Showing posts with label Karma. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Karma. Show all posts
  • Many secular Buddhists ignore karma and rebirth. But being a traditional Buddhist, and because not only Buddha but many practitioners, even a number in the AtR community had actually recalled and traced their past lives and karma in meditation, it is safe to say that we have to take it seriously.
    Shared this excerpt from Buddha recently,
    “We should take karma more seriously.
    Buddha:
    “When the mind was thus concentrated, purified, bright, unblemished, rid of defilement, pliant, malleable, steady, & attained to imperturbability, I directed it to the knowledge of recollecting my past lives. I recollected my manifold past lives, i.e., one birth, two… five, ten… fifty, a hundred, a thousand, a hundred thousand, many eons of cosmic contraction, many eons of cosmic expansion, many eons of cosmic contraction & expansion: ‘There I had such a name, belonged to such a clan, had such an appearance. Such was my food, such my experience of pleasure & pain, such the end of my life. Passing away from that state, I re-arose there. There too I had such a name, belonged to such a clan, had such an appearance. Such was my food, such my experience of pleasure & pain, such the end of my life. Passing away from that state, I re-arose here.’ Thus I recollected my manifold past lives in their modes & details.
    “This was the first knowledge I attained in the first watch of the night. Ignorance was destroyed; knowledge arose; darkness was destroyed; light arose—as happens in one who is heedful, ardent, & resolute. But the pleasant feeling that arose in this way did not invade my mind or remain.
    “When the mind was thus concentrated, purified, bright, unblemished, rid of defilement, pliant, malleable, steady, & attained to imperturbability, I directed it to the knowledge of the passing away & reappearance of beings. I saw—by means of the divine eye, purified & surpassing the human—beings passing away & re-appearing, and I discerned how they are inferior & superior, beautiful & ugly, fortunate & unfortunate in accordance with their kamma: ‘These beings—who were endowed with bad conduct of body, speech, & mind, who reviled the noble ones, held wrong views and undertook actions under the influence of wrong views—with the break-up of the body, after death, have re-appeared in a plane of deprivation, a bad destination, a lower realm, hell. But these beings—who were endowed with good conduct of body, speech & mind, who did not revile the noble ones, who held right views and undertook actions under the influence of right views—with the break-up of the body, after death, have re-appeared in a good destinations, a heavenly world.’ Thus—by means of the divine eye, purified & surpassing the human—I saw beings passing away & re-appearing, and I discerned how they are inferior & superior, beautiful & ugly, fortunate & unfortunate in accordance with their kamma.
    “This was the second knowledge I attained in the second watch of the night. Ignorance was destroyed; knowledge arose; darkness was destroyed; light arose—as happens in one who is heedful, ardent, & resolute. But the pleasant feeling that arose in this way did not invade my mind or remain.
    “When the mind was thus concentrated, purified, bright, unblemished, rid of defilement, pliant, malleable, steady, & attained to imperturbability, I directed it to the knowledge of the ending of the mental effluents. I discerned, as it had come to be, that ‘This is stress… This is the origination of stress… This is the cessation of stress… This is the way leading to the cessation of stress… These are effluents… This is the origination of effluents… This is the cessation of effluents… This is the way leading to the cessation of effluents.’ My heart, thus knowing, thus seeing, was released from the effluent of sensuality, released from the effluent of becoming, released from the effluent of ignorance. With release, there was the knowledge, ‘Released.’ I discerned that ‘Birth is ended, the holy life fulfilled, the task done. There is nothing further for this world.’
    “This was the third knowledge I attained in the third watch of the night. Ignorance was destroyed; knowledge arose; darkness was destroyed; light arose—as happens in one who is heedful, ardent, & resolute. But the pleasant feeling that arose in this way did not invade my mind or remain.”
    <The law of karma>
    《業果法則》
    The other thing about karma which I love to say , is when you do any bad karma, you don’t just get it back one by one. If you hit a nun , you don’t get it back a hundred times or a thousand times , its more than that , millions of time or something. When you do a good act of karma, it comes back to you many times. A bad act of karma comes back many times. So if you do the maths, remember I was a mathematician , physicist , before I became a monk。 you ‘ve done so much bad karma each one of you , and me; there is no way we can pay all back, its too much. But you also have done so much good karma, there’s no way you can exhaust all. A good kind act get paid back millions of times over. So we have got such a store of good karma and such a store of bad karma.
    Why is one type of karma comes into fruition, other types don’t ? you can understand why. Right now , what is your mind state like ? If you get a bad mind state, you are attracting bad karma from the past. Therefore if you are in a miserable mood, more bad things happened on you. But if you can be in a good mood , a kind mind, so amazing how many good things happen on you, you are attracting the store of good karma from the past
    Karma is an amazing thing, you have so much good karma each one of you
    其他關於業力的而我又喜歡說的是,當你造任何惡業,你不只是逐個地拿回。假如你打一個僧尼,你不會只是拿回100倍或1000倍的報應, 那是比這個還要多,會是百萬倍或是怎樣的。當你做一件善業,也會以許多倍回報給你。惡業也是。假如你計計數(請記得我在做比丘前是一個數學家、物理學家),你們每個人曾做過許多惡業,我也是。我們無法全部償還,太多了。但你也做了許多善業,你們也無法耗盡所有。一個好、良善的舉動能夠以百萬倍回報你。所以我們已有那麽多山野和惡業的庫存。
    爲什麽一種業會成熟、另一種則不?你可以明白的。現在,你的心是什麽狀態?假如你有一個壞的心的狀態,你就在吸引過去的惡業。假如你在一個痛苦的情緒,更多的惡事就會在你身上發生。但如果你心情好、有良善的心,那是驚人的—有多少好事會發生在你身上,你在吸引過去善業的庫存
    業力是個令人驚奇的東西,你有非常多的善業,你們每個人
    Expectations Cause Suffering | Ajahn Brahm | 24 June 2022
    《49:21

