06-21-2010, 12:00 AM
Gonzo wrote:
This reminds me of the famous koan titled "The Highest meaning of the Holy Truths, wherein there is the following commentary:
By the real truth we understand that it is not existent; by the conventional truth we understand that is is not nonexistent. That the real truth and the conventional truth are not two is the highest meaning of the holy truths.
(So...)
"What is the highest meaning of the holy truths?"
"Empty, without holiness."
(If only you can penetrate "Empty, without holiness", then you can return home and sit in peace.)
All this amounts to is creating complications.
The problem, the way I see it, is many people feel they have comprehended emptiness, even may feel they exhibit it as a quality, which is missing the value of it. Its not a moral state of integrity, or a state of being in peace, nor holiness, nor not holiness. Its very mundane compared to all the qualities that have been attributed to it. Very difficult to talk about it without obscuring things.
And though its within the mundane, to apprehend it is anything but mundane.
From the Fundamentals text:
"Madhyamaka" means "middle way (or path)", and "Madhyamika" means "he who follows the middle way." Nagarjuna's philosophy is an attempt to avoid the extremes of "essentialism" and "nihilism." Essentialism is the view that true reality is made up of eternal, unchanging, independent, and substantial essences (self-essences as well as thing-essences); and nihilism is the view that there are no such essences and that therefore nothing (Latin, nihil) exists at all. Nagarjuna's view is that (contrary to nihilism) there does exist a world of selves and things, namely, the world that appears before us (the phenomenal world), but that (contrary to essentialism) all such phenomenal entities are impermanent, continually changing, interdependent, insubstantial — in other words, "empty" (shunya) of essence."
So the point is not in these words, but to experience directly this. Then one sees where all the confusion and complications are coming from, and is free of them.
This reminds me of the famous koan titled "The Highest meaning of the Holy Truths, wherein there is the following commentary:
By the real truth we understand that it is not existent; by the conventional truth we understand that is is not nonexistent. That the real truth and the conventional truth are not two is the highest meaning of the holy truths.
(So...)
"What is the highest meaning of the holy truths?"
"Empty, without holiness."
(If only you can penetrate "Empty, without holiness", then you can return home and sit in peace.)
All this amounts to is creating complications.
The problem, the way I see it, is many people feel they have comprehended emptiness, even may feel they exhibit it as a quality, which is missing the value of it. Its not a moral state of integrity, or a state of being in peace, nor holiness, nor not holiness. Its very mundane compared to all the qualities that have been attributed to it. Very difficult to talk about it without obscuring things.
And though its within the mundane, to apprehend it is anything but mundane.
From the Fundamentals text:
"Madhyamaka" means "middle way (or path)", and "Madhyamika" means "he who follows the middle way." Nagarjuna's philosophy is an attempt to avoid the extremes of "essentialism" and "nihilism." Essentialism is the view that true reality is made up of eternal, unchanging, independent, and substantial essences (self-essences as well as thing-essences); and nihilism is the view that there are no such essences and that therefore nothing (Latin, nihil) exists at all. Nagarjuna's view is that (contrary to nihilism) there does exist a world of selves and things, namely, the world that appears before us (the phenomenal world), but that (contrary to essentialism) all such phenomenal entities are impermanent, continually changing, interdependent, insubstantial — in other words, "empty" (shunya) of essence."
So the point is not in these words, but to experience directly this. Then one sees where all the confusion and complications are coming from, and is free of them.