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Are we empty shells?
betaboy
Veteran
Are we?
Take away the things we've accumulated, the ideas and knowledge we've acquired, the habits we've formed ... and what are we? We are empty when all this is taken away. So is emptiness our true nature, then? If so, where to go from here?
BB
Take away the things we've accumulated, the ideas and knowledge we've acquired, the habits we've formed ... and what are we? We are empty when all this is taken away. So is emptiness our true nature, then? If so, where to go from here?
BB
0
Comments
help others. do what excites you the most in every moment.
you know that everything is going to be okay.
form is emptiness and emptiness is form. they are both the same.
enjoy life.
The answer to our questions can be experienced in this lifetime if one remains true and dedicated in practice.
also learning how to integrate and learning how suchness moves about in this world is a whole different matter. so while it is interesting to ponder what life is going to be life after awakening, it truly is impossible to understand unless you yourself experience such realizations.
but in essence you start operating from being which is a holistic approach to living life where your mind, body, emotions, and consciousness all operate as one collective unity. And most stream winners deal with their remaining karmic tendencies,so there is a gradual falling into their awakening/realizations.
also as i mentioned above one may realize their non dual awareness, but not realize the emptiness of reality. one can also get caught in emptiness or even non dual awareness. but the learning keeps unfolding as we interact with others and the world. in some sense there is an authenticity and integrity with engaging with the world and it's inhabitants.
contrary to what many people believe/assume there are a lot of awakened individuals in our society. most of them are just normal people like you and i. but lately more and more people are awakening, so it's fair to assume that there is something in the air Lol.
"you" are a temporary formation in the sea of life.
You are not living life. Life is living itself, and you are part of it.
Even then, you are not going with the flow. You are part of the flow.
Practice choiceless awareness as your true nature, and see how things continue as they always have without "you" doing anything.
If you come up with "empty," that still suggests there is something to be filled.
But if things are "empty," how could that possibly be so?
Intellectually and emotionally, all this can create a deliciously confounding philosophy or belief system or something similar. Better, I think, is to foster a determined meditation practice and find out what is actually what.
Namaste
You are not nothing! You are everything!
According to our religion Buddha did not attain full enlightenment. Full enlightenment in our religion is union with God in pure Love and Light like we're supposed to. Like we all want to. Not this emptiness I'm nothing crap. Jeez...
What comes easier to you? Do you want EMPTINESS or do you want Love and Light and Beauty? Go with your instinct now... Of course you want Love and Light and Beauty. It's programmed in! Duh. And it's waiting for all of us.
you mistook Buddhism with Nihilism.
There is a book available online by Lama Zopa Rinpoche on this topic. You can read it here - How Things Exist: Teachings on Emptiness. Here's an excerpt from chapter 2:
The nature of our mind is clear light; it is empty of existing from its own side. The mind is a phenomenon that the self possesses. It is non-substantial, colorless, shapeless and clear in nature; it has the ability to perceive objects; and it is not an object of the five senses. That is one way to define the mind. In dependence upon this base, a phenomenon that has such characteristics, we have labeled, or merely imputed, “mind.” Therefore, there’s no mind existing from its own side; there’s no real mind from its own side. Mind is nothing other than that which we have merely imputed by our mind in dependence upon that base, that particular phenomenon. Therefore there’s no such thing as a real mind from its own side. The mind is empty of existing from its own side. That is one definition of the clear light nature of the mind, which refers to its ultimate nature.
This ultimate nature of the mind, this clear light nature, is not oneness with the obscurations, the disturbing thoughts. Because of that, in dependence upon causes and conditions, obscurations can be eliminated.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_1_23?url=search-alias=stripbooks&field-keywords=yongey+mingyur+rinpoche&sprefix=yongey+mingyur+rinpoche
In any case, I think it stands as a valid corollary to the "God within", in both brilliance and permanence.
silence is non dual. emptiness is non dual.
emptiness is a fullness and a fullness is an emptiness. form is emptiness and emptiness is form.
blah blah blah blah blah
Thanks for doing that with the links. I have no idea how to do it. And at my advanced age I don't know if I could learn how or not.
It must have been great fun with YM Rinpoche. If anyone shows a good example of happiness in Buddhism and the lack of "ultimate emptiness" it is he. HHDL, of course, refers to himself as a "professional laugher".
Somebody posted something about the Web of Indra last week and the TB description of the luminosity of the very subtle consciousness reminds me very much of that. I mean, they don't call it the "Diamond Vehicle" for nothing, right?
And again, I think this stands as a very valid corollary to what other belief systems call the God Within. "Tomato, tomahto, potato, potahtoe."
We - don't. That's your opinion. We'll have to agree to differ on that one.... "organic energies"? I'm sorry, breaking wind springs to mind.... Join the club! We are nothing and we are everything, and we are not-nothing and we are not-everything.
Just to be more salient. Again, that's just your opinion, and again, we'll have to agree to differ. The fact you think it's crap, shows just how little you know. Try doing some research before being so ignorantly disparaging.
ok? Why wait? we have it now, thanks....
And we also have BOTH 'Emptiness' (in the accurate sense of the word) AND "Love, light and beauty".
So I guess you need to go back to the drawing board and do a little more reading up on it.
As for where to go.... you can either go that way, towards Sukha... or that way, towards Dukka. DP 282.
The difference is monumental.
It's empty in a sense that it exist, but not TRULLY exist. Meaning we're just composite of many parts like limbs, head... compound togather and not exist independantly....
things come together due to cause, condition, and effect, and the effect is our body's existance....
Well, u can see tbe body as ever changing flux of energy and matter.... moleculs come in and out of body... we take in water and food and release CO2..... a big cluster of vibrating atoms, constantly changing.
It's there, yet it's changing so much that it's not "solid" enough to be trully exist.... it will fade away within a century..... (impermenance, emptiness)
I think that's what the "emptiness" is about... rather than taking the term "emptiness" literally and view our selves as hollow shell....
it's more like a flux of ever changing energy n matter that comes and goes due to cause, condition, and effect... and dependant arising.
Lovely dooey sounds like candy illusion to me
create a cult and put a lot of love n light and beauty, and a little smiley huggy and u can get a lot of followers who enjoy such illusion.
this kind of thing fades with time.