    25 comments


  • Sim Pern Chong
    Thanks for sharing. I noticed at each phase the Buddha viewed the past lives and karma, He mentioned 'surpassing the human'. Interesting.
    Not sure whether i am understanding it or not, indeed for me when the 'cause and effects' /causal are perceived, it was beyond the human 'package' of physical, emotional & gross mental.. That perception is beyond human ..since it encompasses the imageries/imprints that can also be other non human rebirths. The human package is indeed the 'algorithms' blocking the 'view' of the 'larger data'.
    At times, i feel like i don't think 100% as a human anymore🤣

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    Soh Wei Yu
    Sim Pern Chong I remember you told me many of your past lives before... they were incredibly detailed and very interesting. You should write them in your own book some day haha
    But I forgot did you tell me about non-human rebirths? Any details?


  • Sim Pern Chong
    I know very specifically before i took rebirth, the consciousness is in the causal realm...a vast god-like realm.. however due to realisation at the I AM stage (only)... rebirth or rather reprojection is required.
    Can't be too sure...i might have existence as some kind of negative predatory entity..as well as being female before in very ancient times.
    I also know what is potentially ahead...might have a very challenging time and potential exit point abt 10 years from now. Cannot regret as replanned before rebirth to 'test' outcomes. The worst that can get is revert back to causal realm.. not really a tragic event. Just an end to a dream-like projection.
    I told my wife abt this potential exit point..she says i am talking rubbish and being imaginative. Recently, a Chilean man who is psychic and is one of my father's Taijigong disciple say the same thing during my CNY visit to my father. My wife seems to realise i was not talking rubbish...because she seems silence abt it.

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  • Tan Jui Horng
    Sim Pern Chong Curious, what's a non-causal realm?


  • Soh Wei Yu
    Sim Pern Chong i would pray and practice for long life
    Its hard to have insight of anatta and emptiness
    Since you have such insights its more impt to cherish this life to practice for longer for our own liberation and for the benefit of others
    May be an image of text that says '5:25 4G google.com Google mandarava long life All Images Shopping Videos News Maps MapsB "The practice of Mandarava is a path for having total realization and also, relatively, for having longer life and prosperity. But the main point is to attain realization of the state of Mandarava. "Another characteristic of Men-ngag methods is that they are more effective and lead to quicker realization. /rangdrolling.nl Mandarava ong life Practice, Chüdlen and Tsalungs retreat Nina Robinson| Ûb YouTube'


  • Sim Pern Chong
    Soh Wei Yu ah nice. Thanks so much for the info. Will check it out ..


  • Sim Pern Chong
    Tan Jui Horng IMO, the astral realms.. which is an entire band.. from the netherworld to the abrahamic heavens. Those typical NDEs where they meet guides, deceased relatives and parents, religious figures, etc. They are in an 'astral body' which is similar to that of dream state. Astral has form, emotion and mental contents not much different from the physical.. just slightly more 'free'...

