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**Klorissana** · 11-17-2011, 05:38 AM

dear yuan

I tend to think allong the lines of conventional reality as being empty of permenantly or inherently existant phenomena , and ultimate reality (buddha nature tathagatagabha) as the only perminantly non changing phenomena .(therefore the only truely existant phenomena)

a question for yuan ,

do you think that there exists cultural conditioning that prepairs an aspirant to understand principles like 'shunyata' ?
(natural cultural conitioning that westerners lack , therefore making it harder for the westerner to grasp some principals )

(aloka , please make a seperate thread if you think it is preferable , thank you )

namaskars ratikala

hi Ratikala,

Thank you for finding my description of sunyata useful. However, I cannot help but wonder that if everything's nature is sunyata, why would there exist a thing called "buddha nature" whose nature is not sunyata?

I don't think the difficult with sunyata is an East or West thing. It is more like a people thing. We have no need for this concept in our daily lives. I mean, it is not useful, as I sit here typing, to think that the chair that I am sitting on is changing all the time and might disintegrate at any moment. Even the monitor that you are looking at, we all know that the content on the monitor is changing all the time, electrons are refreshing the images 60 times a second, one pixel at a time. But as I compose this post, all that would just be distracting and counter-productive. Just like we only need 3rd grade arithmetic, and Newton's law of physics in our daily interaction with the world.

But when we need to research the Big Bang, to better understand our physical world, we need higher math, and Theory of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. Sunyata is a concept that we need to understand if we want to search for the truth about human nature.

Also, I think another big obstacle about understanding sunyata is that when people think of a religion and a religious concept, it needs somehow be mystical or supernatural, like a God. But people keep losing the grasp that Buddhism is all about human beings, not gods. Buddha was a human being before and after his awakening. There is no reason to make sunyata any more mysterious than what it is.

11-17-2011, 05:38 AM	#9
Klorissana Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 375 Senior Member	dear yuan I tend to think allong the lines of conventional reality as being empty of permenantly or inherently existant phenomena , and ultimate reality (buddha nature tathagatagabha) as the only perminantly non changing phenomena .(therefore the only truely existant phenomena) a question for yuan , do you think that there exists cultural conditioning that prepairs an aspirant to understand principles like 'shunyata' ? (natural cultural conitioning that westerners lack , therefore making it harder for the westerner to grasp some principals ) (aloka , please make a seperate thread if you think it is preferable , thank you ) namaskars ratikala hi Ratikala, Thank you for finding my description of sunyata useful. However, I cannot help but wonder that if everything's nature is sunyata, why would there exist a thing called "buddha nature" whose nature is not sunyata? I don't think the difficult with sunyata is an East or West thing. It is more like a people thing. We have no need for this concept in our daily lives. I mean, it is not useful, as I sit here typing, to think that the chair that I am sitting on is changing all the time and might disintegrate at any moment. Even the monitor that you are looking at, we all know that the content on the monitor is changing all the time, electrons are refreshing the images 60 times a second, one pixel at a time. But as I compose this post, all that would just be distracting and counter-productive. Just like we only need 3rd grade arithmetic, and Newton's law of physics in our daily interaction with the world. But when we need to research the Big Bang, to better understand our physical world, we need higher math, and Theory of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. Sunyata is a concept that we need to understand if we want to search for the truth about human nature. Also, I think another big obstacle about understanding sunyata is that when people think of a religion and a religious concept, it needs somehow be mystical or supernatural, like a God. But people keep losing the grasp that Buddhism is all about human beings, not gods. Buddha was a human being before and after his awakening. There is no reason to make sunyata any more mysterious than what it is.
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