Search found 1132 matches

by Sherab
Sun Mar 17, 2024 1:21 pm
Forum: Mahāyāna Buddhism
Topic: How to respond to theistic/deistic arguments from a Madhyamaka point of view?
Replies: 21
Views: 1123

Re: How to respond to theistic/deistic arguments from a Madhyamaka point of view?

I came across an atheist's counter-argument to the Aristotelian idea of the unmoved mover/initial cause, with parallels with Indian culture. This counter-argument aligns with Buddhism and current cosmology. It suggests placing space and time as the unmoved mover, where instead of a cause, we would ...
by Sherab
Sat Mar 02, 2024 12:41 am
Forum: Mahāyāna Buddhism
Topic: How to respond to theistic/deistic arguments from a Madhyamaka point of view?
Replies: 21
Views: 1123

Re: How to respond to theistic/deistic arguments from a Madhyamaka point of view?

Bit of a long and philosophically complex set of questions here. I have a friend who is a deist and they know some arguments for why a God-like first cause of the universe exists, and I have ran into some issues with aspects of the Madhyamaka view on the subject of these arguments. It would be grea...
by Sherab
Thu Dec 02, 2021 7:07 am
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: Question about dependent origination
Replies: 67
Views: 26960

Re: Question about dependent origination

Conventionally, there are things out there. It's not a problem unless one wants to propose that things exist from their own side. That includes everything, both subject and objects, insides and outsides. As I have argued previously, it is all mental representations based on your argument. Because o...
by Sherab
Tue Nov 30, 2021 11:02 pm
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: Question about dependent origination
Replies: 67
Views: 26960

Re: Question about dependent origination

An appearance indeed belongs to a mind; but an apparent object does not (as Longchenpa shows in both chapter 8 and chapter 12 of his commentary on the Treasury of the Dharmdhātu). For this reasons there are appearances for sentient beings, but not for rocks and trees. Saying that neither appearance...
by Sherab
Tue Nov 30, 2021 10:58 pm
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: Question about dependent origination
Replies: 67
Views: 26960

Re: Question about dependent origination

This phenomena-noumena dichotomy is not found in Buddhist teachings. Positing a noumena beyond your senses is positing a svabhāva. What you say is all in your mind, not mine. Conventionally, there are things out there. It's not a problem unless one wants to propose that things exist from their own ...
by Sherab
Mon Nov 29, 2021 9:34 pm
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: Question about dependent origination
Replies: 67
Views: 26960

Re: Question about dependent origination

What I was asking is whether the thing being referred to in "fundamentally there is no thing", only refers to the mental image in the mind and not to the physical thing from which the perceiving mind generates its image, or the physical thing or both. We all know that the mental image of ...
by Sherab
Mon Nov 29, 2021 9:21 pm
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: Question about dependent origination
Replies: 67
Views: 26960

Re: Question about dependent origination

All the way down, and there is no bottom, Since conventions are mind made, therefore, as far as your analysis goes, it applies only to whatever is in the mind. It cannot say anything as regards whatever is external to the mind, and the nature of whatever is external to the mind. “Mind” is also a co...
by Sherab
Mon Nov 29, 2021 1:15 am
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: Question about dependent origination
Replies: 67
Views: 26960

Re: Question about dependent origination

Mind is no thing, not inside or outside our body. Mental images are projected from mind and they are no different to mind’s nature of no thing no location, no air, no space. Yet from this physical body, we are distinct individuals as you know you are not me. Maybe we and the physical worlds are onl...
by Sherab
Mon Nov 29, 2021 1:11 am
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: Question about dependent origination
Replies: 67
Views: 26960

Re: Question about dependent origination

A convention. So, a cause is a convention of a cause which is a convention of a convention of a cause ...... All the way down, and there is no bottom, Since conventions are mind made, therefore, as far as your analysis goes, it applies only to whatever is in the mind. It cannot say anything as rega...
by Sherab
Sun Nov 28, 2021 1:37 am
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: Question about dependent origination
Replies: 67
Views: 26960

Re: Question about dependent origination

That depends on who you ask. For example, if you ask Chan Sixth Patriarch Hui Neng, he’d say ‘fundamentally there is no thing.’ His successor Master Yongjia Xuanjue also says, ‘When awakened to the Dharmakaya there is no thing.’ But he also said, ‘the delusory appearance without body is Dharmakaya....
by Sherab
Sun Nov 28, 2021 1:29 am
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: Question about dependent origination
Replies: 67
Views: 26960

