07-09-2010, 12:03 AM
I would just like to take a moment and refer back to an earlier post of Fool's regarding,
Longchenpa's Treasury of Natural Perfection :
First let me tell you about "absence",
the absence that is essentially emptiness:
in the super-matrix of pure mind that is like space
whatever appears is absent in reality.
So here Longchenpa is speaking of absence. He is pointing out that the absence he is referring to is the essential nature of emptiness. Now Longchenpa is always very specific in his use of words, so let’s just see what we are meaning with the word Absence.
Absence: noun
the state of being away from a place or person : the letter had arrived during his absence | I supervised the rehearsal in the absence of the director.
• an occasion or period of being away from a place or person : repeated absences from school.
( absence of) the nonexistence or lack of : she found his total absence of facial expression disconcerting. See note at lack .
Absent: Adjective
1 not present in a place or at an occasion :
We have stated earlier that form is emptiness and emptiness is form. Lonchenpa now says that this emptiness is essentially absence! So what is not present, ie; absent? Lonchenpa says, Whatever appears, is absent, (with the qualifier of) in reality. Let’s just take a moment because Lonchenpa has introduced the “super matrix of pure mind”.
Matrix: Noun
1 an environment or material in which something develops; a surrounding medium or structure.
We could spend hours discussing the super matrix of pure mind, but for now let’s just say he is referring to Mind free from the “defilements” of conceptual overlay. Mind in which all is spontaneously released as it occurs. Unobstructed Mind. Nirvana, Etc. Those familiar with Buddhist terminology will get the gist.
When we consider space we think of vast openness in which appears stars, suns, planets, moons and grains of sand and dust. Space is the medium in which we see these things appear. Now back to the absence. Longchenpa is saying that to the environment of pure mind, whatever appears is absent in reality. So the appearance is not negated or denied it is acknowledged, but it is acknowledged in relation to reality. In reality whatever appears is known as absence. Whatever appears has no actuality in reality. The actuality is not present only the appearance of actuality. Essential, inherent, substance of whatever appears is not present in reality. So the multiplicity of individual objects inherently existing is undermined. So what is it that appears? This is where minds entangled in the obscurations of appearances become bewildered and stagger away from reality grasping at anyTHING in order to establish a foothold.
it is a vivid display of absence, like magical illusion,
in the very moment inconceivable and unutterable.
Now when he says, “inconceivable and unutterable” he is not referring to some deep inscrutable mystery of spirit, void and formlessness etc, he is referring to whatever appears! This is why we do not have to be spiritual to consider this and investigate its veracity.
How can this be? We have a very orderly conception of just about everything that appears. We know all about it. Yes since beginningless time we have built, layer upon layer, an extravagant apologetics of what we have mistakenly accepted as reality. We have failed to understand existence, confusing mere existence for reality.
Just as the objective field is absent in reality,
so "the knower"--in actuality pure mind,
in essence an absence--is like the clear sky:
know it in its ineffable reality!
Now if we wish to know WHY, whatever appears is absent in reality, then Nagarjuna offers an exhaustive presentation of why this is so.
In the universal womb that is boundless space
all forms of matter and energy occur as the flux of the four elements,
but all are empty forms, absent in reality:
all phenomena, arising in pure mind are like that.
Magical illusion, whatever its form,
lacks substance, empty in nature;
likewise, all experience of the world, arisen in the moment,
unstirring from pure mind, is insubstantial evanescence.
Just as dream is part of sleep,
unreal gossamer in its arising,
so all and everything is pure mind,
never separated from it,
and without substance or attribute.
Experience may arise in the mind
but it is neither mind nor anything but mind;
it is a vivid display of absence, like magical illusion,
in the very moment inconceivable and unutterable.
All experience arising in the mind,
at its inception, know it as absence!
Just as the objective field is absent in reality,
so "the knower"--in actuality pure mind,
in essence an absence--is like the clear sky:
know it in its ineffable reality!
Longchenpa's Treasury of Natural Perfection :
First let me tell you about "absence",
the absence that is essentially emptiness:
in the super-matrix of pure mind that is like space
whatever appears is absent in reality.
So here Longchenpa is speaking of absence. He is pointing out that the absence he is referring to is the essential nature of emptiness. Now Longchenpa is always very specific in his use of words, so let’s just see what we are meaning with the word Absence.
Absence: noun
the state of being away from a place or person : the letter had arrived during his absence | I supervised the rehearsal in the absence of the director.
• an occasion or period of being away from a place or person : repeated absences from school.
( absence of) the nonexistence or lack of : she found his total absence of facial expression disconcerting. See note at lack .
Absent: Adjective
1 not present in a place or at an occasion :
We have stated earlier that form is emptiness and emptiness is form. Lonchenpa now says that this emptiness is essentially absence! So what is not present, ie; absent? Lonchenpa says, Whatever appears, is absent, (with the qualifier of) in reality. Let’s just take a moment because Lonchenpa has introduced the “super matrix of pure mind”.
Matrix: Noun
1 an environment or material in which something develops; a surrounding medium or structure.
We could spend hours discussing the super matrix of pure mind, but for now let’s just say he is referring to Mind free from the “defilements” of conceptual overlay. Mind in which all is spontaneously released as it occurs. Unobstructed Mind. Nirvana, Etc. Those familiar with Buddhist terminology will get the gist.
When we consider space we think of vast openness in which appears stars, suns, planets, moons and grains of sand and dust. Space is the medium in which we see these things appear. Now back to the absence. Longchenpa is saying that to the environment of pure mind, whatever appears is absent in reality. So the appearance is not negated or denied it is acknowledged, but it is acknowledged in relation to reality. In reality whatever appears is known as absence. Whatever appears has no actuality in reality. The actuality is not present only the appearance of actuality. Essential, inherent, substance of whatever appears is not present in reality. So the multiplicity of individual objects inherently existing is undermined. So what is it that appears? This is where minds entangled in the obscurations of appearances become bewildered and stagger away from reality grasping at anyTHING in order to establish a foothold.
it is a vivid display of absence, like magical illusion,
in the very moment inconceivable and unutterable.
Now when he says, “inconceivable and unutterable” he is not referring to some deep inscrutable mystery of spirit, void and formlessness etc, he is referring to whatever appears! This is why we do not have to be spiritual to consider this and investigate its veracity.
How can this be? We have a very orderly conception of just about everything that appears. We know all about it. Yes since beginningless time we have built, layer upon layer, an extravagant apologetics of what we have mistakenly accepted as reality. We have failed to understand existence, confusing mere existence for reality.
Just as the objective field is absent in reality,
so "the knower"--in actuality pure mind,
in essence an absence--is like the clear sky:
know it in its ineffable reality!
Now if we wish to know WHY, whatever appears is absent in reality, then Nagarjuna offers an exhaustive presentation of why this is so.
In the universal womb that is boundless space
all forms of matter and energy occur as the flux of the four elements,
but all are empty forms, absent in reality:
all phenomena, arising in pure mind are like that.
Magical illusion, whatever its form,
lacks substance, empty in nature;
likewise, all experience of the world, arisen in the moment,
unstirring from pure mind, is insubstantial evanescence.
Just as dream is part of sleep,
unreal gossamer in its arising,
so all and everything is pure mind,
never separated from it,
and without substance or attribute.
Experience may arise in the mind
but it is neither mind nor anything but mind;
it is a vivid display of absence, like magical illusion,
in the very moment inconceivable and unutterable.
All experience arising in the mind,
at its inception, know it as absence!
Just as the objective field is absent in reality,
so "the knower"--in actuality pure mind,
in essence an absence--is like the clear sky:
know it in its ineffable reality!