Wed, 17 Mar 2010
Sensations Are Empty
The Heart Sutra takes a technical turn in the next few words:
no eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, or mind; no sights, sounds, smells, tastes, objects of touch, or Dharmas; no field of the eyes up to and including no field of mind consciousness;
According to abhidharma for a sense perception to take place three things have to come together: contact with an external object, a functioning sense organ, and the mental faculty that perceives that sense. So the sense perception is just like a rainbow, the result of conditions, and it does not exist anywhere. There is no world where there are colored objects, noises, odors, tastes, or textures. Nor do these sensations exist inside the mind. Here is a simple example of how all sensations are relative. Everyone knows how bad orange juice tastes after brushing your teeth. That's because there's a chemical in toothpaste that temporarily removes your ability to taste sweetness. The sweetness is not in the orange juice. If it was, the chemical could not remove it. Nor is it in your tongue or mind, or else you would always have the sensation of sweetness. So all sensations are empty.
