Buddhism is a wisdom path.
By saying it’s a wisdom path it means,
We use our intelligence to see how does reality works. And then the suffering will unravel itself.
That is the beauty of Buddhism. That is why I am so attracted to Buddhism, only because it is so elegant and so clever. It aims at the jugular.
I
don’t like to faff around.
If there’s no diagnosis how r u going to treat?
When one ask me “what fetters are you trying to remove?”
“Everyday I tell myself to ungrasp and I am improving..”
I know that person don’t really understand how buddhism works.
You cannot remove fetters.
And you cannot ungrasp if you still hold onto a self view. The self is the grasping. The inherent existence of phenomena is the grasping.
The only thing one can do is to learn to see what is the problem with our view.
Educate ourselves, what is this ignorance.. the Buddha Says it’s the first of the 12 links that propel suffering, so what is it???
When a person really see what is ignorance, really see the mistake in our perception, suddenly they will wake up.
Even more amazingly, their whole perception will change itself. Feels like a new reconfigured nervous system tbh.
The fetters will drop one by one by itself.
The grasping will unravel itself.
Slowly. Across lifetimes.
That is why in the Pali tradition, all the fetters are dropped after one see “no-self”, then from gross to fine the fetters are gone.
In the Mahayana one reach first bhumi at “path of seeing”, seeing what? Seeing truth! emptiness! Then the others parami are perfected slowly. Afflictive obscurations followed by cognitive obscurations dropped as one progress along the bhumis.
Ehipassiko, means, come and see.
Not come and drop your fetters.
Before seeing, all are just moralistic self control and suppression. Jhana is temporary suppression too.
So you understand how the zen masters never ask another one “what fetters have you drop?” Lol.
They ask “have you pass Mu”.?
Do you know what is the sound of one hand clapping?
It’s an extremely beautiful and powerful wisdom path.
Buddhism says, we suffer because we are seeing it all wrong.
So we need to get down to the heart of the matter!
We must practice elegantly.. the whole path to enlightenment, to the end of suffering is written down .. word by word.
Enlightened people are around.
Ppl like The Dalai Lama teaches with his 100% effort.
Don’t underestimate your mind to able to see the end of suffering
and don’t waste this human life,
Carefully find and learn from compassionate teachers who teach the wisdom path..
practice with wisdom.
There’s no other way really.
Comments
John TanIntegrating
wisdom into our daily life must also include seeing how "ignorance" in a
slippery manner seeps into our thinking mechanism.
It
is not uncommon that when we experienced "presence" and "clarity", we
naturally conclude that if without this luminous presence, then there is
no everything.
Do
take note that if we just stop there and really believe it, then we are
habouring "essential and inherent pattern of thinking". Instead, also
understand that without everything, there is "no luminous presence"
either.
So keep the presence and experience, but refine the "view".
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Edited
Yin Ling
John Tan ooo thank you. Yes. Without consciousness there’s nothing manifest. There’s no external world.. just some very magic dependent process going on.
Reply1h
John Tan
Yin Ling likewise there is no "internal world" too for whatever originates in dependence is free from internality and externality, coming and going...etc free from all extremes. That is y it is important to see dependent arising until it is in our blood and bones then mind that grasps extremes (include life and death) can liberate.
Reply1hEdited
Yin Ling
John Tan ok! Thank you😁
Reply59m
Chappell Isom
https://youtu.be/eye33kD4uSI
Breaking the Chains of Suffering -- Fetters 4 & 5 with Kevin Schanilec
YOUTUBE.COM
Breaking the Chains of Suffering -- Fetters 4 & 5 with Kevin Schanilec
Breaking the Chains of Suffering -- Fetters 4 & 5 with Kevin Schanilec
Reply43m
Yin Ling
Chappell Isom I haven’t watch this but I understand Kevin doesn’t refer to fetters like how the Buddha refers to fetters. I generally try to abide by the tradition closely for best results haha.
Have you watch? What is the 4th and 5th fetter?
Reply20m
Chappell Isom
There’s no contradiction between cutting fetters and ehipassiko. Why would there be? A path of freedom is learning to unfetter oneself.
Reply41m
Yin Ling
Chappell Isom one need to actually see the insight directly before the fetters can drop.
That’s why I wrote the above.
That’s why we have stream entry, path of seeing, before any “perfections”.
Before insight, in Buddhism, you cannot even call it perfection. It’s mundane virtues.
Reply18m
Chappell Isom
Yin Ling absolutely! Clear seeing is paramount. The only game in town. I have to constantly remind myself. Thank you for the powerful reminder and your posts; they fire me up.
Reply13mEdited
Soh Wei YuChappell Isom The problem with Kevin Shanilec is his interpretation of fetter model in terms of overcoming duality. In his model, stream entry is just impersonality, anagami is nondual, and arahant is anatta.
