January 2nd 2009

If you were to accompany me to the Zendo on a Sunday you would find yourself joining in the energetic chant of the Heart Sutra. The words would surprise you. They would probably also intrigue and repel you as well.
In the Heart Sutra, a Bodhisattva, an enlightened one, is teaching a student that the 'Five Aggregates' are empty. The Five Aggregates are the senses and mind functions that cause a being to believe in itself as person, thought, consciousness. Some Buddhists believe that the Heart Sutra should not be interpreted literally. That empty doesn't mean empty as we normally interpret that word.

What can we make of this? I don't know. For myself I think that each of us is so infinately insignificant as to amount to nothing as a being. This does not exonerate us from acting responsibly, because I am part of this evanescent entity. I am no where but everywhere. I am an invisible blur, but I still have a contribution to make.
Wow! What a load of BS I hear, not just from any reader, but also from my own finite mind.