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⛩️LUSB 001 - TURNING THE DHARMA WHEEL: Introduction to Buddhism

  1. Dharma(s)
    1. ☸️dharma
    2. ☸️Dharma
  2. Calming & Insight
    1. ☸️śamatha
    2. ☸️vipaśyanā
  3. The Three Poison (3 ☸️kleśa (poison)s)
    1. ☸️moha (delusion) (ignorance)
    2. ☸️rāga (craving) (craving)
    3. ☸️dveṣa (aversion)
  4. The Four Foundations of Mindfulness (☸️sati (mindfulness))
    1. ☸️kāya (body)
    2. ☸️vedanā (feelings)
    3. ☸️citta (mind)
    4. ☸️dharma (phenomena)
  5. The Noble Truths
    1. ☸️duḥkha (suffering) (suffering)
    2. ☸️duḥkha (suffering) arises from ☸️taṇhā which has 3 types:
      1. kāma-taṇhā (craving for sensual pleasures)
      2. bhava-taṇhā (craving for existence)
      3. vibhava-taṇhā (craving for non-existence)
    3. letting go of ☸️taṇhā (craving, clinging) alleviates ☸️duḥkha (suffering) (suffering)
    4. The Noble Eight Fold Path is the path to letting go of ☸️taṇhā and the cessation of ☸️duḥkha (suffering)
  6. Five Hindrances
    1. Sensory desire (kāmacchanda): the particular type of wanting that seeks for happiness through the five senses of sight, sound, smell, taste and physical feeling.
    2. Ill-will (vyāpāda): all kinds of thought related to wanting to reject; feelings of hostility, resentment, hatred and bitterness.
    3. Sloth-and-torpor (thīna-middha): heaviness of body and dullness of mind which drag one down into disabling inertia and thick depression.
    4. Restlessness-and-worry (uddhacca-kukkucca): the inability to calm the mind.
    5. Doubt (vicikiccha): lack of conviction or trust.
  7. Aggregations
    1. Five ☸️skandhas (Aggregates)
      1. ☸️rūpa (form)
      2. ☸️vedanā (feeling, sensation)
      3. ☸️saṃjñā (perception)
      4. ☸️saṃskāra (mental formations)
      5. ☸️vijñāna (consciousness) (consciousness)
    2. ☸️anātman ("No Self"))
  8. Consciousness (“All is burning”)
    1. "all" (sabba) refers to:
      1. the six ☸️ayatana (sense base): eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind internal the six  sense bases: visible forms, sound, smells, tastes, touches and mental objects external
      2. ☸️vijñāna (consciousness) contingent on these sense bases
      3. the ☸️sparśa (contact) of a specific sense organ (such as the ear), its sense object (sound) and sense-specific ☸️vijñāna (consciousness) .
      4. and what is subsequently felt ( ☸️vedanā ) as:
        1. ☸️sukha (pleasure)
        2. ☸️duḥkha (suffering)
        3. neither.
    2. is "burning" (āditta):
      1. the fire of passion (rāgagginā)
      2. the fire of aversion (dosagginā)
      3. the fire of delusion (mohagginā)
      4. the manifestations of suffering: birth, aging and death, sorrows, lamentations, pains, distresses and despairs
  9. Factors of Enlightenment
    1. ☸️sati (mindfulness)
    2. ☸️Dharma vicaya (Investigation)
    3. ☸️vīrya (drive)
    4. ☸️pīti (joyful sensation)
    5. ☸️passaddhi (tranquility)
    6. ☸️samādhi (a calm, one-pointed state of mind, or clear awareness)
    7. ☸️upekṣā (equanimity)
  10. The Eight-Fold Path
    1. Right View
    2. Right Resolve
    3. Right Speech
    4. Right Action
    5. Right Livelihood
    6. Right Effort
    7. Right Mindfulness
    8. Right ☸️samādhi

