Unlocatability of Consciousness
Soh
Kyle Dixon:


If by “awareness” we mean the mind’s cognition, then what we are aiming to recognize is that said cognition is not actually a substantial substrate that is the foundation for a discrete entity in the way we assume it is.

When we have the realization that our cognitive capacity, consciousness or whatever, is unable to be located, we are recognizing that the feeling of being an internal knower of external phenomena is a fallacious assumption that is structured through habitual conditioning in our own delusion regarding the actual nature of the phenomena we are experiencing.

When we really fail to locate the mind as a substantial knower of what is known, we again, as many have pointed out for years in this group and elsewhere, are experientially having an epiphany that there is no seer, hearer, feeler, etc., as an established entity.

This insight occurs in various ways and can unfold pertaining to (i) the mind, (ii) external appearances, (iii) in the individual sense gates related to both internal and external dimensions respectively, and so on.

On the other hand, a cognition that is locatable is simply the deluded assumption that our consciousness is an established internal substrate, and the mistaken notion of a discrete identity is based on that misconception.

Which is to say no cognition is actually locatable. We just feel that it is and suffer as a result.
Labels: , , 0 comments | | edit post
What is Nirvana?
Soh
Also see:

Great Resource of Buddha's Teachings
The Deathless in Buddhadharma?
The Meaning of Nirvana




Wrote this in Reddit three years ago:


https://www.reddit.com/r/Buddhism/comments/2xuq7b/is_nirvana_basically_nonexistence/cp3k7c2/

Nirvana is simply the cessation of craving, aggression, and delusion. Delusion includes the construct of self, that I exist, that I am the perceiver or controller of experiences and actions. Nirvana is not annihilation because what ends is simply a process of delusional I-making and mine-making and other related mental afflictions, it is not the annihilation of some actual self (which never existed).
Nirvana is when, in seeing the seen, it's realized and experienced that there is simply that scenery, and no seer. No you in terms of that. In hearing sound, there's simply (always already) only sound, no hearer. In thinking... only thought, no thinker. When this is realized, not merely intellectualized, and directly experienced as being so, and all sense of self are being released, then that is Nirvana. This is peace, bliss, freedom from suffering. It is not boring: in fact, boredom only exist when there is a sense of self, and a sense of dissatisfaction with what is present, therefore a craving for something to be 'better than what is'. There is a subject and object here: 'I' want 'something better out there'. But when anatta is realized and actualized, there is no sense of self, there is no subject and object, no dichotomy of perceiver and perceived, and everything is just lucid and luminous and blissful and perfect as it is. Nirvana is also the cessation of craving.
(For more information check out Bahiya Sutta)
Also Buddha teaches that we have past lives and future lifetimes, but if you attain Nirvana, you are no longer stuck in this cycle of samsaric rebirth and suffering.

0 comments | | edit post
The Key Towards Pure Knowingness
Soh

"The key towards pure knowingness is to bring the taste of presence into the 6 entries and exits. So that what is seen, heard, touched, tasted are pervaded by a deep sense of crystal, radiance and transparency. This requires seeing through the center." - Thusness

John Tan: Yes. That (More real than real) is also an insight that turns the mind internal. Non-arising means appearances without essence similar to a reflection, like a rainbow. That (More real than real) comes with I AMness. The different between anatta and substantiality is beside appearance, there is innate feeling of some essence separate from the appearances of colors, sensations, sound, smell, taste and thoughts. Therefore one cannot be fully open and release."

- Thusness/John Tan, 2019

John Tan wrote in 2012/2013:

In ignorance, there is hearer hearing sound.
In anatta, in hearing, only sound.
Yet sound has no true inherent nature (empty),
It is an activity and is that very activity called “hearing”.
Both “hearing and sound” are pointing to the same activity.
Only when seen to have true existence on either side does confusion arise.

In Madhyamaka Emptiness, reification is seen through.
Yet the experiential state of freedom from reification is not expounded.
However one can have a taste of that freedom from arising insight of anatta since anatta is precisely the freedom from reification of Self/self (First fold Emptiness).
In anatta, seeing is simply the full scenery, in hearing only sound…
thus, always only lights, shape, colors, sounds, scents… in clean purity.
Emptying the object further (second fold) is merely dissolving subtle bond of “externality” that creates the appearance of true existence of objects outside. When “externality” is deconstructed, it is effectively a double confirmation of anatta…
…innerly coreless and outwardly empty, all appearances are still simply sound, lights, colors and rays
In thorough deconstruction, as there is no layer that reifies, there is no conceptuality. Therefore no complication, no confusion, no stains, no boundaries, no center, no sense of dual..
no sense of activity…just self arising.
All collapse into a single sphere of natural presence and spontaneous simplicity.
Whatever appears is
neither here nor now,
Neither in nor out,
Neither arises nor ceases,
In the same space…
non-local, timeless and dimensionless
Simply present…

To Jax:
The place where there is no earth, fire, wind, space, water…
is the place where the earth, fire, wind, space and water kills “You” and fully shines as its own radiance, a complete taste of itself and fully itself.

Lastly, it is interesting to get know something about Dzogchen however the jargons and tenets are far beyond me.
Just wrote due to a sudden spurt of interest, nothing intense.
Thanks for all the sharing and exchanges.
Gone!
Labels: , , 3 comments | | edit post