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The essence of Dharma?
DairyLama
Veteran Veteran
On another thread there was a question about whether we can separate out an "essence" of Dharma from all the cultural expressions of Dharma which are represented by the various Buddhist schools.
The best contender I can see is the principle of conditionality ( paticcasamuppada / idappacayata ), which underlies many key Buddhist teachings including the Four Noble Truths, dependent origination, anatta and sunyata, and so on.
Your thoughts?
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Comments
Whatever it is, it's not something else.
awareness
Perhaps this passage gets at what you are talking about.
When the founder of Zen came to China from India, he did not set up written or spoken formulations; he only pointed directly to the human mind. Direct pointing just refers to what is inherent in everyone:
the whole being appearing responsively from within the shell of ignorance. It is not different from the sages of time immemorial. That is what we call the natural, real, inherent nature, fundamentally pure, luminous and sublime, swallowing and spitting out all of space, the single solid realm alone and free of the senses and objects.
With great capacity and great wisdom, just detach from thought and cut off sentiments, utterly transcending ordinary conventions. Using your own inherent power, take it up directly right where you are, like letting go your hold over a mile high cliff, freeing yourself and not relying on anything anymore, causing all obstruction by views and understanding to be thoroughly removed. Become like a dead person without breath, and reach the original ground, attaining great cessation and great rest, which the senses fundamentally do not know and which consciousness, perception, feelings, and thoughts do not reach.
After that, in the cold ashes of a dead fire, it is clear everywhere; among the stumps of dead trees everything illumines: then you merge with solitary transcendence, unapproachably high. Then there is no more need to seek mind or seek Buddha: you meet them everywhere and find they are not obtained from outside.
The hundred aspects and thousand facets of perennial enlightenment are all just this: it is mind, so there is no need to still seek mind; it is Buddha, so why trouble to seek Buddha anymore? If you make slogans of words and produce interpretations on top of objects, then you will fall into a bag of antiques and after all that never find what you are looking for.
This is the realm of true reality where you forget what is on your mind and stop looking. In a wild field, not choosing, picking up whatever comes to hand, the obvious meaning of Zen is clear in the hundred grasses. Indeed, the green bamboo, the clusters of yellow flowers, fences, walls, tiles, and pebbles use the teaching of the inanimate; rivers, birds, trees, and groves expound suffering, emptiness, and selflessness. This is based on the one true reality, producing unconditional compassion, manifesting uncontrived, supremely wondrous power in the great jewel light of nirvana. alt
An ancient master said, "Meeting a companion on the Way, spending a life together, the whole task of study is done."
Another master said, "If I pick up a single leaf and go into the city, I move the whole mountain."
That is why one ancient adept was enlightened on hearing the sound of pebbles striking bamboo, while another was awakened on seeing peach trees in bloom. One Zen master attained enlightenment on seeing the flagpole of a teaching center from the other side of a river. Another spoke of the staff of the spirit. One adept illustrated Zen realization by planting a hoe in the ground; another master spoke of Zen in terms of sowing the fields. All of these instances were bringing out this indestructible true being, allowing people to visit a greatly liberated true teacher without moving a step.
Carrying out the unspoken teaching, attaining unhindered eloquence, thus they forever studied all over from all things, embracing the all-inclusive universe, detaching from both abstract and concrete definitions of buddhahood, and transcendentally realizing universal, all-pervasive Zen in the midst of activities. Why necessarily consider holy places, teachers' abodes, or religious organizations and forms prerequisite to personal familiarity and attainment of realization?
Once a seeker asked a great Zen teacher, "I, so-and-so, ask: what is the truth of Buddhism?" The teacher said, "You are so-and-so." At that moment the seeker was enlightened. As it is said, "What comes from you, returns to you."
An ancient worthy, working in the fields in his youth, was breaking up clumps of earth when he saw a big clod, which he playfully smashed with a fierce blow. As it shattered, he was suddenly enlightened.
After this he acted freely, becoming an unfathomable person, often manifesting wonders. An old master brought this up and said, "Mountains and rivers, indeed the whole earth was shattered by this man's blow. Making offerings to the buddhas does not require a lot of incense." How true these words are!
Essentials of Mind --Yuanwu (1063-1135) alt
— Excerpted from "The Five Houses of Zen"
Trans by Thomas Cleary
The four seals.
I gotcha @ how....
(Sorry. Really weird day....
)
@federica
My personal preference would have been me posting that photo with no other explanation.
(I'll see that weird day and raise you 2 more)
Go right ahead, be my guest, I can edit accordingly.
(I'll see your two, and raise the stakes with a really barmy customer....)
