[Buddha-l] The course of Nature

[jkirk]

> .........Some texts elevate some notion of Dharma to a virtual cosmological 
> status, such that Dharma upholds (dhaara,na; adhaara) the cosmos. 
> Buddha said that those who know my Dharma know me, so eventually 
> Buddha himself is given a cosmic form as a Dharma-body.
>
> Are you looking for a Heraclitus of the East?
>
> Dan
>

Thank you, Dan.
No, I am working on the concept of the Fourth Sign of Being in our Advayavada form of Buddhism, whether it is identical or not to the (overall) course of Nature as understood by others, particularly by other Buddhists. 
We have already said on our website that "Because, in other words, the dharma of the part is not different from the Dharma of the whole, the Buddha's Middle Way in its dynamic Eightfold Path form must be understood as an ongoing reflexion at the level of our personal lives of overall existence becoming over time." This is in fact our basic, standard understanding, indeed main tenet from the start.
John Willemsens.
http://www.euronet.nl/~advaya/index.htm 
====================================
Being a 19th c. romantic about Nature, not always red in tooth and claw (nature not me), I tried looking up the term Paṭipadā in PTS's Pali-Eng dictionary online.

But first, John's website has this to say:
"Because man experiences as progress that which agrees with the direction in which overall existence moves forward over time, the Buddhist Noble Eightfold Path must be understood as an ongoing reflexion at the human level, and in human terms, of that progress of existence." 

"In other words, that progress (pratipada, patipada) is all life's inner driving force and, therefore, the fourth sign, mark or basic fact of being." 

The glosses I looked at do not suggest a metaphysical notion of "progress that...agrees with the direction in which overall existence moves forward over time", ( so not an endlessly acting cosmic process). The glosses I found for this term do not suggest anything like an idea of "progress" as an abstract entity--as an ueber-sign (or what Kenneth Burke called a "god-term"), so far as physical reality (nature, human nature, etc) goes-- but instead, only the sense of a means [method, mode], a path, or a goal. 

24. Paṭipadā : (page 396) 

...Paṭipadā (f.) [fr. paṭi+pad] means of reaching a goal or destination, path, way, means, method, mode of progress (cp. Dhs. trsln 53, 82, 92, 143), course, practice (cp. BSk. pratipad in meaning of pratipatti "line of conduct." 

Here's more: paṭipadā the path of goodness or virtue, consisting of dāna, uposathakamma & dasakusalakammapathā J iii.342; -- 

Or, N.-- gāminī paṭipadā A iv.83 (the path to salvation). 

On paṭi:  With verbs of motion: "along towards".....and so on.

Speaking of "life's inner driving force" (see quote from website above), it does seem to me that Buddhism is always reminding that everything alive "wants to live," so the thirst for life should not be interfered with, e.g., don't kill. But this force does not seem to have been stated in cosmic principle terms, as I recall--not in the Theravada tradition anyway.   

Joanna






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