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  • Soh Wei Yu
    Sim Pern Chong I forgot whether ChNN gave us transmission for Mandarava.. but I believe Acarya Malcolm Smith can give transmissions for it.


  • Sim Pern Chong
    This is a recent dream that my daughter had.. basically it is a symbolic narrative of coming from an astral realm to physical realm and then back to the same astral realm. I put the meaning beside the line
    ——————
    Go to Library ( the ‘book of life’ library.. book of lifes are symbolic records of each beings' life event)
    Walk to hall (rebirth assembly area)
    Kids sitting down on the floor
    Some kids on the stage receiving a certificate
    Step into hall
    Gets an identification card from some woman (given the new rebirth identity)
    Disappears before could ask question
    Sat down on floor
    Waits for name to be called so can get certificate
    Name finally gets called
    Hall shake like experiencing an earthquake ( Change in vibration to the physical)
    Lose consciousness. (forget the astral realm.. once focussed on physical.. the previous memories will be blocked)
    Wake up in a park scene kind of area
    Sees obstacles ahead (agreed upon obstacles)
    Was accompanied with two figures (the parents)
    Must finish obstacles to get to a white light
    Initially the obstacles were easy to overcome
    >>>>> (forward)
    Halfway one figure goes missing (one parent pass away.. very likely is me)
    Going through obstacles again (she need to learn independence.. which is one 'lesson' she agreed to undertake)
    Obstacles even harder
    >>>(forward)
    Finished the last obstacle
    See white light
    Go inside white light
    Back in the library with a bunch of people there talking
    Saw the same hall again. (back to the same astral realm)
    ______________________________
    I told my daughter.. it does not have to be that way. If she can realise deeper insights.. she can bypass going back to a restrictive astral realm. The rest depends on her own 造化 。

