Master Haiyun v.3

Yet another try of Master Haiyun, and yet another stranger… The eyes are too big, again. I wonder if it has something to do with my desire of having bigger eyes?

Today I started reading Master Haiyun’s “The Dimond Sutra” (“非常金剛經”), after finishing Master Nan’s “Dimond Sutra Explained” (“金剛經說甚麼“). Immediately, I found that these two masters interprets the famous sutra differently. I don’t mean that they supply different material; I mean that they actually interpret the sutra in 2 different ways. It’s as if 2 directors produce 2 complete different movies based on the same script. Both are good, but different.

So what to do when one encounters 2 very different interpretations? Master Haiyun said something about this in one of his books: The beginners should read one and only one master’s interpretation first; after acquiring enough knowledge in Buddhism, one can read other master’s interpretations, since by then one is capable of processing information and placing good judgement.

Well, I should’ve followed his advice… (My ability of reading Old Chinese is a joke due to years of neglect and ignorance; on top of that, I don’t know much about Buddhism to tell an orange from an apple.) But I am greedy and wanna know everything about Buddhism. What I can do now is to accept everything I read and don’t place any judgement at this time (I can’t, anyway). One day I’ll know what’s going on without relying on others’ interpretations. One day.

[12/07/2006 Update] I just found that one of Master Haiyun’s books is translated into English called “The Dawn of Enlightenment“.