. It's not about rejecting what we see, we feel or experience, but to see it as it is: void of fixed substance, but at the same time full in its manifestation.

It is not enough to free oneself from attachment to phenomena, but it is also necessary to avoid attachment to emptiness. Emptiness, It is not “nothing” in the nihilistic sense.. It is the recognition that all things lack a fixed essence and depend on causes and conditions.. But when one becomes attached to emptiness, there is a risk of falling into the trap of indifference, in the error of rejecting phenomenal reality as something insignificant or illusory.

We have to place ourselves beyond opposites, The celestial vault contains the clouds and the empty space between them, we have to transcend any dichotomy and learn to perceive reality from Mushotoku,⁵ nothing to get, nothing to hold on to. When we stop looking for something to hold on to, when we stop trying to achieve or reject anything, we stand on the road. The perception from mushotoku is free from the traps of desire and rejection, and allows us to inhabit reality as it is.

The Way of the Buddha is the Way of the middle path. REALITY encompasses and welcomes both phenomena and emptiness without taking sides either for or against. This is the heart of Buddhist teaching: see things as they are, without projections or prejudices, without attachments or aversions. By living this way, freedom is naturally manifested, detachment and compassion towards all beings.

1. From the work Xìn Xīn Míng Song to the Heart of Trust, of the third Chan ancestor Jianzhi Sengcan. Translation and comments by Dokushô Villalba. Editions i, 2008. [↩]
2. Maha Prajna Paramita Hridaya Sutra, In Sanskrit. So Hannya Haramita Shingyo, in japanese. [↩]
3. Śūnyatā (AITS, /shuniáta/ o /shuniátaa/; Devanagari: Emptiness; Pali: suññata),¹often translated as “emptiness”, “emptiness” o “empty” It is a Buddhist concept that has multiple meanings depending on its doctrinal context..²​³It can refer to an understanding ontological of reality, a state meditative or an analysis phenomenological of the experience. Fuente. [↩]
4. One day when Dogen was sitting in Zazen, his neighbor fell asleep. Master Nyojo hit the disciple hard and with a loud voice shouted: “¡Zazen is abandoning body and mind!: why do you sleep?”. Hearing these words, Dogen experienced the great awakening. Then Dogen went to see Nyojo and told him:

   “—I have abandoned body and mind— shin jin datsu raku”.
   Nyojo replied:
   "-Abandon now the notion of having abandoned body and mind!”
   Dogen then bowed respectfully before Nyojo and he added:
   “Body and mind have been abandoned – datsu raku shin jin” [↩]

5. Mushotoku It's a zen expression (Nothing gained) which could be literally translated as 'no profit', 'non-obtainability', or 'nothing to get', which means 'doing something without expecting any personal benefit'. I recommend reading this article de mi maestro Dokushô Villalba Roshi sobre Mushotoku. [↩]