Scribber: Buddhism, History and Teachings, Outline and Comparison to Western and Chinese Philosophy

Buddhism

The Buddha
- not 'Buddha'
- Buddha means enlightened one
the Buddha was Siddhartha Gautama
two languages – Sanskrit and Pali
Sanskrit – Karma
Pali – Kamma
the Buddha was born 563 B.C.E.
He was born into Hinduism
- proto-Hinduism
- early Hinduism, not quite what modern Hinduism was today
he was the son of the king
was a member of the warrior/ruler cast
prophecy was that he would become either a great king or a great teacher
father wanted to keep him in the palace and not allow him to see any suffering
finally escaped from his father's palace and took a chariot ride
- 1^st trip – saw old age for the first time
- 2^nd trip – saw disease for the first time
- 3^rd trip – saw a corpse
- 4^th trip – saw a sage, wanted to search for enlightenment
did severe ascetic practices, meditation in the forest
decided that this extreme posterity didn't work, his companions abandoned him
sat down at the Bodhi Tree, and decided not to get up until he saw through all this
he found the cause of human suffering, grasped the four noble truths
Nirvana – literally means a blowing out, extinguishing
- if something is on fire, you blow it out: this is nirvana
- an extinguishing of suffering, and everything that leads up to it
- extinguishing of illusion, ignorance
- Buddhism is a soterialogical philosophy
  - salvation-based
  - you and I are suffering, in need of salvation
  - salvation is due to enlightenment
  - early Buddhism: nobody can do it for you, you must do it for yourself
- main problem: you think there is a self, but there is not
Fundamental teaching of Buddhism: there is no self
- everything is temporary
- everything depends on something else for its existence
- this is just the way the universe is
- this is opposite to the Hindu tradition
  - brahman – pure being, consciousness, bliss
  - existing completely independently from anything else
  - everything else depends upon it
  - permanent
  - you are it
  - one source for the existence of everything: brahman
  - 'thou art that' – something is there, which cannot be described
- Buddhism rejects the eternal self
Four Noble Truths
- 1. Dukkha
  - “suffering”
  - everything is suffering
  - all this is suffering
  - “life is suffering”
  - literally means:
    evil empty space – a bad axle-hole; instability
  - everything could unravel at any second
  - dukkha is instability
  - unsatisfactoriness
  - 'life contains angst'
  - missing puzzle piece
  - 1. ordinary suffering – counterbalanced by occasional pleasures; torn muscle, for example
  - 2. suffering as change – underlying anxiety or stress; as much as you like this, there is not keeping it
    - (isn't all change death? Birth, death, birth, death)
  - 3. conditional states – your experience at any given moment is never quite enough
    - given the nature of the universe, there is no
  - most likely what is meant: human existence is unsatisfactory
    - not nearly such a strong notion as “suffering”
    - any lasting satisfaction for a human is just not possible
  - dukkha – etymology: a bad axle-hole; an evil space
    - bad axle-hole connotes instability, bumpy ride
  - fundamental problem for the Buddhist: we have a strong need for permanence, stability, and this is not satisfiable
    - the universe just is not cooperating, because everything is constantly changing
- 2. The Arising of Dukkha
  - there is a cause of dukkha
  - most immediate cause: thirst or Trishna (Tanha)
    - craving, lust, desire (kind of...the Buddhist desires enlightenment)
    - grasping
    - passionate greed
    - not at ease (dis-ease)
    - I feel incomplete...I grasp, hoping to fill the void I feel, to complete myself
  - humans desire what is lacked
    - incompleteness
    - and if I only just get this one last thing I'll be done...
    - the void is never filled
  - at a deeper level, what motivates this desire?
    - Answer: the false notion of self
    - there is no self
    - ignorance underlies all the grasping
    - the puzzle that is half-assembled is a puzzle of self
    - this is an attempt to reify (to make real) oneself, or trying to establish oneself, or maintain oneself, or protect oneself...self self self
    - this self does not exist
  - the attempt to make yourself real...that is the underlying cause of dukkha
  - 1. Thirst for sense pleasures (experiences)
  - 2. Thirst for existence or becoming
  - 3. Thirst for nonexistence
    - produces conflict, either internal or external
    - belief in the self is the basis for suicide and self-aggrandizement
  - Buddhist does not deny that nothing exists, he denies that the self is real

if dukkha had no cause, it would not be fixable
it depends on how you use the term desire – one can desire enlightenment, and it is not obvious that that is a cause of suffering, really it is quite the opposite
ultimate cause of thirst: ignorance of the self
- certainly there is a human being, experiences are taking place, thoughts are occurring
- but there is no self

