Dream visit.

[icarus]

Two mid-terms back to back on Monday. Yiiiii.

Sanskrit... way behind on memorizations, have translations to do tonight, plus a quiz tomorrow. Yiiiii.

Couldn't sleep last night (darned cold medication) so I started trying a meditation technique to settle my mind, ended up doing a Chen Rezig practice ... and in some state half-way between a dream and awake, Chen Rezig was replaced by the Dalai Lama. He sat down across the dream table from me, two feet away, like he'd been waiting for me to finally ask. He had the answers to everything that was bothering me off the cuff, like it was the easy part of his day.

Questions about wildernessguru? Answered.

Questions about fandom? Answered.

No more worries.

Realizing why it was easy, I made some promises.

Comments

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Oh, if I can be complicated then...

Basically you learn the same type of things

The teachings Theravada sticks to form the core of both traditions, but Mahayana studies additional texts that Theravada Buddhists say aren't part of canon.

The three core "baskets" of texts:

- the Buddha's teachings on monastic discipline (including discipline for lay people)
- the Buddha's teachings on karma and how phenomena works
- the other collected sutras, stories, lectures, etc., by the Buddha

In addition, Mahayana studies works that Theravada say the Buddha didn't give, such as the Buddha's teachings on the Perfection of Wisdom at vulture's peak and the Uttaratantra teachings.

Then the Mahayana and Theravada study different sets of commentaries (of course), since obviously over the last 2,600 years Theravada and Mahayana have classics by great masters of their respective traditions.

There are also philosophical differences between Theravada and Mahayana. Both follow the middle way in avoiding extremes of nihilism and eternalism, but they have different concepts of that middle way and how it relates to the emptiness of self-nature.

The Theravada believe that all phenomena is made up of particles that can't be divided any further. So the ego is a confused conception placed on these particles, but the particles to have a subtle reality. (There are two different versions, but they're pretty close.)

The Mahayana have two schools of thought, but they both say that asserting in the existence of the particles is a good beginner's step but... this idea of existing particles contradicts the Buddha and falls to the extreme of eternalism. (This debate gets heated.)

School A of Mahayana says that all that one perceives is just mind, nothing else is happening.

School B of Mahayana says that even this has a subtle grasping, "Aha, now you're saying that a mind exists."

Their view is that ultimate truth is empty Buddhanature, but that temporarily appearances arise like a dream. Dreams aren't real, yet they affect us as if they were real. You don't pretend that they don't exist -- if you have a nightmare you want to wake up from it -- but they have no inherent existence.

Like a dream,
Like an illusion,
Like a city of gandharvas (ghosts or fairies)
That's how birth
And that's how living
That's how dying
Are taught to be.

Icarus

[starrylizard.livejournal.com]

Buddhist canon! *grins*
Well now you are complicating things... particles? *big grin*
It's interesting though. Like philosophy of the mind and perception of self.
Somehow a religion seems more real when you know there are some good heated debates going on within it. :P

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I guess the Buddhists can't resist the discussion "so... just how empty is emptiness?" with its companion piece "my emptiness is emptier than your emptiness." lol

Check this out:

There are many types of meditative stabilisation, but let us explain calm abiding (samatha) here. The nature of calm abiding is the one-pointed abiding on any object without distraction of a mind conjoined with a bliss of physical and mental pliancy. If it is supplemented with taking refuge, it is a Buddhist practice; and if it is supplemented with an aspiration to highest enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings, it is a Mahayana practice. Its merits are that, if one has achieved calm abiding, one's mind and body are pervaded by joy and bliss; one can--through the power of its mental and physical pliancy--set the mind on any virtuous object one chooses; and many special qualities such as clairvoyance and emanations are attained.

--from The Buddhism of Tibet by the Dalai Lama, translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins, published by Snow Lion Publications

I have these automatic quote sent to my email: http://www.snowlionpub.com/pages/lists.php

*g*

Icarus

[starrylizard.livejournal.com]

"my emptiness is emptier than your emptiness." *giggles* Love it! The sort of debate you can never win.

Clairvoyance huh? *g*

*chortles* I signed up! Enlightenment through email. Who can resist that?:P