240814: this is deleuze. clear, concise, capacious, complex. this is exactly what I want in continental /postmodern/ deconstructed philosophy. he call240814: this is deleuze. clear, concise, capacious, complex. this is exactly what I want in continental /postmodern/ deconstructed philosophy. he calls it 'superior empiricism'. he incorporates many (western) thinkers, some expectations with whose work the reader is already familiar. series of four essays, first written last, then his particular interceptions of deleuzean themes in Hume and Nietzsche. of the latter, I was very impressed with the bestiary of his thoughts, with his characterisation of Ariadne, Theseus, Zarathustra. pleased to recognise 1) possible meaning to title Mygale 2) remembrance of my own original conception (age 16) of SFF ideas of Gateworld 'Dion' as in Dionysius......more
240811: this is an excellent, middle-way treatise, between extremes of academics and popular/accessible reading. though the latter is presuming the re240811: this is an excellent, middle-way treatise, between extremes of academics and popular/accessible reading. though the latter is presuming the reader is familiar with buddhist concepts as 'fetters', 'conceptual bondage', 'four truths', and that metaphysics of 'constant process', of 'no mind' etc. so maybe not the first buddhist text to read...
'signless' remind me of the assertion in several previous texts that in this buddhist ontology there is no is/is not for these are only 'signs' as rain, ocean and lake and river and stream water, snow, hail, are all 'signs' of H2O as they transform, but nothing is 'lost'. this is not as beautiful as the book from which that example comes The Art of Living, but is true as well...
so the first step on the path to nirvana is to abandon 'signs', in act, in thought, in words, and experience 'exactly what is' through 'bare consciousness'. bhikku gives several examples. the main idea seems to be everything from 'concept' to 'intention' merely adds layers interfering with this original 'bareness'. this is the first half of the book...
'deathless' is an epithet for 'nirvana', and critically interrogates the contention buddhists were not concerned with an afterlife. the key is how the buddha resolves this debate between 'anihillationists' (like materialists) who think when the body dies the person dies, and 'eternalists' who think the soul of the person persists (like religious). the buddha insists there is no such 'person' to begin with!
deathless involves the 'twelve steps of dependent origination': 1: Ignorance (avijja)2: Volitional formations (saṅkhāra) 3: Consciousness (viññāṇa) 4: Name and form (nāma-rūpa)5: The six sense fields (saḷāyatana) 6: Contact (phassa) 7: Feeling tone (vedanā) 8: Craving...
deathless is 'liberation' in life... is 'stepping out' of our conceptual bondage: great discussion of how this is not misery of suicide but joy of transcendence. 'stepping out' seems to be application of understanding how illusory are signs, definitely passing them... descriptions of 'enlightenment' all agree on how this is positive experience...
240707: read in one day, three sittings, obviously easy to read. or perhaps that isif you like this review i now have website: www.michaelkamakana.com
240707: read in one day, three sittings, obviously easy to read. or perhaps that is because I have read so many on buddhism. but this is excellent. rather than review the entire book, I will focus on each chapter to the end of section 5: how to be an enlightened materialist. here buddhism comes closest to the phenomenology I know from m-p and husserl. this reflects major themes previous and sums all up. 1: comparative empiricisms, 2: myth, logic, the logic of mythology, 3: does the buddha lie?, 4: zen masters and their way with words, 5: how to be an enlightened materialist, 6: reflecting on the buddha to reflect on ourselves...
1, investigates the different 'empiricism' of the Europeans (English etc/) and Indian systems. there is some argument for 'why study bd?, which always already seems obvious to me, but then Europe, particularly England has never been the conceptual centre of my world. basically, the difference in temp is pragmatic attitude: for the bd the more know the more we can show the 'emptiness' of 'conventional life, the more obvious is the language schism between European (skepticism) and Indian (limitations). here is the beginning of mischaracterising bd as 'nihilism'. European prizes ( illusory) objectivity in viewing the world as separate and independent and real. Indian insists on (essential) subjectivity being in the world, not separate and independent but causal result of dependent arising... so what is selected as of empirical value is not the same...
