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From: kde@heawk1.gsfc.nasa.gov ( Keith Evans)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.eastern
Subject: essence
Message-ID: <1990Dec20.012141.6294@nas.nasa.gov>
Date: 20 Dec 90 01:21:41 GMT
Sender: news@nas.nasa.gov
Organization: NAS Program, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
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Approved: prabhu@amelia.nas.nasa.gov


  >A somewhat less obvious (but really more important) consequence of our
  >habit of grasping is that we tend to see things as having an
  >"essence", a "heart", that can be grasped. In particular, we come to
  >believe that *we* have an essence, a "self", some part of us that is
  >our true heart, our true being.

The idea of Buddhism is to become one with the "greater self" and not
be driven by the ego-driven "lesser self". There is "essence" which
can't be grasped as a phenomena.

Shakyamuni was not a theoretical existence - but a very real human
being - an enlightened human being. He appear as a real person, with
excellent wisdom that can draw people's attention and lead them to
solve their affliction in life.

In the Sutra of Infinite Meaning (taught right before the Lotus),
Shakyamuni uses 34 non-negatives to describe the entity of life,
i.e., neither tall nor short, neither existence nor non-existence,
neither past nor future, neither red nor blue nor any other color,
(I have to go home and look up the rest, sorry). Describing what
its not is one way of describing what it is.

After all, if we are just a chain of causation, who made the causes,
if not us ourselves?

Their can be no essence without form and vice versa. The three truths
help to understand essence.

The three truths are 3 phases of 1 truth and are not separate (many
people feel it must be separate) was formulated by T'ien-T'ai. The
three truths are the truth of non-substantiality (Jap. kutai), the 
ruth of temproary existence (Jap. ketai) and the truth of the Middly
Way (Jap. chutai).

The truth of non-substantiality means that phenomena have no absolute
or fixed existence of their own; their true nature is ku, the potential
state that cannot be defined as either existence or non-existence.

The truth of temporary existence means that while all things are ku, or
non-substantial in nature, they nevertheless possess a provisional
or temporary reality which is in constant flux (i.e., life and death).

The truth of the Middle Way is characterized by both non-substantiality 
and temporary existence, yet are in essence neither.

The true nature of all phenomena are beyond the limitation of words
or conception.


  >This does not mean that there is no link between past, present and
  >future.

The link between past, present and future is this moment. This moment is
the most important moment. One it is over, it is the past, and moments 
yet to come are the future. One can see what one did in the past, by 
looking at the effect he is living now, and can determine how he will
live in the future by the causes he makes now.

One's mind changes from moment to moment in reaction to external
manifestions, from a tranquil mind, to anger, to hunger, to learning, to
compassion, to Buddhahood (upon chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo), etc. This
gets back to causation, but its not a separate entity. How can you make
a cause without an essence?

Keith Evans   )kde@heawk1.gsfc.nasa.gov)