nagarjuna/jaspers

[Guest guest]

Hi Glo,

 

Thanks for the chapter from Karl Jaspers on Nagarjuna. Just want to point

out that this 2nd-century Nagarjuna, the philosopher, was not the same as

the 7th-century Guru Nagarjuna, the great Siddha who was said to have

acquired the Elixir of Life for the sake of others.

 

Jaspers' analysis is very interesting. But I think it has the feel of the

outsider looking at Eastern thought and restating or reframing it in

Western terms. Seeing it in terms or mental categories from which the

madhyamika broke free.

> In this world of dialectical logic as the conscious expression of a

>way of life, the Shunyavadin, the sect to which Nagarjuna belonged, drew

>the most radical conclusions from the assumptions common to all Buddhist

>sects. All is empty, they taught. Things have only a momentary, phantom

>existence without permanent substance. Consequently true knowledge lies

>in Emptiness. I acquire it by detachment, that is, by a thinking that is

>free from signs and signification, stirred by no inclination or goal. This

>doctrine is called the "diamond-splitting Perfection of Wisdom"; it also

>calls itself the middle way (*madhyamika*) between the two theses that

>life is and that life is not: emptiness (*shunya vada*) has neither being

>nor nonbeing. Perfect Wisdom lies in perfect freedom from conflict.

 

Rather than comment on this myself, I want to post from Lama Govinda, who

knows it from within the tradition... coming next.

>snip<

>I. THE OPERATIONS OF THOUGHT1. *A fundamental concept* in this thinking

>is *dharma*. All existence is *dharma*. *Dharma* is thing, attribute,

>state; it is content and consciousness of content; it is subject and

>object, order, creation, law,and doctrine. The underlying conception is

>'that the content of the world is not an established order or form, but a

>process of ordering and form-giving, and that every order must make way

>for another order, every form for another form' (Oldenberg). Although

>each *dharma* is independent, the dharmas are listed, some seventy-five

>of them, to form a system of categories. Dharma has as many meanings as

>our Occidental "Being." The word cannot be translated, because its

>meanings are all-embracing.

 

Govinda translates the word "Dharma" as "Truth," and as far as I can tell,

that is its basic meaning.

 

_The Teaching of Buddha (The Buddhist Bible)_ says, "Buddhahood has three

aspects. There is an aspect of Essence which is all-inclusive, universal

and inconceivable; there is an aspect of Potentiality which is boundless

but unmanifest; and there is an aspect of Manifestation which is both

activity and changeless Peace. As Essence it is the substance of the

Dharma; that is, it is the substance of Truth as it is in itself. As

Potentiality it is the Dharma considered as the Truth Principle, potent but

unmanifest; it is the glorified Compensation Body of Buddhahood. As

Manifestation it is Buddhahood manifesting itself in the temporal bodies of

Sakyamuni Buddha and other earthly Buddhas."

 

When Gautama spoke to his disciples for the last time before he died, he is

said to have told them not to rely on any outside source - not scriptures,

not teachers, etc. "You have a light within you that will show you the

truth. Rely on your own light." Another version gives: "After my death,

the Dharma shall be your teacher. Follow the Dharma and you will be true

to me." Which seems to equate the Dharma with the inward light of Truth.

 

There is Dharma, Truth, and then there are the dharmas - truths. Many

dharmas, one Dharma.

 

People also speak of finding their own dharma. Of individual dharma,

Muktananda says it's "essential duty; religion; the law of righteousness."

Reminds me of the Greek "dikaia," which means truth and right or

righteousness.

 

DK (Alice Bailey) speaks of "the perfect fulfillment of his dharma, or

obligatory work," and says, "Dharma means literally the proper working out

of one's obligations (or karma) in the place, surroundings and environment

where fate has put one."

 

I would say your own dharma is the deepest, highest truth that is to be

embodied in your life, the purpose of your life.

 

Love,

Dharma