2, examines myth, logic and logical mythology. I always already have slight prejudice against logic as final arbiter for what is 'real'. like to see the world as more flexible, more surprising, more romantic than the most advanced math can pretend to 'solve'. For myth has always come first for me, the idea that what is real involves the emotions of that experience is more real than the abstracted, objective, rendering of the same has seemed obvious. I would not be an artist if I felt otherwise...
3, does the buddha lie? seems to me provocative title for admitted changes, contradictions, from years of his teaching, so this seems less important chapter. found the dual interpretations of 'karma' interesting (naturalism reflecting moment by moment 'rebirth' as metaphor) and religious (literal as readily of 'hells')...
4, zen masters and their way with words, is the extreme form of buddhism and where I started in my art days. the concept of 'teaching without words' and colourful stories and indeed 'stand-up' comedy routines is excellent vision of this genre of buddhism...
5: how to be an enlightened materialist, is where we get to religion and science in the mirror of buddhism. it has taken me awhile to reach this place, here goes. the most important, the essential, affect of buddhist metaphysics is this: the elimination of the mind/body distinction. this is because there is renewed primacy given to the 'mind only' model of reality- but this is supported by kind of 'buddhist materialism' where matter has very secondary supporting role and the key to what is 'real' is always the mind. there are two methods of gaining knowledge: direct witness, inference (flames of fire, smoke of fire) and there are two words to describe action/event: live or dead and there are 'reified things' and 'saving the appearances' which show basic poverty of western thought: the use of 'dead words' for living real, the insistence on using logic to confound human experience, the abstract concepts of science to correlate what it chooses to be real no matter how ontologically real they are (space, time, force, mass etc.)
6: reflecting on the buddha to reflect on ourselves, mostly deals with 'meta-scientific/religious' discussions of the various narrative we tell ourselves around all these contested words : science, religion, buddhism, empiricism, logic, math, real etc. great summing up......more
240517: excellent resource of texts on and by and about modern literature. but. thiif you like this review i now have website: www.michaelkamakana.com
240517: excellent resource of texts on and by and about modern literature. but. this is resource read without guidance, skipping around according to interests, perhaps best as assigned text at u. there is everything from Oscar Wilde to Ernest Hemingway. but. most of the authors re canonical English eg. Virginia or Ruskin or Conrad, very few not Eurocentric, few critical, more appreciation, gives sense of the times...
and great excerpt from Henri Bergson in Creative Evolution that encapsulates in beautiful writing exactly his mature thought... think will go read it again......more
240325: another great book on bergson. this is favourite at the moment. this focusif you like this review, i now have website: www.michaelkamakana.com
240325: another great book on bergson. this is favourite at the moment. this focuses on his entire metaphysics contrary to geometric, spatialised, being which is default to science, with his insistence on time, on change, on becoming, as true reflection of reality, which is best expressed by art. there are great quotes that sum up this attitude: 'science seeks the generalised, art invents the singular' pg 179...
this is also great because he does not hesitate to critique the man's thought in light of later knowledge, in light of history, in hopes deferred, in things not working out the way he expects, but indeed: 'the future does not exist until it happens, when it becomes present' and 'we ever only know the past'. these are also bergson quotes but do not remember where read. it seems every book on bergson offers me yet further ways of understanding his thought, though as this one make clear: the key to everything changing is new conception of Time. analytic philosophy has missed this change, has no apparent awareness of Time, but that is fine with me. I read mostly continental, Indic, Japan/zen. this may not be the easiest place to begin bergson (read 61 before) but a lot of fun...
