Emptiness

1. Emptiness and Religious Meaning Frederick Streng, Lectures 1-3

2. The Precepts Project Day 3:   the vow to avoid harming sentient beings In the past twenty-four hours, have you... ... eaten anything? What was in your food? How many lives were taken for your meals? Who placed the food on your plate? Who cooked it, cleaned it, harvested or butchered it, planted and nurtured it? ... harmed anyone? Have you said something intended to hurt? Have you said something that hurt unintentionally? Have you avoided or neglected a friend or acquaintance? Have you harmed anyone with a glance, glare, scowl, or smirk?

3. THE RELIGIOUS DIMENSIONS OF MADHYAMIKA Nine lectures by FREDERICK J. STRENG Randall L. Nadeau, Editor

4. Emptiness and Religious Meaning • “Scholars need a theory about religious life, not an ideology ... and they need to be able to examine that theory from the joint perspectives of empirical study and philosophical reflection. At the same time, any serious consideration of the ultimacy of a particular expression of religion may open up the possibility of ultimate transformation in the researcher's life.” (From Understanding Religious Life) • “In all of Streng's work, there is the urge to relate religious insight to every aspect of our lives, just as Nâgârjuna sought to apply the notion of Emptiness to every aspect of subjective experience.” (From the Editor’s Introduction) • “Our purpose in this lecture and the next is to explore why a perception of the emptiness of causes and actions is an important religious concern.” (From Lecture 1)

5. Emptiness as “Theory” Emptiness as “Practice” • “The attempt to systematize the phenomenal world and to develop a theory of their inter-relationships was for these scholars a distinctly religious goal. The detailed analysis of how each moment of experience arose and dissipated was intended to eliminate false assumptions about humanity and existence -- an intent that was directed toward inner freedom, not speculative thought... The goal [was] to perceive how emotional, perceptual, and mental conditions contribute to the human experience of pain or happiness” (from Lecture 1) • “Emptiness is not seen as a thing, but as a process of release; it is a procedure which is the "middle way." ... “Emptiness is not just another theory, not just another viewpoint. The designation "empty" itself cannot be taken as a thing in itself.” (From Lecture 3) • “The claim that all things are empty intends to be a spiritual insight that cannot be reduced to a viewpoint.” (From Lecture 3) • Time and again you have made a condemnation of emptiness,But that refutation does not apply to our emptiness. When emptiness "works," then everything in existence "works."If emptiness does not "work," then all existence does not "work." (MMK 24:13-14)

6. What is an egg? • a verbal formulation describing an essence • a verbal fabrication that is useful in popular or conventional communication to distinguish a particular class of items from other classes

10. When is an egg not an egg? • Is a sterile egg an egg? • Is a rotten egg an egg? • Is a chicken an egg?

11. From “egg” to abstract values • “We can begin to see the problem that Nâgârjuna was dealing with when we recognize a fairly simple thing: our words and language can generate the expectation of entities that are totally nonexistent. Human beings can use language in such a way that the words can be meaningful while at the same time they are mere fabrications of the mind.” (From Lecture 2) • Masculinity/Femininity • Profanity and Obscenity • Virtue • God • I

12. Born on April 29 1970, Uma Thurman was raised in an offbeat, bohemian household by intellectual parents. Her Swedish-born mother, Nena, was a psychotherapist who was briefly married to psychedelic guru Timothy Leary before marrying one of his prized students, Robert A.F. Thurman. Uma's father has the distinction of being the first American's to be ordained a Tibetan Buddhist monk (he has long since renounced his monastic life and is currently head of the religion department at Columbia University). Steeped in Buddhist faith and encouraged to be free thinkers, Uma and her three brothers, Dechen, Ganden, and Mipam (all four children were named for Hindu deities; "Uma" translates into "bestower of blessings"), developed a multicultural worldview. The family lived for extended periods in India (while the children were in grade school), Amherst, Massachusetts, and Woodstock, New York. Uma-Thurman.net Your No. 1 source for Uma Thurman Information Masculinity/Femininity

14. Profanity and Obscenity Use Of Profanity On TV Increasing, Study Shows Council Looks At Six Broadcast Networks UPDATED: 10:13 a.m. EDT September 23, 2003 LOS ANGELES -- There's too dang much cussin' on TV these days -- and it's creeping into the family hour, according to a new report by a watchdog group. Researchers found that television writers are including more four-letter words in their primetime scripts these days. The Parents Television Council studied six broadcast networks -- ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, WB and UPN -- during the two-week November sweeps period in 1998, 2000 and 2002. The group found a jump in profanity on every network and in every time slot. The study found during the so-called "family hour," from 8 to 9 p.m., foul language increased by more than 94 percent between 1998 and 2002. And profanity rose by 109 percent during the 9 p.m. hour in the same period.

18. Virtue • righteousness • goodness • love • fidelity • a faithful friend • a good boy • a happy life

19. God Exodus 20 1 And God spake all these words, saying, 2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me. God and theism God and “the God above God” (Paul Tillich, The Courage to Be)

20. I Who or What am I? • I am what I eat • I am my parents • I am my lovers • I am my children • I am my memories • I am my conscious thoughts • I am unknown to myself • I am what I am • I am what I have • I have a car • I have two children • I have a wife • I have a house • I have a job • I have a mind • I have inalienable rights • I have the right to an opinion • I have the right to the pursuit of happiness “Similarly, most of us act and feel most of the time as if we were centered "selves." We experience life as "belonging" to a "person." For example, I can remember things that happened to "me", but I cannot remember things that happened to other people even though they may have entered my sphere of experience by talking to me or by responding to me when I saw them or touched them. This experience tends to separate the identity that we feel as an ego, an "I" or "me," from other people; we distinguish between ourselves as if we were entities separate from our environmental experience, both physical and social.” (From Lecture 2)

21. Since anything being denied does not exist, I do not deny anything;Therefore [the statement] "You deny" -- which was made by you -- is a false accusation (From Averting the Arguments) Regarding what was said concerning what does not exist:"The statement of denial is proved without a word."In that case the statement expresses: "[That object] does not exist";[The words] do not destroy [the object]. (ibid.) Words are not just wind. Words have something to say. But if what they have to say is not fixed, then do they really say something? Or do they say nothing? People suppose that words are different from the peeps of baby birds, but is there any difference, or isn't there? What does the Dao rely upon, that we have true and false? What do words rely upon, that we have right and wrong? How can the Dao go away and not exist? How can words exist and not be acceptable? When the Dao relies on little accomplishments and words rely on vain show, then we have the rights and wrongs of the Confucians and Mo-ists. What one calls right the other calls wrong; what one calls wrong the other calls right. But if we want to right their wrongs and wrong their rights, then the best thing to use is clarity. Everything has its "that", everything has its "this". From the point of view of "that" you cannot see it, but through understanding you can know it. So I say, "that" comes out of "this" and "this" depends on "that" -- which is to say that "this" and "that" give birth to each other. But where there is birth there must be death; where there is death there must be birth. Where there is acceptability there must be unacceptability; where there is unacceptability there must be acceptability. Where there is recognition of right there must be recognition of wrong; where there is recognition of wrong there must be recognition of right. Therefore the sage does not proceed in such a way, but illuminates all in the light of Tian. He too recognizes a "this", but a "this" which is also "that", a "that" which is also "this". His "that" has both a right and a wrong in it; his "this" too has both a right and a wrong in it. So, in fact, does he still have a "this" and "that"? A state in which "this" and "that" no longer find their opposites is called the hinge of the Dao. When the hinge is fitted into the socket, it can respond endlessly... (Zhuangzi, Ch. 2)