Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Complete vs. Finished

Sharing the following email with you:

Complete vs. Finished

No English dictionary has been able to adequately explain the difference between COMPLETE and FINISHED. However, in a recent linguistic conference held in London , England , and attended by some of the best linguists in the world: Samsundar Balgobin, a Guyanese, was the clear winner.

His final challenge was this: Some say there is no difference between
COMPLETE and FINISHED. Please explain the difference between COMPLETE
and FINISHED in a way that is easy to understand.

Here is his astute answer:

"When you marry the right woman, you are COMPLETE. But, when you marry
the wrong woman, you are FINISHED. And when the right one catches you
with the wrong one, you are COMPLETELY FINISHED!"

His answer was received with a standing ovation lasting over 5 minutes



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Wednesday, July 3, 2013

The Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra

The Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra
When the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara
was coursing in the deep Prajnaparamita,
he perceived that all five skandhas are empty,
thereby transcending all sufferings.
Sariputra, form is not other than emptiness
and emptiness not other than form.
Form is precisely emptiness
and emptiness precisely form.
So also are sensation, perception, volition and consciousness.

Sariputra, this voidness of all dharmas
is not born, not destroyed,
not impure, not pure, does not increase or decrease.

In voidness there is no form,
and no sensation, perception, volition or consciousness;
no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind;
no sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, thought;
there is no realm of the eye
all the way up to no realm of mental cognition.


There is no ignorance and there is no ending of ignorance
through to no aging and death and no ending of aging and death.

There is no suffering, no cause of suffering,
no cessation of suffering, and no path.

There is no wisdom or any attainment.

With nothing to attain,
Bodhisattvas relying on Prajnaparamita
have no obstructions in their minds.

Having no obstructions, there is no fear
and departing far from confusion and imaginings,
they reach Ultimate Nirvana.

All past, present and future Buddhas,

relying on Prajnaparamita, attain Anuttara-Samyak-Sambodhi.
Therefore, know that Prajnaparamita
is the great mantra of power, the great mantra of wisdom,
 the supreme mantra, the unequalled mantra,
which is able to remove all sufferings.


It is real and not false.

Therefore recite the mantra of Prajnaparamita:

Gata, Gata, Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha.
 
 
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