Sutra Excerpts, The Masters

A State Where There is Neither Earth, nor Water, nor Heat, nor Air

This excerpt from one of Buddha’s teachings, taken from the Nibbana Sutta, echoes the line in the Heart Sutra about form and emptiness, and the nature of reality, given that emptiness. There is a base, or state, where phenomena are not as we perceive them on a day to day basis, where the dichotomies of existence no longer play out. It is sometimes also translated as ‘the uncreate’.

 

There is, bhikkhus, that base where there is no earth, no water, no fire, no air; no base consisting of the infinity of space, no base consisting of the infinity of consciousness, no base consisting of nothingness, no base consisting of neither-perception-nor-non-perception; neither this world nor another world nor both; neither sun nor moon. Here, bhikkhus, I say there is no coming, no going, no staying, no deceasing, no uprising. Not fixed, not movable, it has no support. Just this is the end of suffering.

Buddha, from the Nibbāna Sutta: Parinibbana
Translated by John D Ireland