Tâm Kinh (7 )

Tâm Kinh, Tuệ giác Bát Nhã (7 )

不 垢  不 淨

Bất cấu bất tịnh

Không dơ, không sạch

"Neither defiled nor immaculate."

Ý niệm  cấu, tịnh  nhơ và sạch nó nằm trong óc của chúng ta chứ không có thực sự. Chúng ta nói rằng một bông hồng đẹp, mình mới cắt ra, đặt vào bình là là thơm, là tinh khiết. Còn thùng rác thì trái lại rất hôi. Đó là nhận thức. Nhưng chúng ta cũng biết rằng chính bông hồng đó trong vòng một tuần lễ nữa sẽ trở thành một phần của thùng rác. Và thùng rác đó, nếu chúng ta là người làm vườn giỏi, biết cách làm phân xanh, thì trong 3,5 tháng rác trong thùng đó sẽ trở thành những bông cúc, bông lan, bông hồng rất thơm.

Vậy khi nhìn bông hồng, và nhìn cho kỹ, ta đã thấy có thùng rác trong đó. Và khi nhìn thùng rác cho kỹ, ta thấy có bông hồng trong đó. Sự vật chuyển biến như vậy. Ý niệm dơ sạch là ý niệm của chúng ta. Dơ sạch còn có nghĩa là dơ sạch với ai.

Một cô gái giang hồ có thể có mặc cảm khổ đau là thân thể và tâm hồn ô uế. Cô nghĩ là cô không xứng đáng lạy Phật. Khi tiếp xúc với người khác, cô cũng có cảm tưởng như vậy. Tuy bên ngoài cô làm ra vẻ tự nhiên nhưng bên trong cô lại có mặc cảm nhơ nhuốc. Song trong tinh thần Tâm Kinh Bát Nhã thì không có gì nhơ, không có gì sạch, và cô, nếu tu tập theo Bát Nhã, cô sẽ thấy rằng cô có thể vượt được ra ngoài dơ và sạch. Vì sao vậy? Sở dĩ cô trở nên một cô gái giang hồ, hay một cô gái bán bar, là tại xã hội đã được cấu tạo như thế, và hoàn cảnh đưa đẩy cô phải làm nghề đó. Sở dĩ có những hiện tượng đó là vì hệ thống xã hội, cơ cấu xã hội và hệ thống kinh tế của chúng ta đã sản sinh ra chúng.

Đức Phật dạy rằng vì cái này như thế này cho nên cái kia như thế kia, vì cái này có cho nên cái kia có, vì cái này sanh cho nên cái kia sanh, vì cái này diệt cho nên cái kia diệt. Sở dĩ cô ấy như vậy vì những người khác như thế kia. Đâu phải cô một mình chịu trách nhiệm. Tất cả chúng ta đều chịu chung trách nhiệm. Những nhà chính trị, giáo dục, kinh tế đều chịu trách nhiệm về cô hết. Sở dĩ mà ra thân thể như vậy cũng vì tất cả chúng ta. Trong chúng ta, có người có trách nhiệm nhiều, có người có trách nhiệm ít, nhưng hễ còn một cô gái ăn sương, còn một anh tướng cướp thì tất cả chúng ta đều có trách nhiệm. Tại vì chúng ta sống ích kỷ ít hay ích kỷ nhiều, chúng ta không góp phần tạo môi trường và cơ cấu xã hội để giúp cho những cô bé, những chú bé nhỏ nghèo, thiếu tình thương, thiếu sự chăm sóc của cha mẹ, của học đường trở nên người xứng đáng. Nếu chúng ta mỗi người một tay, góp phần thay đổi cơ cấu xã hội, cơ cấu kinh tế, ta sẽ ngưng lại không cho sản xuất những con người như thế nữa. Nếu chúng ta tạo dựng ra được những môi trường sinh hoạt lành mạnh thì cô gái đáng thương kia có thể trở về sống đời lương thiện và lành mạnh hơn. Chỉ có ở Tâm Kinh Bát Nhã những người như cô gái đó hoặc những người đã vì thiếu trí tuệ, thiếu giáo dục mà phải phạm vào những tội lớn, những người đó mới tìm ra được con đường giải thoát mà thôi.

