The Practitioner of Clarity, Emptiness, and Compassion

For his entire life, Buddha Shakyamuni had never forgotten the intent to liberate sentient beings from suffering. As the followers of the Buddha, we assume the same concern and duty. Through Dharma practice, we can acquire secular happiness, attain arhatship, pratyekabuddhahood, bodhisattva bhumis, and even Buddhahood. It is a path to be free from suffering leading to the ultimate happiness. This is an indispensable path that we must take. In this world or the universe, this is the only way to be free from suffering and to acquire the ultimate happiness.

Without Dharma, sentient beings are lost in the delusion of the five poisons (greed, aversion, ignorance, pride, and doubt). These five poisons interact to aggravate the effect and create the mire of cyclic existence. Within this matrix of endless suffering, we harm others out of delusions. In order to lead beings free from suffering, we need to introduce them to Dharma. That’s why we take refuge in the Three Jewels: the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. The Three Jewels are a guiding light for all sentient beings.

What is the “Buddha”? It is a state of awakening. To be awakened from what? It is like opening our eyes in the morning knowing that a long night had passed. In broad daylight, we can do many things. When we are in the darkness of samsara, we can’t seem to do anything right. Then, who could lead us out from the darkness? The awakened Buddha who could inspire our primordial awareness. The path that he points out is “the Dharma”, a road to remove all afflictions so obscurations and obstacles will no longer emerge.

The essence of the Buddha is emptiness. The wisdom of the Buddha is clarity. The activity of the Buddha is all-pervasive compassion. Right now, we have not attained emptiness and clarity just yet. So, we must start by "simulating" the compassion of the Buddha and work our way to the realization of clarity and emptiness. That’d be the direction to Buddhahood.

From a different perspective, “emptiness, clarity, and compassion” are the “Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya, and the Nirmanakaya” of the Buddha. Emptiness is the essence of the Buddha or Dharmakaya. The omniscient wisdom being the clarity or luminosity. The mind of every sentient being is of “clarity”, the Sambhogakaya aspect of the Buddha. Lastly, the all-pervasive compassion is the Nirmanakaya of the Buddha. The trikaya makes up the realm of Avatamsaka.