Guest guest Posted October 17, 2005 Report Share Posted October 17, 2005 P: Good Post Thanks, Wim! On Oct 16, 2005, at 9:17 PM, Wim Borsboom wrote: > NonDualPhil , Pete S <pedsie4@e...> wrote: >> >> There is no thing more foolish than >> a something pretending to be nothing. >> Would a nothing parade as a nothing? >> Only a something could claim to be >> nothing. Only a something can conceive >> of a nothing. Outside of something there >> isn't even the suspicion of nothingness. >> >> Pete > > Right, that's why we can insist that 'sunyata' means 'emptiness' or > 'without-ness' rather than 'nothingness'... and also... why we can > insist that `sunyata` cannot exist by itself as `f u l f i l l m e n > t ` belongs as much to sunyata as, say, Yin to Yang. > Emptiness inevitably attracts fulfillment. > When one looks at emptiness/fulfillment (mutual and reciprocal) in its > functional sense, not in some logical sense, one finds that it forms > the backbone of Nagarjuna's `causality' and `interdependent arisings'. > Actually, looking a bit deeper into this, it is actually `kama' or > 'the desire to fulfillment' and 'sunyata' or 'emptiness' that belong > together. (Maybe more on that later.) > True, it is suggested that the Buddha points out that desire leads to > suffering, but such is only stated in commentaries on talks he is > alleged to have given. One gets a better understanding of what he may > have talked about when one sees that suffering only follows desire > when its fulfillment is made to be 'c o n d i t i o n a l' by third > party interference and when the acceptance of whatever fulfillment, is > made to be dependent on third party evaluations as to being > appropriate or not. > The fulfillment of kama and sunyata is to be understood as the > unconditional condition of `ananda or bliss. > > More about the word 'sunyata' or without-ness. > The Latin word 'sine', " without " (as in 'sinecure' or in the French > 'sans souci') is related to the Sanskrit 'sunya' > > From various Sanskrit dictionaries: > " Zunya " means empty, being void of or deserted, desolate, destitute > of, hollow, lacking, possessing nothing, vacant, void, wanting. > > Note that zunya (sunya) refers to something that is empty and > therefore can contain something else (e.g. a vessel or bowl) - when > something does not contain anything and is seen as empty, that > 'empty' characteristic is called 'zunya'. > The attribution of the meaning of an absolute nothingness to sunyata > is mostly found in Hindu/Buddhist commentaries by: > . writers who have an agenda to promote the idea that life needs to be > transcended, > . writers who themselves have a problem surrendering unconditionally > to life and `what is', > . writers who promote estrangement and alienation from what is (om tat > sat) by that and who we are (tat tuam asi). > > Wim > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 17, 2005 Report Share Posted October 17, 2005 P: Yes, Good addendum! On Oct 17, 2005, at 5:25 AM, Greg Goode wrote: > NonDualPhil , " Wim Borsboom " <wim_borsboom> > wrote: > >> The attribution of the meaning of an absolute nothingness to sunyata >> is mostly found in Hindu/Buddhist commentaries by: > >> . writers who have an agenda to promote the idea that life needs to be >> transcended, >> . writers who themselves have a problem surrendering unconditionally >> to life and `what is', >> . writers who promote estrangement and alienation from what is (om tat >> sat) by that and who we are (tat tuam asi). > > ===Add to that: > *Writers who think that existence needs an absolutist substrate or else > nothing can exist. These include Brahmanic interpreters of Buddhism. > > *Writers who think that because Buddhism doesn't have a deity figure it > must be nihilistic all the way around. These include the Judeo- > Christian interpreters especially of the 18th and 19th centuries, all > the way up to the post-WWII era. > > *Writers who just haven't studied Buddhism closely enough to see that > one of Buddhism's major points is that sunyata is not nothingness. > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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