[Buddha-l] Re: Emptiness

[Joy Vriens]

Curt,

>(a) most things are caused by something else (caused things) - but 
>(b) some things are not caused by anything else (uncaused things). 
>(c) among the things that do not themselves require a cause, one or more  
>of them "ultimately" cause all of the things that *do* require a cause -  
>these are uncaused causes. 
>(d) there may be also one or more things that are not caused and do not  
>(e) there may also be caused things that constitute causal dead-ends -  
>caused non-causes. 
 
>Now that I think of it - point (e) might have some interesting  
>Buddhistical ramifications (with respect to the idea of "nirvana"). 
 
>I am not a Yogacara expert, not by a million miles. But the idea that  
>"everything is (caused by) mind alone" (to cast Yogacara in a crude  
>reductionist light) has something very important going for it, at least  
>when compared to "physicalism". This is precisely the fact that, on the  
>one hand, the physical can only be known through the mind, for to "know"  
>requires a "mind" - while, on the other hand, at least in theory one can  
>(and many have) suppose that "mind" is "prior to" the physical. 

Or every thing is "caused" by mind alone. 

One can also wonder whether "things" are all there is? Or whether "Thingifying" is the only possible mode. To "thingify" and "things" is already to practice reductionism. Within that reductionism or reduced experience, every thing is caused by other things.

Joy