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Buddhist-Meditation-Systematic-and-Practical

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example of Xuan Zang: although he was deeply learned<br />

in the Yogacara School <strong>and</strong> of course knew of its<br />

meditations, still he did not practice them <strong>and</strong> had no<br />

realization of them. Just after translating Prajnaparamita<br />

he died (but from this work, of course, obtained some<br />

blessings).<br />

From all this we may see that sunyavada is a positive<br />

philosophy, not merely a negative dialectic, when it is<br />

actually practiced in meditation.<br />

2. When merits are always accompanied by realization<br />

of sunyata, they become very great; they are, in fact,<br />

then transcendent merits. Accompanied by sunyata,<br />

merits do not produce results in the worldly heavens but<br />

produce fruits for the great Bodhi path leading to<br />

nirvana.<br />

Nowadays there are many good persons who do not<br />

underst<strong>and</strong> this. They perform actions according to the<br />

first three paramitas, but if they do not act according to<br />

meditation on sunyata, then their merit will only carry<br />

them into a higher state in samsara. They may think that<br />

they are bodhisattvas but really they are not; they are<br />

just the same as common men who do something good<br />

to get to heaven.<br />

To give an example: in two almsgivings of the same<br />

quality <strong>and</strong> quantity, the merit of a donor with the force<br />

of sunyata meditations to accompany his actions will<br />

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