Some of my thoughts on Eight

The message here is pretty clear. Transmission of the teaching that leads beings toward enlightenment is much much more important than material acts of charity. The enlightenment of another being is a much more important and enduring phenomenon than donating money to the Salvation Army or whatever. Furthermore, by transmitting the teaching, we are contributing to the enlightenment of future beings who learn from those we helped to teach. Thus the body of merit extends indefinitely into the future, and buddha's claim no longer sounds so hyperbolic.

Throughout this whole sutra, especially in Red Pine's translation, frequently sentences of the form "X is said by the Tathagata to be no X. Thus it is referred to as 'X'." The basic meaning behind this form, as I see it, is to emphasize the inadequacy of any concept particularly X to be completely accurate. For example, suppose X is "Buddha-dharmas." Hui-Neng has the following to say in that case:

"All verbal and literary expressions are like labels, like pointing fingers. Labels and pointers mean shadows and echoes. You obtain a commodity by its label, and you see the moon by way of the pointing finger---the moon is not the finger, the label is not the thing itself. Just get the teaching by way of the sutra---the sutra is not the teaching. The sutra literature is visible to the physical eye, but the teaching is visible to the eye of insight. Without the eye of insight you just see the literature and not the teaching. If you do not see the teaching, you do not understand what Buddha meant. If you do not understand what Buddha meant, then reciting sutras won't produce buddhahood."