1. The Essence of Teachings:
Emptiness -Neither Existence Nor Voidness (8)
• “Neither Creation Nor Destruction”
• The Three Calamities in Heavens and on Earth
By Vajra Master Yeshe Thaye
Transcribed by To Sau-chu and Byron K.K. Yiu
(Lecture delivered : July 10, 2003)
“Neither Creation Nor Destruction”
According to the Buddhist teachings, the “intrinsic
nature” of all things (the “noumenon”, or more commonly
known as the “thing-in–itself”) is “Emptiness”, which
is “neither created nor destroyed”. In other words, the
“intrinsic nature” of all things, whether they are material
and/or non-material ones, is pure “Emptiness”. Hence,
one should not envisage that this “Emptiness” is either
a thing, or that it is nothing, but it is “neither created nor
destroyed”.
Do you feel that this is
difficult to understand?
Is it very difficult to
understand for what we
have just mentioned –
“Neither Creation Nor
Destruction”? Maybe it
would be easier for you
to understand if we can Big bang (1)
use science to explain
it to you all! As a matter of fact, many people who have
learnt Buddhism for their whole lives, but they still do not
understand what is meant
by “Emptiness”. Therefore,
we hope to use science as
an aid to make it easer for
you to understand what is
meant by “Emptiness”.
The meaning of “Neither Creation” is that it has existed
naturally since time immemorial, and has not been
formed by creation. In other words, it is not produced by
some other things. Neither is it being able to reproduce
by itself. It simply has been existed naturally, and hence
this is known as “Neither Creation”.
Because it exists naturally, it has been existing at
all times, and it has never been annihilated. This is a
“relative” concept, as there is no “creation” and there is
certainly no “destruction”. On the other hand, if you have
produced something, but then they ceased to exist, and
so if these have been later recycled and reproduced, then
this can be said to have been “created” and have been
“destroyed”. What we are talking about as “Emptiness” is
thus “Neither Creation Nor Destruction”.
Big bang (2)
38
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2. The Three Calamities in Heavens and
on Earth
Now let us move back to the main topic. One day, the Lord
Buddha together with his disciples, about two thousand
five hundred monks, were sitting together and chatted
after lunch. One of the monks asked the Lord Buddha:
“Will our universe be destroyed some day?” The Lord
Buddha replied: “There are three sorts of calamities in
between the heavens and the earth.”
Big bang (5)
What are these three calamities? The first one is the
calamity of “conflagration”, that is the burning fire. The
second one is the calamity of “deluge”, that is the huge
water deluge. The third one is the calamity of “hurricanes
and storms”. The Lord Buddha had said that when all
the universes (regardless of whether they are in “the
formless, form and desire realms”, including all the
heavens and skies that heavenly beings are dwelling
upon, as well as the “desire realm” that human beings
are now dwelling upon) will be burnt down completely
without any residues, after all these three calamities
have occurred together.
Whereas, the “deluge” is referring to the “magnetic
currents” (which contains many debris stars mixed with
small fragments) that were formed after the explosion.
Nowadays, many scientists have discovered that there
are many of these “magnetic currents” that have long
existed in space, and they will form some kind of an
impact like water currents. Since the level of scientific
knowledge is so low two thousand and five hundred
years ago, so even if the Lord Buddha had explained
these meanings to the “monks” in scientific terms, they
would not be able to understand his meanings. Hence,
the Lord Buddha must have to use those terminologies
that had existed in the physical world at that time in
order to explain all these phenomena. Hence, it was
called the “deluge”. The “hurricanes and storms” refer to
the air currents and subsequent explosions due to high
pressures that had been created from this. In fact, this
has indicated that each of the universes will have the
“four stages” whereby the universe was “being formed,
persisted, deteriorated, and finally being annihilated”.
Does water really exist in space? So, actually, what
were you trying to say? By using scientific terms, the
“conflagration” can be construed as the “Big Bang”.
If one can see that this “Big Bang” as the new beginning,
then many kinds of elements will be formed. After which,
these will slowly condense to form all sorts of things in
the world. After these things have persisted for a certain
period of time, they will slowly begin to have changes. In
fact, they are continuously ever-changing, and so they
will deteriorate, and finally become annihilated. ……. (To
be Continued)
Big bang (3)
Big bang (6)
Big bang (4)
39
Issue no.13
Dudjom Buddhist Association (International) Tel (852) 2558 3680 Fax (852) 3157 1144
：
：
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www.facebook.com/DudjomBuddhist
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