240216: this is possibly new favourite on bergson. only possibly but very near. heif you like this review, i now have website: www.michaelkamakana.com
240216: this is possibly new favourite on bergson. only possibly but very near. he is born Austrian working in Hungary writing in English on French philosopher, so maybe he is difficult to follow. this is mostly not problem. this is serious, advanced, academic exploration of bersonian themes, metaphysics, claims. this is not introductory or the first book to read on bergson. this is just challenging. this author is writing from 2021 so there is much over century of discussion, argument, dispute about what bergson said or how he said it...
after an introduction that lays out what we shall find, this book does the reverse of that usual chronological progression of his thoughts, or even that atemporal exploration of his themes, but deliberately starts with his later work and moves backwards. this is interesting. causality comes unmoored, usual habits of thought, of logic, are revealed as deliberate choices that obscure real shape of time. not container, not ascending or descending stages, not entropic inevitability, not the possible before the actual.one insight indicative of his revolution in thought: there is no possible...
the possible only borrows its illusory force from the moment now. only now exists, only now of the enduring present, projecting imagination back in time as-if, in impotent virtual, what has-been naturally must lead to what-is. there is no possible. there is the actual. bergson will deny the reality of the infamous 'trolley prolem' though this, but this comes much later in this book. the point here is that we are thinking the possible precedes the actual when it is other way round. and this we mis-apply to all time, all evolution, which for bergson must be creative. we construct our past out of the present... bergson claims this 'finalism' is an error in evolution or creationism as it was then known...
after reversing our common, human, way of thought, this book addresses that controversy which damaged bergson's reputation as thinker for decades. only now have his concepts been again examined and found fruitful, though this is only case of physicists catching up with philosophers. this of course Bergson's dispute with physicists (champion being Einstein) about reality and effects of time dilation in relativity. if you pay attention to the title of this book, there is truly only one time. now. the past and future are physics imaginary times. now is all times. now is enduring...
physicists discovered no need, thus no reality, to the ether within which we as planets and stars moved. relativity is the answer. space and time are combined. space is no longer the absolute, but for bergson relativity just did not go far enough: with the universal ultimate speed limit of light in vacuum we created another absolute! now bergson certainly accepted physics concepts of his day, eg. Lorentz transformation... but he has made it possible to 'go beyond' current physics!
the next chapter is on how there is no static 'being' all is in becoming, and this has clear ethical effect.
insight: there is no 'way things are' that determine 'way things will be', both are indefinitely complex illusions always in change.
another aspect really enjoyed about bergson, and also this book, is that he uses Art for thought: much like Merleau-Ponty!
240608: there is conceptual difficulty in these years, in fascination, depiction, oif you like this review i now have website: www.michaelkamakana.com
240608: there is conceptual difficulty in these years, in fascination, depiction, of that particular surrealist interest in little girls. in this case no more than the young naked body 'the salesman' seems to have raped/killed? whose characterisation by islanders certainly veers towards blaming the victim. she is basically muted. we never hear her story. there is in fact no 'story'. there are images and images dislocated in time and space, in memory and repetition, as we inhabit the disturbed obsessive mind of Mathias. this again, is what i love about r-g. this is probably the third time read. i had the first time read felt this was appealing to my most perverse desires while revelling in art of his writing. having now read many books by and on him, i am able to separate when necessary form and content. there is no separation. form is content. perhaps not for critical women readers, not for some feminists, but i find it rewarding reread...
i am always learning from my reading for my writing. this reminds me of the years in my twenties when i first read r-g. tried then to apply his 'style' to my sff short stories but these were opaque if not incoherent. but my desire to incorporate this way of writing persists, however it might fail. here in rereading i learn again: subtle time shifts, tense shifts, resemble typical/atypical film cuts, advancing the story, questioning the story, imagining the story he is trying so hard to create as alibi for... whom? i like this as much but in different way than Jealousy & In the Labyrinth...
231015: it has been years since i last read r-g much but this definitely confirms why r-g is one of my favourite authors. images, images, images. implicit story, characterisation, theme, perversion, violence. haunting. disturbing. fascinating. clear, geometric, dispassionate observations very similar to Jealousy & In the Labyrinth where the unseen, the repressed, the forgotten is key to following gradually explicit horror. I would agree it ends suspended because the final images seem ambiguous then not least imaginary, described the way images collide, proliferate, cut, from one to the other, and his sense of time of life and time of dream or fantasy is tenuous at best (and he is watch salesman...?)...
