Category: Connecting Some Dots

Parables of Matthew: Part 1

The Parables of Matthew

Matthew 13:44 “The Kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”

Bhagavad Gita:

Chapter 13: The Field and the Knower

Krishna said: (1) “The body is called a field, Arjuna; the one who knows it is called the Knower of the field. This is the knowledge of those who know.
I am the Knower of the field in everyone, Arjuna. Knowledge of the field and its Knower is true knowledge.”

(26) “Whatever exists, Arjuna, animate or inanimate, is born through the union of the field and its Knower. They alone see truly who see the Lord the same in every creature, who see the deathless in the heart of all that die. Seeing the same Lord everywhere, they do not harm themselves or others.”

(31) This supreme Self is without a beginning, undifferentiated, deathless. Though it dwells in the body, Arjuna, it neither acts nor is touched by action. As Space pervades the cosmos but remains unstained, the Self can never be tainted though it dwells in every creature. As the sun lights up the world, the Self dwelling in the field is the source of all light in the field.”

[From the chapter introduction: This duality is seen as eternal, a basic division of all things. The “field” is the body, but it is much more than that. It also includes the mind, as well as the “Ahamkara.” The Ahamkara is the awareness that each of us is an individual ego, from aham “I” and kara “maker”. This maker of “I”, Ahamkara, is the basic awareness of separateness; this makes the “I” a being or consciousness that believes it is separate from the rest of creation. The awareness, or consciousness, that experiences the Knower of the field is beyond Ahamkara. This is the enlightenment, or experience of emptiness, that the Buddha came to know. Lord Krishna is the knower of the field in all of us, and in all of creation.]
Mahayana Buddhism:

The six-syllable mantra most often used with prayer beads and prayer wheels of Tibetan Buddhism: “Om Mani Padme Hum”. Pronounced in English as: /om-man-ee-pay-may-hum/. The words are in the ancient language of Sanskrit. Commonly known as the Compassion Mantra. Literal meaning is most often: “Praise be to the jewel within the lotus”. “Mani“, the spiritual jewel, or treasure, is found within the “padme”, the Indian lotus plant that grows and emerges from the mud of still water. It manifests above the water unstained from the mud.

“Though there are many different types of wisdom, the main of all these is the wisdom of realizing emptiness.” –Fourteenth Dalai Lama
According to the current Dalai Lama, “hum” indicates indivisibility and unity, the foundational goal of the Heart and Diamond sutras, expressed as “emptiness”.