Theos-Talk Archives (October 1998 Message tt00156)

In a message dated 10/28/98 11:49:16 PM, Darren wrote:

<<Jerry wrote:
>When we die, "real" details dissipate into their true nature which is
>emptiness.   Jerry S.

I would also suggest though, that at the point of final or total
dissolution that there is still something which perceives the emptiness. Of
course this is my own humble opinion based on my own experiences.

Darren >>

I would humbly suggest that, if one is to draw inspiration from Buddhist
teachings, as our above correspondents seem to do, there is a place for both
perspectives in Mahayana Buddhism and in Theosophy.

Jerry S. seems to hold strictly to a "Madhyamika" view, that really nothing
positive can be asserted, because it can easily by shown to lead, eventually,
to absurdity.  So emptiness (which is not a position) is the only thing one
can truthfully postulate about the world or the self.

However, there is another school of Buddhism, one more favored by HPB, called
"Yogacara," where, as Darren states, all may be emptiness, but there is the
perception of emptiness.  Tibetan and other adherents of Yogacara actually
assert, in both Scripture and Commentary, that while there is no real "self"
(in the sense of personal ego, eternally existing thing) there is a *REAL*
Buddha-nature, waiting to manifest, and (another way of putting this) a *REAL*
luminous essence of mind, compared with "clear light" (See Tulku Namkhai
Norbu).  In this school of thought, perception, and "mind" (or essence of
mind) is real, permanent, self-existing, etc.

It may be this Yogacara position which HPB would wish to utilize in defending
her presentation of the Monad.

Rich