230928: not what you are expecting. fantastic, surreal, magical realism-type exploif you like this review, i now have website: www.michaelkamakana.com
230928: not what you are expecting. fantastic, surreal, magical realism-type exploration in the lives of 'guest workers' in the UAE. might think this will be socialist realism, but it is far more interesting. metaphors, allegories, fantastic psychological terrain. everything from passport/human running after escape plane, to very human tongue escaping, shattering on roadway, spilling words and letters in all directions, to carnivorous, sex-abusive elevator, to re-enacted play of ritual grouping murdering one man who is 'acting' though his death certainly seems real, who is resurrected for next year's festival, to workers grown like vegetables, harvested, used, discarded...
this is definitely favourite because of these images, this vision of the world that is not 'western' but not wholly 'eastern' either, makes sense as it is set in UAE, which is sort of the collision of two worldviews. writing is direct, easy to follow. starts like short stories then woven together. human concerns, behaviour universal everywhere from futbol to sex. probably not the reveal of the Arabic world their conservative governments want to share with the world. probably not the stereotypes we in 'the west' characterise the Arabic world as full of religious fanatics, terrorists etc.......more
230909: excellent. concise. terms translated. focus on equivalence/intrabeing of emif you like this review i now have website: www.michaelkamakana.com
230909: excellent. concise. terms translated. focus on equivalence/intrabeing of emptiness and the twelve links of dependent origination, discoursing on buddhism, on four noble truths, impermanence, emptiness, all within mahayana interpretations, concepts familiar (read 114 phil.indic.buddhism). easy to read, quick, reminds me of The Vimalakirti Sutra...
230514: I do not claim to understand it all, but what I do get is fantastic. this if you like this review, i now have website: www.michaelkamakana.com
230514: I do not claim to understand it all, but what I do get is fantastic. this is sort of the opposite of Beyond the Self, in the sense it is dense, academic, scholarly- and obviously not intended for casual perusal. this is a lot of strenuous fun for my intellect. this is perhaps the wrong way to fully appreciate the Abhidamma, too abstract, not practiced, not mediated on. not, I feel, placed fully in context of buddhist culture, history, literature, the books of the Abidhamma, other books, commentaries, disagreements...
if I had grown up in buddhist culture I might be less entranced. I might have viewed the Pali in which these discourses are written no more interesting than Medieval Latin. on the other, I might have been more educated to understand ways of thought eg. comparison of western psychology with complexes, fixations, neurosis, on the way to creating healthy ordinary human, versus buddhist psychology with none of these, with awareness of emptiness, transience, on the way to liberation. this difference is clear in Already Free: Buddhism Meets Psychotherapy on the Path of Liberation philosophy in the buddhist sense is at least as different as in Buddhism: A Philosophical Approach...
this book outlines the first books of Abhidamma (dhammasanangi) is concerned with the doctrine of non-self, then in support detailed analysis of moments of consciousness. the next books with 'conditioning' or relative aspects of these minute, tabulated, named moments. there are pentad of sense-contact, factors of absorption, faculties, powers, path factors, wholesome roots, ways of action, guardians of the world, six pairs of qualitative factors, helpers, paired combination, last dyad, supplementary factors, all intertwined. there is level of analytic logic that certainly emphatically reinforces buddhist thought and awareness. after this list comes the second book (pathana) . in which the buddha asserts the method of induction to help clarify his claims. in no way does he ever aver to metaphysics. this is very practical, immediate sense of instruction: phase one is contemplation of phenomena appearing in oneself, phenomena appearing in others, combination of both. phase two is phenomena arising, phenomena passing away, combination of two. we must advance both the analytical and synthetical sids of our awareness. this is the middle way...
I have read this through once: the second time I went from section to section as inspired. this is not buddhism as religion but as philosophy and psychology. this is what I want. perhaps I will read it again, it is from u library, or even buy it. it interests me in the complex, completely other structure of phil-Indic-buddhism. be patient. be generous with your own errors in thought or prejudices. read. probably helps if you meditate. or just enjoy thinking...
