Contingent co-arising = pratitya-samutpada

Within non-duality, saying 'because' is, in a sense, misleading since contingent co-arising creates everything simultaneously so that all causes are effects, and all effects are causes simultaneously. (Conrad P. Pritscher)

Advayavada Study Plan - week 35 (samyak-karmanta)

Friends,

In Advayavada Buddhism, the Noble Eightfold Path is interpreted dynamically as an ongoing and autonomous, non-prescriptive, investigative and creative process of progressive insight reflecting in human terms overall existence advancing over time.

The Noble Eightfold Path in Advayavada Buddhism is fully personalized: it is firmly based on what we increasingly know about ourselves and our world, and trusting our own intentions, feelings and conscience.

Adherence to the familiar Five Precepts and a well-considered understanding of the Four Signs of Being and the Four Noble Truths as explained in this recurring plan suffice to start off on the Path at any time.

Nirvana means, in Advayavada Buddhism, the total extinction of existential suffering (duhkha, dukkha) by becoming one with the universal process of change and progress.

The Path or Middle Way we follow to this end is (1) that of our very best (samyak, samma) comprehension or insight followed by (2) our very best resolution or determination, (3) our very best enunciation or definition of our intention, (4) our very best disposition or attitude, (5) our very best implementation or realization, (6) our very best effort or commitment, (7) our very best observation, reflection or evaluation and self-correction, and (8) our very best meditation or concentration towards an increasingly real experience of samadhi, which brings us to (1) a yet better comprehension or insight, and so forth.

By following the Noble Eightfold Path in this way you get in tune with wondrous overall existence advancing over time; old mistakes are left behind; sorrow, doubt and remorse immediately start disappearing; and your life at once gathers new impetus.

(week 34) Last week's ASP subject was the Third Step on the Noble Eightfold Path: our very best (samyak, samma) enunciation or definition of our intention, meaning in Advayavada Buddhism that we express our plan adequately and truthfully in words, preferably in writing, in order to objectify it and to evaluate our efforts properly.

(week 35) This week's ASP is therefore the Fourth Step on the Noble Eightfold Path: to muster our very best (samyak, samma) disposition, frame of mind or attitude to carry out our intention to the very best of our ability.

The purpose of the ASP is that during the week we study (and debate in the group, family circle and/or with good friends) the meaning and implications of the recurring weekly subject, particularly in the context of whatever we ourselves are presently doing or are concerned with, or about, such as our health, relationships, work, study, and our place and responsibilities in the family, group, sangha, society at large, etc.

Tip: Write down this week's subject ("adopt right attitude!") in your pocket diary!

John Willemsens,
Advayavada Foundation.
<http://www.euronet.nl/~advaya/index.htm#plan>
<http://www.euronet.nl/~advaya/patipada.htm>

The doctrine of pratitya-samutpada (Harsh Narain)

The doctrine of universal relativity (pratitya-samutpada) is the stepping stone to the doctrine of sunyata. The knowledge of the former at once leads to the knowledge of the latter. Their relation is so intimate that Nagarjuna has no hesitation in identifying the two. He observes, "What is relativity we call sunyata. It [sunyata] is relative being (upadaya prajñapti). It is the middle path". This proposition is pregnant with implications. The Madhyamika turned pratitya-samutpada, literally and originally conditioned/dependent origination, into pratitya-samutpada as dependent or relative being, as relativity. He had better replace the term with pratitya-samutpapada. In this sense, however, he expresses pratitya-samutpada otherwise as upadaya-prañapti (relative appearance, relative being, relativity). In fact, pratitya-samutpada, which emerged in the Pali canon as a theory of causation, became at the Madhyamika´s hands tantamount to a veritable denial of causation. Indeed, Nagarjuna´s verdict is that what has come into being through causes and conditions has in fact not come into being at all, and, since it has not come into being, it is sunya, void, pure and simple. It is significant that Candrakirti interprets pratitya-samutpada to mean ´non-origination by nature´ (svabhavenanutpadah).

