<\/p>\n
Ven. Master Jy Din Shakya
\nwith Rev. Ming Zhen Shakya<\/p>\n
PREFACE
\nREMEMBERING MASTER XU YUN
\nby Chan Master Jy Din Shakya<\/p>\n
Xu Yun is translated into English as
\n“Empty Cloud”, a translation
\nwhich often confuses people. We
\nall know what a cloud is, but
\nwhat, we wonder, is meant by
\n“empty”?<\/p>\n
In Chan (pronounced Jen) or
\nZen literature the term “empty”
\nappears so often and with so many
\nvariations of definition, that I will
\nbegin by trying to clarify its
\nmeaning.<\/p>\n
To be empty means to be empty of ego, to be without any thought of self, not in the sense
\nthat one functions as a vegetable or a wild animal – living things which merely process water, food and sunlight in order to grow and reproduce – but in the sense that one ceases to gauge the
\nevents, the persons, the places, and the things of one’s environment in terms of “I” or “me” or “mine”. A person who is “empty of self” seldom has occasion even to use these pronouns.<\/p>\n
Let me be more specific. We have all heard about a parent, or friend, or
\nlover who claims to be completely unselfish in his love for another. A husband
\nwill say, “I kept nothing for myself. I gave everything to her, my wife.” This
\nman is not empty. He has merely projected a part of his identity upon another
\nperson.<\/p>\n
A person who is truly empty possesses nothing, not even a consciousness
\nof self. His interests lie not with his own needs and desires, for indeed, he is
\nunaware of any such considerations, but only with the welfare of others. He does
\nnot evaluate people as being likable or unlikable, worthy or unworthy, or as
\nuseful or useless. He neither appreciates nor depreciates anyone. He simply
\nunderstands that the Great Buddha Amitabha, the Buddha of Infinite Light and
\nGoodness, dwells within every human being, and it is in the interest of this
\nBuddha Self that he invests himself.<\/p>\n
Attaining such emptiness is never easy. An old Chan story illustrates this:
\nA Chan Master once undertook the instruction of a novice who was having
\ngreat difficulty in detaching himself from the persons of his former, secular life.
\n“You cannot serve the Dharma until you sever these bonds,” said the Master.
\n“You must destroy these possessive relationships! Kill them! Regard them as if
\nthey no longer existed!”<\/p>\n
The novice asked, “But my parents? Must I slay them, too?”
\nAnd the Master replied, “Who are they to be spared?”
\n“And you, Master,” said the novice, “must I kill you, too?”
\nAnd the Master smiled and said, “Don’t worry. There is not enough of me
\nleft for you to get your hands on.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ven. Master Jy Din Shakya with Rev. Ming Zhen Shakya PREFACE REMEMBERING MASTER XU YUN by Chan Master Jy Din Shakya Xu Yun is translated into English as “Empty Cloud”, a translation which often confuses people. We all know what a cloud is, but what, we wonder, is meant by “empty”? In Chan (pronounced Jen)… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"off","neve_meta_content_width":70,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-essays","category-uncategorized"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4297"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4301,"href":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4297\/revisions\/4301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}