Dharma hurts
Sometimes
But it burns all impurities.
Cleansing past karmic actions
Reactions
Turning into ashes
Carried away by storm winds.
Rain falls.
Floods wash out the old
Bringing in the new
Planting the seeds of change.
A dynamic process this seems
Ever-changing and ever-flowing
It seems like everything changes
Through the ages.
Good men become bad.
Bad men become good.
Fame attained.
Respect lost.
Wealth earned.
Heart robbed.
Deeds accomplished.
Then forever lost
Into the sands of time.
People work so hard to reach somewhere,
Attain something,
Become someone,
Only to lose it all in the process.
All is part of the process of cycling,
Cycling,
And cycling
Through birth, aging, sickness and death.
A self-repeating process filled with suffering,
Taught The Compassionate Buddha.
Dharma hurts
Sometimes.
It hurts to lose something that you worked so hard to attain.
It hurts to lose someone who you love
So much.
So much suffering in the world
Expressed in people’s cries, tears, moans and screams.
You can hear everything within your Heart if you listen closely.
Dharma hurts
Sometimes.
But it burns all impurities.
It burns everything to emptiness.
In essence,
There is nothing to achieve,
Nothing to succeed,
Nothing to accomplish,
Nothing to attain,
Nothing to become.
The wondrous Heart Sutra teaches that
All dharmas are emptiness,
There are no characteristics,
No birth,
No cessation,
No purity,
No defilement,
No increase,
No decrease.
Thus in emptiness
There are no five aggregates
Which construct the sense of “I”:
No form,
No feeling,
No perception,
No mental impulses,
No consciousness.
There is no ignorance
Or ending of ignorance,
And so forth until no old age and death
Or ending of old age and death,
No truth of suffering,
No cause of suffering,
No cessation of suffering,
No Path to transcend suffering,
No wisdom,
No attainment whatsoever
Because there is nothing to be attained
For there was nothing to begin with.
Once you realize this,
You become Free
And you can discard this imperfect boat of words
For you have crossed to the other Shore.
Sources of knowledge and inspiration:
http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/heart_s2.pdf (English translation by Ven. Master Lok To from the version of Heart Sutra translated from Sanskrit to Chinese by Venerable Hsuan Tsang or Xuan Tzang)
http://buddhism.about.com/od/abuddhistglossary/g/skandhadef.htm (detailed definition of the Five Skandhas or the Five Aggregates)
http://www.dharmanet.org/HeartSutra.htm (different versions of English translations of Heart Sutra by different schools)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOK8f7ZymDI (Heart Sutra mantra and song with Sanskrit lyrics and English subtitles)