230212: do not really have much to add to enthusiastic reviews, to reviews of previf you like this review, i now have website: www.michaelkamakana.com
230212: do not really have much to add to enthusiastic reviews, to reviews of previous pema chodron books (5), except to reaffirm how much I love her work. simple but not simplistic, direct, clear. she follows tibetan lineage, not the zen of Tich Naht Hanh, so it is more accessible to westerners. she explains ideas, experiences, of everything from loving-kindness, to precision, kindness, letting go, to the wisdom of no-escape that leads to meditation, to the four reminders of how fortunate all of us humans are (precious birth, impermanence, karma, futility of samsara). beautiful work......more
230125: excellent introductory work. this work covers the mindfulness sutta, an orif you like this review, i now have website: www.michaelkamakana.com
230125: excellent introductory work. this work covers the mindfulness sutta, an original, early text, that guides the inquisitive practitioner through buddhist metaphysics in, as promised, 'plain English'. part one is mindfulness of the body, this in chapters on breath, four postures, clear comprehension, parts and elements, death and impermanence. part two is mindfulness of feelings, as emotions and feelings, as harmful and beneficial. part three is mindfulness of mind, as mind and consciousness, and mental states. part four is mindfulness of dharma, as hindrances, clinging and fetters, factors of enlightenment, four truths and eightfold path...
perhaps one of the best places to begin learning buddhism. there is some history, some quotes of buddha and others, but mostly I am reminded the note that in Western thought, religious, philosophical, the central motivating idea is Good versus Evil, while in Eastern thought, religious, philosophical, the central motivating idea is Enlightenment versus Ignorance...
for ignorance is the big bad that starts this 'mindfulness' meditation, that continues it, that resolves it, as the body is the core first mistaken thought: thinking in terms of I, of me, of mine. of course these are all conventional designations that have no ultimate reality, which is always changing, always new, in the first obvious physical sense. how do we say the I this morning is the I of twenty years ago?
thus begins sort of 'how to' become aware as buddha: the efficacy of simple breath meditation. the four posture of the body meditating (sitting, standing, walking, lying down,) and complete clear comprehension of goals meditating, followed by meditating on what most people fear thinking of: death, and its existential companion impermanence...
next is mindfulness of feelings, the difference between feelings and emotions, the importance of not judging thoughts as 'good' or 'bad', but beneficial or harmful, how again we do not judge but simply note the arisal, persistence, dissolution, of everything passing from pleasure to pain...
next is mindfulness of mind, the difference between mind and consciousness, the meaning of 'mental states'...
next is mindfulness of dharma, which addresses first the 'hindrances' that hold us from liberation, the difference from clinging (momentary) to fetters (lasting), the seven factors of enlightenment (mindfulness, investigation into phenomena, energy, joy, tranquility, concentration, equanimity), the four noble truths (there is suffering, there is cause for suffering, there is cure for suffering, this is the cure: eightfold path)...
it is possible that I have read so much buddhismetc., have taken it in, have been convinced, that this book seems introductory. perhaps it is not. it is a five......more
rather than chronologically, this collection is ordered thematically: Japan and the west, loyal warriors, men and women, nature and memory, modern life and other nonsense, dread, disasters, man-made and natural. some authors and works I have read before so read again, Tanizakii, Akutagawa, Kawabata, Mishima, Tsushima, Enchi, Ogawa, Murakami, Mieko, Uchida, there are three on the atom bombing, two on Fukushima tsunami, several which have that j lit surrealism and satire. overall great collection......more
230117: excellent. exactly what I love most in continental philosophy: wide ranginif you like this review, i now have website: www.michaelkamakana.com
230117: excellent. exactly what I love most in continental philosophy: wide ranging, encompassing, open to many traditions of thought: here mostly Hegel, Heidegger, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Buber, then Zen patriarchs less familiar to the west such as Dogen, Nagarjuna, Basho, Issa. from the beginning errors of Hegel trying to fit Buddhism onto judaeo-christian framework, there is great, perceptive, examination of just how opposing western metaphysics and thought in general, is to zen...
