| "Bodhgaya is the place along the Nairanjana River and the site of the
Mahabodhi Temple, a kind of Holy Sepulcher of Buddhism, where the Buddha
achieved enlightenment while meditating beneath a giant pipul tree. When I
was there, a convocation of Tibetan Buddhists was taking place and their
chants rang huskily in the air. It seemed a good time to ponder the nature
of the Supreme Truth that Hsuan Tsang went to India to discover and that I
believe had to do with a central paradox of his particular school of
thought. Central here is the concept of sunyata, or emptiness, the
'fabulously mystical concept whose main premise is that one must be free
not only of attachments to things in the world, but also of attachment to
things of the mind. One must understand that the self, for example, is an
illusion, and one must also be free of an attachment to that
understanding....There are many problems here, and it is with them that the
greatest Buddhist minds have been occupied ever since. If all is empty,
one could ask, then what difference does anything make?...If there is
nothing, then what is it that apprehends that nothingness?'" |
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