Chapter 36 Chapter 3 Everything Is Empty -10

You might also wonder, what are the benefits of understanding emptiness?By understanding emptiness, you can continue to appreciate all things that seem to exist, but you will not be attached to these illusions as real, and you will not be disappointed repeatedly when children chase rainbows.You see through these illusions, so you can remind yourself that you created yourself in the first place, maybe you will still be stimulated or emotional, sad, angry or enthusiastic, but you will have confidence, like a moviegoer, you can let go The plot walks out of the theater knowing full well that it's just a movie.Your expectations and fears are at least a little lessened, as is the understanding that the snake is just a snake.

When we haven't realized emptiness, when we don't fully realize that everything is an illusion, the world can seem very real, solid, and solid.Our expectations and fears can also become solid and uncontrollable.For example, if you have strong beliefs about your family, you will have deep expectations that your parents will take care of you.You don't feel that way about a stranger in the street, he has no such obligation.Understanding the phenomenon of harmony and understanding emptiness can allow some space in family relationships.As you come to understand the experiences, stresses and situations that shaped your parents, your expectations of them will change and your disappointments will decrease.When we become parents ourselves, just a little understanding of the principle of interdependence will effectively soften our expectations of our children, and it may also make them regard it as love.Without this understanding, we may have good motives to love and care for our children, but our expectations and demands may become overwhelming for them.

In the same way, understand emptiness, and you lose interest in all the decorations and beliefs that are sometimes constructed and sometimes deconstructed in society-such as political systems, technology, world economy, free society, the United Nations, etc.You will be like a grown man who no longer takes much interest in children's games.Over the years, you have trusted these institutions and believed that they can do what the past system could not.Yet the world has not become safer, happier or more stable. That's not to say you have to stay away from society.Understanding emptiness does not mean that you become indifferent; in fact, on the contrary, you develop a sense of responsibility and compassion.If Jack is out there yelling, gaffes, calling everyone not to put snakes in the house, and you know it's his delusion, you'll have sympathy for him.Others may not forgive him so easily, so you can try turning on a little light.On a rough level, you will still fight for your personal rights, keep going to work, and be politically active within the system.But when circumstances change, whether for your benefit or against you, you will be prepared.You don't blindly believe that all your hopes and expectations will come true, and you're not bound by results.

Yet many of us often choose to stay in the dark. We fail to see the illusions that make up our daily lives because we don't have the courage to break free from the web we're in. We think we're, or will be, comfortable if we just keep going. .It's like being stuck in a maze, but we don't want to explore other directions than the usual path.We are not willing to take risks because we think we have too much to lose.We are afraid if we look at the world from the point of view of emptiness.You will be abandoned by society, you will lose the respect of others, and you will lose your friends, family and job at the same time.The allure of the world of illusion doesn't work; it's so well packaged, we're inundated with messages like: a certain soap will make us smell heavenly, there's so much magic about the South Beach diet, democracy is the only Workable government systems, how vitamins increase our energy, and more.We rarely hear non-one-sided truths, and when they do, they are presented in tiny print.Imagine George Bush, publicly declaring that American-style democracy in your country may or may not succeed.

Like children in a movie theater, we are captured by illusions.From here, comes our vanity, ambition and insecurity.We fall in love with the illusion of our own creation and develop an exaggerated pride in our appearance, wealth, and achievements.It's like wearing a mask, but proudly thinking that the mask is the real you. Once upon a time, there were five hundred monkeys, and one of them thought it was very clever.One night, the monkeys saw the moon in the lake.It proudly told all the other monkeys that if we went to the lake to pick up the moon, we would become heroes to save the moon.At first, the other monkeys didn't believe it, but when they saw the moon really fell into the lake, they decided to save it.They climbed the tree, one clutching the other's tail, trying to scoop up the shining moon.Just when the last monkey was about to catch the moon, the branch broke and all the monkeys fell into the lake.They couldn't swim, they all struggled in the water, and the reflection of the moon was broken by the waves.We are like these monkeys, hungry for fame and originality, thinking that we are good at discovering new things, and trying to convince our peers to see what we see, think what we think, driven by ambition, to be the savior, the wisest man Or the wisest man.We have all kinds of small ambitions, like impressing a woman, or big ambitions, like landing on Mars.But again and again, we fell into the water, couldn't catch anything, and couldn't swim.

Siddhartha, who realized the nature of emptiness, had no preference or dislike for the nepenthenia under the Bodhi tree or the silk cushions in the palace.Cushions woven with golden threads are of high value, and are entirely fabricated by human ambition and desire.In fact, the hermits in the mountains may think that the grass is soft and clean, and the biggest advantage is that there is no need to worry about it if it is broken.You don't need to spray it to keep the cat from pawing at it.Court life was full of such "treasures" that required considerable maintenance.Siddhartha is a person who prefers straw bedding, so he doesn't need to go home often to add something.

We humans believe that a big heart is a virtue.To expand our minds, it is important not to settle for what is our comfort or habit.Benefits can be gained if we have the courage to look beyond the mundane and not be limited by the boundaries of conventional logic.If we can go beyond the boundaries, we can understand how ridiculously simple emptiness is.Milarepa hiding in a yak horn will surprise you no more than someone putting on gloves.What we want to challenge is the attachment to conventional logic, grammar, letters, and mathematical formulas.If we can remember the combined nature of these habits, we can break them.They are not indestructible, all it takes is a situation where the conditions are exactly right, the information is in place at the right time, and you may suddenly find that all the tools you depend on are not so solid, they are elastic and bendable.Your perspective will change.If someone you trust tells you that the wife you've hated for years is actually the Goddess of Fortune incarnate, the way you see her will change forever.In the same way, if you're enjoying a delicious steak smothered in sauce at a nice restaurant, and the chef comes up to tell you that it's actually human flesh, your experience will instantly be turned 180 degrees.Your notion of palatability has become the notion of vomiting.

* * ** When you wake up from a dream of five hundred elephants, you won't be confused about how these elephants fit into your bedroom.Because they do not exist before the dream, during the dream and after waking up.However, when you are dreaming, they are very real.One day we will realize, not just an intellectual understanding, but in fact there is no such thing as big or small, increase or decrease, these are all relative.Then we will understand how Milarepa got into the yak horn and why Ashoka, such a tyrant, bowed down to this truth with respect.