Coming or Going?

 

 

 

Coming or Going? 

 

When we rub two sticks together that produces a fire that will eventually cease. However, the fire doesn't come from anywhere when it starts to burn the sticks, and it doesn't go anywhere when it dies out. Fire is empty of coming and going. 

Similarly, ignorance--clinging to the belief in a self, the mental afflictions, or suffering--does not come from anywhere and does not go anywhere.  

We can apply this to our dreams: whatever appears in dreams, be it happiness or suffering, does not come from anywhere and it does not go anywhere.

All phenomena are empty of coming and going.    

 

Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, Sun of Wisdom, Shambhala Publications 2003, p. 66. 

Translated by Ari Goldfield (lightly edited for the Weekly Quotes)