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The "Essenceless Essence"
In the Prajnaparamita (and perhaps elsewhere), the Buddha speaks of something he calls "the essenceless essence."
What is your understanding of this? What do you think he means?
What is your understanding of this? What do you think he means?
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I googled prajnaparamita and it turned up heart sutra. But my translation did not mention essenceless essence.
????
the mind without mind
the nose without thoughts
I think Jeffrey is correct, it's a translation thing. I will do some more research.
It could be a skillful means for clarifying awareness, not the affirmation of a sneaky-transparent-Emptiness-entity.
Only the longer versions of the prajnaparamita mention that particular term. The prajnaparamita is basically a collection of Sutras (The Perfection of Transcedent Wisdom Sutras) that originated from the original prajnaparamita sutra "Great Mother: The prajnaparamita of 100,000 lines". Over time, various shortened versions have emerged with the "Heart Sutra" being one of them.
I don't know which version these are from but this is the term in context:
When the perfect wisdom is first seen, a new perception comes into being that does not depend on any structure. The great quest of the seeker now blossoms as various vast and mysterious doors swing open at the mere touch of the new perception.
There is the door that opens to a vista of the essenceless essence, that which is the real nature of the manifested world. There is the door of liberation from a merely partial perception or muddled perspective of this real nature. And there is the door that opens directly into the authentic realization of this true nature.
There is the wonderful door that opens into an intensity of sights and sounds, color and beauty. And there is the door of balance and ease through which one looks in awe at all the limitless structures of the world as one looks at the star-studded night sky. And there is the door to the exquisite happiness that would never want to own any worldly treasures or to possess even that same happiness. Finally, there is the door of total awakening itself.
Subhuti asked: "Is perfect wisdom beyond thinking? Is it unimaginable and totally unique but nevertheless reaching the unreachable and attaining the unattainable?"
The Buddha replied: "Yes, Subhuti, it is exactly so. And why is perfect wisdom beyond thinking? It is because all its points of reference cannot be thought about but can be apprehended. One is the disappearance of the self-conscious person into pure presence. Another is the knowing of the essenceless essence of all things in the world. And another is luminous knowledge that knows without a knower. None of these points can sustain ordinary thought because they are not objects or subjects. They can't be imagined or touched or approached in any way by any ordinary mode of consciousness, therefore they are beyond thinking."
They are quotes of prajnaparamita verses that I found scattered around the web that are quoted as coming out of this book. The Pocket Buddha Reader Unfortunately, this book is not scanned on Google books so it can't be read online.
But I think they are shorter versions of the original versions, which, maybe??, can be found in this book, Mother of the Buddhas: meditation on the Prajnaparamita Sutra which happens to have some pages scanned on Google books and is searchable. The versions in this book are slightly longer and a little different. I don't really know which version is the original version. I've seen claims that the 8,000 line version was the first and then was expanded to different versions but I have also seen claims that the 100,000 line version was the first. Not that it really matters all that much, probably have to consult a Buddhist scholar on that one.
What I'm not sure of, but would really like to find out, is where Bancroft got her translations: because as Richard said, they're very inspiring, but they're also quite different from some other translations. (For instance, one online version of the Diamond Sutra that I read was downright bewildering to me, but in Bancroft's hands it became beautiful and uplifting.)
Thank you for mentioning this! I am going to check it out from the library.
Cheers, WK
Of course that's weird phrasing, "essenceless essence", so it could mean Impermanence/Anicca (in the Buddha's time) or perhaps Emptiness. Who knows?
What intrigued me about this idea (and the original reason I posted the question) was that this sounds quite close to energy to me. Energy being something that indwells all things, both physical and metaphysical; is invisible and intangible; and which we have only recently begun to even scratch the surface of understanding.
So when I read that passage (and others like it), I got to thinking that maybe the Buddha, by virtue of his having reached a level of enlightenment transcending ordinary "mortal" understanding, came to comprehend energy, the "essenceless essence," in a way that the rest of us aren't yet able to do, to understand its true nature.
Of course, that's only my own speculation, and little profit can come from dwelling on it too much; but the part of my own mind that can fathom even an inkling of this idea--that there is a deeper reality behind what we call "energy," which can be apprehended when one has reached Enlightenment--found it quite intriguing.
Maybe one day I will meet one and ask her.
Ahh, but that was something I neglected to say, mahamudra which means great seal, is not only the nature of the mind but is the nature of reality as well.
As to energy I would hazard to say that there may be some correspondence with the luminosity. Please note that this is a topic where others would very strongly say that luminosity is merely the knowing quality of the mind. Either way it is important to note that this energy you talk about (and the luminosity of the mind) is itself empty in nature like all other phenomenon.
One other thing that I left unclear, in relation to no-one ever finding this essenceless essence, is that the purpose of looking is not to find or rather to find nothing, its an exhaustive process so that there is no doubt that there is nothing to find. It is said that it is the looking that leads to realisation even though there is nothing to find, in other words no looking no realisation.
Something like that anyway.
Cheers, WK
And this?
Only don't cling to this energy and make into something its not. There are lots of experiences that we can cling to during the meditation journey and the results are achieved when we avoid this clinging. Or maybe, more importantly, avoid conceptualising it. What we conceptualise we diminish and make it less than what it is, instead of letting it be.
Zen meditators don't really look, AFAIK. But if you look for the mind you won't find it.
Having said the above, all things fade away meditative under scrutiny, yet this energy that you talk of, if we are talking about the same thing, appears to withstand this fading, in fact it is usually the opposite. Sometimes I think it is this Luminosity of the mind, then I reprimand myself for conceptualising it and let it go.
Sometimes, these things just don't lend themselves to language.
Cheers, WK
There are many stages of insights into Buddha-nature, and eventually it is seen that 'Impermanence is Buddha-Nature' - to quote Zen Master Hui-neng and Dogen (though this is my personal insight as well).
Also see... http://awakeningtoreality.blogspot.com/2007/03/thusnesss-six-stages-of-experience.html
Buddha rejects this notion.
Buddha demonstrates (through impermanence, dependent origination, and anatman) that all things lack essential substance. That is, they are void (sunyata) of any mode of inherent self-existence. They are, in fact, 'essenceless'.
The realization that all things are alike in being void of an essential, inherent, intrinsic, self-existent nature is the realization of "essenceless essence".
The heart sutra says (in my version) that if you repeat this mantra of prajna paramita you'll end the cycles of suffering and understand the perfection of Wisdom and develop right view etc.
Started reciting it.... Still don't understand comppletely! I think of everything as Tao, coming from the Tao, that's my understanding of "emptiness", there's also dependent arising. I think I've misunderstood the way phenomena exist and Wisdom but I think that as things that exist to not exist independently, they require other factors eg. tree needs sun and soil there's a whole chain that appears which I think leads to one Source, God or the Tao. That's my understanding of it but maybe someone could clarify it for me?