Selected Lectures on the Sutra of the Meeting of Father and Son

Volume Eighteen   Chapter Twenty-Six: The Differences Among the Six Realms, Part Three

In this volume, the World-Honored One again employed several metaphors to illustrate that the realms encountered in daily life and the scenes experienced in dreams share the same nature—both are entirely illusory. The World-Honored One repeatedly used dreams to awaken his father, King Śuddhodana, urging him to realize the truth sooner. Having reigned for a long time, King Śuddhodana had been deeply entrenched in the pleasures of the five desires and found it difficult to free himself. Thus, the Buddha used dreams to advise his father to swiftly cultivate the path toward liberation and cease indulging in the pleasures of the five desires. Simultaneously, this served to awaken all disciples, emphasizing the need to fully recognize the illusory nature of all phenomena. When the manas (mind-root) genuinely acknowledges the emptiness of these phenomena, one may realize the path, attain the liberation fruit of the Śrāvaka Vehicle, or even that of the Mahāyāna, thereby embarking on the path to liberation and Buddhahood.

Upon reaching a certain stage in Śrāvaka practice, one realizes the emptiness of the five aggregates and the emptiness of all phenomena within the eighteen dhatus (realms). This realization severs the three internal fetters: self-view, adherence to views, and doubt. Thereafter, one progresses toward liberation, freeing oneself from the suffering of birth-and-death cycles. The essence of practice lies in recognizing the emptiness of the so-called "self"—the emptiness of the physical body, mind, feelings, thoughts, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness; the five aggregates (form, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness) are all empty. The eighteen dhatus are all empty: the six sense bases (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind) are empty; the six sense objects they perceive are empty—form is empty, sound is empty, smell is empty, taste is empty, touch is empty, and mental objects are empty; the six consciousnesses are all empty—eye consciousness is empty, ear consciousness is empty, nose consciousness is empty, tongue consciousness is empty, body consciousness is empty, and mental consciousness is empty; finally, the manas (mind-root) is also empty. By fully realizing the emptiness of the five aggregates, one severs the view of self and attains the pure Dharma eye.