3. Nirvana
- nirvana is ineffable
- the cessation of dukkha
- anything which has a cause can be resolved
- grasping has a cause, so when that is removed, there is nirvana
- nirvana is the blowing out of the fire of craving
- nirvana is most often described in negative terms (via negativa) – it's not:
  - craving, desire, continuity, becoming, unborn, ungrown, the unconditioned, nothing
- when the craving stops, there is something left over
- in positive terms, nirvana is:
  - absolute freedom, absolute truth, happiness (unconditional, not dependent upon anything, free of anxiety, cannot be taken away – not that you can 'have it')
  - no attachment to any form of pleasure, no aversion to any form of pain
- as soon as you stop grasping, this seems to come

The Five Aggregates
- Skandhas
- The Five Heaps
- what there is when talking about the human individual
- 1. Matter
  - the body
  - physical activities are real
- 2. Sensations (sense contact)
  - mental phenomena
  - all six senses
    - five ordinary senses, and then the mind
  - not a spiritual substance, not a Cartesian mind, this is part of the natural mind
  - a contact with external reality
  - direct apprehension of external objects, before any concepts are applied
  - it's as if I look at the table, and see a brown patch, but don't assert 'table' (or really brown patch, there is just something there)
  - there is just an awareness of something, but no judgment whatsoever
  - intuition – your immediate grasp on something, the immediate givenness of something
  - 'there is.'
- 3. Perceptual Activity (perceptions)
  - involves recognition of our sensations & the application of concepts
  - includes concepts
  - this is a table/brown thing
  - applying concepts to the sensory stimuli
  - cognition is occurring
  - by thinking about sensations they are given form
  - noticing commonalities with previous experience
  - (this is cognitive psychology)
  - 'that which I sense with my eyes is a beer'
- 4. Mental Formations
  - these represent dispositions (or volitions) to action
  - the will, in other words
  - dispositions to act in a certain way
  - importantly involved with karma
  - 'I want the beer'
- 5. Consciousness
  - six kinds of consciousness, one for each of the six senses
  - and consciousness is always 'consciousness of something'
  - consciousness is always intentional – it has an external object
  - I'm conscious of _________
  - (Hinduism thought there could be consciousness without being conscious of anything – pure consciousness)
- notice...these aggregates are all based on 'my'
- the self is the owner of all this
- sensations are going on, experiences are happening, only no individual self is having the experiences
- ex. I see the table
  - russell: I exist on another level so that I am aware I see the table
    - I notice that I see the table
  - this seems to require having an awareness of the table here + the thing that sees it
  - Russell wants to say we have an immediate awareness of ourselves
the Buddhist does not deny these aggregates: the Buddhist denies that there is an additional entity in relation to these aggregates as an owner
- there is not self to own these things
tendency is to think: I am having these experiences – I'm watching this life like a movie
- there has to be something that has the experiences
- Buddhist: No, there isn't. There is no owner to these experiences. The theater is empty, it is playing to an empty theater
- there really is nothing to to be attached to anything else

everything is composed of dharmas (early Buddhas)
- little tiny atomic point instances
- everything can be analyzed into components that last only an instant

