Ramblings of a Monk

If there’s such a thing as writer’s block, this is it. I inserted this entry like weeks ago in the hope of pushing myself to pen down my thoughts about emptiness via the illustration of a bowl of delicious laksa, and yet as I sat here weeks later, there is just no impetus to write anything. hmmm ….

I think I’ll just write down what I explained during my workshop about the laksa, instead of making it into a proper article.

So back in August and October, I conducted two four-day workshops on the Heart Sutra. It was mooted by the Youth Ministry of Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery during one of the informal “Dharma discussions”. While the heart sutra is famous for its “form is not different from emptiness, emptiness is not different from form; form is emptiness, emptiness is form” verse, apparently many books on this sutra were incorrect or misguided to say the least. Consequently, many people also had a somewhat tinted idea of what this sutra is about. Hence the Heart Sutra workshop.

This blog entry is not trying to explaining the whole sutra but focuses on one of the example given during the workshop to illustrate emptiness as simple as can be, and as close to our everyday life as possible, that is the delicious laksa!

For the uninformed, laksa is a southeast asia delicacy that has two variant. One, the gravy like curry noodle that has a tinge of spice, sweetness, richness (from coconut milk or diary milk for the health conscious) and other assortment of ingredient. This variant can be normally found in Singapore and … hmmm … I think only in Singapore! … Two, the other variant (or original version depending on whether you are a Malaysian or a Singaporean!) is the Penang laksa, that is basically what is known as Asam Laksa. The soup base is slightly more diluted and has the sour spicy taste of asam curry! mmmm … … Depending on individual, the two variants have their own fan bases.

The explaination below will work for either variant, but since the workshop was conducted in Singapore, I referred to the Singapore variant, and more specifically the Katong Laksa. The Katong laksa is basically the standard laksa with its rice noodle cut shorter and served in a small porcelein bowl and with only a porcelein spoon. I’ve tried it before and frankly, there’s nothing really sooo special about it, but some swear by it. For those who still have no idea what laksa, Penang, Singapore, Katong or otherwise, replace it with some food that you find absolutely delicious.

So a simple question to ask is “What does a bowl of delicious laksa comprise?” I threw this question to many different people and got back many similar replies and some … not so similar replies. Here’s what is needed:

• Laksa (Obviously! *DUH*)
• Bowl (Apparent as an afterthought but something we usually assume to be present and hence cancel out as a factor)
• Liking
• Perception
• Desire
• Craving
• Appetite/hunger
• Health (Again, apparent as an afterthought but usually not considered initially)
• Ambience
• Quantity
• Price
• Taster / Perceiver / Us (Someone got to eat the laksa right?)
• etc etc …

From this simple exercise, we find that a bowl of deliciousness laksa requires many more factors than one might realise. We could think of many more factors required for delicious laksa to hold true, but from the non-exhaustive list itself, we can already see that it is not as discrete as we may think it to be. Most of the factors are in fact common sense, except that we tend to filter out all these and veer towards thinking that deliciousness exist inherently in laksa. Further, not everyone likes laksa. Some may just feel ambivalent about it. Others may dislike it. So not everyone find laksa delicious. In that case, does the deliciousness exist in and of the laksa itself, separate from external conditions or does it not? If it really exist in the laksa, then everyone should be able to experience it. But not everyone finds laksa delicious. So does it mean the deliciousness do not exist? But if it does not, then what of those who find laksa delicious?

Steering clear of the two extreme of absolute intrinsic existence and absolute intrinsic non-existence, we say that deliciousness is not intrinsic in laksa. That the laksa is empty of an intrinsic characteristic of deliciousness. The emptiness of delicious laksa refers to this lack of inherent, intrinsic, characteristic of deliciousness in laksa. Deliciousness however, do arise when conditions are present. It arises dependent on conditions, i.e. the lists of conditions above. It is what we call dependent arising. Emptiness and Dependent Arising are really two names for the same phenomena.