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Find all intellectual understanding dangerous and not conducive.
Denkatsu
Veteran
I feel the all intellectual understanding does not fall within the understanding of emptiness.
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Without it, it is almost impossible to have direct perception of emptiness.
But thats my personal opinion.
Even to have the intellectual understanding will lead to a happier life.
emptiness is the lack of intrinsic reality.
the mind posits and grasps at entities. thus recognizing what the mind grasps at and seeking it out is the meditation on emptiness. when we find the lack of such entity or solid reality, that is what we call the direct perception of emptiness.
the intellectual understanding paves the way for the mind to be more lucid and open.
thus having a break through or direct seeing is possible. not something attained, but reality as it is, already is so.
See how this is a very direct experience?
but then that would be the antithesis to the teachings of emptiness and really the incorrect understanding of emptiness as a whole.
well the buddha said everything is a raft. once you use it toss it.
The dharma is naked.
Just like the sun shines on both sinner and saint.
The mind makes both special and ordinary.
There is the experience. There is the realization.
Depends on how much the seeing penetrates. But even if you don't see, it already is so.
Can we hold onto anything? The mind that rests is always knowing this.
Emotional understanding is possible ... but limited.
Conversationally, we might say that emptiness is unlimited. Or not ... your choice.
:rolleyes:
There are children who are labeled "mentally retarded" by this world who directly perceive the inherent emptiness of this world far beyond the vast majority of adults sitting contentedly on their "solid intellectual understanding."
If conditions are right one should practice. Whatever vehicle suites your conditioning.
But its important not to dismis something because it doesn't fit your conditioned pov.
Make sense?
Compassion moves the practitioner beyond a merely memorized or intellectual understanding of the emptiness teachings. Compassion helps one's realization become global and holistic.
Compassion is an antidote to learning the emptiness teachings for selfish, egocentric reasons. When one engages in a difficult dialectic like the emptiness teaching for selfish reasons, the result is counterproductive. Emptiness teachings are very subtle. The most common side-effect of misunderstanding emptiness is a crippling sense of nihilism. A nihilistic outlook makes joy, compassion and emptiness very difficult to realize. One doesn't experience an increase in joy and a decrease in suffering. Instead, one experiences a stiffening of the mind and a closure of the heart. But compassion opens the mind and heart. It allows one to "get out of the way." It makes the emptiness teachings easier to understand, easier to realize holistically, and easier to integrate into one's life. Compassion enables the realization of emptiness.
Realizing emptiness facilitates compassion. The effects run the other direction too. A greater understanding of emptiness enables greater compassion. The more strongly one realizes that one's self and other selves are empty of inherent existence, the less one experiences an essential distinction between one's self and another. It becomes harder to place one's own happiness above that of others. It becomes easier to act in such a way that others are benefitted, not just one's self.
Contextual clues. There is a clue to this traditional placement of emptiness later in the learning stream. In the various lists of Buddhist spiritual virtues called "perfections" or "paramitas" (Sanskrit), there are 6 or 10 items. The "perfection of wisdom" refers to the realization of emptiness or the lack of an essential self. But the perfection of wisdom is never the first item in these lists! It is usually number 4 or number 6. Depending on the list, the perfection of wisdom is preceded by the perfections of: generosity, virtue, renunciation, discipline, patience, tolerance, diligence, and one-pointed concentration.
For example, here is a Theravada list from the Pali Canon of Buddhist scriptures:
Dāna: generosity
Sīla: virtue, morality, proper conduct
Nekkhamma: renunciation
Paññā: wisdom, insight
Viriya: energy, diligence, vigor, effort
Khanti: patience, tolerance, forbearance, acceptance, endurance
Sacca: truthfulness, honesty
Adhiṭṭhāna: determination, resolution
Mettā: loving-kindness
Upekkhā: equanimity, serenity
Here is a Mahayana list:
Dāna: generosity
Śīla: virtue, morality, discipline, proper conduct
Kṣānti: patience, tolerance, forbearance, acceptance, endurance
Vīrya: energy, diligence, vigor, effort
Dhyāna: one-pointed concentration, contemplation
Prajñā: wisdom, insight
I find it interesting that the Mahayana tradition (Nagarjuna's tradition) places more emphasis on the importance of realizing emptiness, and also locates its paramita later in the list, with more perfections before it."
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http://awakeningtoreality.blogspot.com/2009/02/nondual-emptiness-teachings.html#comp.e
Potential is expressed through living and understanding both emotionally and intellectually - expressing potential is inclusive rather than exclusive - when you find yourself reaching deadend ultimatums, look for the alternative and then take a step back.
Everything is workable as Mr. Trungpa would say.
Nothing external needs to change.
Just our perception and when we change our perception the external changes.
since i was child. it was always. given me a choice or a relization i don'nt have to be this way. you have a choice.
It may sound odd but as a child I had this thought. My mother wanted me to quite down be good. A thought came over in my head said you don't have to continue this way. You have a choice.
very profound for me in any case.
ill never forget it.
I heard her at 17. . .most wise.
Even if you are just an ordinary person - you can be awakened in this lifetime.
Intellectual arguments, apologetics, agnosticism all very good.
But there comes a point where you need to listen to your heart.
Sorry, most of my spiritual group are women, not men. No offense.
Spiny
If you imagine a robot that's trying to reprogram itself. Kind of a gruesome image, but maybe useful. Does the robot need to be a good programmer? -- Well, yes and no. It needs some kind of interface with itself that it has developed some facility with. But it does not need necessarily to know how to program itself in the way its "builder" did.
Concepts are useful, except when they're not.