Why is it so hard to let go of our sense of being wronged?

Speaker: Bom Hyon Sunim

Wed 10 Aug | 7-8.30pm

Location: In person at Metta Centre (Bankstown) or Online (Zoom link below)

Cost: By donation

We look at a red flower and think red, but it may surprise you that there is actually no red colour in the flower … the flower is empty of red! We hold onto thoughts and feelings as if they have real substance – but what if substance is just our illusion?

Why is it that the atoms and molecules in our brains create an experience of substance and substantiality? And how is it that we see and engage with our own body and mind, and the experience of everything around us as having substance and particularity– when all of creation is actually an illusion of manifest reality?

Planet Earth sits in the Milky Way Galaxy. There are over 400 billion suns in our galaxy and our next-door neighbour Andromeda, has a similar number of stars. The scientists tell us there are two trillion galaxies in the known Universe and uncountable trillions of planets, with an estimated 60 billion habitable planets in our own galaxy, which is only point zero one percent of the Universe. The other 99.9% is invisible interstellar dust – unknown and probably unknowable. And yet, that so-called invisible vast emptiness is the ground of all creation, the ground of our very existence! That emptiness, the so-called vacuum, is full! It’s the source of everything in the known Universe, of consciousness itself!

The Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra tells us that in emptiness there is no form, no feeling, no thought, no volition nor consciousness. Form is empty, feeling is empty, thought is empty and therefore no knowing. Volition is empty therefore no doing, consciousness is empty therefore no awakening. If you ask physicists what the Universe is made from, the answer you get is no-thing. It’s an unsolvable conundrum from a science perspective. Science can create models of reality…but it does not access the hidden reality. So how can we engage meaningfully with this vast universe and the galaxy we call home – and what is our part to play in it?

About the Speaker: Bom Hyon Sunim is a Buddhist monk, scholar, teacher, and activist who lives on the unceded lands of the Gundungurra and Tharawal people. In early 1990s Sunim took robes and lived in monasteries in Thailand and Korea before returning to Australia in 2009. She established the first Buddhist Spiritual Care education program in Victoria and has been active in spiritual care/chaplaincy in prisons, hospitals, universities, and the Defence Force. Her professional background is in education and social work, with graduate training in peace & mediation studies, counselling, and psychotherapy. She is currently a PhD research candidate and sessional academic. Sunim’s deep commitment is to live and learn with others who are motivated ecologically and compassionately to support each other in right relationship to the planet and all beings.

Hybrid Event: Attendees will have the opportunity to participate in an interactive session with the speaker. As we invite speakers from all around the world and Sydney, our speaker for this event will be joining us by video. You are welcome to join the session in person at the Metta Centre or online by clicking on this link to access the session: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83506489824?pwd=cmpNQ1ljSmFVYURLWVN1dWllYUN1dz09 Alternatively, you can dial in from your telephone (call charges apply): +61 2 8015 6011 | Meeting ID: 835 0648 9824| Passcode: 718905