Hi Orn,
> Hi e – Yes, all concepts are relative in nature. However, the obverse > is also being imputed if not overtly stated, that of the absolute. Can the absolute ever be stated? > While Gautama did talk about dependent arising, Allan mentioned the > Buddha's notion of ‘brightly shining mind’ in his paper. Note > carefully the words that follow from it:... Yeah the luminous mind shows up in a couple short sutras. So out of 45 years of teaching Buddha mentioned it a few times. If it refers to the 4th meditative jhana then it is mentioned many more times. If that was what he was referring too, then some of the later traditions made a bigger deal out of it then Buddha. The jhanas were meditative states that predated Buddha, he just used them in a different manner. They became one fold of the path. They were not the end but an integral means. > Here we are approaching the absolute…something that is not relative > nor is it dependent. He specifically and, in my opinion saliently, > said (above) that: > > “…When we go into that ground from which thoughts, > emotions, memories, and so forth emerge, there is a substratum > that can be accessed through meditation. Its very nature is > luminosity, it makes manifest appearances…” > > The operative words as I see it are: “ground from which…emerge”, and > “it makes manifest appearances”. Buddha never predicated a causal ground of manifestation. Specifically he said he looked back as far as he could in time and could discern no beginning to samsara. If Buddha couldn’t discern the cause of the manifest, what makes Alan think he can? And lo and behold the cause is in his own mind. That must make one feel pretty powerful! :-) All kidding aside, there was only 1 unconditioned “thing” and that was Nirvana (and it was not considered causal). ALL else was conditioned. > So, if anything, Allan appears to be talking relatively about ideal or > objective emptiness (the absolute) rather than the obverse. IMHO emptiness is qualitatively a different animal then the luminosity of an “exalted” conditioned state of mind achieved during meditation. BTW for anyone interested, the wiki is pretty good on the Luminous Mind. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luminous_mind --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/minds-eye?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
