From Impermanence to Buddhahood

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Vasana
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Re: From Impermanence to Buddhahood

Post by Vasana »

White lotus, the real litmus test is whether all of this theorization helps your meditation remain free of notions of 1 or 0. If you hold on to notions of 1 or 0 during meditation, it's certainly not the 'ideal' 1 or 0 you keep mentioning.
'When thoughts arise, recognise them clearly as your teacher'— Gampopa
'When alone, examine your mind, when among others, examine your speech'.— Atisha
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LastLegend
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Re: From Impermanence to Buddhahood

Post by LastLegend »

The nature of all things is Buddha. The nature of all things has no self nature. When the nature of all things is realized, appearance causes and conditions are hidden, yet when manifesting appearance becomes present. Like a TV there is no image when it is off. When you turn it on, you see images.
It’s eye blinking.
White Lotus
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Re: From Impermanence to Buddhahood

Post by White Lotus »

I have no idea whether any of what i have said is accurate or not. I will have forgotten all this in a month or two i expect. I can't hold onto anything these days. Sight, sounds and knowledge are no longer graspable. Words are all empty. :broke:
in any matters of importance. dont rely on me. i may not know what i am talking about. take what i say as mere speculation. i am not ordained. nor do i have a formal training. i do believe though that if i am wrong on any point. there are those on this site who i hope will quickly point out my mistakes.
White Lotus
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Re: From Impermanence to Buddhahood

Post by White Lotus »

Another aspect of 1, but not ideal 1 is awareness/ perception. If you draw two zeros, a larger zero containing a smaller zero then you have emptiness of emptiness or absolute zero. Place a dot at the centre of the two zeros and you have the Dharma eye. The dot represents 1 or perception. Perception resides within absolute emptiness and generates all emptiness, but is not empty. It is 1. This points towards the 1ness that a buddha is. If i say that Buddha is empty i mean that he is dependent. If i say he is 1 i mean that he is independent of fundamental conditioning. Though i have said that buddas are simple, uncompounded 1; i still cannot say a buddha or God is ideal 1, they may be uncompounded 1. This is since there can only be 1 ideal 1. There are many buddhas. But i dont really understand the notion of ideal 1; except to say that it is 1. If i say God is ideal 1, then i have given 1 a quality which makes it other than ideal 1? It may be that God and Buddha are both simple perfect uncompounded 1's: such as awareness. Ideal 1 is just 1. I dont really know what that means. If we are to understand awareness we must relinquish words and just listen or look. Awareness is 1. Is Buddha 1? I say possibly. He must be if he is unconditioned/non dependent.
in any matters of importance. dont rely on me. i may not know what i am talking about. take what i say as mere speculation. i am not ordained. nor do i have a formal training. i do believe though that if i am wrong on any point. there are those on this site who i hope will quickly point out my mistakes.
Strive
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Re: From Impermanence to Buddhahood

Post by Strive »

Astus wrote:Impermanence is the gateway to emptiness.
Emptiness is the gateway to non-birth.
Non-birth is the gateway to Buddhahood.


"What is the Buddha’s path? It is the bodhi-mind, the mind of Nirvana. To walk on the Buddha’s path is to follow the path of the Great Enlightened One, the one who attained the Great Nirvana, the one who has reached ultimate liberation. Through great enlightenment, one sees all phenomena with pure luminosity. From the perspective of departing from all defilements, the Buddha saw the ultimate truth: the non-arising and non-ceasing of all phenomena. Through complete cessation, he achieved total peace of mind. This complete cessation does not mean that everything is extinguished. It is the cessation of all defilements and habitual tendencies. After achieving cessation, an Enlightened One begins a new life, a life of selfless service to benefit sentient beings.
As practitioners, we must understand impermanence. Impermanence is the gateway to emptiness.
Thus to understand emptiness, we must start with an understanding of impermanence. Emptiness, in turn, is the gateway to non-birth. By understanding emptiness, you will not be attached to life. In other words, you will transcend the two extremes and all dualities. In this way, you will be able to enter non-birth. Non-birth is the gateway to Buddhahood. Understanding non-birth, one will no longer be attached to life, one will no longer be afflicted by the miseries of life. One can learn and practice the Dharma in the cycle of birth and death and enter the path to Buddhahood."


(Jen-chun: Great Bodhi Mind, p 53-54)
Hi astus,

Can Buddhahood be considered immortality? When I read things like the bliss body or rainbow body that's what it sound like.

What are your thoughts?
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Astus
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Re: From Impermanence to Buddhahood

Post by Astus »

Strive wrote:Can Buddhahood be considered immortality? When I read things like the bliss body or rainbow body that's what it sound like.
Normally it is a being that is called immortal, and in that sense nobody of the six realms has a never ending life, eventually even gods die and are born again. On the other hand, samsara has no beginning, nor do beings simply stop being reborn, hence in a way everyone is already immortal. And that sense of immortality is what may give rise to the view of an eternal soul, just as people assume an enduring identity based on the continuity of day to day life. Projecting this very flawed view on buddhas is twice wrong. First because it lacks the understanding of what life is, and second because it lacks understanding of what a buddha is.

The one thing that is called immortal (i.e. deathless - amata; unceased - aniruddha), and that is nirvana. Similarly, it is also called the unborn (ajāta), the unarisen (anutpāda). So Nagarjuna sums it up:

"Not abandoned, not acquired, not annihilated, not eternal,
not ceased, not arisen, thus is nirvāṇa said to be."

(MMK 25.3, tr Siderits)

At the same time, not only nirvana can be described as such, but also the nature of everything as well:

"The nature of things is to be, like nirvāṇa, without origination or cessation."
(MMK 18.7)

That is why

"There is no distinction whatsoever between saṃsāra and nirvāṇa.
There is no distinction whatsoever between nirvāṇa and saṃsāra."

(MMK 25.19)

Hence the nature of the world is no different from the nature of a buddha:

"What is the intrinsic nature of the Tathāgata, that is the intrinsic nature of this world.
The Tathāgata is devoid of intrinsic nature; this world is devoid of intrinsic nature."

(MMK 22.16)

From here when the matter of the rupakaya is looked at, and in particular the unceasing activities of the sambhogakaya, it has to be viewed on the basis that assuming a being, an entity is already a false concept, and a view that buddhas are completely free from.
1 Myriad dharmas are only mind.
Mind is unobtainable.
What is there to seek?

2 If the Buddha-Nature is seen,
there will be no seeing of a nature in any thing.

3 Neither cultivation nor seated meditation —
this is the pure Chan of Tathagata.

4 With sudden enlightenment to Tathagata Chan,
the six paramitas and myriad means
are complete within that essence.


1 Huangbo, T2012Ap381c1 2 Nirvana Sutra, T374p521b3; tr. Yamamoto 3 Mazu, X1321p3b23; tr. J. Jia 4 Yongjia, T2014p395c14; tr. from "The Sword of Wisdom"
Strive
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Re: From Impermanence to Buddhahood

Post by Strive »

thanks astus beautiful explanation :namaste:
White Lotus
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Re: From Impermanence to Buddhahood

Post by White Lotus »

If we say that dependent origination does not exist nor non exist, there is only emptiness then there is no origination/arising, but what if we say that emptiness is a product of and integral to the One Mind? With Mind not a thing is attained. Its final in its original state, whether or not one sees emptiness.
in any matters of importance. dont rely on me. i may not know what i am talking about. take what i say as mere speculation. i am not ordained. nor do i have a formal training. i do believe though that if i am wrong on any point. there are those on this site who i hope will quickly point out my mistakes.
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