I am Su Chen (素塵).

 

This is a portal to record my reflections on Buddhist philosophy and human wisdom.

 

During the COVID-19 epidemic, I completed a series of works called Silent Zen Bodhi. In this series of works, I used ancient Indian Sanskrit, ancient Chinese seal script, and modern English to interpret 500 terms of Buddhist philosophy. 

 

Since a few years ago, I have systematically learned about the lives of many scholars during the Nalanda Monastery period, read different schools of Buddhist thought during the Nalanda Monastery period, and gained deep insights.

 

In order to try to understand the author's original thoughts, I studied Indian Sanskrit, read and thought over and over against Buddhist scriptures in Sanskrit, English, and ancient Chinese.

 

By reading Buddhist philosophy in English and simultaneously reading Buddhist philosophy in ancient Chinese and Indian Sanskrit, I was finally able to "communicate" with the ancients.

 

Language is the tool we use to describe objects. This object can be a "thing" or a "thought". However, the amount of information of objects is infinite, but the amount of information of "language-formed description" is limited. For example, suppose we want to describe a water glass in front of us. If we want to describe this water glass and try to distinguish the water glass in front of us from other water glasses, then we can describe the attributes of this water glass, which includes shape, color, material, etc. Take color as an example. As experiencers, when we look at a water glass from different angles, we will see different colors because of differences in light and shade, differences in retinal photosensitivity, and so on. Every different angle contains a certain amount of information. Obviously, we can never fully and accurately describe the glass of water in front of us. We can never use a limited tool (such as language) to completely, accurately, truly, and absolutely describe an object with infinite information. This is the "limitation" and "flaw" of language as a tool.

 

When I tried to read and understand Buddhist philosophy in Sanskrit, English, and ancient Chinese, I provided myself with three different tools, which gave me the opportunity to get closer to the original thoughts that the author wanted to express.

 

Starting in 2023, I started writing my reflections on Vasubhandu’s Mind-Only philosophy. At the moment, I am reinterpreting Vasubhandu's theory of the Three Natures and comparing it with modern Western philosophy and classical Chinese philosophy.