Chúng ta không thể nói rằng tôi rất sạch, tôi không chịu trách nhiệm về cô. Tại vì cô không biết đường đi nước bước, tại cô không cẩn thận nên lâm vào tình trạng đó thì mặc cô.

Nói như vậy là không hiểu Tâm Kinh Bát Nhã. Tâm Kinh Bát Nhã nói rằng vì cái này như thế này, nên cái kia như thế kia. Nếu là ô uế thì ô uế chung; nếu là tinh sạch thì tinh sạch chung. Đó là lý tương quan, tương duyên của vạn hữu. Hiểu như vậy ta mới có được tâm từ bi và ý thức trách nhiệm.

Bát Nhã Tâm Kinh lại là cánh cửa rất mầu nhiệm để giải thoát cho họ. Bông hồng chịu trách nhiệm về thùng rác và thùng rác chịu trách nhiệm về bông hồng. Hai cái tương sinh và tương tại.

Defiled or immaculate. Dirty or pure. These are concepts we form in our mind. A beautiful rose we have just cut and placed in our vase is immaculate. It smells so good, so pure, so fresh. It supports the idea of immaculateness. The opposite is a garbage can. It smells horrible, and it is filled with rotten things.

But that is only when you look on the surface. If you look more deeply you will see that in just five or six days, the rose will become part of the garbage. You do not need to wait five days to see it. If you just look at the rose, and you look deeply, you can see it now. And if you look into the garbage can, you see that in a few months its contents can be transformed into lovely vegetables, and even a rose. If you are a good organic gardener and you have the eyes of a bodhisattva, looking at a rose you can see the garbage, and looking at the garbage you can see a rose. Roses and garbage interare. Without a rose, we cannot have garbage; and without garbage, we cannot have a rose. They need each other very much. The rose and garbage are equal. The garbage is just as precious as the rose. If we look deeply at the concepts of defilement and immaculateness, we return to the notion of interbeing.

 A young prostitute, some of them only fourteen or ifteen years old. They are very unhappy young ladies. They did not want to be prostitutes. Their families are poor and these young girls went to the city to look for some kind of job, like a street vendor, to make money to send back to their families. It is true that in the city you can make money more easily than in the countryside, so we can imagine how a young girl may have been tempted to go there to help her family. But after only a few weeks there, she was persuaded by a clever person to work for her and to earn perhaps one hundred times more money.

Because she was so young and did not know much about life, she accepted, and became a prostitute. Since that time, she has carried the feeling of being impure, defiled, and this causes her great suffering. When she looks at other young girls, dressed beautifully, belonging to good families, a wretched feeling wells up in her, and this feeling of defilement has become her hell.

But if she had an opportunity to meet with Avalokita, he would tell her to look deeply at herself and at the whole situation, and see that she is like this because other people are like that. "This is like this, because that is like that." So how can a socalled good girl, belonging to a good family, be proud? Because their way of life is like this, the other girl has to be like that. No one among us has clean hands. No one of us can claim it is not our responsibility. The girl in Manila is that way because of the way we are. Looking into the life of that young prostitute, we see the non-prostitute people. And looking at the non-prostitute people, and at the way we live our lives, we see the prostitute. This helps to create that, and that helps to create this.

Let us look at wealth and poverty. The affluent society and the society deprived of everything inter are. The wealth of one society is made of the poverty of the other. "This is like this, because that is like that."

Wealth is made of non wealth elements, and poverty is made by non poverty elements. It is exactly the same as with the sheet of paper. So we must be careful. We should not im prison ourselves in concepts. The truth is that everything is everything else. We can only inter be, we cannot just be. And we are responsible for everything that happens around us. Avalokitesvara will tell the young prostitute, "My child, look at yourself and you will see everything. Because other people are like that, you are like this. You are not the only person responsible, so please do not suffer." Only by seeing with the eyes of interbeing can that young girl be freed from her suffering. What else can you offer her to help her be free?

We are imprisoned by our ideas of good and evil. We want to be only good, and we want to remove all evil.

