Half 11-1
“Subhuti, suppose there have been as many Ganges Rivers as there are grains of sand within the mattress of the Ganges River: would the grains of sand in all these Ganges Rivers be many?” Subhuti mentioned, “Very many, World Honoured One. The rivers themselves can be numerous, not to mention their sands.”
Commentary:
The core of this Sutra is to see and listen to issues as they’re with out being deluded by photos and phrases. That is known as seeing issues as empty, or not dwelling on something. As put beforehand in Half 10-5, not dwelling on something means seeing the whole lot as a rabbit horn that isn’t actual however imaginary. Once we see each the grains of sand in all these Ganges Rivers and all these Ganges Rivers as rabbit horns, there isn’t any distinction not solely between a grain of sand and the Ganges River but in addition between a single grain of sand and billions of ones. For this reason the Avatamsaka Sutra says that there isn’t any quantity within the capabilities of the Buddha, and so the enlightened are removed from being deluded by numbers. In the identical approach, upon listening to or studying the variety of the grains of sand within the Ganges River, we should always be capable of hear it because the variety of rabbit horns as a substitute of being deluded by the phrases ‘the variety of the grains of sand within the Ganges River’.
As an example this case, historic masters would ask their disciples in the event that they knew the precise variety of the hairs of their heads. They requested this query to see if their college students might see the whole lot as a rabbit horn with out dwelling on photos and phrases. In the identical approach, we should always be capable of know the precise variety of the grains of sand in all these Ganges Rivers with out dwelling on something as we had been taught by the Buddha.
Pupil: “What’s the variety of the grains of sand in all these Ganges Rivers?”
Grasp: “A billion to the facility of a billion minus three.”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All photos ©Simon Hathaway