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Anitya is a reason there is no singular, essential self. Anātman is empty and contingent.
Mādhyamaka ontologically extends this further to encompass not only anātman but all dharmas, professing them as empty of self essence (svabhava) on account of their unfixed, compounded and impermanent nature. Any 'nature' we impute is likewise only conventional and conditional; to Nāgārjuna, essentialism is eternalism.
Some say impermanence is a doorway to emptiness.
Impermanence is a perception of arising and cessation, which is an impure, deluded cognition according to these teachings. Realizing emptiness is a yogapratyaksa, or yogic direct perception of non-arising, which means the entities previously thought to arise and cease are realized to have been unreal and non-arisen from the very beginning.
Nāgārjuna states that the perception of impermanence results from delusion:
If you maintained that arising and dissolution of existents are indeed seen, arising and dissolution are only seen because of delusion.
What is impermanent is empty of self because self is an assumption of a permanent entity. Therefore, the suttas say:
If anyone says, ‘The eye is self,’ that is not tenable. The rise and fall of the eye are discerned, and since its rise and fall are discerned, it would follow: ‘My self rises and falls.’ That is why it is not tenable for anyone to say, ‘The eye is self.’ Thus the eye is not self.
MN 148
what is permanent, namely, Nibbana, is also empty.
In summary, what is impermanent is always empty. But what is empty is not necessarily impermanent.
Similarly, what is dependently originated is always empty. But what is empty is not necessarily dependently originated.
The above answer is Theravada rather than Mādhyamaka.
Wouldn’t all of these concepts fall away with Nirvana? I thought it was the idea of leaving the raft behind after it’s used to get from this shore to the other.
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Little Lord Shiva
creating and destroying
his soap bubble worlds
— Nancy Winkler
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evening in the park
children blowing soap bubbles
tiny suns go pop
— Marcia Burton
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some of the planets
last longer than the others,
blowing soap bubbles
— Kelly Shaw
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HAPPY SAGA DAWA DUCHEN! — the day we celebrate Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and paranirvana on the Tibetan Lunar Calendar (converted this year to June 14, 2022).
Today is a day of highest merits — may all beings benefit! Every positive karma activity is multiplied many times on this most sacred of days according to sacred texts.
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“Saka Dawa Duchen is one of the four great holy days of the Tibetan calendar, each of which celebrates an anniversary of Shakyamuni Buddha’s display of extraordinary powerful deeds for sentient beings’ sake. On these four days, karmic results are multiplied by 100 million, as taught in the Vinaya text Treasure of Quotations and Logic.”
This is often confused with Vesak, which is on a separate lunar calendar. Saga Dawa celebrates on the Tibetan Lunar Calendar.
ust set your mind and, for the day, ensure you do your best:aṭṭhaṅga-sīla or aṭṭha-sīla
1. I undertake to abstain from causing harm and taking life of any kind
2. I undertake to abstain from taking what is not given.
3. I undertake to abstain from sexual misconduct.
4. I undertake to abstain from wrong speech: telling lies, deceiving others, manipulating others, using hurtful words.
5. I undertake to abstain from using intoxicating drinks and drugs, which lead to carelessness.
The additional precepts on Wesak and other special ceremonial days (or for non-lay practitioners all the time) are:
6. I undertake to MODERATEfrom eating at the wrong time—the correct time is after sunrise but before noon.
7. I undertake to MODERATE from singing, dancing, playing music, attending entertainment performances, wearing perfume, and using cosmetics and garlands or decorations.
8. I undertake to MODERATE from luxurious places for sitting or sleeping, and overindulging in sleep.
Nichiren Daishonin affirms,
“Words echo the thoughts of the mind
and find expression through the voice.”(*)
Our passion, infused with prayers
for everyone’s happiness, will touch
and move the hearts of friends!
Let’s continue to engage in earnest
and sincere conversation!
