Seizing

The Lord [Buddha] asked: What do you think, Subhuti, does it occur to the Stream-winner,* ‘by me has the fruit of a Streamwinner been attained’? Subhuti replied: No indeed, O Lord. And why? Because, O Lord, he has not won any dharma. Therefore is he called a Stream-winner. No sight-object has been won, no sounds, smells, tastes, touchables, or objects of mind. That is why he is called a ‘Stream-winner’. If, O Lord, it would occur to a Stream-winner, ‘by me has a Stream-winner’s fruit been attained’, then that would be in him a seizing on a self, seizing on a being, seizing on a soul, seizing on a person.

- Diamond Sutra

* Stream-entry is the most basic attainment that serious practitioners strive to attain in this lifetime.


I received an email from The Daily Enlightenment's weekly Buddhist email newsletter today that included a link to an article on Moonpointer called Are You a Very Serious Practitioner, which in turn contained the above quote from the Diamond Sutra.

I was struck by the relevance of this to some recent pondering I had been doing after reading some articles about people making claims to their own enlightenment. People seem to take quite different views and positions on this matter and it can get quite heated and controversial.

While pondering, I also observed my own reaction to such claims and my reaction to other people's views. I had the distinct urge to seize a view and hold onto it as part of my identity, to take sides. And this of course leads straight into judgemental thoughts about myself and about others.

...And yet I just wasn't so sure. Firstly I wasn't sure about the correctness of any of the views and secondly I wasn't sure about the need to actually hold (onto) a view.

So I appreciated the quote from the Diamond Sutra and happily stopped worrying about seizing or holding any view. No need to seize anything, just return to the practice!

The Perfections

Subhuti asked: "How does a person practice all the perfections?"

The Buddha replied: "By not perceiving any duality. Through understanding this nonduality he teaches reality to all beings. With physical energy, he travels widely to teach. With mental energy, he guards against the arising of such ideas as "permanence or impermanence," "good or evil," and so on. With the perfection of wisdom, he does not consider anything ultimately real but serves all beings with loving attention so that energy, patience, and meditation will be aroused in them. But even though he attends to the minutest detail of whatever must be done, he never grasps it or tries to make ultimate sense of it, because he knows it has no enduring substance of its own."

- Prajnaparamita

Bancroft, Anne (ed). Buddha Speaks. Shambala, 2000.