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  • Soh Wei Yu
    Used ChatGPT to help me answer dharma questions on reddit today haha
    Someone asked me:
    So, do you have any tips on what to say to small children (5 yo) when they ask what will happen to them when they die?Few-Balance4245 Snoovatar
    3:55 PM
    Today
    as a Buddhist, I believe in rebirth but it is not just a matter of belief, it is something that can be discovered. in my AtR community we have a number of practitioners that can recall their past lives, and trace their karmas. I just shared today:
    "Many secular Buddhists ignore karma and rebirth. But being a traditional Buddhist, and because not only Buddha but many practitioners, even a number in the AtR community had actually recalled and traced their past lives and karma in meditation, it is safe to say that we have to take it seriously.
    Shared this excerpt from Buddha recently,
    “We should take karma more seriously.
    Buddha:
    “When the mind was thus concentrated, purified, bright, unblemished, rid of defilement, pliant, malleable, steady, & attained to imperturbability, I directed it to the knowledge of recollecting my past lives. I recollected my manifold past lives, i.e., one birth, two… five, ten… fifty, a hundred, a thousand, a hundred thousand, many eons of cosmic contraction, many eons of cosmic expansion, many eons of cosmic contraction & expansion: ‘There I had such a name, belonged to such a clan, had such an appearance. Such was my food, such my experience of pleasure & pain, such the end of my life. Passing away from that state, I re-arose there. There too I had such a name, belonged to such a clan, had such an appearance. Such was my food, such my experience of pleasure & pain, such the end of my life. Passing away from that state, I re-arose here.’ Thus I recollected my manifold past lives in their modes & details.
    “This was the first knowledge I attained in the first watch of the night. Ignorance was destroyed; knowledge arose; darkness was destroyed; light arose—as happens in one who is heedful, ardent, & resolute. But the pleasant feeling that arose in this way did not invade my mind or remain.
    “When the mind was thus concentrated, purified, bright, unblemished, rid of defilement, pliant, malleable, steady, & attained to imperturbability, I directed it to the knowledge of the passing away & reappearance of beings. I saw—by means of the divine eye, purified & surpassing the human—beings passing away & re-appearing, and I discerned how they are inferior & superior, beautiful & ugly, fortunate & unfortunate in accordance with their kamma: ‘These beings—who were endowed with bad conduct of body, speech, & mind, who reviled the noble ones, held wrong views and undertook actions under the influence of wrong views—with the break-up of the body, after death, have re-appeared in a plane of deprivation, a bad destination, a lower realm, hell. But these beings—who were endowed with good conduct of body, speech & mind, who did not revile the noble ones, who held right views and undertook actions under the influence of right views—with the break-up of the body, after death, have re-appeared in a good destinations, a heavenly world.’ Thus—by means of the divine eye, purified & surpassing the human—I saw beings passing away & re-appearing, and I discerned how they are inferior & superior, beautiful & ugly, fortunate & unfortunate in accordance with their kamma.
    “This was the second knowledge I attained in the second watch of the night. Ignorance was destroyed; knowledge arose; darkness was destroyed; light arose—as happens in one who is heedful, ardent, & resolute. But the pleasant feeling that arose in this way did not invade my mind or remain.
    “When the mind was thus concentrated, purified, bright, unblemished, rid of defilement, pliant, malleable, steady, & attained to imperturbability, I directed it to the knowledge of the ending of the mental effluents. I discerned, as it had come to be, that ‘This is stress… This is the origination of stress… This is the cessation of stress… This is the way leading to the cessation of stress… These are effluents… This is the origination of effluents… This is the cessation of effluents… This is the way leading to the cessation of effluents.’ My heart, thus knowing, thus seeing, was released from the effluent of sensuality, released from the effluent of becoming, released from the effluent of ignorance. With release, there was the knowledge, ‘Released.’ I discerned that ‘Birth is ended, the holy life fulfilled, the task done. There is nothing further for this world.’
    “This was the third knowledge I attained in the third watch of the night. Ignorance was destroyed; knowledge arose; darkness was destroyed; light arose—as happens in one who is heedful, ardent, & resolute. But the pleasant feeling that arose in this way did not invade my mind or remain.”"
    those who are still not yet fully awakened and liberated will cycle in rebirths uncontrollably depending on their wholesome/unwholesome karma/actions in the 31 planes of existence https://www.accesstoinsight.org/ptf/dhamma/sagga/loka.html
    hence by practicing and having realization we can then overcome cyclic rebirth
    but as to how to explain to 5 year old, well, i'm not good at explaining things to kids because kids ask me about buddhism as well and i have a hard time explaining hahaha
    but here's how chatgpt eli5 this thing:
    Me:
    eli5 how buddhism explains what happens after death
    ChatGPT:
    Buddhism teaches that after death, a person's consciousness, or "mindstream," continues to exist and enters into a new existence. This is known as rebirth or reincarnation.
    The nature of this new existence depends on a person's karma, which refers to the actions they have taken in their life and the intention behind those actions. Good karma leads to a better rebirth, while negative karma leads to a more difficult rebirth.
    Buddhism also teaches that the ultimate goal is to achieve liberation from the cycle of rebirth, known as samsara, and attain Nirvana. This is achieved by following the Eightfold Path, which includes ethical conduct, meditation, and wisdom.
    In summary, according to Buddhism, after death, a person's consciousness enters into a new existence based on their karma, and the ultimate goal is to attain liberation from the cycle of rebirth and achieve Nirvana.
    Soh:
    simplify this to explain to a 5 year old kid
    ChatGPT:
    When someone dies in Buddhism, they believe that the person's mind and spirit continue on, and they are born into a new life. Whether this new life is good or bad depends on how the person lived their life before they died. If they did good things, they will have a good new life. If they did bad things, they will have a harder new life. The goal in Buddhism is to be a good person and to stop being born again and again by reaching a special state called Nirvana.
    MN 36  Mahā Saccaka Sutta | The Longer Discourse to Saccaka
    DHAMMATALKS.ORG
    MN 36  Mahā Saccaka Sutta | The Longer Discourse to Saccaka
    MN 36  Mahā Saccaka Sutta | The Longer Discourse to Saccaka

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  • Magdalena Maria
    I'd say that just because someone claims to remember a past life of theirs is no conclusive evidence of anything really. How can you tell if past life recall is not some sort of fantasy, a product of imagination, based on things you read or watched, a…
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    Soh Wei Yu
    Magdalena Maria There are a lot of interesting research by Dr Ian Stevensons, studies that prove children's past lives memories could be traced to actual persons and events in the past.
    Naturally if you are a die hard skeptic, you will doubt these studies, nonetheless:
    "a lot of skeptics even admitted his research was solid. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/.../ian.../ "
    r/Buddhism on Reddit: Ian Stevenson and Other Such Authors Are NOT Sufficient Evidence For Rebirth
    REDDIT.COM
    r/Buddhism on Reddit: Ian Stevenson and Other Such Authors Are NOT Sufficient Evidence For Rebirth
    r/Buddhism on Reddit: Ian Stevenson and Other Such Authors Are NOT Sufficient Evidence For Rebirth

