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Talk at UCSB
Looking deeply into a flower reveals the presence of the cloud, sunshine, earth, minerals, time, and space. The flower is full of the cosmos and contains everything except a separate self; it must interbe with everything else. This is the meaning of emptiness. Furthermore, the fresh flower contains the garbage, and the garbage contains the flower. Just as an organic gardener transforms compost, the practitioner uses the art of meditation to transform the internal garbage of anger, discrimination, and despair into the flowers of compassion, understanding, and love.
Meditating on a sheet of paper reveals that it is a continuation of the cloud and the tree, rather than a birth from nothing. In reality, nothing is born from nothing, and something cannot be reduced to nothing; a birthday is simply a day of continuation. Understanding this nature of no-birth and no-death leads to the greatest relief of non-fear.
Nirvana is the extinction of concepts, including being and non-being, which are wrong perceptions that do not apply to reality. Just as the ideas of above and below cannot apply to the cosmos, the notions of birth and death distort the true nature of being. The practice of looking deeply dissipates these perceptions to touch reality as “suchness.” The text concludes with the story of Anāthapiṇḍika, a young businessman from Sāvatthī, who falls in love with the Buddha immediately upon hearing his name.