GENIUS FORUMS

how do you know you're awakened ? There are many different stages of awakening; for example, when one gives rise to the thought that things may not be as they appear, that is the first stage of awakening. Then, when one has stilled the mind so that the faculty of insight is made possible, that is a...

Ethical systems, of which there are already enough, are merely a provisional means of enable people to live together in relative peace; they are not a means of realizing one’s true nature. However, in the case of monastic communities, rules of conduct are instrumental in enabling those who are engag...

I understand what you mean about the experienced reality, the experience itself, as impermanent; however, the expererienced world in a dream is like a memory you have when you're awake. Your mind doesn't just create an entire world while you're asleep, without having been exposed to such a reality ...

So it seems that letting go of all existence puts one's self in alignment with the omnipresent, which is only relative and neither coming to be nor passing away. It is asthough the self is relinquished in order to experience the self in the truest form, that of nothingness and allness at the same t...

Do Buddhists also try to find overall meaning in the context of the whole? I think there's this analysis where meanings are broken down into their parts, but are meanings, ideas, etc being synthesized by "stardard" Buddhists? I wonder because analysis tends to create more pieces while syn...

I'm wondering about the cycles of life and death in day to day activities. Is the purpose of attaining Nirvana in the every day cycles faced in life or is it entirely after death and only in being reincarnated, or, is it a metaphor or allegory for refusing to become motivated as there is nothing to...

organism wrote:I think you're right in both respects. I also think that a conclusion should never be permanent.

Very well, so where would you like our enquiry to begin?

Do not misunderstand me, I’m am not apposed to conclusions so long as they are arrived at rationally; however, what I am apposed to is the blind acceptance of a conclusion merely because it conforms with our preconceived notion of how things are.

Thanks for sharing this with me. I agree with the view that perceived reality isn't the truth of it. And that views on the world are fabrications or non-reality, I also think it's a wise way of life to break these down and recognise them and their influence. It is good that you agree, but it does n...

I'm not sure if I understand the underlying principles completely. As I understand it Buddhism seeks enlightment in letting go of all attachments in life, except for happiness?! It's a good ideal to live by, it shows that life has more meaning when there are less complications. Enlightenment, which...

Hi Jehu, I'm wondering alot about what motivates me lately. Why I actually strive to overcome lifes problems and why I want to do what I do in general. I like certain things in life, like anyone and I realise the anguish of losing something you like or missing out on an opportunity. It interests me...

organism,

I should be very pleased to discuss Buddhism with you, as I have studied it at great length, along with other Eastern wisdom traditions. Where would like to begin?

They're identical if they are defined to be identical, as in this case. The distinction between relative and absolute is not intrinsic to anything. Everything can be called "absolute," as everything is a logical entity. But their absoluteness is bounded by their logical limits, so it is o...

There is no two-fold nature. There is only one nature. Relative and absolute are really the same "Buddha nature." While it is true that the absolute and the relative are not different (separate), it is not true that they are identical; else there would be no basis upon which to differenti...

The concept of things lacking inherent existence itself lacks inherent existence. That solves the dilemma. Indeed it does lack any self-inhering existence, but it exists nevertheless, and so the dilemma remains. This proves that you don't understand what the concept of things lacking inherent exist...

Many people are afraid to empty their minds lest they plunge into the Void. They do not know that their own Mind is the void. The ignorant eschew phenomena but not thought; the wise eschew thought but not phenomena. When everything inside and outside, bodily and mental, has been relinquished; when,...

jupiviv wrote:The concept of things lacking inherent existence itself lacks inherent existence. That solves the dilemma.

Indeed it does lack any self-inhering existence, but it exists nevertheless, and so the dilemma remains.

What you posit here is contradictory in nature, beause after affirming that all things are devoid of any intrinsic reality, you then immediately change tack and affirm that at least one thing possesses intrinsic reality - namely, cognizant awareness. There is no contradiction here, for that which i...

This is what is meant in Buddhism by "emptiness" or "void". The fundamental nature of reality is no-nature. The Buddhist doctrine of emptiness does not imply that reality is without nature, but merely that things are devoid of any intrinsic reality (self-inhering self); that is ...

It is evident that there are significant differences in both the physiological and psychological makeup of the male and female, some of which are evolutionary, and other purely cultural, nevertheless, both sexes are fully endowed with all of the fundamental elements that comprise a ‘human being’ – a...

Could be A=A just as existence=existence. 3x=6 if x is 2, but in physical space they are obviously different. They are rendered equal because they exist occupying the same 'space' as the other, but indeed of different location. The one, (3x=6), is an assertion of ‘equivalence’, while the second, (e...

Remember as snowflakes, no to viewpoint of clarity are the same. I am bound to expansion, and because Parmenides did not have a lock on the path of reasoning, even his own, for he did not know all wisdom or knowledge. Check and see if there are other philosophiers who chose a different path of reas...

What you say may or may not have some volume of truth, but I will not assume either way. Should you present yourself and your own viewpoint concerning the above, from what yu know from experience, then it is the road best open for my travel. My view on the subject is quite clear: as I can find no f...

THERE IS NO LOGIC FOR ANYTHING IN THIS UNIVERSE TO EXIST. If by the term ‘logic’ you mean ‘reason’, then Parmenides wrote in his poem “On Nature”, “Whatever can be spoken or thought of necessarily is, since it is possible for it to be, but it is not possible for nothing to be.” By this he meant tha...

What is Energy comprised of? What is Energy's main component? Is there Energy in dead matter? Does Energy differ in humans? Is Iron a source of Energy? Energy is but one of the five fundamental elements that make up the physical world (i.e., space, time, mass, energy and motion), and as these five ...