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  • Soh Wei Yu
    Excerpt:
    "attached to materialism philosophy.
    Rebirth evidences (1): The very well done documented case of James Leininger.
    Ian Stevenson had interviewed thousands of children who spontaneously remembered past life, many of whom visited their past life families and gotten emotional response not possible with other kinds of explanation but rebirth. The kids remembers details without any means of obtaining the knowledge in this life. Eg. Where the hidden treasure was kept by their past self.
    More citations: "
    r/Buddhism on Reddit: Buddhists should repost Rebirth evidences more often and as a standard reply to those who have doubts about/do not believe in rebirth.
    REDDIT.COM
    r/Buddhism on Reddit: Buddhists should repost Rebirth evidences more often and as a standard reply to those who have doubts about/do not believe in rebirth.
    r/Buddhism on Reddit: Buddhists should repost Rebirth evidences more often and as a standard reply to those who have doubts about/do not believe in rebirth.

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  • Magdalena Maria
    Soh Wei Yu Yeah, it looks like I am a die-hard sceptic, even when it comes to my own "recollections", you know.


  • Soh Wei Yu
    Also, a bit of a side topic, CIA takes psychic research seriously and has very interesting findings and research: https://www.vice.com/.../how-to-escape-the-confines-of...
    SITES.GOOGLE.COM
    Spiritual Development - Evidence for the Afterlife
    Spiritual Development - Evidence for the Afterlife

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  • Magdalena Maria
    Soh Wei Yu Yeah, the Ancient Aliens team go on about these things all the time. As for NDEs, they are NEAR DEs exactly, which is to say those who tell their stories are not dead for good but return from whatever state they were in. Funny thing is everyone talks about seeing the tunnel and the light, but if you're a Christian, you're met by Jesus, if you're a New Ager - by your spirit guide, if you're an atheist - by your beloved grandmother, and so on. It seems suspect, to say the least, that your earthly beliefs should determine and influence some sort of objectively existing and/or accessible afterlife experience to such extent.
    And I'm not saying this as someone who denies the existence of stuff that is beyond our limited comprehension, but as one who's had the sense of having been everything and having done everything that there is to be and do here since a child. Which is precisely what enables you to be totally comfortable with not knowing the details - because they don't really matter, unless you're looking for something to occupy a spare hour or two, that's all.


  • Soh Wei Yu
    Magdalena Maria There are many non-religious and atheist people that had very spectacular NDEs too, which completely change their worldview afterwards. They also had the I AM realization https://www.awakeningtoreality.com/.../thusnesss-six... and so on. Hence, I don't think we can explain all of what happens in NDEs to 'cultural conditionings'.
    Thusness/PasserBy's Seven Stages of Enlightenment
    AWAKENINGTOREALITY.COM
    Thusness/PasserBy's Seven Stages of Enlightenment
    Thusness/PasserBy's Seven Stages of Enlightenment

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  • Dying to Be Me: My Journey from Cancer, to Near Death, to True Healing
    AMAZON.COM.AU
    Dying to Be Me: My Journey from Cancer, to Near Death, to True Healing
    Dying to Be Me: My Journey from Cancer, to Near Death, to True Healing

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  • William Albert
    But isn't it possible that whatever this "process" is, it is well beyond what we can know in this existence? Our idea of what good and bad karma is probably isn't what it actually is. Our idea of rewards and/or regression is also probably wrong. Eve…
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    Soh Wei Yu
    William Albert those who sees do not remain agnostic about karma but taught about the effects of karma in details https://suttacentral.net/an10.216/en/bodhi?reference=none...
    SUTTACENTRAL.NET
    suttacentral.net | 502: Bad gateway
    suttacentral.net | 502: Bad gateway