But that is because we forget that good is made of non good elements. Suppose I am holding a lovely branch. When we look at it with a non-discriminative mind, we see this wonderful branch. But as soon as we distinguish that one end is the left and the other end is the right, we get into trouble. We may say we want only the left, and we do not want the right (as you hear very often), and there is trouble right away. If the rightist is not there, how can you be a leftist? Let us say that I do not want the right end of this branch, I only want the left. So, I break off half of this reality and throw it away. But as soon as I throw the unwanted half away, the end that remains becomes right (the new right). Because as soon as the left is there, the right must be there also. I may become frustrated and do it again. I break what remains of my branch in half, and still, I have the right end here.

The same may be applied to good and evil. You cannot be good alone. You cannot hope to remove evil, because thanks to evil, good exists, and vice versa.

When you stage a play concerning a hero, you have to provide an antagonist in order for the hero to be a hero.

So, Buddha needs Mara to take the evil role so Buddha can be a Buddha. Buddha is as empty as the sheet of paper; Buddha is made of non Buddha elements. If non Buddhas like us are not here, how can a Buddha be? If the rightist is not there, how can we call someone a leftist?

In my tradition, every time I join my palms together to make a deep bow to the Buddha, I chant this short verse:

The one who bows and pays respect, And the one who receives the bow and the respect, Both of us are empty. That is why the communion is perfect. It is not arrogant to say so. If I am not empty, how can I bow down to the Buddha? And if the Buddha is not empty, how can he receive my bow? The Buddha and I inter-are. Buddha is made of non-Buddha elements, like me. And I am made of non me elements, like the Buddha. So the subject and object of reverence are both empty. Without an object, how can a subject be?

In the West you have been struggling for many years with the problem of evil. How is it possible that evil should be there? It seems that it is difficult for the Western mind to understand. But in the light of nonduality, there is no problem: As soon as the idea of good is there, the idea of evil is there. Buddha needs Mara in order to reveal himself, and vice versa. When you perceive reality in this way, you will not discriminate against the garbage for the sake of a rose.

You will cherish both. You need both right and left in order to have a branch. Do not take sides. If you take sides, you are trying to eliminate half of reality, which is impossible. For many years, the United States has been trying to describe the Soviet Union as the evil side.

Some Americans even have the illusion that they can survive alone, without the other half. But that is the same as believing that the right side can exist without the left side.

And this very same feeling exists in the Soviet Union.

The American imperialists, it is said, are on the bad side and must be eliminated for the possibility of happiness in the world. But that is the dualistic way of looking at things. If we look at America very deeply, we see the Soviet Union. And if we look deeply at the Soviet Union, we see America. If we look deeply at the rose, we see the garbage; if we look deeply at the garbage, we see the rose. In this international situation, each side is pretending to be the rose, and calling the other side garbage.

So the idea is clear that, "This is, because that is." You have to work for the survival of the other side if you want to survive yourself. It is really very simple.

Survival means the survival of humankind as a whole, not just a part of it. And we know now that this must be realized not only between the United States and the Soviet Union, but also between the North and the South. If the South cannot survive, then the North is going to crumble. If countries of the Third World cannot p ay their debts, you are going to suffer here in the North. If you do not take care of the Third World, your well-being is not going to last, and you will not be able to continue living in the way you have been for much longer. It is leaping out at us already.

So do not hope that you can eliminate the evil side. It is easy to think that we are on the good side, and that the other side is evil. But wealth is made of poverty, and poverty is made of wealth. This is a very clear vision of reality. We do not have to look far to see what we have to do. The citizens of the Soviet Union and the citizens of the United States are just human beings. We cannot study and understand a human being just by statistics. You cannot leave the job to the governments or the political scientists alone. You have to do it yourself. If you arrive at an understanding of the fears a n d hopes of the Soviet citizen, then you can understand your own fears and hopes. Only penetration into reality can save us. Fear cannot save us.

We are not separate. We are inextricably interrelated. The rose is the garbage, and the non-prostitute is the prostitute. The rich man is the very poor woman, and the Buddhist is the non-Buddhist. The non-Buddhist cannot help but be a Buddhist, because we inter-are.

The emancipation of the young prostitute will come as she sees into the nature of interbeing. She will know that she is bearing the fruit of the whole world. And if we look into ourselves and see her, we bear her pain, and the pain of the whole world.