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Having set up the radical deconstruction method of emptiness, the conversation [in The Perfection of Wisdom in 8000 Lines—our current study text] turns to its implications for ourselves—beings who might cultivate the path—and others—beings who we might be moved, through compassion, to “save.” Of course you can see the punchline that is now teed up: there is no such thing as a bodhisattva, and no such thing as a being to be saved.

The word “Mahāyāna” literally means “Great Vehicle,” and we commonly hold the idea that this vehicle is great because it is capacious enough to transport all beings to liberation (unlike the pejorative hīnayāna (“small vehicle”) which only transports one). But of course to think of this vehicle as having any specific size at all or even as existing goes against the core vision. So the text defines the great vehicle as essentially being the entire universe, and then has to define the path—which might seem like it implies past and future, or going somewhere—as existing entirely in one thought moment.

The thought that arises in that moment is the thought (that is no thought) of the Perfection of Wisdom itself (this will become “herself” as the doctrine/perfection is recognized as a goddess). And as we’ve already seen, the thought isn’t really a thought at all, but a moment of pure non-grasping at anything at all.

So once again, we are in a pragmatic way talking about a meditative state. In this meditation, non-grasping itself becomes the object of concentration. We can read this, perhaps, as a kind of open awareness practice, but it is more absolute than just a kind of choiceless mindfulness. This is really the root of what the later Vajrayāna traditions of Dzogchen and Mahāmūdra will call the “nature of mind.”

The practice this points to is a kind of infinitely subtractive meditation, where you insist on attention not sticking to any sensory or cognitive object at all. This is why there is a direct bridge between the description of emptiness in the Majjhima Nikāya (in MN 121, the “Shorter Discourse on Emptiness”), where it is a meditation on the absence of stressful sensory impingement, and here in the Prajñāpāramitā, where it is the perfection of non-grasping.

We are still far from the later Mahāyāna development around the power and centrality of compassion on the path. But you can see how the doctrine gets there from here. Beginning with recognizing all beings as essentially illusory, and applying one’s mind to realization of the Great Vehicle as a momentary dissolving of all time and space, compassion arises as a post-meditation emotion in response to sensory stimuli flooding back in. Compassion is the most natural response to the perception of suffering all around us when we have just contacted its absolute absence.

Tonight we’ll look at how it is both appealing and repulsive (to the modern ego) to think of ourselves and others as illusions, and how this radical meditative vision can support—but just as importantly, might not support—our social and relational agendas.

SEAN OAKES
Sean Feit Oakes, PhD (he/they, queer, Puerto Rican & English, living on Pomo ancestral land in Northern California), teaches Buddhism and somatic practice focusing on the integration of meditation, trauma resolution, and social justice. He received Insight Meditation teaching authorization from Jack Kornfield, and wrote his dissertation on extraordinary states in Buddhist meditation and experimental dance. Sean holds certifications in Somatic Experiencing (SEP, assistant), and Yoga (E-RYT 500, YACEP), and teaches at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, East Bay Meditation Center, Insight Timer, and elsewhere.

LINKS
Website: seanfeitoakes.com
Community Page: In It To End It
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Spirit Rock: spiritrock.org/teachers/sean-oakes
Insight Timer: insighttimer.com/seanoakes

GIVING
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Blessings on your path.