Re: Question about dependent origination

Malcolm wrote: Fri Nov 26, 2021 10:17 pm
Sherab wrote: Fri Nov 26, 2021 9:57 pm
Malcolm wrote: Fri Nov 26, 2021 1:21 am

A cause.
And what is a cause which is not a thing but a convention of a cause?
A convention.
So, a cause is a convention of a cause which is a convention of a convention of a cause ......
by Sherab
Fri Nov 26, 2021 10:01 pm
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: Question about dependent origination
Replies: 67
Views: 26960

Re: Question about dependent origination

But be careful that when you say “a thing” that you aren’t implying “thing ness ”. In other words, if you say that a table is established from parts (“…but it arises because of a cause or causes…”) don’t make the mistake of saying that now, some essential “table-ness” suddenly exists as the result....
by Sherab
Fri Nov 26, 2021 9:57 pm
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: Question about dependent origination
Replies: 67
Views: 26960

Re: Question about dependent origination

Malcolm wrote: Fri Nov 26, 2021 1:21 am
Sherab wrote: Thu Nov 25, 2021 10:45 pm
Malcolm wrote: Thu Nov 25, 2021 1:01 pm

A convention.
A convention of what?
A cause.
And what is a cause which is not a thing but a convention of a cause?
by Sherab
Thu Nov 25, 2021 10:53 pm
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: Question about dependent origination
Replies: 67
Views: 26960

Re: Question about dependent origination

In other words, a thing does not arise from itself, or from other but it arises because of a cause or causes. But be careful that when you say “a thing” that you aren’t implying “thing ness ”. In other words, if you say that a table is established from parts (“…but it arises because of a cause or c...
by Sherab
Thu Nov 25, 2021 10:45 pm
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: Question about dependent origination
Replies: 67
Views: 26960

Re: Question about dependent origination

Malcolm wrote: Thu Nov 25, 2021 1:01 pm
Sherab wrote: Thu Nov 25, 2021 8:30 am If a cause if not a thing, what is it?
A convention.
A convention of what?
by Sherab
Thu Nov 25, 2021 8:30 am
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: Question about dependent origination
Replies: 67
Views: 26960

Re: Question about dependent origination

Nothing arises from itself, other, or without a cause… Here's something for everyone to chew on: Nothing arises from itself, other or without a cause. In other words, a thing does not arise from itself, or from other but it arises because of a cause or causes. If a cause is a thing, then a cause ca...
by Sherab
Sat Nov 06, 2021 12:31 pm
Forum: Tibetan Buddhism
Topic: I'm confused about Buddhist arguments against a creator God and what that entails for buddha activity?
Replies: 289
Views: 18483

Re: I'm confused about Buddhist arguments against a creator God and what that entails for buddha activity?

The ultimate is timeless. There is no ultimate separate from things. Things exist in time. So, this is a meaningless statement. And it renders the rest of your statement moot. Your "ultimate" can't produce anything, otherwise, it would be compounded, and therefore, in time. Your position ...
by Sherab
Fri Nov 05, 2021 10:36 pm
Forum: Tibetan Buddhism
Topic: I'm confused about Buddhist arguments against a creator God and what that entails for buddha activity?
Replies: 289
Views: 18483

Re: I'm confused about Buddhist arguments against a creator God and what that entails for buddha activity?

Namaste,I am a buddhist. I find its the most logical and uplifting alternative against my former Christian Theism.but reading buddhist arguments and atheological arguments against a creator God from buddhist sources I get confused as if there is a contradiction in what they're criticizing Ishvara f...
by Sherab
Wed Nov 03, 2021 6:48 am
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: Question about inherent existence
Replies: 193
Views: 48722

Re: Question about inherent existence

Buddhas know things directly without sense mediation. But they didn’t start out that way, and neither do we. Hence there is no beginning to tathagatas, and this infinite regress is not a fault. Budhas know things directly without sense mediation. Therefore, we too can know things directly without s...
by Sherab
Sun Oct 31, 2021 3:31 am
Forum: Dharma in Everyday Life
Topic: Question about inherent existence
Replies: 193
Views: 48722

Re: Question about inherent existence

Right, and I understood him to mean pratyakṣa, mngon sum, direct perception, which is what he meant, whereas it is clear you are referring to abhijñā, mngon shes, direct knowing. So the confusion is due to you for not asking cone to clarify what he was referring to, pratyakṣa or abhijñā. Thus, the ...

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