Illusion of name and form
This is a Dharma talk given by Venerable Master Shen-Kai in West Covina, California, USA

Some excerpts from the podcast:
"Buddhadharma is actually very simple. It is the simplest thing to learn, unlike things in this secular world that can be quite troublesome to learn. I mentioned just now that we
could expound the Buddhadharma based on a teacup. But how? Well, we could say, “This teacup is not a teacup. It is called a teacup”. To explain the teacup, we say that it isn’t a teacup and only thus is a teacup. This may sound very contradictory indeed. A teacup and yet not a teacup!? What on earth does this mean? This is a formula of
Buddhadharma: This teacup, not a teacup, is called a teacup. This teacup-thing isn’t a teacup. We named it ‘teacup’. We need to realise that ‘teacup’ is its given name, and this roundshaped glass vessel, its form. Everything, no matter what it is, has a name and a form.

Right now, we are human beings. We have human names and human forms. For example, if your mother had named you Paul at birth, then you would be Paul. If named Kitty, you’d be Kitty. However, in ancient China, children were formally given another name when they began their schooling. So, names are just labels. They are false."
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