To me that is a misinterpretation of the
fetter model. His overcoming of the ninth and tenth fetter is just anatta.
And yes I have spoken to him and he agrees with my characterization -- his self-view fetter overcome at sotapanna is just impersonality, then anagami is like nondual and arahant is anatta.
Basically making quite similar mistakes as Daniel Ingram except his definition of stream entry is not the same as a moment of cessation fruition.
We should take Buddha's fetter model literally - as it is and not try to re-interpret them according to one person's journey.
Anatta is just sutta stream entry, far from arahant.
Reply
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Edited
Soh Wei YuExcerpt of what I wrote: "When you experience impersonality and even nondual even in Advaita Vedanta, it is certainly not the overcoming of self view of the first fetter. There can still be the view of an unchanging self or awareness like vedanta. It
is very clear by reading all the suttas that overcoming of self view covers even eternal witness and substantialist nondual views, so impersonality and nondual does not reach the elimination of self view that a stream enterer has attained.
I wrote an article before with citations from Buddha on how all these self views are refuted, including an eternal witness or an unchanging infinite consciousness as self and so on
http://www.awakeningtoreality.com/.../anatta-not-self-or... — stream entry realization covers the dissolution of all these subtle views of self and inherent existence."
Yin LingI don’t understand why some ppl want to create more confusion for others when dharma is already so degenerate.
Why don’t they name their own system after themselves ? That should be easier.
Any good intention is not an excuse really.
Soh Wei YuThey misinterpreted the meaning of self view and the meaning of “the conceit of I Am”
Soh Wei YuThey think the vedantic self is conceit of i am
Actually it is precisely self view
Cos its view of inherent existence
Soh Wei YuEven a sotapanna demolishes such self view in anatman realisation
There is no doubt about buddhadharma after that
Soh Wei YuJust
impersonality or nondual alone is definitely insufficient to see the
truth and uniqueness of buddhadharma.. why buddha teach dharma as
anatman and dependent origination and not atman brahman
Chappell IsomSoh Wei Yu
Soh, when you share this article, I wonder, do you believe Ingram,
Kevin, Angelo, etc. have fully realized the Buddha’s teachings? Freedom
from suffering? Isn’t that what matters the most despite the
interpretations?
Yin LingSoh Wei Yu
yes we have to remember Buddha is teaching a group of extremely
intelligent Brahmans during his time in the Pali tradition. Sariputra
and moggalana are Brahmans. They already know brahmanic view. It is the
whole point of why Buddha comes out and risk his life teaching.
But not that only. Do they seriously think themselves Arahant with that few insights? Really?
I don’t know. It’s laughable for me.
It’s dunning Kruger. Must study more these ppl.
Soh Wei YuJohn TanFriday, January 23, 2015 at 6:13pm UTC+08
u
cannot choose and pick what u like about liberation and enlightenment.
Saying one has actualized anatta and uprooted self and attained
arahatship is not what u see ppl declaring here and there. I have told u
many times what [these people] realized is only at most stream entry. U
r talking about liberation and freedom from cyclical existence and
therefore u r referring to arahatship.
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Chappell IsomSoh Wei Yu
thank you Soh. I recognize I have resistance to the belief that freedom
from rebirth takes lifetimes. I feel like I hang my hat on it being
more possible than not to fully free oneself in one human lifetime. I
thought that’s what the Buddha taught; 7 days, 7 months, 7 years, ya
know?
Soh Wei YuChappell Isom
Yes. But he was teaching that particular teaching to monks who dedicate
full time to retreats and practice. Their dedication to practice is not
like us. They spend months and years fully practicing and meditating
full time.
Soh Wei YuIn
Dzogchen it is also said that you can attain rainbow body or Buddhahood
in 12 years (or a particular number of years). But this is for those
who dedicate full time to retreats and practice.
Soh Wei YuRealistically,
Malcolm says, most of us will not be able to attain Buddhahood in this
life. Although we can practice and hopefully attain liberation in bardo.
Or have a rebirth in a dharma family to continue.
Soh Wei YuA
good thing about stream entry is that you are assured that you will
attain liberation in a maximum of 7 lifetimes. There is a Dzogchen form
of stream entry too, which happens even before first bhumi/stream entry,
but that is something you will have
to find out
for yourself through learning the teachings if you are interested. In
Mahayana, the Mahayana stream entry is first bhumi which also comes with
the ending of the first three fetters, the end to lower births (meaning
only births in human and deva realms like a sotapanna) and so on.
Reply
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Comments
Sometimes when I practice very hard,
I have some doubts if it works.
You doubt yourself a lot at times along the path.
