Theos-Talk Archives (October 1998 Message tt00157)

Oct 29th 1998

Dear Rich:

Thanks for the scholarship which shows the two views in
Buddhism."

Reminds me of the answer that the Buddha gave to the wandering
monk Vacchagota.

HPB in the KEY TO THEOSOPHY quotes (as a footnote on p. 81 from
the "Samyuttaka Nikaya" this dialog between Ananda and the Buddha
following the questions from that monk that the Buddha
deliberately left unanswered:  "Is there the Ego ? - Is there not
the Ego?"

He explains to Ananda there why he did not answer that monk
directly because any answer would confuse him I would venture to
say that the wandering monk would need further instruction in the
7-fold nature of man and Nature to understand and find the answer
for himself.

It speaks there of Ananda being "initiated."  In ISIS UNVEILED ii
319-20, 607, HPB writes on the subject of Buddha having initiated
some of his worthy disciples.  (Initiation's stages are mentioned
by HPB in SD I 206 bottom.

I also have notes on other places where this subject is spoken
of:  PATH 3, 252-3;  BCW 8, 401-2, Theosophy Mag 30, p. 50;
Mahatma Letters, p. 175 bottom;  HPB Articles II 528 on
Initiations;
Transactions 139;  Voice 77-8 fn.;  Theos Articles & Notes p.
191.

Dal

> From: "Richard Taylor" <richtay@aol.com>
> Sent:	Wednesday, October 28, 1998 8:59 PM
> Subject: Re: Re: Mind and Memory


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