The Cabbage Sutra
by Sharon Salzberg
In a Mahayana Sutra the Buddha answers a question by simply holding up one flower; he doesn't speak at all. I always loved the simplicity of that story and thought that I understood what it was about. But it was only later, in a tiny monastery garden in India, that I came to experience how all of the Dharma, all of the laws of nature, all of the inherent truth of life could be revealed through one moment of seeing deeply into the nature of an object. It wasn't a flower, however, that served as my object, but a cabbage!I was practicing meditation in Benares, at a monastery situated right between a bus station and a train station. In the midst of this very noisy, urban location, there was one patch of garden, only a few square feet in size. One day I was sitting outside next to the few little tufts of grass and other things that grew there, and I noticed, within the garden, a single cabbage.
In that instant, looking at the cabbage, I saw all of the forces of nature, with tentative form and tentative color, coming together in a certain configuration at a certain time — being born, growing old, decaying, dying. Although distinctly appearing, the cabbage was without self-existence apart from the conditions that were coming together to form it. I also recognized that what I called my "self" was simply the forces of nature, with tentative form and color, coming together in a certain way at a certain time — having been born, growing old, decaying and dying — a constant flow of energy, with no entity of self beyond or behind it. Sitting there, just looking, I became one with that cabbage.
Like Alice taking a trip through the looking glass, suddenly I was seeing everything from a completely different angle. I could see that there is no inherent substance to anything in our lives. There is no solid, unchanging entity like an ego to confront. I was not facing an implacable enemy of "self" that needed to be overcome or eradicated. I then understood that spiritual life is fully knowing the true nature of things, most importantly, our own true nature.
The one battle we have is with our own ignorance. Ignorance is the root of all the uneasiness and dissatisfaction we feel in life. From this root springs the giant tree of death, grasping and fear. How do we deal with this? We might approach the tree and start picking off leaf after leaf and twig after twig and branch after branch in order to undo our ignorance. However, the most powerful and direct way is to uproot the tree and thus bring ignorance to its end. Uprooting the tree is the way of clear seeing, seeing how things truly are.
I admit I was a bit chagrined that day in the garden that my vehicle for seeing more clearly was a "lowly" cabbage. A text entitled the "Cabbage Sutra" seemed to lack something. But there we were — a plain, homely cabbage, nothing ornamental or showy, and me.... Practicing to see more clearly, and thus understand my life.
Sharon Salzberg teaches intensive awareness practice (vipassana or insight meditation) and lovingkindness and compassion (the Brahma Viharas). Co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, and the new Forest Refuge for long-term meditation practice, Ms. Salzberg is the author of Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness and A Heart as Wide as the World. She is currently at work on a book about the spiritual quality of faith.
From the Web site for Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. Used by arrangement with the author.
Copyright © 1999 by Sharon Salzberg
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