A reminder to relax
misecmisc1
I am a HinduIndia Veteran
This post is from me to me and to all those who are trying to get something in meditation (as a way of reminder, so that I can read it whenever I forget about the below things). May be you all may already be knowing the below things, so do not need the below reminder, but I came to know about the below things just now, so thought of typing it out for my reminder.
All dharmas are marked with emptiness.
Since all dharmas are empty of their own being, they are not produced and neither do they cease. So there is no attainment whatsoever in practice. So RELAX. There is nothing to be achieved as there is no one who is going to achieve anything and also there is nothing which can be achieved.
Everything is included in suchness, so all the states of mind are in suchness, no matter how defiled they are or how pure they are.
So the burden of trying to get something falls away and the spiritual practice can be continued in a joyful manner.
All dharmas do not actually exist.
All dharmas are mere words.
All dharmas have no mark or no characteristic. All dharmas have only one mark, which is that they have no mark.
All dharmas are isolated, as there is no relationship between them, as they themselves are empty of being.
The perfection of wisdom cannot be learned or reflected upon by the five skandhas because all dharmas are isolated. Also the perfection of wisdom can be learned only by the five skandhas because the five skandhas are empty in themselves.
Everything is radically incomplete all the time.
The consummation of perfect wisdom is the non-consummation of the five skandhas and this consummation of perfect wisdom does not produce any dharma.
So look at reality in the above perspective to lessen your suffering.
The above understanding is based on the below series of dhamma talks given by a Zen monk on Prajna Paramita Sutras:
http://www.everydayzen.org/teachings/2013/prajna-paramita-eight-thousand-lines-2015-talk-1
http://www.everydayzen.org/teachings/2013/prajna-paramita-8000-lines-2015-talk-2
http://everydayzen.org/teachings/2013/httpedz-audios3amazonawscom03prajnaparamitain8000linestalkthree2015-dharmaseminar-2015-02-25mp3
http://everydayzen.org/teachings/2013/httpedz-audios3amazonawscom04prajnaparamitaineightthousandlines2015talk4-dharmaseminar-2015-03-04mp31
Any discussions, ideas, suggestions all are welcome. Thanks in advance.
Comments
Can you explain how dharmas are isolated?
Based on the above Dhamma talks, my understanding is below:
Dharmas are isolated because dharmas are empty of their own being, so dharmas by themselves do not really exist, so obviously they cannot be related to each-other, so that is why dharmas are isolated. So every moment, the entire universe pops up simultaneously and each moment is complete in itself and isolated from the previous moment and the next moment.
Dharmas seem to be like potentials. A potential is a thing, which is not actually there in the present, but it cannot be said that it is not there, as that thing in future can turn out to be that. For example, a seed has a potential of a plant. A plant is not actually present inside the seed, but the seed has a potential that if the external conditions are suitable, then that seed can develop into a plant. So dharmas are like potentials, they are possibilities, they are there, but not by themselves, so not actually there and so not complete.
I think the perfection of wisdom is telling us that there is not a single thing, which we can know and hold on to. So we have to stand in placelessness, with radically joyfully accepting whatever happens to us. This is what Dogen referred to when he taught - if you want to experience suchness, be a person of suchness or in other words, just be suchness.
It is all paradoxes, but not with the idea to confuse a person, but to help the mind to not settle on anything.
Anyways, I am still an ignorant person with all the defilements of lust, anger, greed, hatred, attachment and ego inside me. So obviously my above understanding can be totally incorrect. But anyways, what is correct and what is incorrect - this itself is questionable.
@misecmisc1 Dharmas are isolated because dharmas are empty of their own being, so dharmas by themselves do not really exist, so obviously they cannot be related to each-other, so that is why dharmas are isolated. So every moment, the entire universe pops up simultaneously and each moment is complete in itself and isolated from the previous moment and the next moment
Are you talking about how dharmas arise sequentially, the idea that nothing really arises in dependence on what came before? Something like that? It's always struck me more as a philosophical point than one grounded in experience.
That idea of the pop-up universe is I understand stressed in Yogacara Buddhist philosophy?
Would 'complete' be a better word than isolated?
I think Yogacara is the mind-only school, based on idealism.
Hi Sir,
My thinking says below things:
Dhammas are what constitute the whole of the universe or our experience or whatever is - both conditioned and unconditioned - from Mahayana's Great Vehicle view.