Understanding the 4 Noble Truths in their 3 phases and 12 aspects means understanding Dependent Origination, I think the 4 Noble Truths and Dependent Origination are one and the same, understanding the 4 noble truths is the cessation of suffering and the way to leading to the cessation of suffering.
Like for example being in pain and realizing your pain is caused because your hand is on a hot stove, even though you still have your hand on it, you know that it will stop hurting when you remove your hand from it. I think the essence of Dharma will be kind of like that for a first stage ariya.
The essence of Dharma?
What is idappacayata?
"Conditionality"
buddha said that anything that was conditional was not the self.
"Transient alas ! are all component things.
Subject are they to birth-and then decay:
Having gained birth to death the life flux swings:
Bliss truly dawns when unrest dies away!"
What does the third stanza mean? @Shoshin
Having gained birth, the life flux swings to death.
Only if you define that self as..... deathlessness itself.
No thoughts.
(Line. 'Stanza' is the whole verse....)
I leave the response to Shoshin.
@Jeffrey, @oneself summed it up, but here's a bit more info....
Pali stanza recited at funerals, from J B Disanayaka’s The Monk and the Peasant (1993)
http://www.slguardian.org/?p=4906
In a nutshell... The impermanent nature of all things( everything "is" a constant state of flux ) and when one can come to terms with this, peace of mind will also be found....
I came across it in a Dharma book I read many moons ago, I can't remember the book title but can always remember this stanza...
The stanza really speaks for itself... I hope this helps @Jeffrey....
emptiness and compassion
Is the Dharma only in Buddhist practices? Why do only humans both laugh and cry?
@windfall Thich Nhat Hanh said in his book about the Diamond Sutra that 'the dharma is not the dharma.. that is how it IS the dharma'. he went further to explain that wisdom wherever we find it is the dharma and the dharma isn't just a box locked up of certain sutras (as some think it is merely a certain 'canon')
When I started calling myself a Buddhist on a Sufi forum, many were disappointed. After all naming or aligning is an indication of containment rather than freedom.
http://www.mto.org/aos/en/Complete_Book.html
However being free of freedom is sometimes skilful.
I find Buddhist like teachings in other religions or even in no formal label. I find there are gaps or complementary and presently relevant understandings in a myriad of blogs, art, films, crafts, psychology etc etc that throw a reflective potential on our Dharma.
If no mistake have you made, yet losing you are ... a different game you should play.
--YODA
I think the essence is:
Probably too much of anything is a hindrance.
It's not though is? There is misery, we get sick, we get old, loved ones die, etc, but it's definitely NOT all miserable.
^^^ It ain't all suffering/unsatisfactory/miserable BUT it is dukkha.
Dukkha is based on the very duality and transitory nature of existence. So the fact that we get to the end of the ice cream tub is the beginning of the transition into the misery and guilt of having a second tub/ice cream restraining order/sugar addiction etc.
Existence is not all existence/joy/emptiness ...
However for another thread we might consider if arising and transition can be overcome through enlightenment ...
Sheer luxury!
We cannot, because the essence is the basis for everything.
Define 'essence'
Nothing to grasp and none needed
Presence.
Oh you and your 'presence'.
Does it come gift-wrapped?
Presents ( oops, wrong thread! )
We wish you a merry Buhhdamas
We wish you a merry Buddhamas
We wish you a merry Buddhamas
And a happy Dharma Year
Good karma we bring to you
Wherever you are
Good karma for Buddhamas
And a happy Dharma Year
May your Presence be calm and serene
And may all your presents all be delicious
Peace to all
Should I change my mid every Monday?
Yes, there is a gift!
Hurrah! Can we celebrate that now? Then I will have time to build up a good level of bah-humbuggery for the so-called "festive season" in December, when Santa who is really Satan steals the souls of children by bribing them with presence, er I mean presents.
Thought you knew - Santa is really a wood elf with grandiose dreams.
Satan retired to a flat in the South End and now teaches knitting.
God rented out his flat in Soho to a dwarf king and spends most of his time around Monaco.
You/we can celebrate any time, any where. Go ahead and Build up a BIG reserve.
I rather like this essence, which I feel expresses the essence of dharma in a single word.
Sit.
The gate of ease and joy is found everywhere, it is truly the gate-less gate as you are it and not separated from Buddhas of the three times. Here, mundane and sacred have no more relevance. Here, radiance springs out of forms and space. Meeting the true person within this is our great task and joy. The self fulfillment Samadhi. The Samadhi in which one receives and uses the self. Truly know yourself. Forget yourself. Let all Dharmas, let the myriad things come forth, illuminate and reflect.
Please, sit.
The complete text is both poetic, incorporating the Tao influence of zen and worth a read, as it expands the idea of sit into being, mindfulness and the full range of Buddhist experiential knowledge
http://www.zenforuminternational.org/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=11323#p179068