Religions of the World

[first lines]

Kwong-roshi:
In Zen, um, truth means seeing reality as it is without any projections. The sky is blue, grass is green, water is wet.

Lewis Lancaster:
Knowing that our experience is internal means that we are less attached to the external world, which the Buddhists have never denied. They are not nihilists. They have never said that there is nothing out there.

Kwong-roshi:
This conditioned thinking mind is composed of greed, anger and ignorance. So therefore when you see the world, perceive the world, in this way, there's always a separation between subject and object. The word Buddhism comes from "bud": means to be awake. So actually we would usually say "Buddha-dharma": awakened to the truth.

Rina Sircar:
Buddha's teaching is so simple. His whole teaching we can just put in two lines. What he said? First of all, when he was dying, and in his deathbed, he told his closest disciple, Ananda: "Be mindful." And when he started teaching: "Abstain from evil." "Do good." "Purify your mind."

[opening narration]

Narrator:
Buddhism, historically the religion of millions of Asians, is a name derived from the Buddha, a spiritual leader in ancient India. The term "Buddha" means "a fully enlightened person". And Buddhism has become the religion and/or a life philosophy of millions who are guided by this ancient tradition in seeking spiritual enlightenment.

[last lines]

Kwong-roshi:
"Empty" has kind of a negative connotation, again. It's very misunderstood, but there's a traditional way of looking at emptiness. Okay? There are three parts to it. And one is theoretical. We call it "theoretical Zen." And that's when form is emptiness, and emptiness is form. And not just the thinking mind. The things become one. And the second part is Tathagata Zen. And here is where there is no emptiness and no form. That's the second part. And basically nothing can be said at this point. No words can describe it. Just quiet. And the third part is: form is form, emptiness is emptiness. So these three things are very important. And you will go through that kind of spectrum in studying Zen. And the third part is the highest value in the sense that: the sky is blue, grass is green. We come back to seeing reality just as it is. And the first couple of parts is negating reality because we've already conditioned ourselves to be separated from reality. And this is how emptiness plays a major part in, uh, zazen, or meditation practice.

[closing narration]

Narrator:
In Zen, every action is truly a Buddhist action.