Cracking the Walnut by Thich Nhat Hanh

Author:Thich Nhat Hanh [Nhat Hanh, Thich]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781952692475
Publisher: Parallax Press

If a child were to have a self-nature, they would never be able to become an adult. The corn plant, the adult, and everything else are without a self-nature. It is thanks to emptiness that all things can exist. However, people do not understand emptiness, and when they hear about it they are afraid.

If now you are suffering—drifting and sinking in your life—you will want to be liberated and to find peace and joy. How could you possibly realize this desire if you had a self-nature? If you had a self-nature, you would suffer and be confused forever. Since suffering and confusion do not have a self-nature, they can become enlightenment, happiness, and peace. Instead of being troubled because nothing has a self-nature you will say, “It’s fortunate that there is no self-nature; this truth makes everything possible.” This is a very positive way of looking.

If your headache had a self-nature, then you would have it your whole life. Since it does not have a self-nature, it will come to an end. We can say, “Long live impermanence! Long live emptiness! Thanks to impermanence and emptiness, everything is possible.” This is a wonderful sentence. It turns upside down all the complaints about impermanence and emptiness.

People are terrified of the idea of emptiness because they identify emptiness with the idea of nonbeing. People in the West especially are afraid when they hear the word emptiness, because they do not understand what it is.

The Sanskrit yujyate (Chinese 成) can be translated into English as“possible.” Therefore, the first two verses tell us that “thanks to emptinesseverything is possible.”Nagarjuna’s proclamation is loud and clear; it is wonderful, and profound.

When we understand this teaching, we begin to be in touch with the ultimate dimension, the ultimate truth (paramārtha satya), and with nirvāṇa—which is to say, with the reality of no birth and no death, of no being and no nonbeing.

15. The mistakes you make,

you attribute to me,

just like someone who rides a horse

forgets the horse he is riding.

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