Mind Full to Mindful: Zen Wisdom From a Monk's Bowl

by Om Swami

Buddha is called Aryavalokitesvaro in this sutra and it’s a beautiful term meaning ‘the one who has risen above and is looking down at everything from far above’. When you are inside your home, it looks very spacious; you can move around. When you step outside and see it from a distance, it’s a different view. The further away you go or the higher you soar, the smaller it looks. Then you realize that this piece of property you struggled for, that you thought was so huge, is nowhere nearly as big in the overall scheme of things. The aerial view is enlightenment, the goal of meditation. It is what all prayers are about: to rise above ourselves. Buddha, with his disciplined practice, mindfulness and compassion, rose above the general pettiness of life and concluded that all forms, sensations and thoughts are empty. Pashyatii means he saw. He saw that panchaskandha, the five aggregates, of form (rūpa), sensation (vedanā), perception (sajā), mental formations (saskāra) and consciousness (vijāna) are empty. ‘Your thoughts, your feelings, your consciousness, O Shariputra, have no basis,’ Buddha said. Everything we experience – its inherent nature is emptiness. And emptiness must not be confused with nihilism or non-existence. Thoughts, feelings and consciousness exist in our minds and experiences but they are transient and, in the end, they don’t have any meaning at all. When we receive good news, we feel elated and on top of the world and on hearing some bad news we feel dejecte...