Normally a 'self' is substantial
- Descartes thought of this...substance is substantial
- a substance endures through time, and endures through changes
- but 'it' is still there
- 'it' remains in existence
- 'it' endures the changes
- ex. Corner has undergone many changes, but he is the same guy
  - corner is an enduring entity
  - that is exactly the concept of self that the Buddhist wants to attack
the Buddhist is an anti-subtantialist view
- substance: enduring, through time, survives various changes
- so as the body grows, changes and whatnot, it is still me right? Isn't the owner of the skandhas is the same?
- The Buddhist says this is wrong: there is no entity that endures
- one of the primary causes of anxiety: death
- under the Buddhist view: there is nothing to die
- our language draws heavily on substance to describe
- pacifist and theorist Chomsky described 'depth grammar'
  - any possible language would have a subject-predicate form
  - can also be thought of as substance-attribute
  - ex. the table is brown – the table is a subject which is capable of having properties and enduring through time, the properties can change, so it is still a table?
    - if a table is not associated with its properties, then what is it

What causes reincarnation? What reincarnates?
- Hindu Reincarnation:
  - reincarnation is transmigration
  - transmigration of the soul, the Atman (self)
  - something goes from body to body
  - worm crawls between two blades of grass
- Buddhist Reincarnation:
  - two candles, use the flame from candle one to light the candle two, then blow candle one out
  - the state of candle one caused candle two to light
  - there is continuity – causal continuity, rather than substantial continuity
the mind is doing this causal continuity all the time
- physical states are causing mental states all the time
- transition from state to state is no different than any other transition
- nothing survives any moment
schism – Two basic types of Buddhism
- the 'Elders' (sthaviras)
  - also, Hinayana Buddhism → means 'the lesser vehicle' (given by Mahayana, can be considered an insult
  - also, the Theravada Buddhism ('The Doctrine of the Elders')
    - however, originally there were seven schools of 'the Elders' and Theravada was one of them
  - if you want enlightenment, you should become a monk and let everybody else do their thing
  - if not in this life, then be good and maybe the next life
  - ideal: enlightened monk who simply ceases to reincarnate
- the Greater Assembly
  - also, Mahayana Buddhism → means 'the greater vehicle'
  - preach a universal salvation – everyone should be enlightened
  - vowed not to be enlightened until the rest of everybody is ready
  - ideal: Bodhisattva -
  - we can all undertake some Buddhist practice, and together we will ascend to enlightenment
  - postponing own enlightenment, you are a Buddha-to-be
  - one form is called 'Pure Land Buddhism'
    - envisions sort of a heaven-world, in which is a Buddha named Amitabha
    - he has eons of good karma saved up, so you pray to him, with faith, and when you die you can go to the heaven world
    - in the heaven-world, you can meditate there without distraction
  - Buddha is never quite made into a deity, but it begins to look like it in many Mahayana traditions
- Tibetan Buddhism
  - mix of the Bon religion and primarily Mahayana Buddhism
  - also, Vajrayana
  - the Dalai Lama is the reincarnate of Avalokitesvara ('the lord who looks down from above')
Nagarjuna – a Brahmin (priest), wrote in Sanskrit
- nog-R-june-uh
- far east philosopher
- Madhyamaka – 'the middle path'
- criticizes a particular Hinayana school called Abhidharma
- Arbhidarmist school:
  - the ordinary objects of our experience aren't really real in themselves
  - there is not really such a thing as the table
  - the table is a collection of very tiny dharmas
  - dharmas – the fundamental constituents of reality
    - sometimes described as a point-instance
    - a dharma is a point in space that only survives for an instant in time
    - the table does not endure through time as a real object, it really is just composed of the dharmas
    - little bits of energy that flash into existence for an instant then flash back out again
  - there is not substantial enduring object
  - think of a fan – looks like a disc when it moves
  - everything is constantly new
  - the fact that we see things as stable is really an illusion of an enduring object
  - this is the metaphysical side of Buddhism
- Nagarjuna was not happy with this → pointed out that the dharmas were substantial; though they exist only momentarily, they still exist and have an essence
  - at the moment that this dharma exists, it exists independent
  - dharmas are discreet individuals
  - if the dharmas exist individually, it encourages grasping
  - this concedes too much to the substantialist picture
- so Nagarjuna says: “All dharmas are empty”
- *sidenote:
  - the term dharma in Sanskrit comes from the root dhr, meaning the foundation of the universe
  - in the Hindu religion, the universe must be kept in its present order
- some translations say 'void' instead of 'empty' – but this leans toward nihlism, which the buddhists are quick to denounce
- svabhava – self-existent – nothing exists in it's own right, everything dependent
  - the table is devoid of self-existence, as well as every component is devoid of self-existence
- nothing has it's own internal nature, as though there is something that it is in itself
- there is a kind of reality, but it is imposed by you because of your ignorance
- something has a nature only to the extent which we impose it
- “Nirvana is Samsara”
  - the real nature of the world of ordinary experience is unqualified
- empty can = undefined
- enlightenment – realizing the true nature of the world
  - when you see the world as it really is

