I have not attended any Dharma lessons as I do
not have the time. My understanding of Buddhism is mainly by
reading Buddhist books and listening to Dharma talks by monks
either in the temple or via VCD/DVD.
My realisation is all Dharma is talking about emptiness. I have
friends who are beginners told me the more they listen or read
about Buddhism, the more they found Buddhism is profound and hard
to understand.
I always told them in fact it is nothing profound, the bottom
line of Buddhism in emptiness. This is my own relisation. In fact,
I have heard many Buddhists saying the same thing.
I would like to know whether am I saying it correctly? If
not, next time when someone told me Buddhism is profound and hard
to understand, how should I reply ?
Although many people try to make Buddhism accessible for others
by claiming it is easy: I will just tell the straight truth,
Buddhism is indeed deep and profound and not understandable by
beginners. Not understandable even by me since I am not yet
enlightened. Only enlightened persons can understand the Dharma. It
is not accessible by intellect and logic. In fact the most basic
truths about Anatta and Emptiness in Buddhism alone will take
decades to fully realise and penetrate the truth. It is not easy as
it might sound.
As Thusness said to me recently, "when we say 'seeing' the
non-dual luminosity and empty nature, it is true seeing, like the
experience and realization of "I AMness", that unshakable
confidence, that vivid clarity. It is not a form of knowledge."
So far I do not experience such certainty about Emptiness even
though I may be able to intellectually understand it somewhat. Yet
to understand it by intellect and logic is a completely different
thing from having a pure conviction and certainty arising out of
seeing/insight. The certainty like what I wrote in Certainty of
Being concerning the 'I AMness'. If you become an intellectual
scholar on Madhyamika and is able to explain emptiness in all kinds
of ways, I would not say you have necessarily known emptiness.
In fact the Buddha plainly stated: "This dhamma which I know
is very profound. It is hard to understand; it is so sublime and so
conducive to inner peace. It is not accessible to intellect and
logic (atakkavacaro).
It is subtle and it is to be realized only by the
wise."
That doesn't mean we can do nothing to approach or understand
it. Start as a beginner, learn the basics, practice hard and one
day we too will 'realize the profound'.
They will need to have a good teacher who can guide them step by
step.