Restraint and Emptiness
Restraint and Emptiness
Dhammapada – The Just
“The true master lives in truth,
In goodness and restraint,
Nonviolence, moderation and purity.”
Today we are going to focus on the word “restraint.”
Lets see what the dictionary says about this word.
Restrain – keep under control; keep in check; the act of controlling; to close within bounds, limit or hold back from movement.
The true master practices restraint. First lets understand who is the master? The master is you. The master is your true self, the true self is the real you, your Buddha Nature, your Christ Nature, the Likeness of God, Atman, no-self, whatever you want to call it. The master is the pure divine nature that you have once experienced when you were a child. This nature is also described to be your child-like nature. It is the same nature a person experiences when they get enlightened. This nature is also called God. We are pieces of the Divine, that is why in Judaism and Christianity it is said we are made in the image of God and that mage is the nature of God, the likeness, the character, the attributes of God, the Pureness, the Light.
And this nature is always threatened by the ego. Ego wants to conquer and dethrone the true self. How can the true self be dethroned? By having desire, passion and all the false selfish characteristics and attributes of mara, the devil, darkness, the ego, the false self, what ever you want to call it. This false nature lives inside of us all. It’s like the sun and moon, we experience them both everyday. Light and darkness, good and bad, ying and yang, God and Devil, the list goes on, there is many names to this. But it depends on us, who we want to be King, Lord, Teacher, Master to sit on the throne of our hearts. In this teaching, we are talking about the true self, which means we are talking about the person who is seeking enlightenment, who is walking the path of purity, the person who is practicing restraint, who has denounced the desires of the false self.
When the false self penetrates the mind, it is when it dethrones the true self. Have you ever heard the phrase, “Have you lost your mind?” That is when your true nature is dethroned by false self and you start to become a bitter, self-centered person, one without happiness, one that is reacts to the thoughts of mara. The person that has given into the desires and lies of the false self has lost its mind. When the mind has been lost, the mind has been high jacked by deception. When the Buddha mentioned the word “restraint” in the above verse, he knew this is a very important word. Restraining is self-control. Self-control is one of the fruits of the Spirit in Christianity. Practicing restraint or self-control means we are restraining from the angry thought that comes into our mind when someone cuts us off when we are driving or talking, when someone curses us out, when we lose our job or anything we love, when our feelings are hurt. Practicing restraint is controlling our emotions. And if you notice the word restraint, it has the letters “re,” which stems from the action of repeating something. Lets do a little word play and look at some words that use the letters “re.” Repeat, recall, remember, remind, reenter, retake, reconnect, reevaluate and the list can go on. These words are things that describe things that repeat, things that we do again. Lets look at the word strain and its meaning: sift: separate by passing through a sieve or other straining device to separate out coarser elements; or filter: remove by passing through a filter; “filter out the impurities.” Therefore, just like a traffic police we need to direct the traffic of our mind. By noticing each thought we can filter or sift out thoughts that come into the mind. This process is an everyday thing because it is an on-going process until the day we die. But the good news is the notions and thoughts that rise into the mind become less and less effective and influential when we get deeper into our daily practice. That means we are meditating and studying the Dharma on a daily basis.
In the Heart Sutra, the Bodhisattva of Compassion discovers that to remove all suffering we need to recognize and understand emptiness. Emptiness is the key to remove the potential of allowing mara to have access to our minds and hearts. When we empty our life and detach from everything, from our ideas, our concepts, our beliefs, our thoughts, then we will realize that there is no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind. No color, sound, smell, taste, touch, object of thought. When we fully understand this, then we go beyond, way beyond, into an awakening. We know what this emptiness feels like because we have experienced it when we were in the womb of our mother. We had no object of thought. There was no meaning of anything. Our minds were completely still, in complete peace, because we were empty. Can you remember when you were in your mother’s womb? I don’t think so. You had no thought in the womb. Since you didn’t have any thought when you were in the womb, you had no suffering. And since there was no thought in the womb, you were empty, there was no self, and you didn’t have any notion. When there is no-self, then is no suffering. When it is removed, the notions and thoughts that rise into the mind cannot grasp or cling to anything, because there is nothing to grasp, there is only emptiness, there is nothing to settle on, no one is home, your house is empty.
In the Heart Sutra, the Bodhisattva clearly saw and understood about emptiness when he was practicing deep prajna paramita, in other words, when he was meditating deeply on Perfection of Wisdom. This is the perfection of wisdom of the heart. The Buddha said in the Dhammapada – Impurity, “The Way is not in the sky, the Way is in the heart.” In Judaism Old Testament in Proverbs 4:23, it says “Keep your heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” So in this verse we see it talks about mindfulness. Keep your heart; protect your heart, practice restraint. The Way and the issues of Life are within you and you can only see this when you go within and meditate deeply. And once you know your true self, then you can say, “I AM, that I AM.” You are not what your parents named you; you are not what you have defined yourself to be. Peel off everything you have learned and adapted to and empty yourself and look within, into the heart. Know your true self.
In Christianity, Jesus Christ died on the cross, which was symbolic to what we need to do to the false self. We need to crucify it on the cross; we need to let it die. The death on the cross also means “emptiness.” Jesus didn’t live for himself; He didn’t live a selfish life, He lived in emptiness, there was no self. He lived for the cause, to liberate mankind from suffering. Jesus said, “Me and the Father are One.” He didn’t live for himself, He lived for God, He emptied himself. And the resurrection of Jesus is symbolic to the awaking to a glorious body, to enlightenment, to the true self, the pure nature. So when we empty ourselves from all selfishness, we awakening or resurrect our true self, our Christ Nature, our Divine Nature, our Buddha Nature.
You have this pure nature already. You have emptiness already. But you need to rediscover it. You need to reconnect to it. You have purity, you have courage, you have peace, you have love, you have joy. You can also say “I am peace, I am love, I am joy, I am confidence, I AM FREE!” Free yourself from guilt, free yourself from all suffering and let go and smile because you are free!
It’s like in the movie Wizard of Oz, the scarecrow wanted a brain, the lion wanted courage, and the tin man wanted a heart. They didn’t know and understand they had these things within themselves already. They needed the Wizard to point this out to them and give them something tangible so they can believe they had these things.
Summary:
The Buddha teaches us that we need to stop the stream of thought and direct them. Everything that comes to the mind is not true, but you need to know what is true is true and what is false is false. We need to become a traffic police for the mind. We need to direct the traffic of our thoughts. Directing the traffic of our thoughts means we are becoming vigilant of our thoughts. This is called Awareness, being mindful, watching, and guarding our mind. Do not let the negative thoughts infiltrate and gain access to the mind. The main goal of the false self is to gain access to your mind, and then gain access to your heart and then eventually blossom into an action which will result into suffering.
And most of all know your true nature and empty yourself from all of the misconceptions you may have of yourself. Detach from your ego, let it die, and awaken your true nature. Let go of all things!
Keep on practicing restraint and being mindful. Suffering ends when you empty yourself, you can do this.
I hope this has helped you as it helped me. If you have any questions, please send me an email or write a comment. Take care and be well!
Yours truly,
Your Internet Friend.
Namaste!
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