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King Duy Lâu Lạc 5

Thich Nhat Hanh · April 29, 2010 · Lower Hamlet, Plum Village, France
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The last four verses of the Sutra on Transforming Violence and Fear emphasize that the root of violence arises from holding onto the “blade”—the suffering that has not yet been recognized—which causes people to blindly seek violence as a way to quench their thirst. To end suffering, one needs to:

  1. recognize and remove the “blade” from the mind,
  2. cut off the roots of wrong views and confusion, especially wrong desire (sensual craving),
  3. practice mindfulness to extinguish anger and break through ambition,
  4. contemplate the nature of impermanence and nama-rupa (mind–matter) as a non-dual reality.
    When sensual craving is released, the “flood” of suffering dissipates, and the practitioner relies on insight as a vehicle to the shore of liberation, no longer afraid of birth and death, misfortune, or jealousy.

The teaching of non-duality is illustrated through quantum science: matter is both particle and wave—wavicle, just as Namarupa is the union of name and form. Space, matter, and time cannot be separated, just as subject and object do not exist independently. When one transcends all notions (no notion of form, no grasping), past–present–future can no longer cause the mind to harbor hatred or sorrow, and the practitioner abides in samatha (tranquility). We have now completed 4 out of 16 suttas of the Samyukta Agama; next, we will translate the Sutra of the Net of Affection, which contains 33 verses and two vivid images:

  1. the silkworm spinning its cocoon, imprisoning itself
  2. the net that entangles, binding beings in the cycle of birth and death and attachment
    Let us hold these images in our practice of letting go, to attain freedom and liberation.
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