Soap (Themes- Purification, Buddha-nature, Emptines)



Is there such thing as a dirty bar of soap?

1. The dirt stuck to the surface the bar is not the soap itself- it is just dirt on it.
2. The dirt embedded within the bar is not the soap itself- it is just dirt in it.

Thus, the soap cannot be dirty or dirtied. That which has cleansing or purifying abilities cannot be impure or putrefied. It is purity itself. This is an analogy for our Buddha-nature. When you break the soap, you cannot find anything within that is not soap itself. There is nothing in the soap that is not soap. It is itself, in itself. But when you further break down the soap to its molecular level, you will discover it to be composed of various elements, each of which by itself is not soap. In fact, these elements can be found in various places in nature. This means soap is empty of a fixed self-nature- there is no one thing that is soap by itself. Likewise, Buddha-nature is emptiness itself- it is not a dead unchanging thing- it is dynamic yet still- it is the truth of constant change itself- the truth that does not change. JoinMailingList4LatestUpdates/Reply