Tashi

Just stopping by to say I hope all is well.

That's sort of the way I see it. I sort of have some Buddhist influence.

Shunyata is infinite, but Alayavijya is not. Ok. Do you believe we can merge with Shunyata, in some sense?

Technically I do not believe that when we achieve moksha that we cease to be; I don't believe our consciousness dies. For example, whilst I am you and you are me so to speak, we still have our differences: we do not necessarily have the same likes and dislikes, you may enjoy celery, but I do not. I may enjoy Hindu in herbal teas, you may find herbal teas to be an abomination D) - I don't think we merge into a SuperConsciousness where we cease to be or anything. Difficult to explain, I know, but I think you get what I'm trying to say.

By the way; do you believe Shunyata's translation of "Emptiness" is an accurate translation? Wikipedia has it written that the term emptiness is not quite correct. This is not the first time I have heard this. Your opinion?

So even emptiness is finite, yet we merge with the finite?

And thanks.


I think it depends; Hinduism is very varied and the way I may view it may not be the same way as another does.

Personally, I see the world as real in one sense: we can touch and interact with things on an aggregate-level to use Buddhist terminology. The pain we feel, for example, is real on a physical level. Stubbing your toe will hurt your toe, we see from light bouncing around and so on--it all exists, but at the same time I see it as unreal in a sense that it is fleeting, temporal, transient. The flower on the tree appears, opens, blooms, and eventually ages, drops off, decays and vanishes.

Just my opinion, though.

Lol, I'll keep trying but I'm skeptical about anything happening with it. I'd love to do some visualization-meditation sometime, too.

What do you mean when you say Alalavijyana is finite?

I see Brahman as both unchanging and changing, something of a paradox I know, but since I'm leaning towards Shakta, I consider Devi as both Shakti and Brahman; the primordial cosmic energy, the very essence of change. I guess I see Brahman's unchanging nature as part of its ability to change, be indescribable, its bliss, and so on, but I see Brahman as changing because I see Brahman as everything, and everything changes, so in some ways, Brahman does change on a material level. If one day humans transform into other species for example, they will have Brahman. That's my current belief anyway.

Oh, I get what you mean about being real but non-real now.

I used to be able to visualize, but I lost it when I hit puberty for some reason and lost the ability to in general, even basic things. I can't imagine a red ball, for example, even though I know what one looks like. I've tried visualization methods but for some reason they just don't seem to blossom to fruition.

Can you share some of these subtle differences between Alayavijyana and Brahman, and how the world is real but not completely real in your view?

Welcome back!

Interesting, thanks for sharing.

I'd like to experience the sambhogakaya myself, but I don't generally get visualization. It's an ability that I literally lack, so I have no idea how I would experience sambhogakaya through my mind's eye.

The way you described Shunyata still reminds me of Brahman though, for some reason. To me it just seems like different terminology for the Absolute except expressed in positive (Hindu) and negative (Buddhist) terminology, lol.

It'd be interesting to find out how we exist after paninirvana. I wonder if one who had knowledge of how we exist afterwards would be able to explain it to us, though. I get the feeling they wouldn't be able to explain it, and we wouldn't be able to grasp it.

Thanks! I think it's good I've kept the Buddhist teachings. They make sense, and work.

I can understand you falling in love with Buddhism, it is a religion that one can easily fall in love with. Perhaps you were Buddhist in a life gone by.

Tibetan Buddhism is most certainly complicated! You'll have to explain more about Adibuddha and Sambhogakaya and how Dharmakaya relates to emptiness. From my own limited understanding of Tibetan Buddhism, Adibuddha is more or less the same as Brahman.


How does Shunyata relate to Adibuddha, and how do they both relate to Dharmakaya? If Adibuddha is seen as the emanation of all that is, how does it differ from Brahman? And, have you ever read much about Advaita Vedanta?

Finally, one I never really got: Where do we go, post paninirvana, in your opinion?

You're welcome for me adding you, thanks for accepting!

..continued. Jeez I can talk.



I find Tibetan Buddhism to be fascinating and wish to learn more about them, because besides the Hindu deities and Brahman, I'm also interested in the Tibetan Buddhist concepts such as Adibuddha, Dakinis, and Ishtadevatas (Yidams), as well as Dharmakaya, Nirmankaya and Sambhogakaya.


So, if you'd be up to explaining them to one such as myself sometime, it would be great.

I'm still searching for a denomination to follow that is right for me, but at the moment I am closest to Shaktism. This basically means I believe that I focus my worship upon the Sacred Mother and consider her both Shakti and Brahman. The aspect of Devi I like the most is Durga.

Were you born into Tibetan Buddhism, or did you convert? I was a Buddhist (Theravadin, and then I had a brief flirt with Zen as I was 'heading out' of Buddhism) for a few years, although I suppose I've never stopped being Buddhist, since I've taken the Buddhist teachings with me and subscribe to the Four Noble Truths, Noble Eightfold Path, Three Marks of Existence, and the Five Noble Precepts. I just have slightly different opinions on anicca, and wrong view (as I believe in God and a soul; but my concept of the soul is more akin to an immortal, unchanging thing as opposed to an eternal, unchanging self). Yep, I'm a confusing one.

One used to be able to give lots of frubals at a time. For example, I used to give about.. hm... 70,000 frubals in one go or something like that. However, the system is unable to cope with the massive amount of frubals flying around, so it's been set to 1 until it's fixed.

Namaste Tashi and welcome to RF. How are you settling in?

Welcome