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The Dharma Ear and the Potential for Enlightenment
Pháp nhĩ means “the Dharma ear,” the way of listening to things as they truly are, without adding or subtracting, without imagination or projection. Les choses sont telles qu’elles sont – things are as they are, reality is as it is, helping the mind to dwell peacefully in the pure present moment.
The Earth or Mother Earth is like the store consciousness, containing all the seeds—trees, birds, animals, humans, Bodhisattvas, Buddhas—lying dormant, waiting for conditions to arise. All distinctions of gentle/cruel, defiled/pure, suffering/happiness arise from our own perceptions; in themselves, things are neutral, only when we ascribe labels do they become good or evil, suffering or happiness.
The relationship of causes and conditions is expressed both vertically (the ocean becoming clouds) and horizontally (the net of interdependent arising); not seeing conditions is ignorance, seeing clearly is awakening. Birth and death, being and non-being are only notions of ours, because the Dharma ear transcends duality—the true nature of all dharmas is Suchness, neither arising nor passing away.