Dubai

I was into the Aghora book and at one point, it mentioned that Bombay is a cursed place.

People who live there will in the end be polluted by its curse. Only those very rare ones will come off it purer. Reminds me of the peacock that imbibes poison unharmed being able to transmute poison into the beauty of its plumes.

It made me reflect on some of those places I have been. It is true, isn't it that there are some places which makes you comfortable and then again there are those that turns you off. Of course here I would remind myself of the teaching that whatever we see is but a reflection of our own nature. (what this means is that whatever follows is to be taken with the pinch of salt that it deserves as it is only my own perception)

Recently I had an opportunity to be in Dubai. I had hopes of a desert walkabout but I did not get to see or do very much as the lack of mobility was a major obstacle and taxi fares prohibitive.

There are some places which saps your energy and Dubai is one of them. Rich though it may be but behind the eyes of many, the human soul is missing. The workers are mainly if not entirely men coming from the Indian subcontinent. Except for one who says he is Arab, all the taxi drivers I have rode with are either Pakistanis or Indians. They earn what one night in a good hotel would cost. I read that 109 Indians died by their own hands as of September'08. This despite the facade that Dubai is the land of plenty.

The locals are handsome by most standards. By nature or by exposure, I observed that the migrant workers have developed very ugly values, being coarse, like to bully and on the whole contemptous both to foreigners and to their own kind. The beautiful side of human nature is sorely missing.

This attribute seems to extend to the habitat. Everywhere there is barren-ness like somehow a big torch has scorched the place and left its curse.

Alongside all this barren-ness lies manmade megaliths as tributes to man's ego and slavery to the senses. I saw all this decadence that seems so self inflicted. It conjures images of card 16.

This is Dubai. I write so briefly and there is so much room for missed perceptions. Any rejoinders?

Emptiness

Emptiness is Form
Form is Emptiness
Emptiness is none other than Form
Form is none other than Emptiness

This is an oft repeated prayer and comes straight from the Heart Sutra.

More than 2500 years ago the man we call the Buddha gathered his disciples together on this place called Vulture’s Peak. His disciples were ready for more advance teachings.

This is Vulture's Peak...

Thousands of enlightened Arahants and Buddha aspirants (Bodhisatvas) were present. It is a wonder how this small little crag could accommodate so many but then again we are limited by our own clouded perceptions.

In any case, this Sutra was spoken through Avalokiteshvara, the great Bodhisatva of compassion. If you miss that, he is none other than Kuan Yin. The Sutra follows the great style of the Buddha in that it is a parry of questions and answers between the Arahant Sariputra and Avalokiteshvara with the Buddha approving all this while in deep meditation.
Emptiness goes like this. We may have a physical body we identify as ourself. Whenever we look in the mirror, there we are. It is very assuring to know that everything is alright, minus of course the odd pimple that has popped up.

Now the Avalokiteshvara says we are actually empty or emptiness or whatever word that says that lovely shape of ours is not real. Wow! We are supposed to meditate on that.
So being told so, we go back and meditated as I suppose those great beings up on Vulture’s Peak did right there and then.

It took us quite a bit of time before we feel that we have got it. We have seen that our thinking mind is quite separate from our body. Ah.. maybe that’s the emptiness good old Avalokiteshvara is talking about.

But just as we thought that we have got it, It says that emptiness also is form. What? That means that actually we are empty..empty as in devoid of self and that lovely tummy that we have spent so much beer money and sausages on. That lovely tummy which we derived so much satisfaction rubbing and scratching after a hearty meal is not real?

Well after much complaining to the Buddha who said go and meditate more, we quietly do so. After all he is none other than the Buddha and there is only one in the whole wide cosmos. Goodness knows how long more we have to wait before the next Buddha appears. This is indeed a rare opportunity to learn something real that will give everlasting peace.

I mean, if it were anyone else we would have shown him something coarse and walked out. Probably this must have crossed the minds of some of those great ones there as this was certainly revolutionary thinking. Remember they were enlightened, you know.

Just as those enlightened beings meditated so did we. Of course our puny thinking skills and clear-mindedness just cannot fathom further. To help us along, some of the better ones realized that they were actually both emptiness and form. This they duly told the Buddha while we all lesser mortals remained silent, not being able to go further. The water is too deep.

As it happened, we exclaimed, “Ah…yes, that’s it!” or “Emaho” or “Eureka!” or something of like nature. Probably the smart Arahant did give himself a silent smirk or two.

Woe…woe…the Buddha smiled and said, “ But what about Emptiness is none other than form?”
There seems to be no end here. After exhausting the borders of our meditation skills and comprehension, we are told that our argument is not full proof but only fool proof. “Go meditate more.”

Do we see it now? This emptiness is all about pushing the borders of our perception. Pema Chodon calls it groundlessness. Every time we think we have arrived at a revelation or, if you like compliments, an enlightened thought, remove our bases. Pull the rug out and reexamine from there. Only then can we expect to see and understand what the Buddha means when he says there is no liberation or suffering. How can there be when form and emptiness are the same?When we begin to see that those who suffer and ourselves are one and the same, then maybe we have got something. This emptiness and form thing means that the person who suffers, the one who starts the suffering and suffering itself are one and the same.

Smiling Face

this was taken in Kulhan India a few nights ago.. See the smiling face? A rare conjuntion of satellites and crescent moon.