Daoist/Confucian criticism of Buddhism:
- Buddhism is individualistic: the good is enlightenment: my enlightenment, your enlightenment
- Confucian: the good is attained in relation to one's environment
- Daoism: the individual in relation (harmony) with the natural order
- shouldn't the good have something to do with the relationship with the environment?

Nagarjuna and his Madhamaka school
- Madhamaka – the middle way
- he criticizes the Abhidharma philosophy (Hinayana Theravada) as substantialist
- substantialist – belief in substances, basically
  - substance – something that endures, is constant through change
  - the usual concept of a person is a substantial entity that changes but remains the same person
- Nagarjuna's critique: each dharma, though existing only for a moment, is conceived as self-existent
  - in the moment that it is, it has an individuality
- Nagarjuna: all dharmas are empty (devoid of svabhava – self-existent, self-becoming, insubstantial)
- Two Levels of Truth
  - Conventional Truth: the world as we ordinarily see/speak/see it
    - “I am talking to you” “There is a table in this room”
    - these are true within the content of this sort of conventionally constructed world
    - truth in a context: within the story, it is true that Gollum stole the ring

outsidethe story, Gollum and the ring do not exist

Transcendental Truth: on this level, all of the conventional truths are insubstantial and devoid of self-existence

sunya = empty = open
- it is open because it has not been determined
- its character is projected by you

the nature of a particular object is fixed by the object itself
“own being” - what this thing is is determined by the nature of the object itself

this is not an individual hallucination
enlightenment is a matter of seeing the world as it really is, penetrating the illusion of it

Nagarjuna also says: “Samsara is Nirvana”
- samsara is the ordinary world of experience
- since everything is open, you can't really distinguish between Samsara and Nirvana anyways
- so to realize the indetermanent
everything is undefined
- not that everything is the same substance
- but there is not 'anything' that can be defined
- there is not a common nature to all that is
- all that is is undefined
- everything is devoid of its own nature
- there is not any way that anything is itself because it is really indescribable

The Heart Sutra mantra
ok...so we have come to the understanding that Buddhists think
Reality is constructed, imposed by the mind
another very influential Mahayana School
- Yogacara
- a philosophical school
- “The Yoga Path”
- the view that 'All of this is consciousness only.'
- idealism – only mental things exist
  - though this isn't exactly an accurate translation
- all of this is nothing but consciousness
- ex.
  - I am conscious/aware of the flower ----------------------------> (the actual flower)
- Yogacara wants to say that both of these are manifestations of the same consciousness
- that there is no real distinction between subject and object
Eight Stages of Consciousness
- all awareness of objects outside yourself and of yourself is two manifestations of the same consciousness
- Karma – seeds of your actions (like karmic seeds) go in your storehouse consciousness
  - these seeds influence how you think and how you see things, so that the world as you experience it is influenced by the seeds in the storehouse consciousness
  - you manufacture your own reality according to the seeds of the storehouse consciousness
  - karma does change your world because it changes the way you bring it about
  - do you ever trust anybody who doesn't trust anybody?
  - What kind of person you are can influence how you interpret your world
  - these seeds 'perfume your experience' or color your experience
- enlightenment for the Yogacara is a “transformation at the base”
  so that you are no longer seeing the world through the perceptual lenses that is influenced by these karmic seeds
  - seeing reality as it is, without imposing my own karmic 'coloration'
- people do interpret their experience according to their own character