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  • Soh Wei Yu
    — the buddha
    Also
    “To study Buddhism, it is first necessary to clarify cause and effect. If one ignores cause and effect one will develop false views and sever the roots of goodness. The principle of cause and effect is very clear and there is no “I” in it: those who create evil will fall and those who practice good will rise, without a hairsbreadth of disparity between the two. If cause and effect had perished and ceased to be, then the buddhas would not have appeared in the world, the founding teacher would not have come from the West, and sentient beings would never have met the Buddha and heard the Dharma. People like Confucius or Lao-tse do not propound the principle of cause and effect. Only the buddhas and Zen ancestors have made this clear.” – A quote of Zen Master Dogen in Yamada, Kōun. Zen: The Authentic Gate (p. 149). Wisdom Publications. Kindle Edition.”
    “To summarize, the principle of cause and effect is quite clear, and it is totally impersonal: those who fabricate evil will fall into a lower state, whereas those who practice good will rise to a higher state, and without the slightest disparity. If cause and effect had become null and void, Buddhas would never have appeared in the world and our Ancestral Master would not have come from the West. In short, it would be impossible for human beings to encounter a Buddha and hear the Dharma. The fundamental principle of cause and effect was not clear to Confucius or Lao-tzu. It has only been clarified and Transmitted by Buddha after Buddha and by Ancestor after Ancestor. Because the good fortune of those who are seeking to learn in these degenerate days of the Dharma is scant, they do not encounter a genuine Master or hear the authentic Dharma, and so they are not clear about cause and effect. If you deny causality as a result of this error, you will experience excessive misfortune, since you would be as ignorant as an ox or a horse. Even if you have not committed any evil act other than denying cause and effect, the poison of this view will immediately be terrible. Therefore, if you who are exploring the Matter through your training with a Master have put your heart that seeks awakening as the first and foremost matter, and therefore wish to repay the vast benevolence of the Buddhas and the Ancestors, you should swiftly clarify what causality really is.” - Zen Master Dogen, https://www.thezensite.com/.../Shobogenzo/088jinshiInga.pdf


  • William Albert
    Soh Wei Yu I dunno Soh. I love what you do here but I'm not Buddhist, and a Buddhist saying something is so doesn't hold as much weight for me. I find these types of reasonings to be simplistic, often, and really struggle with the way this is presented in Buddhism. Cause and effect are themselves concepts and constructions, based on a spacialization and "flattening" of time. The idea of cause and effect is solidified in a world that sees "things" as primary to interactions. I think it is more accurate to see interaction as primary, as in flow, in which movement and impermanence give rise to both stasis and permanence (e.g. the moving water IS what creates the river). There is so much richness here that is beyond words. I'm not saying what the masters point to is wrong, exactly, but that the way they talk about it isn't "full", if you will. There is richness that lies beyond their words, and there is no monopoly on who can experience it. An unknowing openness seems to be a deeper truth than any knowing can ever be.


  • Soh Wei Yu
    The Buddha was not an agnostic because he clearly saw and realised for himself. But for the agnostics, the Buddha taught Kalama Sutta.
    AN 3:66  Kālāma Sutta | To the Kālāmas
    DHAMMATALKS.ORG
    AN 3:66  Kālāma Sutta | To the Kālāmas
    AN 3:66  Kālāma Sutta | To the Kālāmas

