Ultimate reality

Ultimate reality is both ordinary and profound reality: the reality of everything that appears in the world (phenomena), and the reality of the emptiness of all things.

In the buddhist view, everything that appears (things and beings) is the product of changing circumstances: nothing exists independently. Everything we perceive is ephemeral, lasting for varying durations. A mountain may seem unchanging, yet it is constantly eroding. A small cloud obscuring its peak can vanish in an instant before our eyes.

By the way, what is a cloud? It’s simply a mass of water droplets suspended in the air. Just water and air. There is no "thing" that is a cloud. And yet, we see them, admire or lament them. We may interpret them to forecast other phenomena, like rain or a storm.

Thus, a cloud is both emptiness and a concrete, visible, and active phenomenon. The word "cloud" refers to something without intrinsic substance; it’s just a word. Humans name natural phenomena to understand, to know, to express, and to act within and upon the world.

A thousand links weave the production of a sheet of paper

Is a sheet of paper inherently a sheet of paper? It is a sheet of paper for the time it is used. Depending on its use, it can become an envelope, a fan, a shim for an uneven stool, or a paper airplane. In itself, it is an assembly of plant fibers made from cellulose molecules.

The Korean Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh (1926-2022) saw in a sheet of paper all the conditions that brought it into being: fertile soil, clouds, rain, sunshine, trees, the healthy lumberjack, his axe or saw, his parents, etc. and the person who sees the paper. In The Heart of Understanding, he writes:

The fact is that this sheet is made only of non-paper elements, and if we were to return these non-paper elements to their respective sources, there would no longer be any paper.

This is true of everything we perceive: each thing, each being, is just the product of bundle of ephemeral conditions. This is the process of interdependent origination, or conditioned co-arising. Each event, each being, is distinct yet inseparable from other events or beings.

Through regular zazen practice, this view deepens. And our action in the world is influenced by it.

Acting for both individual and collective benefit, as there is no separation between beings and things, is the magnificent and challenging proposal of the way of Zen.