Transformations of myth through time : an anthology of readings by Diane U. Eisenberg

Author:Diane U. Eisenberg ... [et al.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mythology
Publisher: San Diego : Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
Published: 1990-12-14T16:00:00+00:00

lectually induced suspension of all mental activity is no answer; nor is the problem solved by an essentially intellectual negativism, as advocated by the Pras-angikas. Sentimentality is compassion divorced from understanding, and the open dimension of Being divorced from all feeling becomes negativism. Therefore Saraha said:

He who becomes involved with openness without compassion Will never set forth on the most excellent path. So also by attending to compassion alone He will stay in Samsara, but not become free.

Against such one-sided efforts the following statement is directed:

Do not negate, do not suspend (the mental working), do not find fault, Do not fix (the mind on something), do not evaluate, but just let be.

In other words, the way is not travelled by abrogating the ability to think, by destroying the inner continuity of one's being and by introducing a division where there is none, but by preserving the unitary character of Being. Again we may quote Saraha:

He who can combine both (compassion and openness of Being), Stays neither in Samsara nor in Nirvana.

Moreover, apart from Being there is no other being that can serve as a way:

Friend, since words falsify, give up this infatuation, And to whatever you become attached, give that up, too. Once you understand (the real), all turns out to be It; Nobody knows anything else but this.

But it is the tendency of our un-knowing to look for our Being where it cannot be. So Saraha declares:

Where it is present

There we do not see it.

Still, the doctrinaires all explain the texts

But do not understand the Buddha to be in (their) body.

Karma Phrin-las-pa explains this verse as referring to the "togetherness-awareness" that is present in and with every individual but is not recognized as such by him who is involved with his propositions. Such an individual, therefore, is unable to see Being as it is, but by looking outward he tries to understand what actually is within him. It is in his own body, speech, and mind, that the individual must understand Buddhahood to reside, though not in the manner of the body being a container, but as the representation, the embodiment of Buddhahood. Due to the fact that our concrete existence is an intricate pattern of interacting forces, not only can it be viewed from different angles, but even more

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