Search found 2112 matches

by Rick
Mon Feb 05, 2024 4:16 pm
Forum: Dying and Death
Topic: Rebirth in the past
Replies: 23
Views: 1459

Re: Rebirth in the past

I am also interested in this question, see thread: https://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?p=383671&hilit=rebirth#p383671 The gist is that all things in samsara are subject to the laws of samsara: pratityasamutpada, linear time, entropy, usw. Once you're enlightened, all temporal bets are off,...
by Rick
Tue Jan 30, 2024 3:05 pm
Forum: Creative Writing
Topic: In awe of nature
Replies: 2
Views: 545

Re: In awe of nature

Misty wrote: Tue Jan 30, 2024 2:35 pm thinging mind
I thing, therefore I am.
by Rick
Mon Jan 29, 2024 10:41 pm
Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
Topic: Two truths question
Replies: 21
Views: 1145

Re: Two truths question

Astus wrote: Mon Jan 29, 2024 10:08 pm Most of them are like that
Thanks for the quoted passages. Should you be comfortable sharing, do *you* think it's useful/illuminating to ascribe aspects to ultimate truth?
by Rick
Mon Jan 29, 2024 4:50 pm
Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
Topic: Two truths question
Replies: 21
Views: 1145

Re: Two truths question

I am drawn to the Buddhist teachers/teachings that see ultimate truth as having an effable and ineffable aspect. The effable aspect, 'conventional ultimate truth' or 'provisional ultimate truth' is that which can be expressed clearly and meaningfully in words: the conventional descriptions of emptin...
by Rick
Sun Jan 28, 2024 9:08 pm
Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
Topic: Two truths question
Replies: 21
Views: 1145

Re: Two truths question

Merci! :-)
by Rick
Sun Jan 28, 2024 7:36 pm
Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
Topic: Two truths question
Replies: 21
Views: 1145

Re: Two truths question

Suchness is another term for emptiness. It is ineffable and inconceivable because there is nothing to name or cognise, as emptiness means the absence of an essence, a substance, a self. It is not that there is a special experience that is so otherworldly one cannot put it into words. That's helpful...
by Rick
Sun Jan 28, 2024 3:24 pm
Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
Topic: Two truths question
Replies: 21
Views: 1145

Re: Two truths question

I don't understand. I thought your message "the two truths are not things to be identical or different but simply conventional methods" meant that both truths are explainable and understandable? Why include the unfathomable tathata with the fathomable sunyata/pratityasamutpada? Avoiding th...
by Rick
Sun Jan 28, 2024 1:21 am
Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
Topic: About thoughts
Replies: 8
Views: 1150

Re: About thoughts

Is there anything that is NOT essence-less in Buddhism? Is 'essence-less' equivalent to 'empty of essence'?
by Rick
Sun Jan 28, 2024 12:53 am
Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
Topic: Two truths question
Replies: 21
Views: 1145

Re: Two truths question

5. None of the above. Per Nagarjuna and Madhyamaka, are the two truths (conventional, ultimate) actually: 1. one 2. distinct but essentially non-different, two sides of the same coin 3. intertwined, interpenetrating, a la ying/yang 4. context-dependent 5. dual aspects of an underlying fundamental(e...
by Rick
Sun Jan 28, 2024 12:45 am
Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
Topic: Two truths question
Replies: 21
Views: 1145

Re: Two truths question

Threefold Exclusive Truth - a Mahayana view that proposes Emptiness and Conditioned are distinct views, sort of like particle and wave views of light that can't be observed simultaneously. The Middle truth here is either the fluent alternation between the two states or positing a deeper truth that ...
by Rick
Sun Jan 28, 2024 12:37 am
Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
Topic: Two truths question
Replies: 21
Views: 1145

Re: Two truths question

PadmaVonSamba wrote: Sat Jan 27, 2024 6:17 pmswami
The ever delightful Swami Sarvapriyananda, the Yoda of Vedanta!
by Rick
Sun Jan 28, 2024 12:35 am
Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
Topic: Two truths question
Replies: 21
Views: 1145

Re: Two truths question

Conventional are dependently arisen conceptual fabrications commonly accepted as real. That there is no essence in/beyond conventions is called the ultimate. Therefore mistaking the conventional as ultimate is the conventional, and seeing the conventional as just conventional is the ultimate. So th...
by Rick
Sat Jan 27, 2024 3:33 pm
Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
Topic: Two truths question
Replies: 21
Views: 1145

Two truths question

Per Nagarjuna and Madhyamaka, are the two truths (conventional, ultimate) actually: 1. one 2. distinct but essentially non-different, two sides of the same coin 3. intertwined, interpenetrating, a la ying/yang 4. dual aspects of an underlying fundamental(er) substratum 5. ... ????? Ditto for samsara...
by Rick
Fri Sep 22, 2023 2:12 pm
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: Middle Way
Replies: 9
Views: 1148

Re: Middle Way

Kim O'Hara wrote: Wed Sep 20, 2023 10:48 pm Thinking of the path - our own path - as the Middle Way can be a useful reminder to ourselves to distrust and avoid all kinds of extremes.
That makes sense to me, Middle Way as 'antidote' to extremes/opposites thinking.
by Rick
Wed Sep 20, 2023 2:59 pm
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: Middle Way
Replies: 9
Views: 1148

Middle Way

The Middle Way is a path between (a transcending of) the extremes of eternalism and nihilism. Does that betweenness/transcendence also apply to the extremes: duality and non-duality, atman and anatman, conventional and ultimate? Does it apply to ALL extremes, all conceptual opposites?
by Rick
Tue May 30, 2023 2:57 pm
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: Pratityasamutpada mon amour
Replies: 3
Views: 1193

Pratityasamutpada mon amour

Are these similar in essence?

Positing/imagining that the agent of a thunderstorm is Zeus.
Positing/imagining that the agent of a human action/emotion/thought is the self.
by Rick
Fri May 19, 2023 4:37 pm
Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
Topic: Pratityasamutpada question
Replies: 19
Views: 1388

Re: Pratityasamutpada question

Maybe Shantideva's Bodhicharyavatara explains the relationship between Absolute and Conventional Truth more thoroughly. (Chapter 9 "Wisdom"). Shantideva applies to Nagarjuna often in that chapter, he does not refute him. E.g. verse 72 - but it's much better to read the whole chapter. http...
by Rick
Fri May 19, 2023 4:34 pm
Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
Topic: Pratityasamutpada question
Replies: 19
Views: 1388

Re: Pratityasamutpada question

In my view and interpretation causality is apparent or like a dream, it is not wholly real. I don't know in what field you are working, but I have been living and working in different countries and I have experienced that causality is different in different countries and in different environments. ...
by Rick
Fri May 19, 2023 4:29 pm
Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
Topic: Pratityasamutpada question
Replies: 19
Views: 1388

Re: Pratityasamutpada question

Tao wrote: Thu May 18, 2023 9:15 am So he affirms causality based on sunyata. Not based on objects.
That is pretty the same thing PadmaVonSamba said, right?
by Rick
Fri May 19, 2023 4:26 pm
Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
Topic: Pratityasamutpada question
Replies: 19
Views: 1388

Re: Pratityasamutpada question

Causality is how things seem to operate on a conventional level, but when analysed, there is no reality found in that. Roger that. It is only without any reality in it that causality can work (because no arising from itself (cause and result are exactly the same) or from other (cause and result are...

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