Chandrakirti's Seeds and Shoots

Referring to my earlier post on "Simile of a Tree", it is ironic that today I went to a friend's house and heard teachings on Chandrakirti's Madyamakavatara... specifically verse 9-13 where he talked about seeds and shoots (sprouts). It cannot be more ironic than this. It is too much of a coincidence!

So, Chandrakirti was saying that if people think that a tree comes from a seed, then it means you are assuming they are the same. And if they are the same, how come the colour, texture, taste, etc are so different? And if seed were to become tree, then the tree would necessarily disappear just like the seed. Or, conversely, the seed need to be visible just like the tree. You got what I am saying? I don't have the text with me right now , so I cannot quote here but if you read the text, you know what I am talking about. Or, rather... I hope so. In the beginning even with the text, I took a little while to get what Chandrakirti was trying to say. So, don't worry if you don't understand at this point. It is far better to prepare your mind by doing the preliminaries well. Start with realising the different stages of Lam Rim.

O-my! I tell you this emptiness thing is mind boggling! In the end, the Buddhist Master was trying to show people that ultimately you cannot say that a "self" or "phenomena" is self-arising, nor can it be arisen from other sources external from itself, nor can it be both... nor neither! So, how? Hahahaha.... check it out yourself, my dear friends!

So...now I understand why I had those "streams of thoughts" that early morning when I woke up. The simile of the tree now makes sense in light of Chandrakirti's teachings. And also I think
it is Buddha's way of telling me it is time to go study this teaching on The Middle Way of Emptiness such as the text written by Chandrakirti and Nagarjuna's texts.

THANK YOU, GURU-BUDDHA for giving me so much blessings spiritually... even though materially I just discovered my investment has dropped so much due to the drop in the market forex rate. However, this kind of spiritual blessing is Priceless!

What a strange coincidence! Believe it or not!