tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3225985453951330898.post4673488735144343947..comments2024-03-18T10:07:38.422+08:00Comments on Awakening to Reality: Rigpa and AggregatesSohhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16416159880942160813noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3225985453951330898.post-7159905340938355882010-09-08T11:28:27.234+08:002010-09-08T11:28:27.234+08:00The Buddha, and Padmasambhava, and all other Buddh...The Buddha, and Padmasambhava, and all other Buddhist teachers teaches that 'self', 'the mind that observes', etc, are merely a convention for the aggregates... there is nothing apart from those aggregates.<br /><br />It's like the word 'weather' is simply a convention for all the clouds, rain, wind, etc, yet how can you locate 'weather' as an entity within those ever-changing phenomena? You cannot pinpoint a drop of rain or a speck of cloud rolling by and say, 'oh, now I found/located this thing called weather!' Those phenomena arise and pass without abidance. 'Weather' simply cannot be located as an entity, as something independent, locatable, solid, abiding, inside the ever-changing stream of weatherly phenomena.<br /><br />You also cannot say that weather is separate from clouds, rain, wind, etc.<br /><br />In the end all you can say is... 'weather' is simply a label and convention for whatever manifests but there is no truly existing 'weather'. <br /><br />The same applies for 'self' or 'the mind that observes'... there are only thoughts, sensations, feelings, arising and passing... no 'self'/'mind' can be located anywhere, and yet we apply the label 'self' to the conglomerate of body-mind for convenience. Even now you cannot pin down a 'self'/'mind' anywhere that is independent, locatable, solid, abiding.<br /><br />Anyway what Padmasambhava taught is nothing new. All the masters have made the same statements with regards to the unfindability of an inherent self.<br /><br />The Buddha states:<br /><br />http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn22/sn22.086.than.html<br /><br />..."What do you think: Do you regard the Tathagata as form-feeling-perception-fabrications-consciousness?"<br /><br />"No, lord."<br /><br />"Do you regard the Tathagata as that which is without form, without feeling, without perception, without fabrications, without consciousness?"<br /><br />"No, lord."<br /><br />"And so, Anuradha — when you can't pin down the Tathagata as a truth or reality even in the present life — is it proper for you to declare, 'Friends, the Tathagata — the supreme man, the superlative man, attainer of the superlative attainment — being described, is described otherwise than with these four positions: The Tathagata exists after death, does not exist after death, both does & does not exist after death, neither exists nor does not exist after death'?"<br /><br />"No, lord."...<br /><br /><br />And Chandrakirti states: <br /><br />"A chariot is not asserted to be other than its parts,<br />Nor non-other. It also does not possess them.<br />It is not in the parts, nor are the parts in it.<br />It is not the mere collection [of its parts], nor is it their shape.<br />[The self and the aggregates are] similar."<br /><br />And Nagarjuna states:<br /><br />“The Tathagata is not the aggregates; nor is he other<br />than the aggregates.<br />The aggregates are not in him nor is he in them.<br />The Tathagata does not possess the aggregates.<br />What Tathagata is there?”Sohhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16416159880942160813noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3225985453951330898.post-75677941074580435352010-09-08T08:45:38.672+08:002010-09-08T08:45:38.672+08:00Padmasambhava says that the mind is neither the sa...Padmasambhava says that the mind is neither the same nor different from the 5 aggregates, yet the advice is to take everything as the 5 aggregates.Mattnoreply@blogger.com