Nagarjuna's suggestion is that his denial of the world does not imply belief in another order of reality like the Absolute, immanent in or transcendent to phenomena. It is quite in conformity to the spirit of the Prajñaparamita texts, which refuse to set sunyata over against the dharmas and to acknowledge positive knowledge of any such reality in the highest wisdom conceived by them. Nagarjuna himself expresses the view that sunyata is nothing other than existents and that there is no existent without sunyata. Advayavajra follows suit. Prajñakaramati expresses himself categorically against the attempt to install sunyata over against the realm of being: "Sunyata is not different from being, for being itself is of the nature of that; otherwise, in the event of sunyata's being different from being, there would be no essenceless of the dharmas." (from The Madhyamika Mind, by Harsh Narain, Delhi 1997)

Advayavada Study Plan - week 34 (samyag-vac)

Friends,

In Advayavada Buddhism, the Noble Eightfold Path is interpreted dynamically as an ongoing and autonomous, non-prescriptive, investigative and creative process of progressive insight reflecting in human terms overall existence advancing over time.

The Noble Eightfold Path in Advayavada Buddhism is fully personalized: it is firmly based on what we increasingly know about ourselves and our world, and trusting our own intentions, feelings and conscience.

Adherence to the familiar Five Precepts and a well-considered understanding of the Four Signs of Being and the Four Noble Truths as explained in this recurring plan suffice to start off on the Path at any time.

Nirvana means, in Advayavada Buddhism, the total extinction of existential suffering (duhkha, dukkha) by becoming one with the universal process of change and progress.

The Path or Middle Way we follow to this end is (1) that of our very best (samyak, samma) comprehension or insight followed by (2) our very best resolution or determination, (3) our very best enunciation or definition of our intention, (4) our very best disposition or attitude, (5) our very best implementation or realization, (6) our very best effort or commitment, (7) our very best observation, reflection or evaluation and self-correction, and (8) our very best meditation or concentration towards an increasingly real experience of samadhi, which brings us to (1) a yet better comprehension or insight, and so forth.

By following the Noble Eightfold Path in this way you get in tune with wondrous overall existence advancing over time; old mistakes are left behind; sorrow, doubt and remorse immediately start disappearing; and your life at once gathers new impetus.

(week 33) Last week's ASP subject was the Second Step on the Noble Eightfold Path: our very best (samyak, samma) determination in view of our personal situation at this time.

(week 34) This week's ASP subject is therefore the Third Step on the Noble Eightfold Path: our very best (samyak, samma) enunciation or definition of our intention, meaning in Advayavada Buddhism that we express our plan adequately in words, preferably in writing, in order to objectify it to evaluate our efforts properly.

The purpose of the ASP is that during the week we study (and debate in the group, family circle and/or with good friends) the meaning and implications of the recurring weekly subject, particularly in the context of whatever we ourselves are presently doing or are concerned with, or about, such as our health, relationships, work, study, and our place and responsibilities in the family, group, sangha, society at large, etc.

Tip: Write down this week's subject ("put plan into words!") in your pocket diary!

John Willemsens,
Advayavada Foundation.
<http://www.euronet.nl/~advaya/index.htm#plan>
<http://www.euronet.nl/~advaya/patipada.htm>

Robert Aitken Roshi (1917-2010)

When people write to me from a place where there are no Zen centers and where it is impossible to find even a single Zen friend, I advise them, "Just sit with the awareness that you are sitting with us in the Diamond Sangha. Just sit with the awareness that you are sitting with everyone and every being in the whole universe, past, present, and future." (Robert Aitken Roshi, quoted by Barbara O'Brien in About Buddhism)

Advayavada Study Plan - week 33 (samyak-samkalpa)

Friends,

In Advayavada Buddhism, the Noble Eightfold Path is interpreted dynamically as an ongoing and autonomous, non-prescriptive, investigative and creative process of progressive insight reflecting in human terms overall existence advancing over time.

The Noble Eightfold Path in Advayavada Buddhism is fully personalized: it is firmly based on what we increasingly know about ourselves and our world, and trusting our own intentions, feelings and conscience.

Adherence to the familiar Five Precepts and a well-considered understanding of the Four Signs of Being and the Four Noble Truths as explained in this recurring plan suffice to start off on the Path at any time.

Nirvana means, in Advayavada Buddhism, the total extinction of existential suffering (duhkha, dukkha) by becoming one with the universal process of change and progress.