The Heart Sutra

the wold as you perceive it is really just covering up the things that are out there

the five heaps are empty, devoid of being
- they aren't anything in their own right, only what you are putting on them
thought-coverings – the mental superimpositions, the mental constructions placed on reality

“Questions of King Milinda”

King Milinda is supposed to be King Menander, a Hellenistic King following Alexander the Great in the middle east
“Nagasena”
names are conventional designations to conglomerations of things
you can deconstruct these individuals without pinpointing any individuality
ex. this is a chariot
- the name is a conventional designation for a collection of things that comprise the chariot
- 1. the box, 2. the wheel, and 3. the yoke
  - the use of a name does not imply any enduring individuality
- name is a conventional designation
- wheel – just a conventional designation applying to components put together in a certain way
  - 1. rim, 2. spoke, 3. hug
the chariot is not a thing in its own right

Zen

The Platform Sutra

Indian word (??) - Dhyana (sounds like jana)
Chinese word – Ch'an – 'Pure land'
Japanese word – Zen
stress on meditation
primarily non-textual / non-intellectual
the conventional mind keeps us from enlightenment

*there is a tradition of a wordless transmission of the dharma (teaching)

some teaching is (somehow) through silence
- and the master may smack the student at just the right moment
some teachings are through paradoxical stories or parables, apparently to confound the mind
- as the intellect keeps from enlightenment
Pure Land Buddhism
- there is a Buddha named Amitabha/Amito/Amida
  - lives in a heaven-world – the 'Pure Land'
  - accumulates merit over many eons – good karma
  - call on the Amida Buddha, and you will be taken after death to the heaven world
  - one single appeal will work, if it is done honestly
  - sounds like heaven and Jesus with Christians
    - difference: Christians see this as the stopping place – nowhere after heaven
    - Buddhists see the Pure Land as an easier place to achieve enlightenment
      - no flies to disturb meditation, so to speak
- this is popular: don't have to dedicate your life to being a monk
  - you don't have to be a scholar or renunciate
Zen is non-textual, non intellectual
- you don't have to master the sutras
- the intellect (conventional mind) is what obscures reality – thinking, mind, language – what we've been hinting at all semester
- intellectualizing does more to obscure reality than reveal it
- anti-intellectualism
- based on wordless transmission
  - thought to have began with the Buddha himself
  - sat in front of an assembly, held up a flower, looked at this guy Mahakasyapa, and he smiled, then said 'I transmit the dharma to Mahakasyapa'
Bodhidharma – the First Patriarch of Zen
- comes to China c. 527 C.E.
- taught at the Shaolin Monastery – the monks there fight with martial arts
- was said to sit down and gaze at a wall for 9 years
Second Patriarch of Huike – cut off his arm to get the attention of Bodhidharma
don't know these for the test, they are just for fun:
- 1. Bodhidharma
- 2. Huike
- 3. Seng Ts'an
- 4. Tao-hsin
- 5. Hung-jen
- 6. Hui-heng

Hui-neng
- part of The Southern School
- stressed sudden enlightenment
- (the Northern School stressed gradual enlightenment)
  - the Northern School died out
- could not read – not intellectual, not a scholar
- point here: you don't have to be a scholar to be enlightened
- the Platform Sutra
  - “the essence of your mind is Buddha-nature”
  - enlightenment is already present within us
- story of how Hui-neng became 6^th Patriarch
  - Shen Hsiu – favorite to win poem writing, wrote this poem, in competing to be the next Patriarch
    
    Our body is the Bodhi Tree
    And our mind a mirror bright
    Carefully we wipe them hour by hour
    And let no dust alight.
    - So our mind could collect dust, and enlightenment is all about polishing the mind
    - so a clean mirror would be the enlightened Buddha nature
    - the dust = defilements which obscure the Buddha nature
    - so our minds are polluted in various ways (though-coverings in the Heart Sutra)
    - remove the defilements, see reality as it truly is – not as multiplicity of distinct enduring substances possessing “own-being”
  - Problems with Shen Hsiu's stanza
    - 1. there is a means to enlightenment; it is brought about or caused
      - is enlightenment hiding under the dust?
      - what has a cause is dependent on that cause, and is just another conditional state
      - enlightenment cannot be a conditional state
      - enlightenment requires intervention, if mirror needs to be cleaned off
    - 2. To assume enlightenment must be achieved as a result of some process is to alienate yourself from it – to put distance between yourself and it
      - problem: I'm at point A, enlightenment is at point B, and I need something to propel me to point B

