Spiritual Resonance with the Way: The Mystery of the Gatha Everyone Recites but Few Understand

Have you ever wondered why, whenever we enter a temple, we so often recite the gatha: "Năng lễ sở lễ tánh không tịch, cảm ứng đạo giao nan tư nghì" – "The one who bows and the one who is bowed to are by nature empty and still; spiritual resonance with the Way is beyond thought"? We recite it again and again, yet how many of us truly understand its deep meaning? Today, on the first day of the new year, Venerable Thich Chan Quang will guide us into the mysterious layers of meaning behind this chant that everyone knows by heart but few genuinely comprehend.

The Familiar Chant Never Truly Understood

Most temples of the Northern, Mahayana tradition recite this gatha before every ceremony. We have memorized it completely, yet as Venerable Chan Quang shared, even he needed more than thirty years of practice before realizing that he had never truly understood its meaning. He compared it to learning English: basic words like "How are you" seem simple enough, but only upon reaching university did he discover he had been mispronouncing them for a very long time.

"We recite it and recite it, our whole life long. It becomes so familiar that we barely notice, and often we never understand, our entire life, what the chant is even about."

So what does this gatha actually say? It is not merely a hymn of praise to the Buddha. It is a doorway leading into a profound spiritual world, where a human being can connect with all the Buddhas through wondrous spiritual resonance.

Sensing, Discerning, and Empathy – The First Steps

Before speaking of resonance, the Venerable distinguishes three concepts that are easily confused: sensing, discerning, and empathy. Sensing is intuition, as when we look at a stranger and immediately know they are hiding something. Discerning is the ability to understand more deeply the true nature of a person, like an employer who looks at candidates and recognizes who possesses blessings from merit and who lacks them. Empathy, in turn, is understanding that arises from compassion, like a nun who listens to a lay Buddhist recount their faults and feels deeply for their circumstances.

"Empathy means placing yourself in the position of that lay Buddhist. Because you stand in that person's position, you no longer criticize."

Empathy does not stop at understanding; it also dissolves and heals. The Venerable tells the story of a man who had taken a life and was fleeing the authorities when he came to the temple. The master did not condemn him or pass judgment, but used wisdom and compassion to show him clearly the karma he had created, urging him to repent and turn himself in. Through that empathy, a violent man became an exemplary practitioner even within prison. That is the transformative power of love.

Spiritual Resonance – The Secret of the Saints

If empathy belongs to those who cultivate the path, spiritual resonance belongs to the saints. Resonance is not seeing, hearing, or guessing. It is becoming the other being in order to know them utterly. The Venerable explains:

"This resonance belongs to the saints. For example, when an Arhat enters deep meditative concentration and then turns the mind toward illuminating the past lives of some being... the Arhat becomes that sentient being, living through all of the being's former lives in reverse, sweeping rapidly across that whole span of time and knowing it completely."

It may sound hard to believe, but the Venerable relates it to the work of criminal investigators. They often place themselves inside the mind of the criminal in order to trace every movement. That too is a crude form of resonance. As the mind grows purer, the capacity for resonance becomes ever more wondrous.

Sincerity and Communion with the Buddha

In the life of practice, resonance between us and the Buddha is opened through sincerity of heart. When we kneel before the Buddha with complete reverence, that sincerity invokes the blessing and protection of all the Buddhas. The Venerable emphasizes:

"When we hold sincerity in our hearts, we constantly receive the resonance and blessing of the saints. It is the same everywhere. And the more exalted the saint, the greater the blessing that reaches us."

But let us not be mistaken: spiritual resonance with the Way is no trivial matter. It requires us to reach a state of non-self (anatta), to see ourselves as empty as the void, just as the line "the one who bows and the one bowed to are by nature empty and still" teaches. Only then does our resonance with the Buddha become truly profound.

The Sacred Realm Like Indra's Net – A Cosmic Web

The image of "Indra's Net" in the Avatamsaka Sutra is compared by the Venerable to a cosmic internet. Each jewel in the net is a Buddha-realm, and when we connect to that network, we can resonate with all the Buddhas of the ten directions. The Venerable asks: how do we connect? The answer lies in practice, in purifying our heart until it becomes as translucent as a jewel, so that we may merge into the flow of the universe.

"The network of the saints holds only what is good and noble, and it fills the entire universe, not only this Earth. If we can slip into it, we will resonate with the whole universe."

Today, humanity has built the internet to connect information, yet it is only a crude reflection of the spiritual world that the Buddha taught thousands of years ago. If we know how to practice, how to keep the mind pure, we too can step into that network of transcendent wisdom.

Closing Words

The gatha of spiritual resonance with the Way is not merely a chant recited each day. It is a path of practice. From sensing, to discerning, to empathy, and on to resonance, each step asks us to live more deeply, to love more abundantly, and to practice letting go of the ego more completely. On this first day of the year, try placing yourself in another person's position, listening with your heart, and opening yourself to everyone. Perhaps you will touch something truly sacred, a wondrous resonance that only sincerity of heart can bring.

Wishing all Buddhist disciples a peaceful and joyful new year, always open-hearted in empathy and turned toward all that is noble and beautiful!