Coz it’s such a long path.
Sitting in half lotus despite the cold,
Sitting in half lotus during Fever,
headache
Sit in my clinic room
Sit a 30 mins while waiting for my delivery,
Wake at 4am so that I can sit before work.
It just takes that one
middle of the night when the body is still sick, walking groggily go to the bathroom
, not on bit of dharma on my mind,
When I half open my eyes to see the whole bathroom in translucent, holographic splendour without a shred of solidity,
my whole minds nature gleaming luminously back at itself,
The whole dharma right there without a single doubt.
Holy shit.
Trust me,
When your toilet turns empty.
The whole world can promise you everything glitter and gold
but your faith in the dharma won’t be shakable.
Bliss RizalTrue,
I had once nice blissful quiet moment with a glimpse of 'something
open' in me when I'm also at cr. This gives me learning that ANYWHERE
can practice.
Yin LingBliss Rizal
with very very diligent practice and with the right insight, all
glimpses will become moment to moment experiences all the time.
Whatever Gautama has talked about.. he hasn’t exaggerate anything. He has downplayed it all
it will shock the pants off anyone who actually dares to see what he’s trying to show.
Anna MukherjeeThank you for sharing your practice. Very inspiring and motivating
Yin LingI want to cut the root of all fetters.
[10/3/23, 6:40:43 PM] John Tan: You and Andre are talking about philosophical concepts of permanence and impermanence. Dogen is not talking about that. What Dogen meant by "impermanence is buddha nature" is telling us to authenticate Buddha nature directly in the very transient phenomena -- the mountains, the trees, the sunshine, the drumbeats of footsteps, not some super awareness in wonderland.
[10/3/23, 6:41:40 PM] Soh Wei Yu: Oic..
[10/3/23, 6:43:15 PM] Soh Wei Yu: I didnt talk with andre lol
[10/3/23, 6:43:21 PM] Soh Wei Yu: Anna was talking with andre
[10/3/23, 6:44:24 PM] Soh Wei Yu: Actually what dogen said is pretty obvious imo even after initial anatta
[10/3/23, 6:44:32 PM] Soh Wei Yu: Wonder why mipham didnt emphasize that point
[10/3/23, 6:44:43 PM] Soh Wei Yu: Maybe he did with the rongzom appearances are divine
[10/3/23, 6:44:49 PM] John Tan: Different praxis
..........
p.s. some recent quotes I shared:
Soh Wei YuDogen does not accept an unchanging Brahman. Being a Buddhist teacher he refutes an unchanging atman-brahman:
As
my mentor Thusness/John Tan said in 2007 about Dogen, “Dogen is a great
Zen master that has penetrated deeply into a very deep level of
anatman.”, “Read about Dogen… he is truly a great Zen master… ...[Dogen
is] one of the very few Zen Masters that truly knows.”, “Whenever we
read the most basic teachings of Buddha, it is most profound. Don't ever
say we understand it. Especially when it comes to Dependent
Origination, which is the most profound truth in Buddhism*. Never say
that we understand it or have experienced it. Even after a few years of
experience in non-duality, we can't understand it. The one great Zen
master that came closest to it is Dogen, that sees temporality as buddha
nature, that see transients as living truth of dharma and the full
manifestation of buddha nature.”
"When
you ride in a boat and watch the shore, you might assume that the shore
is moving. But when you keep your eyes closely on the boat, you can see
that the boat moves. Similarly, if you examine many things with a
confused mind, you might suppose that your mind and nature are
permanent. But when you practice intimately and return to where you are,
it will be clear that there is nothing that has unchanging self.
“Mind
as mountains, rivers, and the earth is nothing other than mountains,
rivers, and the earth. There are no additional waves or surf, no wind or
smoke. Mind as the sun, the moon, and the stars is nothing other than
the sun, the moon, and the stars.”
“For
Dōgen, Buddha-nature or Busshō (佛性) is the nature of reality and all
Being. In the Shōbōgenzō, Dōgen writes that “whole-being (Existence
itself) is the Buddha-nature” and that even inanimate things (grass,
trees, etc.) are an expression of Buddha-nature. He rejected any view
that saw Buddha-nature as a permanent, substantial inner self or ground.
