Some modern Buddhist assume (and wrongly so) that the Buddha never taught of a substance, or the same, the essential nature of reality, let alone its realization. But he did. It is otherwise called tathata, sometimes translated as Thatness or Suchness in English. It is also synonymous with the eternally-abiding (sthitita), the self-regulating reality (niyamata), realness (bhutata), truth (satyata), pure Mind, unconditioned Mind, etc. These names are not as important as the realization of tathata which even if realized remains a mystery insofar as it cannot be communicated to others who are unrealized.
I should add, that the phenomenal world we see, including our psychophysical body, is a composition of tathata which means phenomena do not really exist, fundamentally, from their own side. They are empty, in other words. At best phenomena are fictions or illusions that seem to be real. If we elect to dive into them so as to find their ultimate ground we won’t find anything. We will come up empty, again and again.
Still, many of us are not quite convinced. We just cannot accept the fact that everything we are now seeing is dream-like and illusory. Despite our wishful thinking, it’s just a phenomenalization of tathata or the same the unconditioned. No matter what composition or thing we see it’s made from tathata. It is the only reality. Buddhaguhya, who wrote the commentary to the Mahavairocana Suta, said that tathata is the intrinsic nature (svabhava) of the mind which is enlightenment (i.e., bodhicitta). From this we can surmise that enlightenment is awakening to our seeing that the cosmos is, in fact, a configuration of tathata.
Does he say this in any Pali Sutta or only in Tantric Sutras or only in one Tantric Sutra? Its too easy for fake suttas/sutras to make Buddha say things he never said. Like the noself crap, i think it comes from inauthentic suttas in Digha Nikaya that make him set opposite positions boTh off limits like "you cannot say the Tsgstha ceases to exist by going to Nibbana nor that he continues to exist." Oh nice, so you can't say anything at all. I'm beginning to see that finding what Buddhs really taught requires majority rule of thr suttas versud crazy idea appearing only in one or two.
Posted by: David brainerd | May 21, 2016 at 10:52 AM
What you are talking about with such excellence is a very healing and in a way "addictive" force, or light, because it is the extreme precision of it, that awes the mind the first time you see IT, or more correctly, YOU BECOME AWARE OF IT in action.
Remember the genius in theoretical physics Max Planck who said; "There is no matter as such! All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particles of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together. . . . We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent Mind. This Mind is the matrix of all matter.
Posted by: Avalon | May 21, 2016 at 06:05 AM
When I wrote "categories of experience", by "experience" I mean strictly the "perceptions", etc within the conditioned domain of psycho-physicality.
Posted by: mathesis | May 19, 2016 at 07:54 AM
In Chapter III of the Lankavatara Sutra (Suzuki's division) we have the verse 74:
yathā hi darpaṇe rūpaṁ dṛśyate na ca vidyate |
vāsanādarpaṇe cittaṁ dvidhā dṛśyati bāliśaiḥ
yathā(as)hi (indeed) darpaṇe (in a mirror) rūpaṁ (a form) dṛśyate (is seen) na ca (but (does)not) vidyate (partake of reality) |
vāsanādarpaṇe (in the mirror of "habit energy") cittaṁ (the mind) dvidhā (divided) dṛśyati (is seen) bāliśaiḥ (by the ignorant).
It is clear that the verb "vidyate" is used to express the non-existence of the illusory form seen in a mirror. Hence what other interpretation is there of verse 76 ?
vikalpamātraṁ tribhavaṁ bāhyamarthaṁ na vidyate
vikalpamātraṁ (merely "imagination") tribhavaṁ (the three worlds, the total unvierse)
bāhyamarthaṁ (external objects) na vidyate (do not exist).
What is the best translation
of vikalpa ? I think your wave or vibration metaphor is the best.
The Lankavatara sutra does not deny substance or essence but only the absoluteness of any category of experience (such as causality). Hence the sutra denies that the ocean and its waves are in a relation of cause and effect - and at the same time it denies that the waves can be anything apart from the ocean.
Posted by: mathesis | May 19, 2016 at 07:49 AM