Coming to Zero Again

[...] We often feel that the flow of phenomena rolls on by itself.  No one is doing anything; it all just happens.  We see more deeply the empty, insubstantial nature of phenomena.  The beautiful appearance of a rainbow exemplifies this meaning of emptiness.  We see a rainbow in the sky and often feel a moment's thrill.  Yet on another level, no "thing" called rainbow really exists.  It is an appearance due to certain conditions that themselves are continuously transforming.  Can we live on both these levels at once, engaging in the world of appearances with the freeing wisdom of emptiness?

Coming to Zero

The Buddha gave one very short discourse that expresses the insight of selflessness very succinctly:

"Whenever you see a form, let there be just seeing; whenever you hear a sound, let there be just hearing; when you smell an odor, let there be just smelling; when you taste a flavor, let there be just tasting; when you experience a physical senseation, let there be just sensing; and when a thought arises, let it be just a natural phenomenon arising in the mind.  When it is like this, there will be no self, there will be no moving about here and there, and no stopping anywhere.  That is the end of dukkha, the end of suffering."

A Fourteenth Century Japanese Samurai Wrote:

I have no parents
I make the heavens and earth my parents
I have no home
I make awareness my home
I have no life or death
I make the tides of breathing my life and death
I have no divine power
I make honesty my divine power
I have no friends
I make my mind my friend
I have no enemy
I make carelessness my enemy
I have no armor
I make benevolence my armor
I have no castle
I make immoveable-mind  my castle
I have no sword
I make absence of self my sword.