gad rgyangs wrote: if what makes a sentient being a sentient being is "its" non-recognition of its own state, then this implies that the sentient being exists first, and then fails to recognize its state, which results in it being a sentient being, which is a circular regress. otherwise, how would the non-recognition ever take place at all?
Sherab wrote:If you hold the position that no one can give you enlightenment/attainments and that enlightenment/attainments is/are to be realized/"attained" by each "person", then there has to be some form of "individuality", don't you think?.
I think two mistakes are being made here.
"non-recognition" doesn't "take place". it doesn't "happen". The term refers to something which
is not happening.
So, it's sort of like saying "feel how much the wind isn't blowing!".
You are trying to assign a positive attribute to a negative.
And this leads to what may be the second mistake. "enlightenment" (whatever that is supposed to mean)
isn't a thing which is attained (even though we use that term).
Clear luminosity is what remains when the obscurations which block that realization are removed.
It's like clarifying butter for a butter lamp.
Pero wrote:PadmaVonSamba wrote:How can anything possess dharmakaya?
I'm listening if you have a better way of expressing it.
Dharmakaya isn't possessed.
If anything, you could say that dharmakaya possesses...everything.
It is simply the unobstructed truth, meaning a total summation of everything and the nature of everything,
but it doesn't possess anything either.
When it is said that an individual possesses dharmakaya
it would be better to say that
there is nowhere outside of the ultimate truth about everything
where any individual mind exists.
The Dharmakaya does not change merely because beings have changing thoughts.
the fact of constant change is included in the ultimate truth about things.
When the habitual karmic patterns and attachments that perpetuate a samsaric existence
are no longer being generated, what remains?
It's as if the batteries powering a noisy radio finally died out
and what remains is the sound of nothing happening.
If you live in a city,
go outside at 4:00am Christmas morning and listen.
No cars, no trains, no planes.
Just peace and quiet. It is so nice. A joyful experience of clarity.
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