(*)”The Unanimous Declaration by the Buddhas…,” WND-2, 843
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Three Important Spiritual Principles To Give Us Inner Strength To Manage Crisis
Transitory World
The first spiritual principle is that every situation we face is inevitable, transitory, and is an illusion. These three ideas are complementary to each other. Some experiences like birth, old age, and death are unavoidable. The best way to tackle them, according to Bhagavad Gita, is to accept them as inevitable fleeting happenings. The Gita preaches titiksha or forbearance in such cases. As we all know, it is very painful to forbear. However, it will be possible for us to endure when we understand anityatva, the transitory nature of the world. The world is changing constantly because it is mithya, an illusory appearance on the Reality called Brahman.
Maya is the cause of such an illusion. It is, according to Swami Vivekananda, ‘a simple statement of facts — what we are and what we see around us’. The Buddhist tradition has a similar concept called Duhkha. As we normally understand, it is not just suffering. According to Buddhist teachings, Duhkha is the true nature of all worldly existence. Ignorance of this fact of life pushes us into more and more misery.
Equanimity of Mind
The second principle is equanimity, mental calmness, and evenness of temper, specially in a tough situation. If we remain calm, the mind will remain still and focused. The Gita extols samatva, equanimity as yoga, the way to the Divine. In modern terms, it can be construed as the ‘maturity to understand and accept things as they come up in life’.
Modern psychology suggests various ways to reach equanimity. However, spiritual traditions like Vedanta and Buddhism advocate knowledge of the impermanence of the world as the only royal way to achieve this. The logic behind it is simple. If we understand the world to be transient, we don’t get too much involved in it.
We develop asakti, dispassion, which makes our mind undisturbed. We become mature enough to witness the happenings in our life in a proper perspective.
Vedanta, the spiritual and philosophical tradition of the Upanishads, says that the world we see around us is but an appearance on Brahman, the true reality. The appearance is myriad, but the reality is the same. The misery is due to the non-recognition of the Reality as the essence of multiplicity. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says that Brahman is the state of fearlessness, as there is nothing second to be scared. The bottom line is that the spiritual journey towards the attainment of oneness destroys all inhibitions, phobias, and misery, which are only products of ignorance.
Empathy
The third spiritual principle that helps us to tide over any crisis is empathy in its genuine form. Most of the spiritual traditions say that pure love of God and realisation of one’s spiritual nature raises this noble sentiment in our mind.
Real empathy is the natural progression of a deep understanding of the divinity within one’s heart. The difference between ‘empathy’ and ‘sympathy’ is relevant in this context. Empathy means ‘the ability to understand and share the feelings of another’ whereas sympathy means ‘feelings of pity and sorrow for someone else’s misfortune’.
One may develop sympathy instinctively, but real empathy can arise in one’s mind only through spiritual education.
Source - excerpts from the editorial in the Prabuddha Bharata Magazine August 2020 issue.
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I had spent my whole life trying to fit in, but it would take the rest of my life to realize that some men are just meant to stand out.
–CHARLES M. BLOW
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Buddhism guides us to realize the most radical form of inclusivity — that all beings can be free of suffering and delusion, and we are not separate from any of them.
I vow to free them.
Delusions are inexhaustible,
I vow to transform them.
Reality is boundless,
I vow to perceive it.
The awakened way is unsurpassable,
I vow to embody it.
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CONSCIOUSNESS- DEGREE WHERE A CELL RESPONDS TO ITS ENVIRONMENT
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PHOTOSYNTHESIS - TAKES LIGHT, 6 MOLECULES OF CO2 AND 6 MOLECULES OF H20 TO MAKE SOLID SUGAR WHICH WE CAN EAT- AN AMAZING PROCESS
LIGHT+WATR+AIR GIVING SUGAR/FOOD
ANIMALS WENT ON TO DELEOP NEURONAL NETWORK -MECHANISM TO INTERACT WITYH ENVIRONMENT
CONSC IS A PROCESS
DONT YET KNOW SIGNAL OF CONSC
EG LIGHT IS SIGNAL FOR PHOTOSYNTHESIS
PLANTS HAVE SOME AWARENESS-BASED ON CHEMICAL SIGNAL
WHAT IS IT LIKE TO BE A TREE OR A DAFFODIL OR A BAT
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So coming back from a journey, or after an illness, before habits had spun themselves across the surface, one felt that same unreality, which was so startling; felt something emerge. Life was most vivid then.
–VIRGINIA WOOLF
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