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Middle Way Treatise 07 – Contemplating Coming and Going
While walking, if there is truly walking, then two kinds of walking arise:
First is the time of walking (khứ thời), and second is the act of walking during that time (khứ thời khứ). If there are two actions of walking, then there must be two subjects: the one who walks (khứ giả) and the one who does not walk (bất khứ giả). But neither the one who walks nor the one who does not walk is truly walking, and at the same time, neither is truly not walking.
All concepts such as person, walking, coming, birth, and death are only conventional designations (giả danh), based on interdependent co-arising (pratītyasamutpāda) and emptiness (śūnyatā), and therefore do not have an unchanging self-nature. The four concepts used to describe the nature of phenomena are:
- interdependent co-arising
- emptiness
- conventional designation
- the Middle Way
The passing of Thầy Giác Thanh or Thầy Nhất Hạnh is like a mindfulness bell, reminding us to practice in every moment, to touch the nature of no coming and no going, so that we may transcend conventional truth (loka-samvṛti) and dwell in ultimate truth (paramārtha), thus liberating ourselves from suffering.
