Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Another great quote on form and emptiness

I have posted numerous times about the form and emptiness and issues like why focusing too much on either can lead to erroneous views such as eternalism or nihilism (see here, and here, and here, and here, and here, for example). Here is another quote, from Beliefnet, that helps to sum up an important aspect of this insight:

Seeing matter itself as emptiness produces great wisdom so one does not dwell in birth and death; seeing emptiness as equivalent to matter produces great compassion so one does not dwell in nirvana.

-Yun-feng


Nothing new here, but I like the brevity and clarity. This same teaching is found throughout Mahayana Buddhism, yet so often it is easy to forget or overlook how profound the teaching is. And, though it may be repetitive, it illustrates why compassion and wisdom are seen in Buddhism as being two facets of the same jewel or two aspects of the same insight.

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