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Donna Quesada. Buddhism: Emptiness. (Thich Nhat Hanh) 3/5 — Transcript

by Donna Quesada Schollhammer · 2,191 words · 339 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:01I want to come back to tick notan now
0:02for a
0:03moment you see when we talk about
0:05emptiness we're not talking
0:08about just the non-existence of
0:11something we're simply saying that the
0:13way you thought you existed isn't quite
0:17reflective of reality you do exist of
0:20course you exist you're sitting in front
0:21of me right now but not in the
0:25way we might have thought we're
0:28challenging that habitual way of looking
0:29at the
0:30self and so tick not Han in exploring
0:33emptiness tells a story about a cloud so
0:36we're going to look at that story I have
0:38adapted it just a little bit but I think
0:40it's a fun adaptation and it will
0:43illustrate the Buddhist notion of
0:45emptiness and all of these things very
0:47nicely so here's the story of the cloud
0:50it's about the Cloud's birthday kind of
0:52cute
0:56huh sometimes people ask you CL
1:01when is your
1:04birthday but you might ask yourself a
1:06more interesting
1:08question before that day which is called
1:10my birthday where was I you can ask
1:14yourself that question or ask the cloud
1:18what is your date of birth before you
1:20were born Cloud where were
1:26you if you ask the cloud how old are you
1:30can you give me your date of birth you
1:33can listen deeply and you may hear a
1:38reply you can imagine the cloud being
1:41born before being born it was the water
1:45on the ocean
1:50surface or it was the river and it
1:54became the
1:55vapor it was also the sun because the
1:58sun makes the vapor the wind is there
2:00too helping the water to evaporate and
2:03become the cloud the cloud doesn't come
2:07from
2:09nothing there has been stay with me
2:12there has been only a change in form the
2:15cloud doesn't come from nothing there's
2:17only been a change in form it's not a
2:19birth of something out of
2:22nothing sooner or later the cloud will
2:24change back into rain or snow or ice if
2:28you look deeply into the rain you can
2:30see the
2:34cloud the cloud is not lost it is
2:38transformed highlight transformed it's
2:41one of our words there transformation oh
2:44it should be I'll write it there I'll
2:46write it there
2:48transformation it's transformed into
2:51rain and the rain is transformed into
2:53healthy soil and the soil is transformed
2:57into pumpkin
2:58plants and the pumpkin plants are
3:01transformed into blossoms and with the
3:03help of our friends the bees the
3:06blossoms are transformed into pumpkins
3:08and then into the pumpkin pie you eat so
3:10today if you eat a piece of pumpkin
3:13pie give yourself time to look at the
3:17pie and
3:18say hey Cloud I See
3:22You by doing that you have insight and
3:26understanding into the real
3:28nature of the pie and the real nature of
3:32the cloud you can also see the ocean the
3:34river the heat the Sun the soil the
3:36trees in the
3:39pie looking deeply looking
3:42deeply you do not see a real date of
3:45death for the cloud nor a date of birth
3:47for the pumpkins nothing has been
3:50created I'm emphasizing that nothing has
3:53been
3:56created it was already
3:58there
4:00all that happens is that the cloud
4:03transforms into rain or snow there's
4:05always a continuation that that needs to
4:08go there too there's always a
4:10continuation a cloud continues the ocean
4:13the river and the Heat of the sun and
4:16the rain continues the
4:17cloud so what are the two words I need
4:20to write transformation and continuation
4:22you were
4:23listening
4:25transformation and
4:27continuation so these are just kind of
4:30dependent origination so we all know
4:33what we're doing is the philosophical
4:34way of talking about emptiness and these
4:37are key words that came to life in the
4:39telling of that Charming little
4:42story but don't think you know get get
4:45out of that academic mindset oh got a
4:48Define make flash card it's all
4:50emptiness there are different ways of
4:52looking and
4:54exploring this idea of
4:57emptiness because by looking at
5:00interconnectedness we see how the cloud
5:03and the rain and the Sun and everything
5:05is all connected
5:07right but we also see how one causes the
5:11other how the evaporation of the
