Crossing Nebraska

Preface: My original intention was for this post to be a follow-up piece to last week’s Too Big For Any Sticks or Stones To Hurt Us . Notwithstanding that fact, Too Big For Any Sticks or Stones To Hurt Us – Part 2 of Whatever seemed just a bit too obtuse and cumbersome. It was then that my working title changed to Five Views of No-Self . I really liked that title, despite the fact that it tips my hand regarding precisely what I really mean by “too big”. (Alas, the element of surprise has been lost!) The biggest problem with that title, however, was the fact that I could only do justice to one of those views over the course of the five or so pages comprising my usual post length. And so we have this week’s A Gestalt View of No-Self – with four more views to be explored in the following post. Too Big For Any Sticks or Stones To Hurt Us began an exploration of the premise that we might be better able to withstand the many verbal and physical insults of life by simply...

The Vajracchedika Prajnaparamita Sutra is often called, quite simply, The Diamond Sutra . Thich Nhat Hanh (1992) suggests, however, that we refer to it by its full name: The Diamond that Cuts Through Illusion . The Diamond Sutra and the Mahaprajnaparamita Hridaya Sutra , or Heart Sutra , are perhaps the two best known sutras amongst all those that comprise the Mahaprajnaparamita (Schuhmacher & Woerner, 1994, p. 128). I’ll be quoting quite liberally from The Diamond Sutra throughout this post. Unless otherwise noted, all translated passages are those of Price & Mou-lam (1990). Okay, let’s dive right in:       Buddha said: Subhuti, all the bodhisattva heroes should discipline their thoughts as follows: All living creatures… are caused by me to attain unbounded liberation nirvana. Yet, when vast, uncountable, immeasurable numbers of beings have thus been liberated, verily no being has been liberated. Why is this, Subhuti? It is because no bodhisattva ...