• Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Access to private conversations with other members.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

The Buddha Explains Universal Mind

Ben Dhyan

Ben Dhyan

Veteran Member
atanu said:
That then is your understanding.

Gold as the non dual and attributeless substrate and various forms built of that non dual substrate is the standard advaita metaphor. Gold (atman) is conscious, is the basis of all forms and names yet is distinct and untouched by the changes in the forms.

Jnana, wisdom, means that the self identification with names-forms has ended. Names-forms as dance of nature may continue without tainting the wisdom of non duality.
Click to expand...
I took your gold story as an analogy and saw it mirrored the same self identification with form as human culture.... which is an illusion of perception relative to non-duality..... Advaita as I understand it is that Brahman is omnipresent...all apparent attributes, aspects, etc., are then maya.. Non-duality is not about any conceptualization, it is about stilling the mind to realize the underlying unity of existence...what follows next is not a concern...to think about it prevents stilling of the mind.... As I said above,,,non-duality is an impossible goal so long as one can only practice meditation part time....this is for those who are prepared to give up their self identity with the human form...
 
Last edited:
psychoslice

psychoslice

Veteran Member
Spiny Norman said:
So you don't know what "Cosmic Consciousness" is? Why do you keep going on about something if you don't know what it is?
Click to expand...
No one can know what is called Cosmic Consciousness, you can point to it, you can tell what experience you got from it, but you can never say what it is. actually I thought you would have known that ??.
 
Rick O'Shez

Rick O'Shez

Irishman bouncing off walls
atanu said:
Is there any discernment in absence of aggregates?
Click to expand...

Again I don't really understand the question since in my understanding the aggregates encompass human experience.

If you could just say clearly what you think, then I can respond to it.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Rick O'Shez

Rick O'Shez

Irishman bouncing off walls
psychoslice said:
No one can know what is called Cosmic Consciousness, you can point to it, you can tell what experience you got from it, but you can never say what it is. actually I thought you would have known that ??.
Click to expand...

GNG continually refers to "Cosmic Consciousness" and it's clearly central to his belief system, but he refuses to say what he actually means by it. I think that's very odd.
 
Rick O'Shez

Rick O'Shez

Irishman bouncing off walls
godnotgod said:
You consistently attack the pointing finger....
Click to expand...

Only when it's being pointed in the wrong direction. I'm fed up with the continual cliched references to pointing fingers, it's too often used as a cop-out by people who can't explain themselves clearly and then get defensive when the inadequacy of their explanation is pointed out. It's often also said in a rather arrogant way, "How dare you suggest that I'm pointing in the wrong direction!"
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Rick O'Shez

Rick O'Shez

Irishman bouncing off walls
atanu said:
Jnana, wisdom, means that the self identification with names-forms has ended. Names-forms as dance of nature may continue without tainting the wisdom of non duality.
Click to expand...

In the Buddhist suttas self-view arises because of identification with the aggregates, thinking of them as me or mine, eg "my thoughts", "my feelings", "my body".
 
Twilight Hue

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
ben d said:
All your describing is how the mind is seen to function in the normal person in a human cultural and social environment... That functioning is by evolutionary design...dualistic...and has to be that way... I on the other hand am talking about the potential of the mind....free from all these human cultural and social demands....to be stilled so that self identity with the form does not arise! Of course i know that this can't happen if you have family, have to work, share your life with others, etc....but non-duality is not for the part timers...
Click to expand...

It's pretty much the way it is, yet nonduality is not discounted either by way of significance.

Stilling the mind clarifies the extreme views by which duality and nonduality become so notably prominent to directly reveal that any distinction made, is in essence, free of such labels and nondistinctive by way of nature.

I personally don't see any real reason as to why anyone cannot ever approach stilling the mind to catch a glimpse of true nature by disposition, as stillness naturally occurs just as much as our active thoughts do, but oftentimes, people really don't notice it unless it becomes apparant.
.
The question then lays with sustainability for keeping the mind stilled long enough to experience with pristine clarity, the quality for which meditation greatly helps in accomplishing.

I think anyone can at least approach stillness using meditative techniques such as Zazen for instance, and can be practiced any time anywhere regardless of life disposition.

Carry water, chopping wood. You know? =0]

A reason why you are conflicting so much here is imo, that your views seem to be more dogmatic towards staticity than that of fluidity. It wouldn't be so much an issue if staticity in any form could be directly pointed out anywhere in nature but as it stands, I haven't come across any instances where it's the case. Feet on the ground as it were.
 
Rick O'Shez

Rick O'Shez

Irishman bouncing off walls
Nowhere Man said:
I see the ending! I see the ending!!!
Click to expand...

It never really ends because there is an endless cycle of nuts. Well, at least until Mr. Squirrel gets too old to remember where he buried them. ;) Here is a squirrel having a "senior moment":

th
 
Last edited by a moderator:
atanu

atanu

Member
Premium Member
ben d said:
I took your gold story as an analogy and saw it mirrored the same self identification with form as human culture.... which is an illusion of perception relative to non-duality..... Advaita as I understand it is that Brahman is omnipresent...all apparent attributes, aspects, etc., are then maya.. Non-duality is not about any conceptualization, it is about stilling the mind to realize the underlying unity of existence...what follows next is not a concern...to think about it prevents stilling of the mind.... As I said above,,,non-duality is an impossible goal so long as one can only practice meditation part time....this is for those who are prepared to give up their self identity with the human form...
Click to expand...

Ben thanks. But see that we have very very still mind in sleep yet no one becomes enlightened by sleep alone.

I agree that Nirvikalpa Samadhi is an essential experience for attaining the non dual knowledge. But non dual knowledge is not same as stilling the mind.

For example, you are now arguing in a very dual environment. Does not that, as is ought to be inferred by your own standard, mean that your non duality has deserted you?

Thus, I reiterate that non duality is not equal to a stilled mind. But an unbroken abidance in the knowledge that one's nature is same as "unborn -unparted" nirvana or moksha or sachidanand, whether under stilled mind condition or not, is the result of attaining non-dual knowledge.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top