5:14water the rivers the
5:16Lakes caused it to manifest to transform
5:20caused it to turn into water vapor and
5:22the water vapor reaches the point of
5:24condensation and it falls as rain
5:27precipitation right
5:32and so there's this continuation there's
5:34this cycle of cause and effect at
5:37work there are different ways of looking
5:39at the same phenomenon do you see
5:42manifestation why I'm going to ask
5:45you why did tikn Han prefer this word
5:49manifestation to the word creation why
5:52didn't he talk about the cloud being
5:54born or the cloud being created why did
5:56he prefer instead to talk about the
5:59Cloud's man
6:00manifestation he talks about this story
6:03and Other Stories and he always uses the
6:04word manifestation if it wasn't explicit
6:07let's make it so he talks about the
6:09Cloud's manifestation he talks about its
6:12transformation why does he like this
6:15language
6:17transformation rather than
6:19creation free because it was always
6:23already there it was
6:25nevered because it was all it was
6:28already there go ahead go yeah never
6:30created or destroyed it was all always
6:34right there it wasn't created or
6:36destroyed in the traditional
6:39sense we think very simply he explains
6:42elsewhere about this notion of creation
6:44as if poof something could come from
6:46nothing but by looking deeply we're
6:49breaking through those dualistic Notions
6:52of life and death something doesn't come
6:54from nothing something is totally
6:57dependent on unnamable causes an
7:00infinite number of causes Myriad
7:03causes the evaporation the
7:06winds
7:08right everything going on in the
7:11atmosphere allowing the cloud to
7:14manifest but even then have you ever
7:17been lying on the beach one afternoon
7:19and you see clouds going by and they
7:21make little shapes and it looks like a
7:23giraffe or it looks like you know you
7:24can find little shapes and then that
7:26next time you look you see it all
7:27distorted and then it's gone right even
7:31then there's this
7:33movement at
7:35play the cloud just continues the river
7:38in that sense so you see all of these
7:40words are just kind of key words that
7:43take us deeper into the
7:45teaching that describe this business of
7:49looking
7:50deeply notice that we're
7:54employing cyclical thought rather than
7:57linear thought by this new way of
7:59thinking about appearance manifestation
8:03transformation rather than thinking in a
8:05linear way which is a typically Western
8:07thing to do you know to try to find some
8:10uh ultimate First beginning and and then
8:12to look at the timeline from there we're
8:15looking at reality as a cycle that
8:18everything goes through these
8:21changes and as long as all of these
8:23causes including time come together you
8:28have the manifestation of something like
8:29like the pumpkin right you have the
8:34blossom you have the male Blossom first
8:36actually and the bees come and and uh
8:39take the pollen and deposit it into the
8:41female Blossom and a pumpkin is born but
8:44it's not like it's just born out of
8:47nothing it's this result that comes from
8:51all of these other things that have also
8:53taken place and if one cause one
8:56ingredient is missing you don't have the
8:59pump pumpkins and you look out to the
9:01trees or you look out to the field you
9:02look out to the vines and you say hm
9:04there no Pumpkins this year that's funny
9:08something was missing it was too cold
9:11this year perhaps one of those
9:13ingredients wasn't
9:15there but tick Nan would say look
9:18closely they are there we just need more
9:21time it said if you can look at a box of
9:24matches and see the flame you're already
9:27enlightened it's there it's just that
9:29that one ingredient
9:32time isn't there yet but by looking
9:35deeply you can penetrate into
9:37reality and see
9:40things in a deeper way like like the
9:43blue sky like
9:44ourselves and understand that our
9:47identity isn't necessarily tied in to
9:50something that's fixed habitually we
9:53think of ourselves as having a fixed
9:56identity but now let's go back to what
9:58you wrote on your paper what was so
10:00important to you as a kid anybody you
10:02want to
10:03share what did you put ice cream ice
10:06cream what did you put playing handball
10:08playing handball Jamie stuffed animals
10:11stuffed animals I'm afraid to ask do do
