From The Analects, 17.17. In the Analects 17.17 (the numbering varies), we have a very interesting “saying” of Confucius with a meaning that is pretty easily gleaned from a literal translation of the characters. At least that’s how it seems to me. Presumably someone with a deeper understanding of Classical Chinese (and that certainly wouldn’t […]
Author: daosheng
“Superior people look within, common people seek outside.” (Analects, 15.20)
子曰。君子求諸己。小人求諸人。 The Master said, “Superior people look within, common people seek outside.” 子曰 (Zi yue) The Master said 君子 (jūn zǐ) Superior people. Literally “honorable masters”. 求諸己 (qiú zhū jǐ) Search within oneself. Literally: “seek every oneself”. Note: 諸 appears in several idiomatic phrases where the meaning of “every/all” doesn’t really make much sense. This […]
The Four Great Vows (四弘誓願)
The teachings are infinite; we vow to learn them all.
法門無量誓願學
法門 Pinyin: fǎ-mén. Meaning (literal): Dharma gate. Composition: 法 + 門 (“Dharma” + “gate”)
無量 Pinyin: wú-liàng. Meaning: immeasurable. Composition: 無量 (“no” + “measure”)
學 Pinyin: xué. Meaning: learn
五 蘊 皆 空 (five skandhas all empty)
In this post I’ll do the last four characters of the third line of the Heart Sutra. But perhaps before going any further I should point out that there is no standardization (at least none that I am aware of and/or comply with) for numbering the “lines” of the Heart Sutra. So these “lines” of […]
“… a determined, optimistic attitude ….”
Because ignorance and wisdom are diametrically opposed in the way they apprehend phenomena and because ignorance is an erroneous consciousness, wisdom can overcome ignorance. When ignorance is uprooted, all the afflictions that depend on it also cease. Other counterforces do not have the ability to eliminate ignorance but are applied to individual afflictions. Since cultivating […]
時 照 見 (from the third line of the Heart Sutra)
OK – now things get a little complicated. Here are the first three lines of the Heart Sutra, with some characters highlighted in two different colors. The color coding is explained below: 1—————————————————————————————– 摩 訶 般 若 波 羅 蜜 多 心 經 ma ha ban ya ba ra mil ta shim gyong great prajna […]
“… when practicing deeply …” 行深 in the second line of the Heart Sutra
觀 自 在 菩 薩 行 深 般 若 kwan ja jae bo sal haeng shim ban ya avalokiteshvavra bodhisattva practice […]
菩薩: Chinese for “Bodhisattva”
The Chinese name of Avalokiteshvara, as we saw in the previous post, is 觀自在. But the Chinese title of Avalokiteshvara is the next two words on the second line of the Heart Sutra: 菩薩. Here is the whole second line, with these two characters in red: 觀 自 在 菩 薩 行 深 般 若 […]
Full steam ahead into the second line of the Heart Sutra
OK, so far I have covered the first line of the Heart Sutra. Yay me! Depending on how you count, we are now either going to start on the first or the second line of the Heart Sutra. If we count the title as the first line (which is what I’ve been doing), then here […]
Searching for the Ox (尋 牛)
忙 忙 撥 草 去 追 尋
busy busy pulling grass go chase search
水 闊 山 遙 路 更 深
water wide mountain distant path deeper