I think here is where Mahayana differs from Therevada because of the above point of all dharmas are isolated. From Therevada point of view, there is a path which leads from Samsara to Nirvana, so there is a goal to which a practitioner moves toward. So Nirvana is separate from Samsara.
From Mahayana point of view, there is no path leading to Nirvana, rather path or practice is Nirvana. There is no Nirvana separate from Samsara and there is no Samsara outside Nirvana. Or in other words, without Samsara, there is no Nirvana and without Nirvana, there can be no Samsara. Something like when this is, that is simultaneously occurring in duality. Dogen's teaching in Genjokoan also refers to this thing, when Dogen taught - firewood does not turn to ash, as firewood abides in the expression of firewood and ash abides in the expression of ash. Another example is that we do not call spring the end of winter as winter abides in winter and spring abides in spring and summer abides in summer, with no before and no after.
Since all dharmas do not actually exist and are isolated, so the perfection of wisdom cannot be learned through the 5 skandhas. Also, since the 5 skandhas are themselves empty, so the perfection of wisdom cannot be reflected upon by anything other than the 5 skandhas. And things become more confusing or may be more clear
.
How is this exactly helping you to move further along the path of your practice, @misecmisc1 ?
It is telling me to relax and understand that since everything is inherently not existing by themselves, not complete by themselves, then obviously I cannot do much to solve my family's problems or my spiritual journey's problems. I should learn to patiently accept whatever is happening and try to practice the spiritual path joyfully. What is the point of enhancing the suffering thinking - damn, i am not able to sit properly in my meditation, when i will be able to watch my breath properly, when calm will develop, when insight will come - why bother about all these things, when the perfection of wisdom is clearly teaching that ultimately nothing can be attained and nothing can be understood - not because we are not able to do it, but rather in actuality there is really no one to understand and really no thing to be understood.
The radical joyful acceptance of whatever happens in life - this may be a thing to be practiced or at least tried to be practiced. Then we shall see that the non-completion of the 5 skandhas is the completion of perfection of wisdom.
Also even if in future I remain an ignorant stupid person, with all the defilements of lust, anger, greed, hatred, attachment and ego inside me like my current defiled situation, then also I should not suffer over it, as all things are suchness.
May be the practice of zazen or just sitting makes more sense after the above understanding. Also the practice of mindfulness in daily activities shall help in above understanding.
Even if I may not be able to do zazen properly or not be totally mindful in my daily activities, then also there is no need to suffer from it and i can relax, because whatever it is, every moment is complete in itself and everything at every moment is suchness.
But it is still good to discuss the various aspects so that the discussion can lead to clarify things, or help us to see more aspects or more views of things.
You do realise that "Radical Acceptance" does not mean you shouldn't do anything about it, yes? Acceptance does not equate with inaction....
Yes, radical joyful acceptance refers to joyfully accepting whatever comes in front of us in any situation and then doing what ever best we can do in that situation and then accept whatever its outcome comes out to be in that situation - seems like too hard to do practically, but at least I can try to put a little effort in this direction - don't know if I will be able to do it even a little-bit, but still I can try to do it a little-bit in few situations, if not many situations.
I appreciate and am inspired by your efforts. You uniquely have a very focussed and intense almost clinical logic.
The idea of relaxing, music, art and seemingly pointless activity may be very alien to you?
However . . . consider what relaxing means. We do not eat just for nutrition, even Seven of Nine or was it the doctor, eventually learned to appreciate cheesecake . . .
I'll have what she's having
@lobster : as usually happens your reply goes over my head
or was it too dharmic for me to really understand? i don't know - not the standard zen one, but i think the stupid i don't know - but this also i don't really know. damn i am too stupid for all these dharma discussions.
What @lobster means is that you need to drop the logic, and just enjoy meditation, for the simple sake of sitting, relaxing and letting go.
You cannot truly appreciate a cheesecake by studying at a list of ingredients, then examining what happens to them individually during the cooking phase, by evaluating and scrutinising the processes of maths, (proportions) Physics (why egg-whites expand and solidify) and Chemistry (what happens when you combine lemon juice with double cream), and considering what happens to it during ingestion and digestion (anatomical biology).
The only way to truly appreciate cheesecake is to have a slice, eat it and enjoy it.
'Sit, eat' and just enjoy your meditation!