Hi ED: Every time I've tried to explain the differences between illusion and reality my mind seems to get entangled, like in clear sunny day coming all of a sudden a thick mist . The other day as soon I sent the posting to the web I wondered: Wouldn't be another illusion to make distinctions between illusions and reality?. Today I see you in a new light. Thank you for being there with all your massive questioning and never answer one, hehe...! Mayka --- On Sat, 6/11/10, ED <seacrofter...@yahoo.com> wrote:
From: ED <seacrofter...@yahoo.com> Subject: [Zen] Reality in Buddhism not necessarily illusory To: Zen_Forum@yahoogroups.com Date: Saturday, 6 November, 2010, 4:43 Reality in Buddhism is not necessarily illusory, but it does have a diverse set of contrasting interpretations. See below. --ED "Buddhism evolved a variety of doctrinal/philosophical traditions, each with its own ideas of reality. "The Buddha promoted experience over theorizing. According to Karel Werner, Experience is ... the path most elaborated in early Buddhism. The doctrine on the other hand was kept low. The Buddha avoided doctrinal formulations concerning the final reality as much as possible in order to prevent his followers from resting content with minor achievements on the path in which the absence of the final experience could be substituted by conceptual understanding of the doctrine or by religious faith, a situation which sometimes occurs, in both varieties, in the context of Hindu systems of doctrine.[4] The Mahayana developed those statements he did make into an extensive, diverse set of sometimes contrasting descriptions of reality "as it really is."[5] The Theravada school teaches that there is no universal personal god. The world as we know it does not have its origin in a primordial being such as Brahman or the Abrahamic God. What we see is only a product of transitory factors of existence, which depend functionally upon each other. 'The Buddha is said to have said: "The world exists because of causal actions, all things are produced by causal actions and all beings are governed and bound by causal actions. They are fixed like the rolling wheel of a cart, fixed by the pin of its axle shaft." (Sutta-Nipata 654)[4] The word 'illusion' is frequently associated with Buddhism and the nature of reality. Some interpretations of Buddhism teach that reality is a coin with two sides: impermanence or anicca and the "not-self characteristic" or anatta, referred to as "emptiness" in some Mahayana schools." Above excerpts are from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_in_Buddhism :
