Rick O'Shez
Irishman bouncing off walls
The more preconceptions one has, the less likely one is to see it. Religious beliefs are a particular obstacle here because of the emotional attachment to the views involved.
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If "everything is energy" then what does this mean?
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The more preconceptions one has, the less likely one is to see it. Religious beliefs are a particular obstacle here because of the emotional attachment to the views involved.
YmirGF
Bodhisattva in Recovery
Welcome to the intersection of all probabilities, right here, right now... all ways... the endless cosmic dance...
I am not asking you to make assumptions. There is a way common to Hinduism and Buddhism: Hear (read also, I suppose), contemplate, meditate.
godnotgod
Thou art That
The limitless view is only one view: that of Ultimate Reality. There is only one Reality. The rest are limited views based on Reason.
Exactly. There cannot be varieties of sunyata-s with many kinds of brains, and noses, and and and buttocks etc. etc.
(You know this last item on the list above gave me an idea .. why this ultimate truth of sunyata may not be appealing). Ha ha.
Rick O'Shez
Irishman bouncing off walls
Sunyata is a Buddhist teaching, and is not compatible with the Hindu teachings of Atman and Brahman. Get over it.
I understand this. But here we seem to have Spiney variety of Sunyata.
Rick O'Shez
Irishman bouncing off walls
Good.
godnotgod
Thou art That
godnotgod
Thou art That
But...but...wait....is not Brahman empty of self-nature, rendering Brahman in perfect accord with Sunyata.
godnotgod
Thou art That
Rick O'Shez
Irishman bouncing off walls
No, completely wrong. Brahman is an absolute, and sunyata is incompatible with absolutes. And in the suttas anatta refutes Atman, another absolute.
Either you are clueless about Buddhist teachings or you are being very dishonest.
Rick O'Shez
Irishman bouncing off walls
Spinyata?
Oh come on, Alice, pour the Mad Hatter another cup of tea and write those long-overdue definitions for all your new-age jargon buzz-words.
godnotgod
Thou art That
"The concept of a substance or substratum that is unchanging was thus rejected, and the Buddhist position was that no substance exists apart from its modifications or particular forms. Existence and nonexistence are only relative to each other and pertain only to the world of the conditioned – absolute (nonrelative) being was thus denied. Still, there is nirvana, absolute reality, the unconditioned, which transcends such relative categories as existence and non-existence. Nirvana is the unmanifest source, yet is not a substance at all – it is only Nothing. Emptiness (sunyata) is not "a stuff out of which all things are," Robinson writes. "Rather, it is the fact that no immutable substance exists and none underlies phenomena." This emptiness is a "descriptive law," not a "substantial entity". It is nothing at all. The world of phenomena (samsara) is a phantom that is conjured up by a phantom (maya). "These phantoms exist" only "insofar as they appear and act, but inexist insofar as they are insubstantial and impermanent." Nirvana is changeless, permanent, yet not "substantial in any sense. It is dependent coarising, sunyata, that is the process of change". Emptiness of all things is the fact of Nirvana, which is itself nothing."
http://alangullette.com/essays/philo/nothing.htm
godnotgod
Thou art That
Rick O'Shez
Irishman bouncing off walls
Yep, that's what I've been saying, and note the last line above in particular.
Sunyata is not Brahman, and neither is Nirvana.
You are drawing false equivalences because it suits your syncretic new-age agenda. It's a pointless and dishonest exercise.
godnotgod
Thou art That
You've missed the point: Nirvana is an absolute, even though Buddhism says there are none.
Rick O'Shez
Irishman bouncing off walls
Nirvana is NOT an absolute. It is not an essence or a thing, it is not like Atman or Brahman. It is a state of mind.
"Unconditioned" is an adjective, not a noun. An important distinction. There is no "the unconditioned".
In the suttas Nibbana is a mind free from ( not conditioned by ) craving, aversion and delusion, that is the standard definition. And in the suttas and the Dhammapada you will find the refrain "Sabbe dhamma anatta" which means all phenomena lack self-nature, including Nibbana. This is clear and definitive.
In Mahayana texts like the Heart Sutra, Nirvana is a mind illuminated by prajna.
You're right, Buddhism DOES say there are no absolutes, despite peoples' desperate attempts to smuggle one in and make Buddhism into a school of Hinduism.
I really wish you would stop misrepresenting Buddhism to suit your syncretic new-age agenda. Be honest and admit that you had a flirtation with Zen Buddhism and then converted to Choprism.
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The verse perhaps says ".. an unconditioned"? I do not remember.
In our primary classes in school we were taught that adjectives qualify nouns. Probably that definition has changed.
Runewolf1973
Materialism/Animism
So these limited views based on reason are what exactly? How can they be excluded from the Whole which is the universe?
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