*via negativa – Latin for 'the negative way'

basically the view that the ultimate relaity cannot be described in positive terms

seen here in Buddhism, as well as Daoism, western mysticism, and in India as neti,neti

* “Skillful Means” - the enlightened being knows what is best needed to enlighten student

Buddha-nature – in all sentient beings; sort of like the original mind
- Buddha-nature is like a mirror – the original mind/nature prior to defilement (corruption)
- the mind of enlightenment
- it is already in you, all you have to do is uncover it
- enlightenment is like cleaning the mirror
- clean off the dust, reveal your original Buddha nature
- it was there all along
- some say 'dusting the mirror' is intervention, taking action
  - in Chinese culture, the Daoist may be suspicious of this
Hui-heng's stanza
“Meditation is wisdom” - p. 137 of Platform Sutra
- meditation is not coming to know facts, it is a direct insight into the nature of reality
- you shouldn't think of one of these as a means to the other – don't cultivate insight so you can meditate – meditation is it, it is a penetrating insight
- meditating in order to achieve wisdom is not the point
- duality, mental distinctions are not conducive to enlightenment
- let thoughts arise, just don't cling to them
- “if the mind abides in things, it becomes entangled”
- clinging to any doctrine confuses students
- pay careful attention to any thought, as it arises, and you can see through it. It is really just the original mind
- people try to make purity in their mind, and in trying to make it they give it form
Hui-heng is the Patriarch, the symbol of enlightenment, and he can't even read or write! Perhaps this is symbolic of the nature of Ch'an (Zen)
Buddhists always resist the charge of nihilists
the reality of emptiness does not take seriously the dichotomy of existence vs. nonexistence
- this dichotomy is conventional, is conceptual
- sunya is something else

More Zen

Linji (Lin-Chi)
- moved to Japan, where there he was called Rinzai
- Rinzai school of Zen
  - known for its use of 'koan' – famous riddles/stories: “What is the sound of one hand clapping?”
    - *Chinese – gongan or gung-an
    - meaning is very obscure, if it is not made simply to dumbfound the brain
    - Zen perspective: the problem is that you are trying to make the world intelligible
    - the mind frustrates itself, dashes itself against the rocks of the koan, and then the original Buddha nature shines through
    - sometimes they contain elements which are startling
Zen Tea Ceremony
- tea must be made just right
- point: focus the mind completely upon making the tea
- become fully present in that activity, with mind not going anyplace else at that time

Huayan Buddhism
- started by Huayan
- (Hua-Yen)
- distinctively Chinese version of Buddhism
- “Flower Garland” Sutra
  - aka Flower Ornament
- describes what it is like in the enlightenment state
- begins from the perspective of enlightenment
- particularly tells us how the world appears to the enlightened being
- “The Jewel Net of Indra”
  - picture a net, with jewels at each section of the cross-section
  - if you look carefully at any one jewel, you will see another two jewels reflected in it: so...if you see one jewel, you see all the jewels reflected in it
  - point: the universe is like this in the gaze of the enlightened being
  - all objects in the universe interpenetrate one another
  - all objects are interrelated and interdependent
  - 'the entire universe is reflected in the tiniest spec of dust
  - there is a sense of wholeness here – seeing the individual in the larger context of the natural/social order – very Chinese concept
    - originating in India, but taking root in China
The Flower Garland Sutra is more geared toward metaphysics, less toward practice
- some people say it is the world view that goes along with Zen practice
- one of the fundamental metaphors, “The Jewel-Net of Indra”
  - see above...vast, infinite net with jewels at the interstices
  - looking in one jewel, all the others are reflected/refracted
  - the image of every jewel is present in each of them
  - the Empress Wu Zetian had an interest in Buddhism
    - a successful ruler of the Tang Dynasty, 7^th Century
    - had a lot to do with promoting Buddhism over Daoism
    - commissioned Chinese art as well
    - she asked Fazang to explain Buddhism to her, and he set up some mirrors and a golden lion, and she could see infinite representations of the golden lion
- each of the jewels is supposed to represent a dharma
- all objects are reflected in any one, and any other object is reflected in any other one
- all objects interpenetrate one another
- an organic totality – the totality of things is present in any given object
  - the entire universe is projected in a spec of dust
- all objects are interdependent, causally interdependent
- example of causal interdependence
  - in ecology – biosystems
  - we used to mess with stuff in nature
- one can replace substance with causal continuity
- also...Conceptual Interdependence
  - is it possible to describe anything without reference to something else