The Path or Middle Way we follow to this end is (1) that of our very best (samyak, samma) comprehension or insight followed by (2) our very best resolution or determination, (3) our very best enunciation or definition of our intention, (4) our very best disposition or attitude, (5) our very best implementation or realization, (6) our very best effort or commitment, (7) our very best observation, reflection or evaluation and self-correction, and (8) our very best meditation or concentration towards an increasingly real experience of samadhi, which brings us to (1) a yet better comprehension or insight, and so forth.

By following the Noble Eightfold Path in this way you get in tune with wondrous overall existence advancing over time; old mistakes are left behind; sorrow, doubt and remorse immediately start disappearing; and your life at once gathers new impetus.

(32) Last week's ASP subject was again the important First Step on the Noble Eightfold Path: our very best (samyak, samma) comprehension of or insight into our own life at the present moment in time - in other words, what is, honestly, my personal situation right now?

(33) This week's ASP subject is therefore the Second Step on the Noble Eightfold Path: our very best (samyak, samma) determination in view of our personal situation at this time.

The purpose of the ASP is that we study (and debate in the group, family circle and/or with good friends) the meaning and implications of the recurring weekly subject, particularly in the context of whatever we ourselves are presently doing or are concerned with, or about, such as our health, relationships, work, study, and our place and responsibilities in the family, group, sangha, society at large, etc.

Tip: Write down this week's subject ("take best possible decision!") in your pocket diary!

John Willemsens,
Advayavada Foundation.
<http://www.euronet.nl/~advaya/index.htm#plan>

Advayavada Study Plan - week 32 (samyag-dristi)

Friends,

In Advayavada Buddhism, the Noble Eightfold Path is interpreted dynamically as an ongoing and autonomous, non-prescriptive, investigative and creative process of progressive insight reflecting in human terms overall existence advancing over time.

The Noble Eightfold Path in Advayavada Buddhism is fully personalized: it is firmly based on what we increasingly know about ourselves and our world, and trusting our own intentions, feelings and conscience.

Adherence to the familiar Five Precepts and a well-considered understanding of the Four Signs of Being and the Four Noble Truths as explained in this recurring plan suffice to start off on the Path at any time.

Nirvana means, in Advayavada Buddhism, the total extinction of existential suffering (duhkha, dukkha) by becoming one with the universal process of change and progress.

The Path or Middle Way we follow to this end is (1) that of our very best (samyak, samma) comprehension or insight followed by (2) our very best resolution or determination, (3) our very best enunciation or definition of our intention, (4) our very best disposition or attitude, (5) our very best implementation or realization, (6) our very best effort or commitment, (7) our very best observation, reflection or evaluation and self-correction, and (8) our very best meditation or concentration towards an increasingly real experience of samadhi, which brings us to (1) a yet better comprehension or insight, and so forth.

By following the Noble Eightfold Path in this way you get in tune with wondrous overall existence advancing over time; old mistakes are left behind; sorrow, doubt and remorse immediately start disappearing; and your life at once gathers new impetus.

(31) Last week's preliminary ASP subject were the Fourth Noble Truth, i.e. the Noble Eightfold Path to eliminate ignorance and craving, and the Fourth Sign of Being (fact of life), i.e. Progress, the universal process of change and progress we must try to adhere to instead.

(32) This week's ASP subject is again the important First Step on the Noble Eightfold Path: our very best (samyak, samma) comprehension of or insight into our own life at the present moment in time - in other words, what is, honestly, my personal situation right now?

The purpose of the ASP is that we study (and debate in the group, family circle and/or with good friends) the meaning and implications of the recurring weekly subject, particularly in the context of whatever we ourselves are presently doing or are concerned with, or about, such as our health, relationships, work, study, and our place and responsibilities in the family, group, sangha, society at large, etc.

Tip: Write down this week's subject ("what is my situation now?") in your pocket diary!

John Willemsens,
Advayavada Foundation.
<http://www.euronet.nl/~advaya/index.htm#plan>

In all Buddhism, freedom is freedom from pain and suffering. (Scheepers)

