Totality, The All

• An Eternal Now

  19 Jun 07, 17:48

  Have read this in my master's dharma book b4 but couldn't find it in English... now found it.
  
  The Sutra on Totality.
  (From the Samyutta Nikaya)
  
  Monks,
  I will teach you
  the totality of life.
  
  Listen,
  attend carefully to it
  and I will speak.
  
  What, monks,
  is totality ?
  
  It is just the eye
  with the objects of sight,
  the ear with the objects of hearing,
  the nose with the objects of smell,
  the tongue with the objects of taste,
  the body with the objects of touch
  and the mind with the objects of cognition.
  
  This, monks,
  is called totality.
  
  Now, if anyone were to say,
  
  “Aside from this
  explanation of totality,
  I will preach another totality,”
  
  that person
  would be speaking empty words,
  and being questioned
  would not be able to answer.
  
  Why is this ?
  
  Because that person
  is talking about something
  outside of all possible knowledge.
• An Eternal Now

  19 Jun 07, 17:51

  In total, Totality in Buddhism is the functioning of all 18 Dhatus. As Thusness comments further, an insight practitioner further does away with mental labeling and perceptions, and experiences 18 Dhatus as 18 Dhatus (as Thusness and my Dharma teacher used to say, a practitioner only has the first 2 skhandas in play, while perception, volition, and dualistic consciousness is dissolved through practise, insight and bare awareness), only sense awareness and objects of sense awareness.
  
  http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.001.than.html
  
  The Tathagata
  
  "The Tathagata — a worthy one, rightly self-awakened — directly knows earth as earth. Directly knowing earth as earth, he does not conceive things about earth, does not conceive things in earth, does not conceive things coming out of earth, does not conceive earth as 'mine,' does not delight in earth. Why is that? Because the Tathagata has comprehended it to the end, I tell you.
  
  "He directly knows water as water... fire as fire... wind as wind... beings as beings... gods as gods... Pajapati as Pajapati... Brahma as Brahma... the luminous gods as luminous gods... the gods of refulgent glory as gods of refulgent glory... the gods of abundant fruit as the gods of abundant fruit... the Great Being as the Great Being... the dimension of the infinitude of space as the dimension of the infinitude of space... the dimension of the infinitude of consciousness as the dimension of the infinitude of consciousness... the dimension of nothingness as the dimension of nothingness... the dimension of neither-perception-nor-non-perception as the dimension of neither-perception-nor-non-perception... the seen as the seen... the heard as the heard... the sensed as the sensed... the cognized as the cognized... singleness as singleness... multiplicity as multiplicity... the All as the All...
  
  "He directly knows Unbinding as Unbinding. Directly knowing Unbinding as Unbinding, he does not conceive things about Unbinding, does not conceive things in Unbinding, does not conceive things coming out of Unbinding, does not conceive Unbinding as 'mine,' does not delight in Unbinding. Why is that? Because the Tathagata has comprehended it to the end, I tell you.
  
  "The Tathagata — a worthy one, rightly self-awakened — directly knows earth as earth. Directly knowing earth as earth, he does not conceive things about earth, does not conceive things in earth, does not conceive things coming out of earth, does not conceive earth as 'mine,' does not delight in earth. Why is that? Because he has known that delight is the root of suffering & stress, that from coming-into-being there is birth, and that for what has come into being there is aging & death. Therefore, with the total ending, fading away, cessation, letting go, relinquishment of craving, the Tathagata has totally awakened to the unexcelled right self-awakening, I tell you.
  
  "He directly knows water as water... the All as the All...
  
  "He directly knows Unbinding as Unbinding. Directly knowing Unbinding as Unbinding, he does not conceive things about Unbinding, does not conceive things in Unbinding, does not conceive things coming out of Unbinding, does not conceive Unbinding as 'mine,' does not delight in Unbinding. Why is that? Because he has known that delight is the root of suffering & stress, that from coming-into-being there is birth, and that for what has come into being there is aging & death. Therefore, with the total ending, fading away, cessation, letting go, relinquishment of craving, the Tathagata has totally awakened to the unexcelled right self-awakening, I tell you."
  
  That is what the Blessed One said. Displeased, the monks did not delight in the Blessed One's words.
• An Eternal Now

  14 Sep 07, 01:12

  25. The term unity refers to a homogeneous spiritual brilliance which separates into six harmoniously blended 'elements'. The homogeneous spiritual brilliance is the One Mind, while the six harmoniously blended 'elements' are the six sense organs.
  
  These six sense organs become severally united with objects that defile them -- the eyes with form, the ear with sound, the nose with smell, the tongue with taste, the body with touch, and the thinking mind with entities. Between these organs and their objects arise the six sensory perceptions, making eighteen sense-realms in all.
  
  If you understand that these eighteen realms have no objective existence, you will bind the six harmoniously blended 'elements' into a single spiritual brilliance -- a single spiritual brilliance which is the One Mind.
  
  All students of the Way know this, but cannot avoid forming concepts of 'a single spiritual brilliance' and 'the six harmoniously blended elements'. Accordingly they are chained to entities and fail to achieve a tacit understanding of original Mind.
  
  ~ Zen Master Huang Po, from 'The Zen Teaching of Huang Po: On the Transmission of Mind' translated by John Blofeld