9 Jul 2010 @ 01:54, by John Ringland
Quote from the Lankavatara Sutra http://bit.ly/azCaUY
"So long as people do not understand the true nature of the
objective world, they fall into the dualistic view of things. They
imagine the multiplicity of external objects to be real and become
attached to them and are nourished by their habit energy. Because of
this system of mentation, mind and what belongs to it is
discriminated and is thought of as real; this leads to the assertion
of an ego-soul and its belongings, and thus the mind-system goes on
functioning. Depending upon and attaching itself to the dualistic
habit of mind, they accept the views of the philosophers founded upon
these erroneous distinctions, of being and non-being, existence and
non-existence, and there evolves what we call false-imaginations...
False-imaginations rise from the consideration of appearances;
things are discriminated as to form, signs and shape; as to having
colour, warmth, humidity, mobility or rigidity. False-imagination
consists of becoming attached to these appearances and their names...
The five sense functions and their discriminating and thinking
function have their risings and complete ending from moment to
moment... By setting up names and forms greed is multiplied and thus
the mind goes on mutually conditioning and being conditioned. By
becoming attached to names and forms, not realising that they have no
more basis than the activities of the mind itself, error arises,
false-imagination as to pleasure and pain arises, and the way to
emancipation is blocked...
By the cessation of the mind-system as a whole is meant, the
cessation of discrimination, the clearing away of the various
attachments, and, therefore, the clearing away of the defilements of
habit-energy in the face of Universal Mind which have been
accumulating since beginningless time by reason of these
discriminations, attachments, erroneous reasonings, and following
acts... Getting rid of the discriminating mortal-mind is Nirvana.
But the cessation of the discriminating-mind cannot take place
until there has been a “turning about” in the deepest seat of
consciousness. The mental habit of looking outward by the
discriminating-mind upon an external objective world must be given
up, and a new habit of realising Truth within the intuitive-mind by
becoming one with the Truth itself must be established.... With the
ending of pleasure and pain, of conflicting ideas, of the disturbing
interests of egoism, a state of tranquilisation will be attained in
which the truths of emancipation will be fully understood..."
(Lankavatara Sutra http://bit.ly/azCaUY
)
|