10:14you still like handball Troy
10:16yeah hey that doesn't work for me say no
10:22no I'm going to have you guys do a fun
10:24little chart next week the uh famous
10:27little favorites chart and and um it
10:31asks you to explore these things and we
10:34have a lot of fun with it because
10:35sometimes people look back to their
10:36childhoods and they say what they love
10:38to do and and I don't know why one Year
10:41everyone put Power Rangers to describe
10:44what they liked best when they were five
10:46it was the funniest thing it must have
10:48been you know the generation or
10:49something that particular year and
10:50everybody when they looked back 15 years
10:54they got to the year when Power Rangers
10:55were really big or something like that
10:58but I don't the funniest
11:02thing do you still like ice cream I I
11:05eat ice cream every it's funny when I
11:08was a kid I I go to have ice I want and
11:12now you can and there are no adults
11:13telling you not to right who put Power
11:17Rangers come on work with me
11:21here well I can tell you I liked
11:23Flintstones yeah I still do like The
11:26Flintstones also but even then
11:29I can propose to you that it's a
11:32different person who likes The
11:33Flintstones and it's a different guy who
11:36plays handball if you still like him and
11:38it's a different girl who likes ice
11:39cream and chances are a lot of you put
11:42embarrassing stuff and that's why you're
11:43not raising your hands and
11:45probably chances are the things that we
11:48liked at some point in our lives um
11:51might not be important to us anymore
11:53know our interests change how many of
11:56you wanted to be a fireman when you were
11:59growing up or wanted to be something
12:01when you were growing up and now it's
12:02completely changed um yeah was it a
12:06fireman what was it actually
12:10really what was it he says it was weird
12:13well when I was really little I wanted
12:14to be a bus driver a bus driver that's
12:16not weird I can see that you don't want
12:18to be a bus driver anymore
12:22no well you know it's it's a fun way of
12:25kind of exploring our identity and it's
12:29it's a fun way of looking at the fact
12:31that identity doesn't need to be equated
12:34with something that's fixed and that's
12:39called seeing into what Buddhists would
12:42call suchness the suchness that is
12:45reality this suchness that really can't
12:47be named at
12:49all because we're constantly changing we
12:52change our tastes we change our
12:55moods we change our
12:57goals we see more realis Ally now I
13:00don't want to drive a
13:01bus but yet we give a name to these
13:04things which really can't be named why
13:06do we do that for convenience sake you
13:09know even ourselves okay so we don't
13:11have a fixed identity okay the rugs been
13:14pulled out from under us yet I still
13:16give myself a name Donna Troy Mark
13:21Melissa I don't think I actually have a
13:23Melissa in this class
13:24but why do we do that well it makes a
13:27lot of sense if you think about it it
13:29saves us from grunting at each other hey
13:32you know we say hey Donna yeah I need a
13:35piece of paper great you
13:38know and we name stuff and it makes life
13:41a whole lot
13:42easier I used to like meteorology a lot
13:45in fact I used to want to be a
13:47meteorologist not a bus driver until I
13:50found out that there's tons of calculus
13:52that you have to take to become a
13:57meteorologist I I love to watch storms I
14:01think it's really exciting and I
14:03remember as kids we would run to the
14:04window and say oh look at the lightning
14:06of course it was a big deal to us in La
14:09cuz we don't get it all the time so it
14:11was a very special event but wouldn't
14:14that be funny if instead we went to the
14:17window and said oh look let's go see
14:19that
14:20moment where electricity is discharged
14:23within the cloud you have thunder and oh
14:26isn't it fascinating and everybody would
14:27look at you and go huh
14:31that would be weird so to make life a
14:34lot simpler this is the real
14:37point we give things a name but don't be
14:41fooled because once you're
14:46fooled enter into the game of
14:49delusion enter into what Hindus would
14:52call
14:54mayia enter what Buddhists would call
14:57ignorance

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