[Buddha-l] Re: Emptiness

[Dante Rosati]

On 10/24/07, Richard Hayes <rhayes at unm.edu> wrote:
> On Tuesday 23 October 2007 18:44, Dante Rosati wrote:
>
> > both can be deconstructed, for example a la madhymaka, to show that
> > they are not designations of anything, but just designations.
>
> Pease don't bring deconstruction into the conversation. That is a strategy
> (and a very bad one) that arose in modern times and that has absolutely no
> relevance to conversations of Buddhist thought. Terminology aside, I quite
> agree that from a Madhyamika perspective, designations are just designations.
> (I happen to agree with the Madhyamikas on this point.) But I cannot see how
> appealing to this notion aids in any way with the topic under discussion.

Ok, substitute "analyzed" for "deconstructed".  i swear i wasn't
trying to be french or bring freedom fries into the coversation.

> > so if
> > there is no actual "body" or "mind" then where do designations come
> > from?
>
> It does no good to say that there is no body or mind. There are phenomena
> (dharmas if you like) that appear as the contents of experience, and these
> phenomena are referred to collectively as bodily or mental phenomena. So it
> turns out there are referents to the designations after all, but the
> designations do not refer to any single thing. Rather, they refer to a
> multiplicity of things.

I see you are a fan of one selflessness, not two.

> > our immediate experience of the actual present is not a
> > designation
>
> Well, yes, true enough. But so what? How is that observation relevant to the
> topic under discussion?

the original question was whether priority could or should be assigned
to mind or body. My point was that both were dependent designations
signifying nothing. Designating is actually done by ignorance in the
first place. If we abide in that which is not involved in the ignorant
designating activity (and the presence of immediate actuality is such)
then Bush will naturally disappear, as will all defilements. Allowing
Bush to self-liberate into emptiness is called "engaged Buddhism".

Dante