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How does a full realization change life? Is concentration necessary?
Yeah but you can't just say cessation or absence... that has no context. It's always cessation of something, and that something is negative, which makes nibbana positive. We can't define nibbana by the verb without its object. That'd be like saying cessation of violence is negative because it's an absence.
I think we're talking at cross purposes. You're using "negative" in the perjorative sense ie something bad. I'm using it in the sense of "not" something, eg nibbana = not-suffering, or nibbbana = not being bound.
I'm not saying that nibbana is bad, I'm just observing that it is often expressed in terms of what it isn't.
Cloud: I agree. On the same score, the problem with Buddhist novices is they are not at all familiar with the Pali canon. When they hear nirvana is emptiness they really don't know how to take it. When we come across this term in Pali which is suññta nibbana it doesn't mean nirvana is just plain empty. suññta nibbana means empty of impediments (palibodhia), which is like saying my washcloth is devoid of dirt. It doesn't mean there is no wash cloth there.
To my understanding anatta and emptiness (suññata) are two different teachings, but I believe the Buddha never said that the self exists nor does not exist. Do the different Buddhist sects teach things differently on the subject of emptiness and not-self?
@driedleaf, Emptiness really combines Impermanence and Not-Self together, because they are inseparable to begin with. Being impermanent, conditioned phenomena can not constitute a self. The Buddha did teach that all compounded/conditioned phenomena without exception are not-self, and I believe didn't deny a self because there is a conventional self that can't be denied. Buddhas see the ultimate (supramundane) and the conventional (mundane) simultaneously as "nature" and "appearance", and this is why many things can't be outright declared one way or the other (such as whether the Buddha, or any enlightened being, exists or not after death).
Another way of putting it is Mind and Form. Mind is Buddha-Nature, Form is Emptiness.
We have to keep in mind though that Buddha-Nature doesn't describe anything in particular, but the process that conditions form/phenomena. It's the reason that conditioned phenomena are impermanent, not-self and suffering. There's really nothing to grasp, which is why it's always said there's nothing to grasp. The conventional mind that realizes Buddha-Nature drops away to reveal the underlying "Mind" that is not identified with conditioned phenomena. This is still not a "self" in the way we understand it. Mind is a verb, not a thing.
driedleaf: Yes the do. Mahayana is generally pro-self which is especially evident in the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra. In Thailand the large Dhammakaya Movement is pro-self. They say the true self is nibbana/nirvana (Williams, Mahayana Buddhism (2009), pp. 125-26).
Cloud: Could you supply the discussants here with the passage from the canon where it says "Nirvana is the actualization of emptiness." I would like to read and study the whole context.
Make that Nirvana is the realization of Emptiness, the actualization of Buddha-Nature. I actually had removed that post because it was redundant, but I hope that clears it up. Nirvana is Buddha-Nature's full functioning through Form; the functioning of the Buddhas, which is (you guessed it) transmission from Buddha to Buddha, turning the Wheel of Dharma. Why did Bodhidharma leave for the East? Just that. Of course though liberation is always the case, it is not always the case that the particular form/body has the capacity to teach (hence private Buddhas).
Buddhas do as they do because it's their (and our) true nature to do so. To understand Buddha-Nature is to understand the prediction of enlightenment for all sentient beings. This prediction is exactly what is passed down from Buddha to Buddha. This is also why it doesn't matter what tradition/vehicle you practice if it leads to enlightenment or fosters the enlightenment of others. It's all the functioning of Buddha-Nature and is beyond the distinction of selfish/selfless.
Also we've gotten off track, off-topic, so I'll leave you with that. Good talk.
Comments
I'm using it in the sense of "not" something,
eg nibbana = not-suffering,
or nibbbana = not being bound.
I'm not saying that nibbana is bad, I'm just observing that it is often expressed in terms of what it isn't.
Another way of putting it is Mind and Form.
Mind is Buddha-Nature, Form is Emptiness.
We have to keep in mind though that Buddha-Nature doesn't describe anything in particular, but the process that conditions form/phenomena. It's the reason that conditioned phenomena are impermanent, not-self and suffering. There's really nothing to grasp, which is why it's always said there's nothing to grasp.
I actually had removed that post because it was redundant, but I hope that clears it up.
Nirvana is Buddha-Nature's full functioning through Form; the functioning of the Buddhas, which is (you guessed it) transmission from Buddha to Buddha, turning the Wheel of Dharma. Why did Bodhidharma leave for the East? Just that. Of course though liberation is always the case, it is not always the case that the particular form/body has the capacity to teach (hence private Buddhas).
Buddhas do as they do because it's their (and our) true nature to do so. To understand Buddha-Nature is to understand the prediction of enlightenment for all sentient beings. This prediction is exactly what is passed down from Buddha to Buddha. This is also why it doesn't matter what tradition/vehicle you practice if it leads to enlightenment or fosters the enlightenment of others. It's all the functioning of Buddha-Nature and is beyond the distinction of selfish/selfless.
Also we've gotten off track, off-topic, so I'll leave you with that. Good talk.