Dōgen held that Buddha-nature was “vast emptiness”, “the world of
becoming” and that “impermanence is in itself Buddha-nature”.[23]
According to Dōgen: Therefore, the very impermanency of grass and tree,
thicket and forest is the Buddha nature. The very impermanency of men
and things, body and mind, is the Buddha nature. Nature and lands,
mountains and rivers, are impermanent because they are the Buddha
nature. Supreme and complete enlightenment, because it is impermanent,
is the Buddha nature.[24]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dōgen#Buddha-nature“
Continued in my next post
Soh Wei YuFrom Bendowa, by Zen Master Dogen
Some
have said: Do not concern yourself about birth-and-death. There is a
way to promptly rid yourself of birth-and-death. It is by grasping the
reason for the eternal immutability of the 'mind-nature.' The gist of it
is this: although once the body is born it proceeds inevitably to
death, the mind-nature never perishes. Once you can realize that the
mind-nature, which does not transmigrate in birth-and-death, exists in
your own body, you make it your fundamental nature. Hence the body,
being only a temporary form, dies here and is reborn there without end,
yet the mind is immutable, unchanging throughout past, present, and
future. To know this is to be free from birth-and-death. By realizing
this truth, you put a final end to the transmigratory cycle in which you
have been turning. When your body dies, you enter the ocean of the
original nature. When you return to your origin in this ocean, you
become endowed with the wondrous virtue of the Buddha-patriarchs. But
even if you are able to grasp this in your present life, because your
present physical existence embodies erroneous karma from prior lives,
you are not the same as the sages.
"Those
who fail to grasp this truth are destined to turn forever in the cycle
of birth-and-death. What is necessary, then, is simply to know without
delay the meaning of the mind-nature's immutability. What can you expect
to gain from idling your entire life away in purposeless sitting?"
What do you think of this statement? Is it essentially in accord with the Way of the Buddhas and patriarchs?
You have just expounded the view of the Senika heresy. It is certainly not the Buddha Dharma.
According
to this heresy, there is in the body a spiritual intelligence. As
occasions arise this intelligence readily discriminates likes and
dislikes and pros and cons, feels pain and irritation, and experiences
suffering and pleasure - it is all owing to this spiritual intelligence.
But when the body perishes, this spiritual intelligence separates from
the body and is reborn in another place. While it seems to perish here,
it has life elsewhere, and thus is immutable and imperishable. Such is
the standpoint of the Senika heresy.
But
to learn this view and try to pass it off as the Buddha Dharma is more
foolish than clutching a piece of broken roof tile supposing it to be a
golden jewel. Nothing could compare with such a foolish, lamentable
delusion. Hui-chung of the T'ang dynasty warned strongly against it. Is
it not senseless to take this false view - that the mind abides and the
form perishes - and equate it to the wondrous Dharma of the Buddhas; to
think, while thus creating the fundamental cause of birth-and-death,
that you are freed from birth-and-death? How deplorable! Just know it
for a false, non-Buddhist view, and do not lend a ear to it.
I
am compelled by the nature of the matter, and more by a sense of
compassion, to try to deliver you from this false view. You must know
that the Buddha Dharma preaches as a matter of course that body and mind
are one and the same, that the essence and the form are not two. This
is understood both in India and in China, so there can be no doubt about
it. Need I add that the Buddhist doctrine of immutability teaches that
all things are immutable, without any differentiation between body and
mind. The Buddhist teaching of mutability states that all things are
mutable, without any differentiation between essence and form. In view
of this, how can anyone state that the body perishes and the mind
abides? It would be contrary to the true Dharma.
Beyond
this, you must also come to fully realize that birth-and-death is in
and of itself nirvana. Buddhism never speaks of nirvana apart from
birth-and-death. Indeed, when someone thinks that the mind, apart from
the body, is immutable, not only does he mistake it for Buddha-wisdom,
which is free from birth-and-death, but the very mind that makes such a
discrimination is not immutable, is in fact even then turning in
birth-and-death. A hopeless situation, is it not?
You
should ponder this deeply: since the Buddha Dharma has always
maintained the oneness of body and mind, why, if the body is born and
perishes, would the mind alone, separated from the body, not be born and
die as well? If at one time body and mind were one, and at another time
not one, the preaching of the Buddha would be empty and untrue.
Moreover, in thinking that birth-and-death is something we should turn
from, you make the mistake of rejecting the Buddha Dharma itself. You
must guard against such thinking.
Understand
that what Buddhists call the Buddhist doctrine of the mind-nature, the
great and universal aspect encompassing all phenomena, embraces the
entire universe, without differentiating between essence and form, or
concerning itself with birth or death. There is nothing - enlightenment
and nirvana included - that is not the mind-nature. All dharmas, the
"myriad forms dense and close" of the universe - are alike in being this
one Mind. All are included without exception. All those dharmas, which
serves as "gates" or entrances to the Way, are the same as one Mind. For
a Buddhist to preach that there is no disparity between these
dharma-gates indicates that he understands the mind-nature.
In
this one Dharma [one Mind], how could there be any differentiate
between body and mind, any separation of birth-and-death and nirvana? We
are all originally children of the Buddha, we should not listen to
madmen who spout non-Buddhist views.