📖Sandhinirmocana Sutra

  1. 📿 Thus Have I Heard
    1. 🧘🏿‍♂️Gautama Buddha in a 🏡 adorned with 7✨💎 that 💡 all immeasurable 🌍🌌
    2. immeasurable 😇
    3. 🧘🏿‍♂️‘s entirely purified understanding did not appear as dual
    4. 🧘🏿‍♂️ entered into the unmarked doctrine
    5. he dwelled in 🧘🏿‍♂️🏡, realized == of all 🧘🏿‍♂️s, and reached a state of no 🚧⚠️
    6. TODO
    7. immeasurable bodhisattvas assembled from various 🧘🏿‍♂️🌅
      1. 🧘🏽‍♂️Gambhirārthasamdhinirmocana (Revealing the Secret Meaning of the Most Profound) Bodhisattva
      2. 🧘🏼‍♂️Vidhivatpariprcchaka (Logical Questioner) Bodhisattva
      3. 🧘🏾Dharmodgata (Born of ☸️Dharma) Bodhisattva
      4. 🧘🏽‍♂️Suviśuddhimati (Well Purified Intellect) Bodhisattva
      5. 🧘‍♂️Viśālamati (Vast Intellect) Bodhisattva
      6. 🧘🏼‍♂️Guņākara (Root of Virtue) Bodhisattva
      7. 🧘🏾‍♂️Paramārthasamudgata (Born of Ultimate Truth) Bodhisattva
      8. 🧘🏼Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva
      9. 🧘🏿Maitreya Bodhisattva
      10. 🧘🏻Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva
  2. The Descriptive Marks of the Truth of Ultimate Meaning
    1. 🧘🏼‍♂️Vidhivatpariprcchaka (Logical Questioner) Bodhisattva 🗣 to 🧘🏽‍♂️Gambhirārthasamdhinirmocana (Revealing the Secret Meaning of the Most Profound) Bodhisattva it is said that “all things are not dual.” what is “all things” and why are they not dual?
      1. 🧘🏽‍♂️Gambhirārthasamdhinirmocana (Revealing the Secret Meaning of the Most Profound) Bodhisattva answered that in sum, all things are of 2️⃣ kinds
        1. conditioned
          1. are neither:
            1. conditioned nor
            2. un-conditioned
        2. un-conditioned
          1. are neither:
            1. conditioned nor
            2. un-conditioned
      2. 🧘🏼‍♂️Vidhivatpariprcchaka (Logical Questioner) Bodhisattva 🗣 what does it mean to say that?
        1. 🧘🏽‍♂️Gambhirārthasamdhinirmocana (Revealing the Secret Meaning of the Most Profound) Bodhisattva 🗣 the term “conditioned” is a word, a verbal expression in the 🧠, such a description does not validate a real thing, therefor the conditioned does not exist
        2. the term “unconditioned” is also language which does not validate a real thing
        3. besides “conditioned” and “unconditioned,” any other word in language is the same
        4. Are there any expressions without some corresponding reality?
        5. What is the reality here and now?
        6. perfect awakening is a reality apart from names and words
        7. it is only to guide people to perfect awakening that expressions like “conditioned” and “unconditioned” are used as ☸️upāya (skillful means)
    2. 🧘🏼‍♂️Vidhivatpariprcchaka (Logical Questioner) Bodhisattva 🗣 what is the ☸️upāya (skillful means) of “conditioned” and “unconditioned?”
      1. the same way magicians craft their illusions
      2. some 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 think an illusion really is what it appears to be
        1. they cling to sounds thinking what they hear must be real
      3. some 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 understand an illusion is not real
        1. they do not cling to sounds thinking anything they hear must be real
      4. 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 clinging to language cannot see that reality is apart from language
      5. 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 who realize the perfect awakening do not cling to language but because they seek to lead others to realize perfect awakening call things “conditioned” and “unconditioned”
    3. 🧘🏼‍♂️Vidhivatpariprcchaka (Logical Questioner) Bodhisattva recited these verses:
      1. 🧘🏿‍♂️🗣(“buddha speech”) is apart from language and is nondual
      2. its depths beyond fools
      3. fools delight in duality and rely on verbal fabrications
      4. fools revolve in the suffering of transmigration
      5. they are far from the discourse of true wisdom and will be reborn as 🐄 and 🐏
    4. 🧘🏾‍♂️ (born of ☸️Dharma) addressed 🧘🏿‍♂️ (The Buddha)
      1. in a previous life I saw thousands of people gather in one place to consider the ☸️lakṣaṇa (descriptive marks) of ultimate meaning.
      2. try as they might, they could not reach any conclusion and I thought to myself that it is only because of the appearance of a Buddha that we come to understand the ☸️lakṣaṇa (descriptive marks) of ultimate meaning
    5. 🧘🏿‍♂️ (The Buddha) replied that he is perfectly awakened to the ☸️lakṣaṇa (descriptive marks) of ultimate meaning which transcend reason
      1. i transmit this understanding to others through joint discussion between teacher and student until ultimate meaning is realized in each student
      2. ultimate meaning transcends the ☸️lakṣaṇa (descriptive marks) of reasoned meaning
        1. ultimate meaning does not does not function through objects of the mind and reasoning relies upon these objects of the mind
        2. ultimate meaning is indescribable and reason relies on descriptions of language
        3. ultimate meaning severs all expression, but reason relies upon expressions
        4. ultimate meaning severs disputation, but reason relies on disputation
      3. it is like a man who ate only tart and bitter tastes his whole life being asked to comprehend or appreciate the taste of honey.
      4. it is like a man who has taken his delight in cravings, his desires burning fire, could never comprehend an inner detachment that severs the images of all senses.
      5. it is like a man who has placed his concern is worldly conversations, he could not comprehend the joy of inner silence and tranquility
      6. it is like a man who has placed his concern in worldly ideas he has heard, expressed and understood. he could never comprehend the final cessation that eradicates all ideas
      7. it is like a man who has placed his concern is worldly disputation, he would be unable to understand that in north Kuru where 🧘🏿‍♂️ has preached there are no disputes of the constituents or over no-self.
      8. in like fashion, reason is unable to comprehend the ☸️lakṣaṇa (descriptive marks) of ultimate meaning which transcend the function of reason
      9. the 🧘🏿‍♂️ recited the following verses
        1. the sphere that is internally realized without descriptions cannot be be spoken and severs expressions
