19
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Accepted
Logic of Emptiness still unconvincing. Please help explain
Your confusion is clear as day to me. :) As is the true meaning of "emptiness". The challenge is how to explain it to you in a way you can understand. :)
You are stuck on this idea of "...
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13
votes
Accepted
What's the meaning of the Buddhist boy's message to Neo in the movie The Matrix?
It means that so-called reality is actually our interpretation. When our perspective changes our experienced reality changes. This is why the boy says, don't try to change reality (bend the spoon). ...
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9
votes
How can the theory of emptiness be true and yet the self still transmigrates and takes rebirth?
Not all forms of Buddhism define emptiness in the way you describe; in Theravada Buddhism, for example, emptiness mainly means "empty of self":
“katamā cāvuso, suññatā cetovimutti”?
“idhāvuso, ...
- 24k
9
votes
Accepted
Meaning of "Body is emptiness, emptiness is body"
In my understanding, this basically speaks to the following Buddha's expression (SN 22.90):
By & large, Kaccayana, this world is supported by a polarity, that of existence & non-existence. ...
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7
votes
Accepted
What is the phantom in the conclusion of the Diamond Sutra?
No phantom, no...
The Diamond Sutra in Classical Chinese, wherein one of the verses instantly enlightened the 6th Patriarch Huineng, the corresponding verse to your quote is this:
一切有為法，如夢幻泡影，...
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7
votes
Accepted
Why should Mahayana practitioners strive for anything at all?
Well in Mahayana, just like in Theravada, we strive for the end of striving. As @ChrisW said, Heart Sutra is written from the perspective of completion, the end of striving. This is called "taking the ...
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6
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Why should Mahayana practitioners strive for anything at all?
I'll preface my answer by suggesting that you find a qualified teacher. That is to say, someone with years of formal study in a monastic setting leading to a qualification such as Geshe or Ajahn or ...
- 61
5
votes
Is emptiness interdependence and interrelationship?
I would say yes, it is a [seemingly] valid understanding.
Usually, from a Madhyamika-Prasangika point of view, it is stated that:
The meaning of emptiness is dependent-arising; and the meaning of ...
- 5,188
5
votes
Accepted
Playing repetitve music as meditation practice
The biggest issue with music is:
you can get attached to it
can created mental recitation of the lyrics which in turn creates verbal fabrications
Hence best is to resort to more conservative ...
5
votes
Notion of good and bad in Buddhism
The original Buddhist teachings do not include a doctrine of non-duality. The Buddha's enlightenment came from ending craving & attachment rather than from ending dualistic perceptions & ...
- 38.5k
5
votes
Is the Mind (Citta) the Self? If not, what is it?
1. If this mind is already not-Self, why it needs to be emptied and what is to be emptied?
The mind is only 'not-self' from the viewpoint of enlightenment & truth. But for the unenlightened mind, ...
- 38.5k
5
votes
Question about the contrast between Buddhist statements and Christian doctrine
The word 'Buddha' means 'Enlightened'. It is the Buddha that is the light of the world. Buddhism states there can be only one Original Buddha in a world-system (MN 115). Jesus was a new light for ...
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5
votes
Accepted
What is Indra's Net, according to Mahayana Buddhism?
There are two sets of Mahayana sutras:
The seventeen Perfection of Wisdom sutras (Prajnaparamita Sutras), and
The other sutras, of the Wheel of Perfect Differentiation.
The first set does not ...
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5
votes
Accepted
Difference between Theravada's self and Mahayana's intrinsic essence
1. Do other Mahayana Buddhists apart from the commentator above, also call the intrinsic essence (svabhava) of a chair, as the "self of chairs"?
Yes, this is a common expression in Mahayana texts on ...
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5
votes
Accepted
Is the Mahayana shunyata same as the Theravada papanca?
Yes, more or less.
Although, strictly speaking you are making a category error.
Shunyata refers to the fact that everything is an abstraction, simplification, subjective observation, and that in ...
- 57.2k
5
votes
What is the purpose of the Mahayana 'emptiness' doctrine?
Short answer: because understanding that phenomena are not "solid", but are in fact an interpretation/imputation, removes craving and passions in regards to them, which prevents dukkha that arises ...
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5
votes
What arguments are there for "karma" -- that the agent inevitably experiences the result of their actions?
UPDATE based on the edited question with a suggested definition of karma.
While it is true that the Buddha taught that each and every volitional action has specific consequences this is most ...
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5
votes
Accepted
Is nirvana a conceptual construction?
"I'm just trying to figure out how extinction can avoid the extremes of eternalism and annihilation."
And therein lies your problem. If you are trying to figure it out, you are dealing in ...
- 372
5
votes
Logic of Emptiness still unconvincing. Please help explain
I'll try to explain this from the Theravada perspective, which I think is more or less the same as Madhyamaka emptiness, once you analyze it deeply.
In addition to this answer, please also see "...
- 36.4k
4
votes
How can the theory of emptiness be true and yet the self still transmigrates and takes rebirth?
The teaching that all things composed of parts are without self, but are mere names and labels designated in dependence on their parts, is something that most definitely is taught in the Pali canon, ...
- 7,444
4
votes
Accepted
Is emptiness interdependence and interrelationship?
More or less, in first approximation. Kinda. Well, not really. There are multiple levels of realization of Emptiness:
Understanding things as inherently impermanent.
Understanding things as made from ...
- 57.2k
4
votes
Accepted
What is the Buddhist term for each moment being subtlety unique?
Maybe the term is "Tathata" that means "suchness" or "thusness". It is a Mahayana term. It means "Things as they are" or "reality". It's ultimate reality as opposed to conceptual reality.
It comes ...
- 7,082
4
votes
Does Nagarjuna's Middle Treatise 24:18 teach real knowledge?
No, this is not an OK-ish understanding, since it does not approach traditional interpretations (whether that of Tsongkhapa or his opponents belonging to the Jonang school or the Nyingma tradition).
...
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4
votes
How does one Realize emptiness?
Pali Buddhism offers the following instructions for realising emptiness (suññatā):
And what is the emptiness mind-release? There is the case where a monk, having gone into the wilderness, to the ...
- 38.5k
4
votes
Is the Mind (Citta) the Self? If not, what is it?
Is the Mind the Self? If not, what is it?
It's a delusion of mind.
why it needs to be emptied
Because it's the cause of suffering.
How does it(Mind) have the autonomy/independence to realize/...
- 1,601
4
votes
Why should Mahayana practitioners strive for anything at all?
I think the Heart Sutra may be analogous to the Brahmana Sutta (SN 51.15):
So it is with an arahant whose mental effluents are ended, who has reached fulfillment, done the task, laid down the burden, ...
- 45.2k
4
votes
Why should Mahayana practitioners strive for anything at all?
Sure, why not? It's like one strives to not strive. It would be nice if we could just rip the coating of defilement off of ourselves to reveal the Buddha inside. It take's awhile to get naked, we got ...
- 7,082
4
votes
Accepted
Earliest usage of "rope or snake" allegory in Buddhist literature?
For all I know, the simile may come from generic Indian religious tradition and not specifically from Buddhism. For example, here are some quotes from Upanidhads:
Nirvana Upanishad (~ 100 BCE - 100 CE)...
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