Dharma Wheel

A huge paradigm shift in how people live is all that will change it. It can come through us being forced to by the cataclysmic stuff one can imagine, a gradual shift to more sustainable ways of living, or both. I imagine it will be some degree of both, but can't predict the ratio, and neither can a...

This is kind of a sister post to the one in the Mahayana forum about Buddhas and Bodhisattvas being real, because I figured the Tibetan/Vajrayana approach was different enough to maybe give a different answer. Are Buddhas like Tara or Vairocana, bodhisattvas like Manjushri or Chenrezig, Dharma prot...

You have not explained why arhats need to be awakened by the Buddha. I have not even touched that topic, so what explanation do you want? Because I used it to argue for a non-causal path. I was suggesting previously that Arhats following a causal path attained only temporary liberation and need to ...

If analytical cessation is all that is needed, then the Buddha need not awaken arhats so as to lead them to buddhahood. It is a type of cessation, and as such can apply to both the complete elimination of klesavarana and jneyavarana, as the provided quote from the Cheng Weishi Lun states. It does n...

Thanks to the 84,000 translation group this magnificent sutra is now in English. For those who can read the Tibetan original of this sutra, what is the Sanskrit equivalent of 'intrinsic nature' ? The sutra seems to make it a synonym for suchness or reality etc. chos nyid (dharmata) To be crystal cl...

Nicholas Weeks wrote: ↑Fri May 10, 2019 4:10 pm Thanks to the 84,000 translation group this magnificent sutra is now in English.

For those who can read the Tibetan original of this sutra, what is the Sanskrit equivalent of 'intrinsic nature' ?

The sutra seems to make it a synonym for suchness or reality etc.

chos nyid (dharmata)

The cessation achieved by arhats is from following a causal path. That is why the Buddha has to awaken them subsequently from their temporary cessation and lead them to buddhahood. Analytical cessation applies to both sravakas and bodhisattvas. If analytical cessation is all that is needed, then th...

The path to permanent liberation is non-causal. Among the three unconditioned dharmas (AKB I.5-6, vol 1, p 59-61) there are two types of cessation: with and without analysis, of which the former means nirvana, and the latter just ordinary cessation of things. So liberation has not only a cause in g...

In samadhi, the "conditioned" and "unconditioned" don't look any different at their source. That's why it's called samadhi. "Conditioned" and "unconditioned" are merely labels, conventions for communication in the relative via language. The state of buddhahoo...

there is a path to temporary liberation and a path to permanent liberation. So, there is agreement on the matter of there being a path one needs to follow in order to become liberated. The path for temporary liberation is causal. The path to permanent liberation is non-causal. That is how I look at...

Yes, but why should this imply that the relative is all there is? No such implication was made. The point is that there is no unconditioned apart from the conditioned, furthermore, that there is a path to liberation. It is actually the other way round, there is no conditioned without the unconditio...

As I mentioned before, logically speaking, there is no path that can take a practitioner from the conditioned to the unconditioned. This is because what is conditioned and what is unconditioned are mutually exclusive. That is an erroneous logic that fails to take account of what conditioned and wha...

Accumulation of merit and wisdom is not denied. then it is very much a relative and causal path to buddhahood Without the unconditioned there is no liberation from the conditioned. Udana 8.3 'Good son, the term 'unconditioned' is also a word provisionally invented by the First Teacher. Now, if the ...

Accumulation of merit and wisdom is not denied. then it is very much a relative and causal path to buddhahood Without the unconditioned there is no liberation from the conditioned. Udana 8.3 'Good son, the term 'unconditioned' is also a word provisionally invented by the First Teacher. Now, if the ...

There is a path to cessation/liberation and there is a 'path' to buddhahood. Only if you do not accept the ekayana doctrine is there three paths. Not if the path of liberation must be travelled before the path to buddhahood. The former path is a path in the relative. The latter path is a 'path' in ...

I think Viach is right. There is a path to cessation/liberation and there is a 'path' to buddhahood. The former path is a path in the relative. The latter path is a 'path' in the absolute. The former path is causal; the latter path is not. Logically speaking, there is no path that can take a practit...

Thanks, everyone, for sharing your takes. So do different traditions point to the same one truth? My provisional conclusion ... it's an interesting question <for those who like to think about things like this>, but not worth putting too much energy into, as it risks prapanca. And I doubt it could e...

Consciousness is seeking a home, a basis to abide on, i.e. a truth, therefore the non-abiding and homelessness teachings of prajnaparamita Dharma may be frustrating for an I that acquires consciousness as 'mine' and this frustration may undermine motivation to pursue the path from the outset. That ...

(This contradiction is not removed by the "Two Truths". If the Dhamma is about the true reality (about the given here-and-now), then the logical law of the excluded is valid. True, either "A" or "Not A", the third is not given It is impossible to say at the same time t...

Consciousness is momentary, mental states rapidly occur and cease. To conceive the mind as continuous is one of the common basis of believing in an enduring existence. I never know what momentary really means. When a consciousness cease, does it cease into utter nothingness? If it does, how come ou...