Question asked by Jerry
Dear pastor, I have 2 questions and I thank you for reading this and answering this. Anyways, my first question is, if you were to attempt to explain emptiness/no-self/etc. to a child, how would you interpret it to the them? Lastly, if you were to pray to any Buddha and say: "May my motivation for Dharma practice be free from the 8 worldly dharmas etc. etc." Would that prayer in itself be a worldly one?
Dear Jerry,
It would be very difficult to explain emptiness/no-self to a child. I don’t think it may even be possible for them to grasp. Even us adults have a hard time grasping it intellectually, let along actualising the teaching in meditation. Rather, it would be better to explain to the child that we need to love and care for all others and animals, etc. Teach them to be a better person, how to act and behave, what not to do, etc.
For your second question, no that motivation would not be worldly, since you are praying that your motivation be free from everything that is worldly. That is a very good prayer to have, but you also need to actualise the prayer by understand more about the Eight Worldly Concerns, how they are negative, how not having them helps us, and also how to put it into practice in daily life. I hope this helps.