"Form is emptiness, emptiness is form."
Does Mahayana/Madhyamaka say all phenomena are empty *and* have form? Or are there exceptions, non-empty or form-less phenomena?
Search found 2113 matches
- Sun Mar 24, 2024 7:35 pm
- Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
- Topic: Form and emptiness
- Replies: 7
- Views: 602
- Mon Feb 05, 2024 4:16 pm
- Forum: Dying and Death
- Topic: Rebirth in the past
- Replies: 23
- Views: 1624
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,...
- Tue Jan 30, 2024 3:05 pm
- Forum: Creative Writing
- Topic: In awe of nature
- Replies: 2
- Views: 666
- Mon Jan 29, 2024 10:41 pm
- Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
- Topic: Two truths question
- Replies: 21
- Views: 1175
- Mon Jan 29, 2024 4:50 pm
- Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
- Topic: Two truths question
- Replies: 21
- Views: 1175
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...
- Sun Jan 28, 2024 9:08 pm
- Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
- Topic: Two truths question
- Replies: 21
- Views: 1175
Re: Two truths question
Merci!
- Sun Jan 28, 2024 7:36 pm
- Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
- Topic: Two truths question
- Replies: 21
- Views: 1175
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...
- Sun Jan 28, 2024 3:24 pm
- Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
- Topic: Two truths question
- Replies: 21
- Views: 1175
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...
- Sun Jan 28, 2024 1:21 am
- Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
- Topic: About thoughts
- Replies: 8
- Views: 1161
Re: About thoughts
Is there anything that is NOT essence-less in Buddhism? Is 'essence-less' equivalent to 'empty of essence'?
- Sun Jan 28, 2024 12:53 am
- Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
- Topic: Two truths question
- Replies: 21
- Views: 1175
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...
- Sun Jan 28, 2024 12:45 am
- Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
- Topic: Two truths question
- Replies: 21
- Views: 1175
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 ...
- Sun Jan 28, 2024 12:37 am
- Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
- Topic: Two truths question
- Replies: 21
- Views: 1175
Re: Two truths question
The ever delightful Swami Sarvapriyananda, the Yoda of Vedanta!
- Sun Jan 28, 2024 12:35 am
- Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
- Topic: Two truths question
- Replies: 21
- Views: 1175
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...
- Sat Jan 27, 2024 3:33 pm
- Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
- Topic: Two truths question
- Replies: 21
- Views: 1175
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...
- Fri Sep 22, 2023 2:12 pm
- Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
- Topic: Middle Way
- Replies: 9
- Views: 1176
Re: Middle Way
That makes sense to me, Middle Way as 'antidote' to extremes/opposites thinking.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.
- Wed Sep 20, 2023 2:59 pm
- Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
- Topic: Middle Way
- Replies: 9
- Views: 1176
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?
- Tue May 30, 2023 2:57 pm
- Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
- Topic: Pratityasamutpada mon amour
- Replies: 3
- Views: 1198
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.
Positing/imagining that the agent of a thunderstorm is Zeus.
Positing/imagining that the agent of a human action/emotion/thought is the self.
- Fri May 19, 2023 4:37 pm
- Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
- Topic: Pratityasamutpada question
- Replies: 19
- Views: 1402
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...
- Fri May 19, 2023 4:34 pm
- Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
- Topic: Pratityasamutpada question
- Replies: 19
- Views: 1402
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. ...
- Fri May 19, 2023 4:29 pm
- Forum: Discovering Mahayana Buddhism
- Topic: Pratityasamutpada question
- Replies: 19
- Views: 1402