Post #747

Now a note on emptiness or shunyata. It is very easy to equate emptiness with Dharma, but this is only partially correct. Dharma that is one with the true self is non-dual with emptiness, however emptiness is the final transmutation, not the gold, just as the ether in alchemy. In the Lotus Sutra the Buddha describes the manner of teaching: "If a person expounds this sutra, he should enter the thus come one’s room, put on the thus come one’s robe, sit in the thus come one’s seat, confront the assembly without fear and broadly expound it for them, making distinctions. Great pity and compassion are the room, gentleness and patience are the robe, the emptiness of all phenomena is the seat, and from that position he should expound the Law for them." This passage, again, describes the manifestation of the Buddha nature in reality: he reaches out to us with his compassion, as we approach we are treated with patient understanding despite our attachments, but the Buddha dwells on the seat of emptiness. Emptiness is his vehicle, his chariot, that which conveys the divine to all phenomena. It is his body. It is a sphere, a plane, the field of Dharma and it is none of these. By understanding emptiness we come to know the Dharma but Dharma is not emptiness, it is eternity, happiness, true self, and purity. It is our true selves. I too believe that the Tantras of Tibet are the best means for the modern Bodhisattva, but it is my hope that the attainments of the wider Mahayana may benefit these new Dharma warriors in understanding their path.