The Illusory Victory Of Loss

Once upon a time there was a disciple of the Buddha who had reached the enlightenment of Great Emptiness where it was said the Eternal Real and the passing unreal were one. Sitting under a tree in this enlightenment, he suddenly found flowers drifting down on him from the heavens. And he heard godlike voices which told him, “We are ready to praise your eloquence on Emptiness.” The disciple was curious. “But I have not spoken of Emptiness,” he said. “You have not spoken of it; we have not heard it. This is true Emptiness,” said the voices, and the flowers continued to fall on him like rain. 

However, this seemed to irritate the disciple who thought for a while and then raised his voice and said, “Hey wait a minute, hang on. I have a couple of issues here. Firstly, what is it with the flowers falling? I understand that in our way of thinking and living they are supposed to be symbols of something else and that used to be fine with me all along. But now I realise a symbol represents an image, object or idea which means that such things obviously exist in some conceptual background. So what’s the big deal about the Great Emptiness? Or is the bs about flowers only meant to please readers in times to come to think that the outcome of this story was somehow blessed and good?”

He paused again for a moment to draw a deep breath and then, getting to his feet, continued with the harangue. “Secondly, why could it not be that an Eternal Unreal and the passing real were one instead of the other way around? What possible difference could it make to an ultimate and continuing Emptiness?

Besides, now that I have spoken of it and you have heard it will you never be ready in future to praise my eloquence on Emptiness? What kind of message would you be sending to all the illusory and actual Buddhas that will ever exist?”

The godlike voices retreated and conferred among themselves while the flowers slowly faded and stopped falling on the disciple standing under the tree in his enlightenment. Finally they said, “What you say is true. Unfortunately heavenly flowers and future readers have empty minds of their own to do with them as they wish just as you have done with yours. This is true Fullness.” After a long time the disciple sat down again and the flowers resumed their falling. “God! You just can’t lose,” he muttered.

Mukul Sharma