there is religion without god, which Hegel thinks impossible. emptiness, which Hegel decides is god. there are conflicting ideas of how the world is: struggle and striving, vs letting be. there are the 'heroic' pretensions of Heidegger and Nietzsche, vs worlds preceding conceptual thought, just awareness. there is Buber's thinking buddhism is defective because its does not unite human with god in narcissistic manner, vs the more general idea of all 'sentient creatures' heading to enlightenment/liberation, in buddhism...
essential differences see to be best expressed in poems by basho and Issa, quotes by Nietzsche, Heidegger: an attitude toward the world of 'emptiness' vs 'substance', of 'wandering' vs 'dwelling', of 'friendliness' vs 'power'. I much prefer the accepting, open, friendly attitude of zen...
chapter titles are: a religion without god, emptiness, no one, dwelling nowhere, death, friendliness...
concise, encouraging book, does not require more (100 pages), this is long essay, at best. I had asked Spanish man what philosophy he read: gave me this name. this is my favourite so far...
230129: if you have ever wondered why the Dalai Lama is so well-regarded, this booif you like this review, i now have website: www.michaelkamakana.com
230129: if you have ever wondered why the Dalai Lama is so well-regarded, this book will answer you. as it is mostly about samsara (cyclic existence of life, death, rebirth...) and nirvana (indescribable bliss of escaping samsara), buddha nature is not so much in argument but assertions. this is far better organised than Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations. this builds relevant logic into the form of its structure. if there is an overarching theme it is the buddhist path to overcoming essential ignorance, which cloud our minds, our perceptions, our emotions. ignorance is always the error in buddhism, in everything from insisting on self-being, to grasping for permanence in all modes of being, desires, others. which, the buddha says, by simple awareness of the world around us, will fail...
he is aided by buddhist nun, he uses her to ask himself questions: this is very friendly book. he begins with the self (illusory, mistaken, empty) and asks three questions: is there a self, when did it begin, will it end. that is the self of non-buddhist thought. in buddhist thought self is obviously 'empty' for everything from physical to psychological to consciousness reasons. but we need this awareness not intellectually, religiously, ritually, but in our very core of how we are in the world. I am moved to unify this with what continental philosophy read, particularly phenomenology, because this seems even an application of those thoughts. and from buddhist perspective, any thoughts that do not lead to liberation from this world cannot be called Philosophy...
on the other, it cannot truly be called religion. this work, the complexity, investigation, of our experience of world and mind are not based on secure foundation, this is troublesome of some as is the beginingless nature of the cosmos: but why need there ever have been 'big bang'? as universe of space is apparently limitless, how so not time? Buddhists, or at least the Dali Lama, do not reject science but scientism- the idea science is an omnicompetent view of our universe, our world- and offer reinterpretations, particularly focusing on our minds, spirits, that cannot be quantified...
this is technical, challenging book, not simplified self- help. it could be university text, certainly guru or prof. might increase understanding, but I read it after other buddhism etc books (143) and buddhism philosophy (80). do not learn anything surprising, for I am well familiar with the basics, but it is fascinating to read the embedded tradition of the Dalai Lama. he is not the 'pope' of buddhism, but seems well read and thoughtful...
this is more that which in the 'west' would be called psychology, though it expresses, relies on, certain 'eastern' motifs: such as enlightenment, rebirth, suffering, afflictions, and does not refer to common names such as freud, James, Jung. this refers to ancient buddhist texts, mostly Indic, some Sanskrit, some Pali, and their elaboration, exploration, over the past 2 600 years. there are a lot of these, though again to be buddhist philosophy is: to see there is no 'i', me, mine: to see the 'emptiness' of conventional experience. everything blossoms, or is implicated, from the four noble truths: there is dukkha (suffering, ill-being, unsatisfactoriness), there is cause for dukkha, there is cure for dukkha, this is the cure (eightfold path), then the three types of dukkha, six disadvantages of cyclic existence, eight unsatisfactory conditions, then twelve links of dependent origination: ignorance, formative action, consciousness, name and form, six sources, contact, feeling, craving, clinging, renewed existence, birth, aging or death...
