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emptiness creates illusion?
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he said no cause of ignorance can be found
it just is
like a baby child...is so full of ignorance....it does not know fire burns until it touches it
all beings without exception are born with ignorance
ignorance is a mental thing, just like blood is a physical thing
Pali says all beings are born with ignorance but Mahayana says all things have "buddha nature"
this is why Pali is different to Zen
Thus, whatever arises interdependently is vividly clear and luminous, but empty of any *independent* or *inherent* existence. This is not the same as nothing or nihilism.
Nagarjuna:
Whatever is dependently co-arisen,
That is explained to be emptiness.
That, being a dependent designation,
Is itself the middle way. (Treatise, 24.18)
Something that is not dependently arisen,
Such a thing does not exist.
Therefore a nonempty thing
Does not exist. (Treatise, 24.19)
“I pay respect to the best among speakers who, having attained Enlightenment, has taught relative origination (Pratītyasamutpāda) which is no-cessation, no-origination, no- annihilation, no-abiding, no-one-thing, no-many-thing, no-coming-in, no-going-out; being the termination of linguistic description (Prapañcopashamam), it is the good (Shivam)"
~ Nagarjuna
Cannot be found doesn't mean that there is no answer!
why he said: " no cause of ignorance can be found" why ignorance is "just is"?
The path is to realize thus knowing.
Even if we are able to calm our minds and let go of attachments to thought through practice... ignorance is not removed as easily as that. It requires realization and breakthrough of view.
Forget the Mahayana intellectualisations
These just lead to getting lost and missing the real meaning that liberates
Now Xabir will start cutting & pasting page after page, just like Daniel Ingram talks video after video of psycho-babble
:eek2:
Here is an excerpt from a Buddhist glossary site on the definition of twofold Emptiness:
Two emptinesses (二空) include (1) emptiness of self, the ātman, the soul, in a person composed of the five aggregates, constantly changing with causes and conditions; and (2) emptiness of selves in all dharmas—each of the five aggregates, each of the twelve fields, and each of the eighteen spheres, as well as everything else with no independent existence. No-self in any dharma implies no-self in a person, but the latter is separated out in the first category. Realization of the emptiness of self in a person will lead to attainment of Arhatship or Pratyekabuddhahood. Bodhisattvas who have realized both emptinesses ascend to the First Ground on their Way to Buddhahood.
In short everything is like an illusion, like sky flowers, like a mirage... looks there but not really there - being merely a dependently originated designation and appearance.
ignorance is ignorance or "not knowing"
http://awakeningtoreality.blogspot.com/2009/03/on-anatta-emptiness-and-spontaneous.html
It just is. It is "such" or "thus"
"Thus" = Tathata
Buddha called himself the Tathagata = "The One Gone to Thusness/Suchness"
If you must ask "why again" then forget about the Theravada monastery
Stick to your Zen Mahayana
Now when you push the ball, the ball moves.
You may think 'why does the ball move when I push the ball'? It is simply that: when there is a cause (hand?) condition (ball?) an effect takes place (ball moves)
Buddha said Nibbana is not dependently arisen
Therefore, Nagarjuna was WRONG!
:buck: = Nargajuna = :buck:
Nargajuna = :screwy:
Everybody has their own reasons for chosing Buddhism. The answer to this question is the reason I chose Buddhism even though Buddha didn't give the answer.
I don't want to become enlightened to save myself from cyclical existance or to get supernatural powers. I just want to know (or realize) the "truth".
Since my childhood I ask the question "why things the way they are"
So why there is existance (call it illusional or delusional)
For non-Nibbana, Buddha said sabbe sankhara anatta
sabbe dhamma = all things, including Nibbana
sabbe sankhara = all conditioned things, excluding Nibbana
Buddha said Nibbana is the asankhata dhatu or unconditioned element
I understand we do not know the answers but that doesn't mean that there are no answers. You initially said: Some questions have no answers. I am responding to you that there ANSWERS to every questions. We may not know it but there are Answers. This is the key I am trying to convey to you.
So I am looking for the answer "why things are the way they are"....For instance you said emptiness is cause and effect and my question is how and why is it cause and effect? why not something else? or if it is cause and effect why is it the way it is?
you're not going to find the answer in a conceptual format. you're going to have to realize it through insight into the nature of reality.
it all comes down to thinking. you think this and you think that. you think that is right and you think that is wrong. you think and you create your conditioning and the universe. you think that there is answer thus you try harder to find that answer.
there is no answer. there is only the existential realization, which is i suppose an answer. but it isn't intellectual though i can
be expressed in concepts.
have fun trying.
It goes something like this:
Me: "When the candle is placed and it is lighted up, fire burns, and all these serve as the condition for a rise in temperature."
You: "But what is all cause of all the causes such as candle, fire burning, etc (and its effects) to begin with?"
Me: "The candle is made of wax, which is formed by .... [explains the process of causality in which candle comes into manifestation], whereas the fire is lighted up because of the matchstick and the action of striking the matchstick and putting the flame on the candle, etc..."
You: "But what is the cause of ? ..."
Me: "[explains again]"
This process can go in for infinity.
There is NO first cause of anything! There is no first cause of manifestation and causality.
There is just an infinite regress of causality... that has no beginning and source. Every manifestation is the interaction of the entire universe... the total exertion of the universe, the totality of causes and conditions, gives rise to this moment of manifestation. Causality is simply the natural law - when there is this, that is, when this is not, that is not, when this arises, that arises, when this ceases, that ceases.
There is no origin, no source, no creator.
Even the so called creator God is simply a being deluded into thinking (since he was the first to re-appear in this universe while the previous universe was destroyed) he was a creator... where in fact he himself is born due to karma (causality), and all the beings that came after him as the first-born in this universe was also born out of karma.
There is no beginning, no origin.