Chapter 29 Chapter 3 Everything Is Empty-3

Through constant reflection, Siddhartha clearly saw the error of these customary predictions, rationalizations, and labeling.Of course, to some extent, these habits work—our world seems to work according to them.When we humans speak of something as truly and truly existing, we speak of it as certain, unimagined, real, provable, unchanging and unconditional.Of course, something we say it will change.The bud opens into a flower, and while it is changing, we still think it is a real flower.This growth and change is part of our fixed conception of the nature of flowers.We would be surprised if it became constant.So on this view, our expectations of change are constant.

A river, the water is flowing, always changing, yet we still call it a river.If we visited again a year later, we would think it was the same river.But how is it the same?If we single out one aspect or characteristic, the sameness does not hold.The water is different, the earth is turning in a different position in the galaxy, the leaves have fallen and new ones are growing - all that remains is a surface similar to the river we saw last time.Taking "appearance" as the basis of "reality" is quite unreliable.A simple analysis shows that we generally have only vague generalizations and assumptions about the basis of what is called reality.Although Siddhartha also used the words that ordinary people use to define "reality"—unimagined, definite, unchanging, unconditional—he used these words more precisely than in general terms. .In his view, immutability necessarily means invariance in all respects, even after a thorough analysis, without exception.

Our average definition of reality comes from incomplete analysis, and if the analysis brings us a comfortable answer, if it gives us what we imagined, we will not go any further.Is this really a sandwich?Answer, if it gives us what we want, we don't go any further.Is this really a sandwich?It tasted like a sandwich, so I ate it.The analysis stops here.A boy looking for a mate, sees a girl, she looks pretty, so he stops analyzing and makes contact.Disappointment is therefore inevitable.Siddhartha's analysis went on and on until the sandwich and the girl were just atoms, and not even atoms could exist in his analysis.After all, he found nothing, so he was spared the disappointment.

Siddhartha discovered that the only way to be sure that something really exists is to show that it exists independently, without interpretation, fabrication or change.For Siddhartha, all mechanisms that seem to function in our daily lives, whether physical, emotional, or conceptual, are composed of unstable, impermanent aggregates that are therefore constantly changing. .We can see this argument in the usual world.For example, you could say that your reflection in a mirror is not real because it depends on you standing in front of the mirror.Similarly, things cannot be made or created in order to truly or independently exist, since that depends on the Maker.

We look at a ring of fire and understand without a doubt how it was made.We can accept that as long as all the pieces work together, it really is a circle of fire... at least for now.But why can't we think the same way about the book we hold in our hands, or the book we're lying on, or the bed we're lying on?It looks like a book, and others see it as a book, and it functions as a book; but when you analyze it, it is also possible to apply this principle of being at present.All sensations in our life are "in the moment".Things presently appear to exist, and we just don't have the courage or the will to see them that way.Plus, since we don't have the wisdom to see things in parts, we see them in situ as wholes.If the peacock were stripped of its feathers, it would cease to amaze us.However, we are not eager to succumb to this worldview.It's like Curly dreaming in bed, half aware that he's dreaming, but not wanting to wake up.Or it's like seeing a beautiful rainbow, afraid of it disappearing and not wanting to approach it.Having the courage to wake up and examine it is what Buddhists call renunciation.Contrary to popular belief, Buddhist renunciation is not self-punishment or asceticism.Siddhartha was willing and able to see that all of our existence is just a label attached to a phenomenon that does not really exist.Through this, he awakened.