Ultimate Reality (Anicca and Sunyata) Flashcards
1
Q
what is anicca
A
- one of the three marks of existence
- impermanence
- what has the nature of arising has the nature of ceasing’ –> Buddha
- Buddha first encounters it during 4 sights, old age, sickness, and death –> can see evidence of anicca in our own lives
1
Q
kafka and anicca
A
- ‘transience’, ‘centuries have no advantage over the present moment’, ‘cannot give any consolation’, ‘tenacity of life as that of death’
- the world is constantly changing and not eternal
- no moment lasts forever
- ending is stronger than beginning, death wins
2
Q
heraclitus and anicca
A
- ‘you cannot step into the same river twice’
- every part of samsara and samsara itself is in a constant state of flux
- impermanence is part of all things
3
Q
the buddhas death demonstrating anicca
A
- last words: ‘let the dhamma and the discipline that i have taught you be your teacher. All individual things pass away, strive on untiringly’
- last thing he teaches is impermanence
- rejecting permanence alleviates suffering –> therefore dukkha can be overcome, as suffering is not permanent
- the dhamma can also perhaps be seen as permanent
- Ultimate reality does not need a teacher to be perceived –> dharmakaya
- ‘they come into being and pass away, Release from them is bliss supreme’ –> can be released from suffering through nirvana (sakka, chief of deities)
4
Q
buddhist funerals and anicca
A
- sakka verse recited to show the congregation the evanescent nature of life
- flowers and light oil lamps left –> fade and die, showing impermanence of all living things
5
Q
nirvana and anicca
A
- 3 marks of existence only apply to SAMSARA
- ‘there is an unborn, not become, not made, uncompounded’
- likened to how Abrahamic religions talk about God
6
Q
Bhikkhus and anicca
A
- practicing and meditating on anicca –> focusing on breath and how it rises and falls
- removing ‘sensual passion’ –> craving (tanha)
- ‘abolishes all concept of I am…a farmer plowing with a large plow, cuts through all the spreading rootlets’ –> ANATTA, understanding of the MOS can cut through dukkha etc
7
Q
dependent origination
A
- system of causality
- samsara: everything exists because of a prior cause
- samsara is a ceaseless series of cause and effect
- stability only appears to be real
- actions are not independent –> affect the web
8
Q
what is sunyata
A
- emptiness
- Mahayanan belief, with foundations in anicca (T) and dependent origination
- the lack of a independent self existence –> INTERCONNECTEDNESS
- svabhava –> self nature separates being empty
- interconnectedness: nothing has separate self existence, everything depends on everything else, lineation of everything that has ever been
- idea of dharmas (not THE dharma) –> everything is made out of everything else, man is made of non man elements
- INTERBEING - thich nat han + flowers and flower elements
9
Q
what ISNT sunyata
A
- negative
- nothingness
- not nihilism
- not theravadin
10
Q
quotes for sunyata
A
- ‘this body itself is emptiness, and emptiness itself is this body’ Heart Sutra
- explained with Indras jewel net: in every jewel every other jewel is reflected, and whatever affects one jewel affects them all
- emptiness means emptiness of separate self; it is full of everything’ thich nhat hanh
- ‘to be is to inter-be’ thich nhat hanh
- ‘emptiness.. is in fact the reservoir of infinite possibilities’ suzuki
- ‘emptiness wrongly grasped is like picking up a poisonous snake by the wrong end’
- ‘all is possible when emptiness is possible’
- dalai lama: ‘the knowledge of the ultimate reality of all objects, material and phenomenal’
11
Q
what is the heart sutra
A
- ‘wisdom of all the buddhas’ cush
- prajna paramita: wisdom that goes farther, associated with nagarjuna (nagas, water snakes, metaphor for the deepness of understanding of the HS) –> ‘thanks to emptiness, everything is possible’
- seen as buddhavacana in M tradition
- double meaning: contains a teaching at the heart of all wisdom or cannot be intellectually grasped, only experientially understood
- understanding wrong hinders enlightenment
12
Q
first verse in the heart sutra
A
- avalokiteshvara: bodhisattva that embodies compassion, and cared about sharing enlightenment to alleviate suffering for all, understanding emptiness alleviates suffering
- ‘practicing deeply with the insight that brings us to the other shore’ –> meditation to attain N
- ‘discovered all the five skhandas are equally empty’ –> 5 aggregates of a human being
- ‘with this realisation eh overcame all ill being’ - suffering is alleviated when sunyata is understood, which builds upon anicca
- death and birth interbe
- sunyata and sunyata interbe –> if it exists as we perceive it
‘form is emptiness, emptiness is form’
13
Q
heart sutra and attaining nirvana
A
- ‘ill being, the causes of ill being and the end of ill being… are also not separate self entities’
- dukkha, caused by craving, nirvana have no independent self existence, interbe –> no nirvana without samsara (no concept of paradise if there is nothing to escape from)
14
Q
what are the ‘twelve links of independent arising’
A
- 12 niddanas
- cycle of continued causes
