Soh Wei Yu

Nice explanation and citations by Krodha/Kyle Dixon:

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krodha

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2 yr. ago

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edited 2 yr. ago

For Buddhas the field of phenomena does not appear as external but as their own display. Essentially meaning that knowing and what is known are not different. What is known is itself the activity of knowing.

Rongzom:

Buddhas and bodhisattvas are the knowers, and unmistakable true reality is the object of knowledge. Therefore, it is stated that there is no difference between knowledge and the object of knowledge.

Kūkai:

Although mind is distinguished from form, they share the same nature. Form is mind, mind is forms. They interfuse with one another without difficulty. Therefore, knowing is the objects of knowledge, and the objects, knowing. Knowing is reality, reality knowing.

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Soh Wei Yu

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krodha

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3 yr. ago

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edited 3 yr. ago

"Would it be valid to say that when it is said "there is no object to apprehend nor anyone to apprehend it, just apprehension" is incomplete in assuming there even such a thing as apprehension?"

This statement is like saying there is seeing but no one who sees and nothing that is seen. But you are right saying there is even “seeing” is only a pointer. The Heart sūtra addressee even the activity of seeing:

So, in emptiness, there is no body, no feeling, no thought, no will, no consciousness. There are no eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind. There is no seeing, no hearing, no smelling, no tasting, no touching, no imagining. There is nothing seen, nor heard, nor smelled, nor tasted, nor touched, nor imagined.

Some adepts do their best with descriptions. Sometimes using terms like “knowing” or “seeing” to capture the nature of awakened mind. Like this statement from Kūkai:

Form is mind, mind is forms. They interfuse with one another without difficulty. Therefore, knowing is the objects of knowledge, and the objects, knowing. Knowing is reality, reality knowing.

Or Milarepa:

This fundamental consciousness in itself is nothing at all. In the voidness [emptiness] of reality, lack of realizer and realized is realized, lack of seer and seen is seen, lack of knower and known is known, lack of perceiver and perceived is perceived.

All of these pointers are doing their best to describe the awakened state.

Buddha Śākyamuni makes the same assertions in the Kalakarama sutta and the Bāhiya sutta.

The idea is that visual appearances are precisely the activity of seeing and precisely “knowing.” Knowing or consciousness in general, is only what appears. And then through our ignorance we bifurcate this experiential dimension into subject-object duality. We must actually awaken through a cessation of delusion to recognize the true nature of reality.

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Soh Wei Yu

The myriad forms of the entire universe are the seal of the single Dharma. Whatever forms are seen are but the perception of mind. But mind is not independently existent. It is co-dependent with form.

- Zen Master Mazu

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