Nothing to Pursue
Posted: February 27, 2012 Filed under: Buddhism, meditation, spirituality, Theravada Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism | Tags: emtiness, Meditation, meditation on emptiness, practice, Renunciation, Sunyata Leave a commentRenunciation is the essential preliminary to emptiness! The foothills before the snow peaks. Before engaging in any meditation on emptiness the practitioner must have developed very subtle renunciation, the realisation that wherever you look you will find nothing to pursue.
Sunyata – The Abandonment of All
Posted: February 26, 2012 Filed under: Buddhism, meditation, Tibetan Buddhism | Tags: all things, Emptiness, Meditation, nature, phenomena, Sunyata, Voidness 1 CommentSunyata, emptiness or voidness, is the nature of that which has been abandoned. By realising sunya, the lack of worth of everything, the renunciate begins to examine the nature of those same things that he or she has abandoned to see if they too lack anything worth pursuing. This begins the process of analysis common to many approaches to Buddhism.
Indeed, understanding sunya as the approach to sunyata reveals directly why there are two stages or mental factors associated with this process (Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Understanding the Mind, chapter: the four changeable mental factors). On the path of very subtle renunciation we use investigation to determine if any object is worth following. Then entering the path of sunyata we use analysis to examine the very nature of that same phenomenon.
Thus, meditation on the results of your analysis leads you to gain a direct realisation of the nature of phenomena. The nature of the very phenomena you have discarded in your investigation rescues you from the danger of despondency that you might experience otherwise through the result of your investigation. Now sunyata becomes a joyful thing and surprisingly its first realisation is called ‘The Joyful’!
The 3 States of Discontent
Posted: February 25, 2012 Filed under: Buddhism, meditation | Tags: Discontent, Mara, Meditation, Renunciation, samsara, Sunyata, Unhappiness 4 CommentsBeing parted from what you want, having to put up with what you don’t want and not fulfilling your wishes are the three states of discontent. Together these states describe samsara. Contemplating this misfortune allows you to realise that, moment by moment, throughout your life you have been deceived. You are unable to get what you want nor to keep hold of it. At first this realisation is bitter, but later turns into the knowledge that you have found samsara. Samsara cannot be felt nor tasted and has been hidden from you your whole life. This realisation is subtle renunciation. The final stage, very subtle renunciation, is to come face to face with the mara of samsara itself – the utterly worthless, sunya!
A reminder of the intention behind our practice, and its importance
Posted: February 24, 2012 Filed under: Buddhism, meditation, Zen Buddhism | Tags: suffering 2 CommentsA Zen centre in the USA has the following daily recitation:
We are here to end suffering.
If ending suffering is more important than anything, we will end suffering.
If ending suffering is not more important than anything, we will not end suffering.
The Four Rivers of Suffering
Posted: February 24, 2012 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentBuddha said that the four rivers of suffering are birth, ageing, sickness, and death. These are the inevitable experiences of life. The river is your own experience, your passage through life. Time flows you on to journey’s end and the rocks of karma scrape your boat of happiness and rock its stability. At journey’s end lies the waterfall of death and beneath its mists lie the unknown rocks or pools of your next life.
Contemplating the inevitable journey of life and its lack of freedom leads you to develop the first of the renunciations, the outer or gross renunciation, “Unless I can bring about a change in my life, this journey of loss will continue forever!”
Advice from a Kadampa master
Posted: February 23, 2012 Filed under: Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism | Tags: Buddhism, Dharma, Kadam (Tibetan Buddhism) 4 Comments“What is the difference between Dharma and non-Dharma?” the teacher Dromtönpa was asked by Potowa.
“If something is in opposition to fettering passions, it is Dharma. If it is not, it is not Dharma. If it does not accord with worldly people, it is Dharma. If it does accord, it is not Dharma. If it accords with the teachings of Buddha, it is Dharma. If it does not accord, it is not Dharma. If good follows, it is Dharma. If bad follows, it is not Dharma.”
Tsunba Jegom, Precepts Collected from Here and There (Kadam Thorbu)
Sunya – The Worthless
Posted: February 23, 2012 Filed under: Buddhism, Theravada Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism | Tags: Emptiness, Sunyata, Voidness 1 CommentSunya, according to Edward Conze, means worthless as in ‘this tissue has no value to me, it is worthless’.
To quote Bodhidharma “all things are empty, and there is nothing desirable or to be sought after”, and to quote Edward Conze, “Things are empty in the sense that they are unsubstantial and unsatisfactory”.
This ‘unsatisfactoryness’ I associate with duhkha or contaminated suffering in Buddha’s original teaching. This is the second of three signs or four seals within Buddhism that mark a person as being a buddhist. This sign states that all phenomena or dharma are unsatisfactory or marked with suffering. ‘Unsubstantial’ I interpret as to be ‘unable to fulfil desire’, and relate it to a difficult concept in emptiness – the phrase held by all schools that phenomena are not self-supporting or substantially existent. I will look at all these words over the next few posts.
Bodhidharma then is saying not that things are void like space, but empty of meaning or worth. That there is nothing in samsara, or life as we know it, that is worth pursuing; it cannot fulfill your desires which are the desires for happiness or satisfaction. This is very important and explains the whole of Buddha’s position.
The Three Doors To Liberation
Posted: February 23, 2012 Filed under: Buddhism, Theravada Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism | Tags: Buddhism, Doors, Emptiness, Liberation, Sunyata Leave a commentI was reading Edward Conze’s Buddhist Thought in India Page 59 onwards and came to this conclusion. First I understand both Signlessness (animitta) and Wishlessness (apranihita), the second and third doors of liberation; and I will write or teach on these in the future. Indeed, I realised Signlessness was my very own path. So what about Sunyata, the first of the doors to liberation? Sunyata, emptiness or voidness, has always given me a problem since it seems to lead to nothingness. Yet, it is the principle, or only, method in the tradition in which I have studied and practised – The New Kadampa or Gelug Tradition. So what is Sunyata? Over the next few posts I will examine and explain these different doors to Liberation and especially where I think Sunyata comes from
– Sonam
The Dharma Forum 