Monday, October 27, 2014

Birth and Death

There is no birth and no death.
There is no beginning and no end.
There is no coming and no going.
There is no being (from non-being) and no non-being (from being)

Above means we are space-time continuum. 
There are 4 patterns as space-time continuum. 
(Please refer to the following SlideShare)
http://www.slideshare.net/compassion5151/spacetime-continuum-in-4-ways

(into Chapter 33)

1. Birth and death depend on conditions.

  - Birth and death are only notions.
  - "Birth" means manifestation (appearance). 
  - “Death” means the absence of manifestation.
  - Manifestation and existence are different. 
    ("Before you were born, you were already there." 
    ⇒ You existed before your manifestation.)
  - "Conditions" means "the causes and conditions that
     allow birth and death to be" (Dalai Lama said, "If the
     causes and conditions are fully ripe, nobody can't stop
     it) but it is not clealy mentioned in the last paragraph 
     of Chapter 33 as follows. 
     (1) Birth (production) and death (disintegration) depend
          on conditions.
     (2) Consciousness does not manifest only as the
          subject of perception, the perceiver.
     (3) When there is manifestation of consciousness, it is,
          at the same time, both aspects of perception—
          perceiver and perceived.
  - My guess based on above (3) is that consciousness 
     manifests only if the consciousness of the perceiver 
     and the  consciousness of the perceived meet together.      (The consciousness of the perceiver means myself, and 
      the consciousness of the perceived means the 
      potential people around myself such as parents, family, 
      friends, neighbors...etc.)
  - My further guess is that the condition enables the 
     consciousness of the perceiver to be able to revive the 
     past life's ego (mental disposition) and to pay for the 
     past karma (actions) till the past life for the potential 
     people (the perceived) around the perceiver.

2. Consciousness is by nature a discriminatory manifestation.

  - When consciousness manifests,there is differentiation 
     and discrimination between self and other than self 
     (self and others).
  - Discrimination is not the truth and is an imaginary 
     construction, a fabrication of the mind.
  - This is inside, but that is outside. This continues to 
     exist, but that ceases to exist. (This = self, That = 
     others) (For "This is, because that is", please refer to
       http://compassion5151.blogspot.jp/2014/08/this-is-because-that-is.html)
  - The mind differentiates and compares in order to 
     develop the image. That is why consciousness is by 
     nature a discriminatory manifestation.
  - Therefore, manifestation of consciousness is the root 
     cause of discrimination (separation) between oneself 
     and others.
  - I guess manifestation of consciousness means separate 
     self (ego) in mind consciousness who has the wrong 
     view (Manas) which separates oneself from others.

3. Perceiver and perceived depend on each other
as subject and object of perception.

  - The perceiver and the perceived depend on each other 
     in order to manifest.
  - The nature of consciousness is to manifest perception 
     in which subject and object support each other to make 
     the perceiver and the perceived possible.
  - What we believe to be an objective reality is first of all 
     the object of our perception. (So, an objective reality is 
     really our subjective perception.)
  - We have to distinguish between the words 
     “consciousness” and “manifestation.” 
    (“consciousness”: unmanifested, 
     “manifestation”: manifested)
  - A manifestation means that both a subject of perception 
     and, at the same time, an object of perception have 
     manifested.
  - Therefore, both subject and object of perception 
     (consciousness) are necessary for manifestation and I 
     guess the subject means ourselves and the object 
     means parents and others around us.

(From Chapter 33 of "Understanding Our Mind" by Thích Nhất Hạnh)

 Image presented by Thích Nhất Hạnh


Thay's talk on birth and death