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The Fourteen Verses – On Samatha and Vipashyana 3
The past is no longer there: conventional truth. Looking deeply, we discover that the present is made of only one substance, which is the past (and the future will be made of a substance called the present), disguised as the present. Firmly established in the present moment, we can touch and transform the wounds of the past, not lose ourselves in regret, make the past the object of our meditation and heal; it is the same for the future—without anxiety, by taking care of the present moment one hundred percent, we ensure a good future.
Impermanence opens the door to non-self, which reveals interdependence, emptiness, conventional designations, the middle way, and interbeing; these teachings are only instruments that must be burned with the flame of practice and wisdom (raft, snake, matchstick).
- Śūnyatā, emptiness: empty of a separate “self,” the door of liberation
- Animitta, signlessness: recognizing the same thing under different appearances
- Apraṇihita, aimlessness: stopping the running, touching the fullness of the present moment
