On 12/31/2013 12:14 PM, [email protected] wrote: > Such “enlightenment” is utter make-believe. It is a false > interpretation - both of Shankara’s Advaita and of Buddhist > Mahamudra and Dzogchen. > First of all, there's no such thing as "false interpretation", because there are numerous interpretations of what the historical Buddha taught - there were over eighteen sects withing fifty years of the Buddha's demise. So, there's your interpretation and there's my interpretation. So, the question is - what did the Buddha teach?
Let's review what we know: The Buddhist term for enlightenment is "bodhi" which consists of nirvana, the same thing as kensho or satori. The Buddha achieved bodhi - that makes sense when you realize that bodhi is Sanskrit and Pali for "buddha". The term Buddha means "one who woke up" - the goal of Buddhism. This awakening is an understanding into the nature of *causality*. Causality is how sentient beings come into existence. Causality is also the operation of the mind which keeps all sentient beings locked into craving, suffering and rebirth. So, bodhi is an understanding of how things are and thus the understanding of the way to liberate ones self from the prison of causality. The Buddha described causality as a wheel with twelve spokes: The Wheel of Dependent Origination. Are we agreed so far? In the Yogacara school of Vjarayana Buddhism, so-called because of its use of yoga techniques, the practice is described as a sudden turning about in the deepest seat of consciousness. Turning back the alaya vijnana into its original state of purity, a condition of non-attachment, non-discrimination and non-duality. This is illustrated in the Buddhist scriptures where the Buddha explained what he had attained at the moment of enlightenment - he attained three knowings, according to Warder: 1. Insight into his past lives 2. Insight into the workings of Karma and Reincarnation 3.Insight into the Four Noble Truths So, to sum up: Existence, the world, is the result of physical causation, in a logical process. And, its mechanics can be known, measured, and categorized. Humanity is governed by action-reaction, that is, karma, based on the theory of physical and moral reciprocity, which acts just like a mechanical, physical and natural law. Whatever goes up must come down; all things falls to the ground; there is a reaction to any action. This works on the physical level as well as on the mental level of thought. Works cited: 'Indian Buddhism' by A.K. Warder Motilal Banarsidass Publishers p. 45-50 'Causality: The Central Philosophy of Buddhism' by David J. Kalupahana University of Hawai'i Press, 1986 'Zen Buddhism: A History' by Heinrich Dumoulin World Wisdom Books, 'The Three Pillars of Zen' by Phillip Kapleau Shamballaha Publishing, 1989