The Treatise of the Golden Lion
- 1. to understand the principle of dependent arising
  - nothing is self-existent, everything's existence depends on something else
    - this makes Buddhism atheistic
    - it's spirituality without God
  - the concept of dependent arising is a crucial notion in Buddhism (though it is understood differently later than in the beginning)
  - The gold in the lion has no inherent nature in its own – the gold represents emptiness
    - it is flexible, mailable – no inherent form
    - there is nothing to prevent emptiness (sunya) from taking any particular form
    - it has no 'self-hood' (no self-existence, no svabhava)
    - the gold has unlimited potential to assume form
    - the form is imposed upon the gold
  - the gold is an analogy for a noumenon (transcendent reality/body)
    - the actual gold is a phenomenal substance, but it represents the noumenality of emptiness
  - emptiness has unlimited potential to be revealed through forms
  - we manufacture a world of form out of the ultimate reality of emptiness
    - from the highest understanding, all there really is is just emptiness, but we impose from upon that ultimate reality, thereby degrading it, so to speak, making it what it is
  - these ideas are coming from Yogacara
  - Possible problem:
    - by Sankara (shan-car-uh)
    - in order to impose form upon something, there must be something there to impose the form
    - in order to project form, we have to project onto something
    - when you go to the movies, the silver screen is what is projected upon
    - this something must be a substantial something
    - Sankara says this is Brahman (which is the Hindu concept of the ultimate substance, the ultimate reality)
    - *Paper topic: is emptiness (sunya) self-existent?
    - Emptiness cannot equal Brahman for the Buddhist
      - ***Brahman – the ultimate reality, transcendental reality – everything is brahman, THE Noumenon, always described as being 'the Self'
        “Atman is Brahman”
        You are the essence of the substance of the Universe
        sometimes described as a “carrier wave” or “quantum ground state”
        carrier wave -
        quantum ground state -
    - if there was a self, this would be a limitation, otherwise it couldn't assume an unlimited number of shapes
      - ex. can you make a donut out of a cube? Can you make a cube out of a donut?
    - How can Brahman be, if it is self-existent?

The Four Dharmadhatus
- Dharmadhatus - “world as experience” - different ways of experiencing the world
- 1. The way most of us experience the world is as a realm of transient events
  - passing, temporary objects and events
  - to see the world in this way is to see the world in terms of distinct, concrete objects and events
  - tables, chairs, etc.
  - shih – distinct concepts and events
- 2. The Realm of Principle
  - But it is possible for us to see the world, instead, of principle
  - li – principles
  - one sees the world in terms of commonality, generalities
  - seeing a common nature among
  - ex. here's a table, suppose I look at it and see one individual concrete table, then I look at another one and see another one. Then I start to see a common nature among them, to not see this table and that table, but tablehood...this is beginning to see things in terms of principle
  - ultimately, all things are empty, so at some far stage, one starts to appreciate the fact that everything is emptiness
- 3. The non-obstruction of shih (objects-events) and li (principle)
  - Individual objects and events do not obstruct principle
  - so that when one looks at any individual object, one sees emptiness
- 4. The non-obstruction of shih against shih
  - look at any particular object and event, and one sees all other objects and events
  - ex. the Jewel Net of Indra

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Saturday, April 20, 2013

Buddhism, History and Teachings, Outline and Comparison to Western and Chinese Philosophy

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