Tag Archives: sunyata

Nāgārjuna and the Two Truths

Posted on October 9, 2018 by Vajragoni

Nāgārjuna is perhaps the most celebrated philosopher-sage of Mahayana/Mādhyamika Buddhism. Despite the enormous popularity very little is actually known concerning his Biographical details apart from the generally-held belief that he lived during the 2nd century CE. While rooted in rich mythical soil, his name is in reference to the “Nagas” from whom he received the Prajnaparamita teachings. The Śatasāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā, which the Buddha had especially entrusted to the Nagas for safekeeping, was handed over to Nāgārjuna who later propagated the teachings. In the west, he is best known for his teachings on emptiness, (śūnyatā), which he espoused during his formation of the Mādhyamika School. For our purposes in this series, his own nuanced views on śūnyatā follows most closely from the doctrine of Dependent-Origination which states that nothing within the created-order has an intrinsic-existence of its own. Indeed, the term śūnyatā has an “entirely different nuance in the Mādhyamika thought from that of other Buddhist schools and traditions.” read more

Posted in Nothingness in Nāgārjuna and John of the Cross | Tagged Mādhyamika School, Nagarjuna, paramārtha-satya, saṁvṛti-satya, Śatasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā, sunyata, svabhāva, Two-Truths | Leave a comment

The Way of Negation

Posted on October 5, 2018 by Vajragoni

Apophaticism is employed as a Way of Nothingness, not in a morose and nihilistic fashion, but simply as a vehicle that points to what is ineffable. In Christian parlance it bespeaks the unknowable qualities of the Godhead; the best way to come to this understanding is to UN-know all nominal paradigms and thus come to the Absolute under Its own terms—THAT which is devoid and self-empty of all knowable constructs. In Buddhism this Way is engaged as śūnyatā, also one of self-emptying but not in the Christian sense in the “theistic understanding of the ineffability of God”: read more

Posted in Nothingness in Nāgārjuna and John of the Cross | Tagged apophaticism, atheism, Dark Contemplation, Dark Science of Unknowing, Ecstasy of Contemplation, hypostatization’, sunyata, The Way of Negation, via negativa | Leave a comment

Nothingness in Nāgārjuna and John of the Cross

Posted on October 3, 2018 by Vajragoni

Our offering for this autumn season is a series based on the Negative-Way as found in the notion of Nothingness. Two proponents of this Way are Nāgārjuna and John of the Cross. From the Mādhyamika thrust of Nāgārjuna it is considered as śūnyatā, and from the mystic-pen of the Discalced Carmelite John of the Cross it is coined as nada. Thus we have emptiness clearly exhibited in two diverse spiritual traditions yet containing a kernel of comparability, although singularly expounded in each. Our main resource for this series is a marvelous text written by C.D. Sebastian entitled, The Cloud of Nothingness: The Negative Way in Nāgārjuna and John of the Cross. Professor Sebastian initiates his study with two prominent quotes: read more

Posted in Nothingness in Nāgārjuna and John of the Cross, Spirituality | Tagged apophaticism, C.D. Sebastian, gnoseological apophaticism, John of the Cross, Nagarjuna, Negative-Way, Nothingness, ontic apophaticism, Raimon Panikkar, sunyata, The Cloud of Nothingness, via negativa, via positiva | 1 Comment

Hua-Yen, or a View of Totality

Posted on November 1, 2015 by Vajragoni

Bringers of life by Alex Groseth

Before engaging the Sutra it is advisable that we present a brief overview of its doctrinal foundation, which is rooted in Hua-yen Buddhism. Also translated as “Flowery Splendor” (thus the title of the Sutra), Hua-yen is an all-encompassing matrix of syncretic-connections that are inter-dependent and thus constitute a resolution of form and principle as defined in such concepts as shih (phenomena) and li (noumenon)—both of which we shall explore more fully soon. The “holographic-model” is an apt depiction of the inner-mechanism of Hua-yen, wherein each three-dimensional image is a reflection and part and parcel of the larger whole—thus the microcosm within the macrocosm scheme of things. The school’s grand systematizer was Fa-tsang (643-712), its renowned Third Patriarch. One could say that he gave birth to its Holographic-Model when he exhibited it for Empress Wu in the following fashion: read more

Posted in Entry into the Dharmadhātu | Tagged Alfred North Whitehead, amalacitta, bodhignosis, Fa-tsang, Four Dharmadhātu, Holographic-Model, Hua-yen, Li, Shih, sunyata | Leave a comment

Emptiness on a Thursday Afternoon

Posted on January 22, 2015 by Vajragoni

Mahāratnakūṭa Sūtra
46. Mañjuśrī Teaches Prajñāpāramitā
Translated from Taishō Tripiṭaka volume 11, number 310 read more

Posted in Mañjuśrī Teaches Prajñāpāramitā | Tagged Bhagavān, bhiksus, Bodhisattva, Dharma, Emptiness, Manjusri, prajnaparamita, Right Contemplation, saṃgha, Śāriputra, sunyata | Leave a comment

Taking Refuge

Posted on January 17, 2013 by Vajragoni

Receiving the signless precepts through the recitation of the three refuges

(Yampolsky)

“Having finished repentance, I shall give you the formless precepts of the three refuges.” read more

Posted in The Platform Sutra, Zen | Tagged Mahāprajñāpāramitā, Neo-Advaitist, refuge, sunyata | 2 Comments

The All-Seeing Tathatic-Eye

Posted on November 20, 2012 by Vajragoni

Eighteen: The All-Seeing Tathatic-Eye

Subhuti, what do you think? Does the Tathagata possess the human eye? read more

Posted in The Diamond Sutra, Zen | Tagged Dharma-eye, Meister Eckhart, sunyata, Tathatic-Eye, Te Shan | Leave a comment

As Tears Go By

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Vajragoni

7.The Goddess

Thereupon, Manjusri, the crown prince, addressed the Licchavi Vimalakirti: “Good sir, how should a bodhisattva regard all living beings?”
Vimalakirti replied, “Manjusri, a bodhisattva should regard all livings beings as a wise man regards the reflection of the moon in water or as magicians regard men created by magic. He should regard them as being like a face in a mirror; like the water of a mirage; like the sound of an echo; like a mass of clouds in the sky; like the previous moment of a ball of foam; like the appearance and disappearance of a bubble of water; like the core of a plantain tree; like a flash of lightning; like the fifth great element; like the seventh sense medium;like the appearance of matter in an immaterial realm; like a sprout from a rotten seed; like a tortoise-hair coat; like the fun of games for one who wishes to die; like the egoistic views of a stream-winner; like a third rebirth of a once-returner; like the descent of a nonreturner into a womb; like the existence of desire, hatred, and folly in a saint; like thoughts of avarice, immorality, wickedness, and hostility in a bodhisattva who has attained tolerance; like the instincts of passions in a Tathagata; like the perception of color in one blind from birth; like the inhalation and exhalation of an ascetic absorbed in the meditation of cessation; like the track of a bird in the sky; like the erection of a eunuch; like the pregnancy of a barren woman; like the unproduced passions of an emanated incarnation of the Tathagata; like dream-visions seen after waking; like the passions of one who is free of conceptualizations; like fire burning without fuel; like the reincarnation of one who has attained ultimate liberation. “Precisely thus, Manjusri, does a bodhisattva who realizes the ultimate selflessness consider all beings.” read more

Posted in The Vimalakirti Sutra, Zen | Tagged Avalokiteśvara, Element of Truth, self-emptying, sunyata, Vimalakirti Sutra | Leave a comment