        2. ultimate meaning, laying to rest all disputes, transcends the ☸️lakṣaṇa (descriptive marks) of reasoning
    6. 🧘🏽‍♂️Suviśuddhimati (Well Purified Intellect) Bodhisattva addressed 🧘🏿‍♂️Gautama Buddha
      1. the ☸️lakṣaṇa (descriptive marks) of ultimate meaning , subtle and profound, are neither identical with nor different from all things. they are difficult to fathom.
      2. is it true then that the truth of ultimate meaning transcends being characterized as either identical with or different from conditioned states of being?
    7. 🧘🏿‍♂️Gautama Buddha replied that this true
      1. the ☸️lakṣaṇa (descriptive marks) of ultimate meaning are neither different nor not different from the ☸️lakṣaṇa (descriptive marks) of conditioned states of being
      2. the ☸️lakṣaṇa (descriptive marks) of ultimate meaning are neither defiled nor pure.
      3. TODO
    8. TODO
  3. The Descriptive Marks of Mind, Thought, and Sense Consciousness
    1. 🧘‍♂️Viśālamati (Vast Intellect) Bodhisattva asked 🧘🏿‍♂️Gautama Buddha why he talks of bodhisattvas being skilled in mind, thought, and sense consciousness?
    2. 🧘🏿‍♂️Gautama Buddha replied that from birth the growth of all sentient beings is dependent upon 2️⃣ appropriations
      1. appropriation of the material senses of the body
      2. a propensity toward verbal fabrications in discriminating images and words
    3. but only in the world of form, not in the world of no-form
    4. this consciousness is called
      1. the “appropriating consciousness” because it is taken up with the body
      2. the “receptacle consciousness” because it lies hidden ?????
      3. the “mind” because it mines and accumulates material forms, sounds, odors, tastes and touches
    5. because the appropriating consciousness is the support and ground there evolves a group of the 6️⃣ consciousness
      1. seeing
        1. produced by the eye and material forms
      2. hearing
        1. produced by the ear observing sound wave forms
      3. smelling
        1. produced by the nose observing odors
      4. tasting
        1. produced by tongue contact
      5. touching
        1. produced by the skin contact
      6. thinking
        1. in synergy with all prior consciousness there evolves a thinking consciousness that simultaneously discriminates the objects of all consciousnesses
    6. when a single visual consciousness arises a discriminative thinking consciousness arises in synergy
    7. the appropriating consciousness is like a mirror
      1. when the conditions for one consciousness arise then one arises
      2. when the conditions for many to are present many arise
    8. bodhisattvas are said to be skilled in mind, body and sense consciousness because they are skilled in ultimate meaning and do not see this appropriation as though it were real
    9. 🧘🏿‍♂️ cited these verses
      1. the appropriating consciousness is profound and subtle indeed
      2. all its seeds are like a rushing torrent
      3. fearing that they would imagine and cling to it as a self, i have not revealed it to the foolish
  4. The Characteristic Patterns of All Things
    1. 🧘🏼‍♂️Guņākara (Root of Virtue) Bodhisattva asked 🧘🏿‍♂️Gautama Buddha why he speaks of bodhisattvas skilled in the characteristic patterns of all things?
    2. 🧘🏿‍♂️Gautama Buddha replied that the ☸️lakṣaṇa (descriptive marks) of all things are threefold:
      1. clinging to what is entirely imagined
        1. names and symbols and the distinguishing of their essence in language
        2. caused by the interplay between ☸️lakṣaṇa (descriptive marks) and words
        3. if you are able to understand the imagined pattern as it arises upon the dependently originated pattern you will understand all thinks as unmarked
      2. other-dependence
        1. as all things co-arise, if this exists that exists, and if this arises then that arises
        2. this refers to the twelvefold conditioning
          1. TODO: there’s only a reference here, i’d like to spell them out and refer to their source. i believe this is the 12 like chain of causation
        3. caused by the grasping of imagined ☸️lakṣaṇa (descriptive marks) upon dependent origination
        4. if you are able to understand the imagined pattern as it arises upon the dependently originated pattern you will understand all thinks as unmarked are able to understand dependently originated pattern of your consciousness then you will understand all things as defiled
      3. full perfection
        1. the universally equal suchness of all things
        2. bodhisattvas penetrate to this suchness because of their resolute zeal, intelligent focus, and true reflection
        3. by gradually cultivating this penetration, they reach unsurpassed true awakening and actually realize perfection
        4. caused by the absence of grasping the imagined pattern upon the dependently originated pattern
        5. if you are able to understand the imagined pattern as it arises upon the dependently originated pattern you will understand all thinks as unmarked
        6. if you are able to the fully perfected pattern then you will understand all things as purified
        7. If bodhisattvas are able to understand all things as unmarked in the dependently originated pattern then they can abandon defiled things
          1. in this abandoning they understand all things as purified
      4. once understanding all 3 patterns of consciousness, and because they abandon defiled things, they will know things as unmarked and purified
      5. 🧘🏿‍♂️Gautama Buddha recited these verses:
        1. if one does not understand things as unmarked, one will be unable to abandon defiled things.
        2. Not being able to aban- don defiled things, one will obstruct the realization of won-drously purified things.
        3. Not gaining insight into the sinfulness of all one's actions, one will be wild, sinful, and injurious to sentient beings.
        4. Sadly enmeshed in transient things, are not such people lost and pitiable?
  5. The Absence of Essence
    1. 🧘🏾‍♂️Paramārthasamudgata (Born of Ultimate Truth) Bodhisattva said the buddha
  6. The Analysis of Centering
    1. todo
  7. The Stages and Perfections
    1. 🧘🏼Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva says 🧘🏿‍♂️Gautama Buddha has taught the ☸️bhūmis (stages of a bodhisattva)