In the Madhyamaka, as in all Buddhism, freedom, identified with Nirvana, is not freedom of action, but freedom from pain and suffering. Since suffering is ultimately due to ignorance, it also consists in a being free from all illusion. This means for the Madhyamika: being free from all perspectival viewpoints, doctrines, and categories of thought, being free from all ideas, imagination, and thought-constructions (vikalpa, kalpana). It is thought and imagination (which forms the basis of all thought and language), that projects worlds in consonance with our desires, or worlds that threaten our comfort. It leaves us with the hopes and fears, desires and aversions, that blind us to the truth of the world that is really before our eyes, and within the reach of our touch. It makes that we really see our own projections, and reality only as subservient to these. The world, not willing to submit to our desires, causes that we suffer from them. If we do not accept the presence, but always want something else, live with our thought in something else, life must always be unfulfilled, and this is painful. Do away with your imagined projections, then you will be freed from your desires. Freed from your desires you will be free from suffering. You live no longer with a frustrated will. Freedom is the total cessation of imagination (sarva-kalpana-ksayo hi nirvanam). Aryadeva says: "Take away all." One should desist from vice, free oneself from the substance-view, and lastly give up all standpoints. These are the stages of progress. Freedom is a process of negation of ignorance and passions (klesa). The state of freedom, also called 'samata' (equality) does not admit of degrees. It is Buddhahood itself. All beings carry it in themselves as a potential (tathagatagarbha), all living beings are endowed with the essence of the Buddha, but only by the path of the 'Arya' is it realized. The immaculate, which is of spiritual nature, pervades all that exists. Beings are in various stages of purification, but are one as Buddha. In the process of freeing oneself from ignorance and defilements, wisdom (prajna), which is one with the absolute, gradually becomes manifest. (from A Survey of Buddhist Thought, by Alfred R. Scheepers, Amsterdam 1994.)

Advayavada Study Plan - week 31 (madhyama-pratipada)

Friends,

In Advayavada Buddhism, the Noble Eightfold Path is interpreted dynamically as an ongoing and autonomous, non-prescriptive, investigative and creative process of progressive insight reflecting in human terms overall existence advancing over time.

The Noble Eightfold Path in Advayavada Buddhism is fully personalized: it is firmly based on what we increasingly know about ourselves and our world, and trusting our own intentions, feelings and conscience.

Nirvana means, in Advayavada Buddhism, the total extinction of existential suffering (duhkha, dukkha) by becoming one with the universal process of change and progress.

Adherence to the familiar Five Precepts and a well-considered understanding of the Four Signs of Being and the Four Noble Truths as explained in this recurring plan suffice to start off on the Path at any time.

(30) Last week's preliminary ASP subject were the Second and the Third Noble Truths of Buddhism, which are the cause of suffering, which is craving, grasping, clinging and attachment (= trishna, tanha), and the need and indeed possibility of its elimination (= nirodha).

The root cause of all ill in Buddhism is, in fact, ignorance (avidya, avijja), i.e. ignorance of the true nature of reality, when the impermanence and the selflessness and finitude of all individual existents are not fully recognized and understood - it is this fundamental ignorance which in turn gives rise to craving (trishna, tanha), the immediate cause of existential distress. Man is prone to suffering (duhkha, dukkha) quite simply because he wrongly strives after and tries to hold on to things, situations and concepts which he believes are or ought to be permanent, but are not.

(31) This week's preliminary ASP subject are again the Fourth Noble Truth, i.e. the Noble Eightfold Path to eliminate ignorance and craving, and the Fourth Sign of Being (fact of life), i.e. Progress, the universal process of change and progress we must instead adhere to.

The Path or Middle Way we follow to this end is (1) that of our very best (samyak, samma) comprehension or insight followed by (2) our very best resolution or determination, (3) our very best enunciation or definition of our intention, (4) our very best disposition or attitude, (5) our very best implementation or realization, (6) our very best effort or commitment, (7) our very best observation, reflection or evaluation and self-correction, and (8) our very best meditation or concentration towards an increasingly real experience of samadhi, which brings us to (1) a yet better comprehension or insight, and so forth.

By following the Noble Eightfold Path in this way you get in tune with wondrous overall existence advancing over time; old mistakes are left behind; sorrow, doubt and remorse immediately start disappearing; and your life at once gathers new impetus.

The purpose of the ASP is that we study (and debate in the group, family circle and/or with good friends) the meaning and implications of the recurring weekly subject, particularly in the context of whatever we ourselves are presently doing or are concerned with, or about, such as our health, relationships, work, study, and our place and responsibilities in the family, group, sangha, society at large, etc.

Tip: Write down this week's subject ("the path and progress.") in your pocket diary!

John Willemsens,
Advayavada Foundation.
<http://www.euronet.nl/~advaya/index.htm#plan>