I will simply gesture to titles of the chapters to describe the book: 1) the four truths, coarse and subtle four truths, sixteen attributes of four truths of Aryas 2) revolving in cyclic existence: the truth of duhkha, knowing duhkha for what it is, realms existence, three types of duhkha, feelings, afflictions, and duhkha, six disadvantages of cyclic existence, eight unsatisfactory conditions, examine true duhkha via ten points, our human value 3) origins of duhkha: six root afflictions, more types of defilements, afflictions, fetters, pollutants, hindrances 4) afflictions, their arising and antidotes: eighty-four thousand afflictions, order in which afflictions arise, order in which afflictions arise, factors causing afflictions to arise, feelings that accompany afflictions, ethical dimension of afflictions, counterforces to afflictions, afflictions- our real enemy 5) afflictions and karma, their seeds and latencies: acquired and innate afflictions, coarse and subtle afflictions, seeds, latency, and having-ceased: latencies and ideas in other religions and philosophy, virtue, non virtue, merit, and the roots of virtue 6) karma, the universe, and evolution: the origin of the universe, mind and external world, laws of nature and the law of karma and its effects, karma and our present environment, karma, instinctual behaviour, and our bodies 7) revolving in cyclic existence: twelve links of dependent origination, dependent arising, how cyclic existence occurs, thus 'afflictive suffering: ignorance, formative action, consciousness, name and form, six sources, (contact, feeling, craving, clinging, renewed existence, birth, aging or death) 8) dependent origination: cycling in samsara, how the twelve links produce a life, an example, flexibility, Pali tradition: how we cycle, an example from Pali sutra, who revolves in cyclic existence, ultimate nature of the twelve links 9) determination to be free: benefits of meditating on the twelve links, invigorating a dry Dharma practice, can leper find happiness, compassion for ourselves and others, demarcating of generating determination to be free 10) seeking genuine peace: ye dharma dharanji, forward and reverse orders of afflictive and purified twelve links, transcendental dependent origination 11) freedom from cyclic existence: stages leading to liberation and full awakening, two obscurations (afflictive, cognitive), nirvana ('goal' of buddhism), Pali tradition- nirvana, bodhi(enlightened being who stays among unenlightened to aid to awakening) 12, mind and its potential: mind's potential, is liberation possible? excellent qualities can be cultivated limitlessly, afflictive mental states and nature of mind, equality of samsara and nirvana (it is not separate realm of bliss, not 'heaven), levels of mind 13) buddha nature: mind's potential according to Pali tradition, Arya disposition according to vabhasikas and sautrantikas, buddha nature according to cittamatra school, according to madhymaka school, to tantra, nine similes for tathatagarbha, three aspects of tathatagarbha, three aspects of buddha disposition, a puzzle 14) going deeper into buddha nature: three turnings of dharma wheel and buddha nature, a link between sutras and tantra, nothing is to be removed, capacity giving rise to three kayas, a buddha nature's dharmakaya, pristine wisdom abiding in afflictions, causal clear light mind, what continues to awakening, dzogchen and mahamudra, are we already buddhas? awareness of our buddha nature eliminates hindrances...
I do not know why i thought to understand this all in one reading. this text for serious study, conversations, readings, indeed this could be the project of years for the curious. as this is the third volume, I do not know what I have missed, but names, schools, ideas- all seem familiar from other books. if you like intellectually rigorous arguments about buddhism, this is great place to start...
220324: this is the same translation, annotation, commentary, and source as Tao Teif you like this review, i now have website: www.michaelkamakana.com
220324: this is the same translation, annotation, commentary, and source as Tao Te Ching, so no difference in that. editor suggests this as first read of series 'mystical classics of the world'. editor here argues in intro for primacy of this text before all 'eastern philosophy', argues it is more than simple rejection of Confuianism but has its own power, that it is concerned with individual rather than group ethics......more
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