Emptiness

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Emptiness

• and Religious Meaning
• Frederick Streng, Lectures 1-3

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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?
•  

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THE RELIGIOUS DIMENSIONS OF MADHYAMIKA   Nine
lectures by FREDERICK J. STRENG

• Randall L. Nadeau, Editor

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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 Editors 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)

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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 2413-14)

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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

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When is an egg not an egg?

1. Is a sterile egg an egg?
2. Is a rotten egg an egg?
3. Is a chicken an egg?

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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

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Masculinity/Femininity

• 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

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Profanity and Obscenity

• Use Of Profanity On TV Increasing, Study Shows
• Council Looks At Six Broadcast Networks
• UPDATED 1013 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.

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OVERALL OVERALL OVERALL OVERALL    
 
800-900 p.m. ET/PT 1998 2000 2002  
1 Curses, oaths, and intensives 44 48 46  
2 Offensive epithets 16 14 6  
3 Scatological language 26 29 32  
4 Sexually indecent language 14 8 14  
5 Censored language lt1 lt1 1  
   
1 Curses, oaths, and intensives hell, damn hell, damn  
2 Offensive epithets bitch, bastard, son of a bitch bitch, bastard, son of a bitch bitch, bastard, son of a bitch  
3 Scatological language ass, asshole, crap, piss ass, asshole, crap, piss ass, asshole, crap, piss  
4 Sexually indecent language suck, screw, euphemisms for sexual intercourse suck, screw, euphemisms for sexual intercourse suck, screw, euphemisms for sexual intercourse suck, screw, euphemisms for sexual intercourse suck, screw, euphemisms for sexual intercourse
5 Censored language bleeped forms of shit or fuck bleeped forms of shit or fuck bleeped forms of shit or fuck    
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Virtue

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

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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)

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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

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• Since anything being denied does not exist, I do
  not deny anythingTherefore 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)