Serial 1: Men, Come In -- Teaching You the N Uses of a "Steamed Bun"

2006/2/22 16:15:03

One

Although I often use steamed buns to dismiss men in my replies, it's absolutely not because steamed buns have been trending lately. A single steamed bun covers the entire history of the world. A single steamed bun says everything there is to say about science, philosophy, art, and life. A single steamed bun blankets heaven and earth, spanning past and present. How could Hu Ge or Chen Kaige -- those two fellows -- possibly comprehend?

Setting aside the symbolic meaning of the steamed bun, let's first look at its true nature. Originally, there was no such thing as a steamed bun. A steamed bun comes into being through the convergence of causes and conditions. The steamed bun's past life is no past life; its future life is no future life. Before the steamed bun becomes a steamed bun, seek the steamed bun and it cannot be found. You cannot say that water plus flour is a steamed bun -- the past is ungraspable. When the steamed bun is eaten, or falls into a gutter and slowly decays, seek the steamed bun and it cannot be found -- the future is ungraspable.

When the steamed bun is being a steamed bun, there is no substantial entity of a steamed bun that can be grasped. What we can grasp and observe is merely the properties that allow us to grasp and observe something we call a steamed bun -- that which a steamed bun ought to possess. In other words, the ability to perceive is the object of perception is the designation. That which is called a steamed bun -- being seen as and named a steamed bun -- is inseparable from the convergence of causes and conditions. And there is no need to try to prove the steamed bun lacks substance by breaking it down into molecules and atoms. The steamed bun fundamentally lacks substance -- it is born of the convergence of causes and conditions. Fundamentally, nothing is born. It is merely flowers perceived by diseased eyes.

The reason a steamed bun becomes a steamed bun is entirely because there exist people and a world that enable the steamed bun to become a steamed bun. This is what is called collective karma. The properties that make a steamed bun a steamed bun are determined by the people and the world that make the steamed bun a steamed bun. For example, the steamed bun is edible because there exist people who can eat steamed buns. If everyone in this world could only digest iron, then iron blocks would be the finest steamed buns, and steamed buns might well be iron blocks. The physical properties of the steamed bun are even more inseparable from the world we inhabit -- the world is born of collective karma.

The steamed bun: past ungraspable, future ungraspable, present ungraspable -- born of the convergence of causes and conditions, ultimately empty. It is precisely because of the steamed bun's ultimate emptiness that the steamed bun's splendor is possible. This is what is called "true emptiness, wondrous existence." The steamed bun is not a steamed bun -- it is merely named steamed bun.

(To be continued)