I think when you analyze the relationship between the two truths, they necessarily lead to the implication that there is actually only one truth. In this way the two truths themselves are relatively conventional in contrast to the one truth which is their ultimate nature. Anything which can be said to exist, not exist, both …
Buddhas are Mere Hypostatizations
Instead of thinking that a Buddha is either an omniscient being who has simultaneous cognition of all truths, or an insentient being with no mind or mental processes whatsoever, let us consider that a Buddha is not a being at all but a mere hypostatization: a virtual projection of the mind based on avidyā/agnosis/ignorance; an …
Two Different Senses of Dialectic
For me, dialectic is expressed in two different senses, and each sense can be subdivided into homological pairs of opposing dispositions, based on either dialogic or monologic orientations. One sense involves successive interlocution with a hypothetical interlocutor. This is the “constructive” sense of dialectic which merely mimics, in impure form, the form of expression peculiar …
Buddhism is Basically Useless
I think one of the reasons why people have a hard time accepting or even considering the Buddhist thesis on no-self (that the self does not exist) is that they don't care enough about themselves in the first place in order to find out that it doesn't finally exist upon Buddhist analysis. This is ironic …
On the Nonduality of Wisdom and Ignorance
One of the ways one might think about the nonduality of wisdom and ignorance (that there is ultimately no basis for differentiation between the two) is how awe in sublimity can express itself as either wonder or terror.When we're genuinely in awe of the sublime, we are directly apprehending qualities which would otherwise be quantitatively …
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Making Home With the Wilderness
"Samsara" is reality based on exclusion, affliction, and delusion. "Nirvana" is reality without exclusion, affliction, and delusion. Samsara, when seen as not-Nirvana, is experienced as Samsara.Samsara, when seen as just Samsara, is experienced as Nirvana. With regards to experience,it can go one way or the other,but never both at the same time,and only one at …
On the Limits of Techno-Conceptualization
One of the interesting things I've learned from working in the 3D scanning/digitization industry is that typically the most precious, fragile, ephemeral and transitory things are the most difficult to capture. Included in this set of things which evade capture are such things like fluids whether liquid, gas, or plasmic, with transparent, glassy and/or highly …
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From Nescience to Omniscience
From nethermost nescience to the apex of omniscience, all states of knowledge are without any ultimately real foundation whatsoever—and the same applies to the very states themselves. Without the recognition of this basic fact, it is impossible to ascend from ignorance to knowledge. For if things did have an intrinsically existent foundation or essence, it …
On the Symmetrical Logic and Asymmetrical Causality of Samsara and Nirvana
In verses 19 and 20 of the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā in the chapter analyzing Nirvana, Nāgārjuna states that "There is no distinction whatsoever between samsara and nirvana. There is no distinction whatsoever between nirvana and samsara. What is the limit of nirvana, that is the limit of samsara. There is not even the finest gap to be …
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On the Mutual Non-existence of Capitalism and Communism
If "Full Communism," understood as communism brought to its highest measure, is truly superior to all "logically prior" modes of production which historically precede it (such as slavery, feudalism, capitalism, and socialism), then it must "inclusively transcend" them all, which is to say that it must contain them all as partial abstractions of itself, which …
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HOLO-POIESIS 