so is "Brahman" correct?
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im confused now
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no the jais are
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Brahman was never taught in buddhism. It is taught in hinduism.Originally posted by Cenarious:im confused now -
In reply to longchen a few months back, in your topic how true is this website?
Because of subtle karmic tendencies surfacing, after the glimpse into our luminosity of our Buddha Nature, one may tend to cling to a 'formless Source', although the Source/Brahman is 'beyond forms' nevertheless there is a point of focus, therefore separating Source from manifestation. Without knowing that everything IS the marvelous activity of our Buddha Nature. That is why it is said, Manifestation IS Source.Originally posted by Thusness:Ai yoo...why sink back to "Apparent in Real"....but anyway time to take a breakÂ….
You may want to take leisure read on the 5 degree of Tozan. http://buddhism.sgforums.com/?action=thread_display&thread_id=198803
The doctrine of no-self cuts through everything and bring us face to face with emotion, impression, sensation, thoughts…and all mental states, directly ‘seeing’ no one there, just it!
Next one must go beyond the subtle imprints of words and labels and sees the essence of these sensations, impressions and all mental states. Just like laying a book on a patch of grass leaving a temporary imprint, words and labels create these subtle imprints that confuse the mind. It will take 2-3 years before the experience of “Real in the Apparent’ is stabilized. Dissolve completely (self and all views including your scientific views) into the incredible realness and vividness of the Apparent.
[B]If we spend even a thought moment sinking back to the source, we immediately fall prey to the habitual energy and descend back to the “Apparent in the Real”. This makes no-self a dead “AMness”.
From the experience of the “Real in Apparent”, everything is the One Mind; there is nothing else. The non-inherent nature creates all manifestations in lightning flash moments and the Apparent becomes the ‘otherness’. Great mystics though experienced the ‘Apparent in the Real’ knows not the emptiness nature seek the invisible from the visible, hold tightly to the formless. Not knowing that neither the form nor formless are both notions of the marvelous activities of emptiness nature. Get used to this experience and don’t waste your experience.....but it will take some years...happy journey...
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That is why the key in advancing from 'AMness' lies in 'fusing into everything'. Master shen kai describes it as our breathe diffuses into integral space, or a small lamp put under the bright sun, the light neither decreases nor increases. Witnessing consciousness becomes one with all that is witnessed. 'Brahman' is no longer separated. This is total presence, and the rest of the journey is only refining this experience of total presence. When you ask zen masters where is Buddha, he can point to anything and say, there. All is One Reality.
Still, the experience must come with the complete realisation of emptiness, otherwise the experience of total presence can become a stage that can be entered and left, and there is still falling back to source. Presence is there, but 'total presence' cannot be experienced all the time.
See Thusness's experience again,
Hi everyone
When every single moment is purely nothing but the unfolding of total presence under differing conditions, there is only chirping birds, drum beats, foot steps, sky, mountainÂ…there never was a Witness hiding anywhere!
There is no mirror reflecting
All along manifestation alone is.
The one hand claps
Everything IS! -
Ajahn Maha Boowa's (an arhant from Thailand) experience with 'Atman'/'Brahman', which he calls 'the Ultimate Danger'
from 'Arahattamagga-Arahattaphala: The Path to Arahantship'http://www.forestdhammabooks.com/index.php?page=View&book=3&file=books/3/html/2.html
Speaking of this reminds me of the time when I practiced at Wat Doi Dhammachedi. It was early in the morning, just before the meal. At that time my citta possessed a quality so amazing that it was incredible to behold. I was completely overawed with myself. I thought, “Oh my! Why is this citta so amazingly radiant?” I stood on my meditation track and contemplated its brightness, incredulous about how wondrous it appeared. But, in fact, this very radiance that I found so amazing represented the Ultimate Danger. Do you see my point?
We tend to fall for the radiant citta. In truth, I was enthralled and already deceived by it. You see, when nothing else remains, one concentrates on this final point of focus, which, as the center of the perpetual cycle of birth and death, actually manifests a condition of fundamental ignorance we call avijja. This point of focus is the highest state of avijja, the very pinnacle of the citta in samsara.
Since nothing else remained at that stage, I simply admired avijja’s expansive radiance. Still, that radiance did have a focal point. It can be compared to the filament of a pressure lantern. The filament glows brightly, and the light streams out to illuminate the surrounding area. That was the crucial consideration, the one that so amazed and struck me with awe then, causing me to wonder, “Why is my citta so incredibly bright?” It seems as though it has completely transcended the world of samsara. Look at that!” Such is the magnificent power that avijja displays when we reach the final stage of practice. I didn’t yet realize that I had fallen for avijja’s deception.
Then suddenly, spontaneously, a maxim of Dhamma arose, as if someone had spoken in my heart. How could I ever forget: If there is a point or a center of the knower anywhere, that is the nucleus of existence. Just like the bright center in the filament of a pressure lantern. Look at that! It told me exactly what I needed to know: this very point is the essence of existence. But even then, I could not grasp the meaning. I was bewildered. A point, a center Â… it meant the focal point of that radiance.
I began investigating that “point” after the Venerable Acariya Mun passed away: If there is a point or a center of the knower anywhere, that is the nucleus of existence. Had he still lived then, my confusion would immediately have elicited this answer from him: It’s that focal point of the radiance! And then, that point would have instantly disintegrated. For as soon as I understood its significance, I would also have known its harmfulness, thus causing it to vanish. Instead, I was still carefully protecting and preserving it.
The Ultimate Danger, then, lies right there. The point of Ultimate Danger is the core of brilliant radiance that produces the entire world of conventional reality. I will remember always. It was the month of February. Venerable Acariya Mun’s body had just been cremated, and I had gone into the mountains. There I got stuck on this very problem. It completely bewildered me. In the end, I gained no benefit at all from the maxim of Dhamma that arose in my heart. Instead of being an enormous boon to me, it became part of the same enormous delusion that plagued me. I was confused: “Where is it, this point?” It was, of course, just that point of radiance, but it never occurred to me that the center of that radiant citta could be the Ultimate Danger. I still believed it to be the Ultimate Virtue. This is how the kilesas deceive us. Although I had been warned that it was the Ultimate Danger, it still cast a spell on me, making me see it as the Ultimate Virtue. I’ll never forget how that dilemma weighed on me.
Eventually I left Wat Doi Dhammachedi and went to Sri Chiang Mai in Ban Pheu district. I stayed there for three months, living deep in the forest at Pha Dak Cave, before returning to Wat Doi Dhammachedi with that mystery still weighing heavily on my mind. Then, while staying on the mountain ridge there, the problem was finally solved.
When that decisive moment arrives, affairs of time and place cease to be relevant; they simply don’t intervene. All that appears is the splendid, natural radiance of the citta. I had reached a stage where nothing else was left for me to investigate. I had already let go of everything—only that radiance remained. Except for the central point of the citta’s radiance, the whole universe had been conclusively let go. So, can you understand what I mean: that this point is the Ultimate Danger?
(continued in the website)...Then, from that neutral, impassive state of the citta, the nucleus of existence—the core of the knower—suddenly separated and fell away. Having finally been reduced to anatta, brightness and dullness and everything else were suddenly torn asunder and destroyed once and for all.
In that moment when avijja flipped over and fell from the citta, the sky appeared to be crashing down as the entire universe trembled and quaked. For, in truth, it is solely avijja that causes us to wander constantly through the universe of samsara. Thus, when avijja separated from the citta and vanished, it seemed as if the entire universe had fallen away and vanished along with it. Earth, sky—all collapsed in an instant. Do you understand?.....