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  • Soh Wei Yu
    Emptiness does not mean one cannot tell right from left, or discern cause and effect. It only refutes inherent causation, as if wind inherently exists and 'causes' blowing, fire inherently exists and 'causes' burning. That is the inherent causation or production being refuted. The right way of understanding is dependent origination.
    ....
    [10:05 PM, 4/12/2021] Soh Wei Yu: malcolm (Acarya Malcolm Smith):
    MMK refutes any kind of production other than dependent origination. It is through dependent origination that emptiness is correctly discerned. Without the view of dependent origination, emptiness cannot be correctly perceived, let alone realized. The MMK rejects production from self, other, both, and causeless production, but not dependent origination. The MMK also praises the teaching of dependent origination as the pacifier of proliferation in the mangalam. The last chapter of MMK is on dependent origination. The MMK nowhere rejects dependent origination, it is in fact a defense of the proper way to understand it. The only way to the ultimate truth (emptiness) is through the relative truth (dependent origination), so if one’s understanding of relative truth is flawed, as is the case with all traditions outside of Buddhadharma, and even many within it, there is no possibility that ultimate truth can be understood and realized.
    ...
    [10:10 PM, 4/12/2021] John Tan: The DO part is really good.
    [10:11 PM, 4/12/2021] John Tan: When did malcom say that? Recently or in the past?
    [10:11 PM, 4/12/2021] Soh Wei Yu: oic..
    [10:11 PM, 4/12/2021] Soh Wei Yu: https://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=36315...
    [10:11 PM, 4/12/2021] Soh Wei Yu: from above
    [10:12 PM, 4/12/2021] Soh Wei Yu: the others from here https://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=36283...
    [10:30 PM, 4/12/2021] John Tan: Many misunderstand that oh ultimately it is empty and DO is conventional therefore conceptual so ultimately empty non-existence.
    We must understand what is meant by empty ultimately but conventionally valid. Nominal constructs are of two types, those that are valid and those that r invalid like "rabbit horns". Even mere appearances free from all elaborations and conceptualities, they inadvertently manifest therefore the term "appearances". They do not manifest randomly or haphazardly, they are valid mode of arising and that is dependent arising. When it is "valid" means it is the acceptable way of explanation and not "rabbit horn" which is non-existence. This part I mentioned in my reply to Andre.
    [10:36 PM, 4/12/2021] John Tan: Do you get what I meant?
    What it means is there is still a "right" or "acceptable" or "valid" way to express it conventionally. Take freedom from all elaborations for example, it doesn't mean "blankness" or "anything goes". There is right understanding of "freedom from all elaborations" that is why Mipham has to qualify that it is not "blankness", it does not reject "mere appearance", it must be understood from the perspective of "coalescence"...and so on and so forth. Similarly, there is right understanding of "arising" conventionally and that is DO.
    So when we clearly see how essence = true existence = independence of causes and conditions are untenable for anything to arise, we see dependent arising.
    Don't Neglect the Conventional
    AWAKENINGTOREALITY.COM
    Don't Neglect the Conventional
    Don't Neglect the Conventional

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  • Soh Wei Yu
    "The knowledge that appearances arise unfailingly in dependence,
    And the knowledge that they are empty and beyond all assertions—
    As long as these two appear to you as separate,
    There can be no realization of the Buddha’s wisdom.
    Yet when they arise at once, not each in turn but both together,
    Then through merely seeing unfailing dependent origination
    Certainty is born, and all modes of misapprehension fall apart—
    That is when discernment of the view has reached perfection.
    – Lama Tsongkhapa"
    “EMPTINESS DEVIATING TO THE BASIC NATURE
    Timeless Deviation to the Nature of Knowables The meditation of inseparable phenomena and emptiness is called “emptiness endowed with the supreme aspect.” Not knowing how emptiness and interdependence abide in nonduality, you decide that emptiness is a nothingness that has never existed and that is not influenced at all by qualities or defects. Then you underestimate the cause and effect of virtue and vice, or else lapse exclusively into the nature of all things being originally pure, primordially free, and so forth. Bearing such emptiness, the relative level of interdependence is not mastered. In this respect, this is what is known as mahamudra: one’s basic nature is unoriginated and, since it is neither existent nor nonexistent, eternal nor nil, true nor false, nor any other such aspects, it has no existence whatsoever. Nonetheless, its unceasing radiance arises as the relative level of all kinds of interdependence, so it is known as emptiness having the core of interdependence and interdependence having the nature of emptiness. Therefore, emptiness does not stray to the nature of knowables. In the Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way it is said: Anything that doesn’t arise dependently Is a phenomenon that has no existence. Therefore anything that is not empty Is a phenomenon that has no existence. And as said in the Commentary on Bodhichitta: It is taught that the relative plane is emptiness, And emptiness alone is the relative plane.” – The Royal Seal of Mahamudra, Volume 2, Khamtrul Rinpoche
    “A lot of talk on here lately about how lame relative reality is vs how awesome ultimate reality is.
    Apparently an omniscient master is supposed to see how both the relative and the ultimate exist at the same time in a Union of Appearance and Emptiness.
    It's because everything is dependently arisen that it can be seen as empty.
    Not even the smallest speck exists by its own power.
    Je Tsongkhapa said, "Since objects do not exist through their own nature, they are established as existing through the force of convention."
    He was the biggest proponent of keeping vows and virtuous actions through all stages of sutra and tantra.
    He also leveraged the relative by practicing millions of prostrations and offering mandalas.
    He also practiced generation and completion stages of tantra while keeping his conduct spotless.
    He held conduct in the highest regard in all of his texts on tantra such as his masterwork, A Lamp to Illuminate the Five Stages.” - Jason Parker, 2019