Category: Uncategorized

The Highest Teaching: Self or Emptiness? By Pham D. Luan (KKT)

HarshaLeave a comment

Whether ultimate reality is fullness of the Self or Emptiness has always been a fascinating problem. It had been for long a debate between Buddhists and Advaitins, and among Buddhists themselves (Yogacara with the Mind-Only theory and Madhyamika with the Shunyata or Emptiness theory).

Hui-neng, the Sixth Patriarch of Ch’an (Chinese Zen) but sometimes is regarded as the real father of this tradition, in his famous Platform Sutra said that “seeing one’s own original nature is enlightenment.” His view was condemned by other Buddhists as heretic because orthodox Buddhism believed in (absolute) No-Self. His Platform Sutra was burned after his death.

Continue reading “The Highest Teaching: Self or Emptiness? By Pham D. Luan (KKT)” →

Nirvana: By Thich Nhat Hanh

HarshaLeave a comment

From The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching: By Thich Nhat Hanh

Nirvana, the Third Dharma Seal, is the ground of being, the substance of all that is. A wave does not have to die in order to become water. Water is the substance of the wave. The wave is already water. We are also like that. We carry in us the ground of interbeing, nirvana, the world of no-birth and no-death, no permanence and no impermanence, no self and no nonself.Nirvana is the complete silencing of concepts. The notions of impermanence and nonself were offered by the Buddha as instruments of practice, not as doctrines to worship, fight or die for. “My dear friends,” the Buddha said,” the Dharma I offer you is only a raft to help you to cross over to the other shore.” The raft is not to be held onto as an object of worship. It is an instrument for crossing over to the shore of well-being. If you are caught in the Dharma, it is no longer the Dharma. Continue reading “Nirvana: By Thich Nhat Hanh” →

Interview with Prof. Stanley Sobottka: By Ivan Frimmel

HarshaLeave a comment

This article consists of an e-mail interview with Prof. Stanley Sobottka, Professor Emeritus at the University of Virginia, conducted by Ivan Frimmel. Prof. Sobottka created a web-course covering the relation between consciousness and quantum theory. In addition to these topics, his course covers issues in advaita, Western philosophy of mind, and the practice of nondual inquiry. The course is available at http://faculty.virginia.edu/consciousness/home.html.
–The Editors

Stanley: In answering your personal questions, Ivan, I must make it clear that I identify with Awareness much more than with the body-mind, so your questions and my answers apply mostly to the latter, not to me. That in a nutshell is also the answer to your question about how Advaita has influenced my life.

Continue reading “Interview with Prof. Stanley Sobottka: By Ivan Frimmel” →

An Interview with Harsh K. Luthar, Ph.D.: Questions by Teegee

Harsha3 Comments

Q: Where were you born, and what religion were you born into?

Harsha: I was born in Amritsar, Punjab, India, in a Hindu family.

Q: Anything interesting about Amritsar?

Continue reading “An Interview with Harsh K. Luthar, Ph.D.: Questions by Teegee” →