📖Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra

  1. Discrimination
    1. 📿 Thus Have I Heard
    2. 🧘🏿‍♂️Gautama Buddha appeared in the Castle of Lanka.
    3. The bodhisattva-mahasattvas with 🧘🏾‍♂️Mahamati Bodhisattva at their head were all perfect masters of:
      1. various Samadhis
      2. the tenfold Self-mastery
      3. the ten Powers
      4. the six Psychic Faculties
    4. they all
      1. understood the significance of the objective world
      2. they all knew how to apply the various means, teachings and disciplinary measures according to the various behaviors of beings
      3. they were all thoroughly verses in the five Dharmas
      4. the 3 svabhavas
      5. the 8 vijnanas
      6. the twofold egolessness
    5. I will now discourse on the Truth of Noble Wisdom that is beyond reasoning knowledge and which is realizable only within the inmost consciousness.
    6. All that is seen in the world is devoid of effort and action because all things are like a dream, like an image miraculously projected.
    7. This cannot be comprehended by those who walk in discrimination and, as they depend upon discrimination , they cling to dualism.
    8. The world seen through dualism is like seeing ones own image reflected in a mirror, or one’s shadow, or the moon reflected in water, or an echo heard in the valley.
    9. People grasping their own shadow become attached to this and that, and failing to abandon dualism they never find tranquility.
    10. Oneness gives birth to the highest ☸️samādhi which is gained by entering the realm of Noble Wisdom, that is realizable only in one’s inmost consciousness.
    11. 🧘🏾‍♂️Mahamati Bodhisattva passed these verses to 🧘🏿‍♂️Gautama Buddha
      1. [the World as seen by Buddha] must seem like an ethereal flower of which you cannot say: it is born, it is destroyed, for the terms being and non-being do not apply
      2. it must seem like a dream of which you cannot say: it is permanent or it is destructible, for being and non-being do not apply
      3. they must seem like visions beyond the reach of the human mind, as being and non-being do not apply to them
      4. you comprehend the no-self of things and persons, and are free from hindrances of passion, learning and self
      5. you do not vanish into nirvāṇa nor abide in it, for nirvāṇa transcends all duality of knowing and known, of being and non-being
      6. those who see, serene and beyond conception, will be emancipated from attachment and cleansed of defilement
      7. in this world whose nature is like a dream, there is praise and blame, but in the Ultimate Reality of Dharmakaya which is beyond the sense and discriminating mind, what is there to praise?
    12. 🧘🏾‍♂️Mahamati Bodhisattva asked about the realization of Noble Wisdom that is:
      1. beyond the path of philosophers
      2. devoid of all predicates like being and non-being, oneness and otherness, bothness and not-bothness, existence and non-existence, eternity and non-eternity
      3. which has nothing to do with individuality and generality, nor false imagination, but any illusions arising from the mind itself
      4. that which manifests as the Truth of Highest Reality
    13. 🧘🏿‍♂️Gautama Buddha replied that those not knowing that the world is something seen of the mind itself cling to external object and notions like being and non-being and believe they have a self-nature of their own.
    14. This all arises from discrimination of the mind itself and is perpetuated by habit-energy.
    15. It is like a mirage in which springs of water are seen b

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🗒️The Magician Bhadra

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