[Buddha-l] on not-dwelling mind (Dan Lusthaus) (Joy Vriens)

[Joy Vriens]

Hi Mitchell,

> I am enjoying the Klaus-Dieter Mathes article, thank you for sending the link to that, Joy. The text of Maitriipa (versus "mi tripa"), which I do not interpret to mean part of a soup I was once served in Chiangmai, with rubbery slabs of intestine wall that I could not break down by much chewing nor swallow) and his disciple Raamapaala could raise issues of the relationship between the concept in Chinese and esp. that in Skt. texts about aprati.s.tha and non-abiding consciousness, not being mentally engaged, being free of mental fabrications / ni.sprapa~nca, and not reifying. I remember writing about this in The Inner Palace, but these are texts that are new to me. So thank you very much.

Mathes is looking for (and finding) proof of Indian material
justifying "sutra mahamudra", a term coined by Tantric Mahamudra
adepts (Kagyupa and non-Kagyupa alike) to reduce the importance of the
method developed by Maitripa and followed by Gampopa. Apart from
"downgrading" Gampopa's (and Maitripa's) method as "sutra mahamudra",
Gampopa and some of his direct followers have also been accused (Sakya
Pandita and others) of having adopted methods of Chinese Ch'an, a
traditional way of trying to denigrate an opponent's view in Tibet. A
connection is easy to find since both Maitripa and Chinese Ch'an draw
heavily on Prajnaparamita, Tathagatagarbha and affiliated sources.
Maitripa had a deep knowledge of non-Buddhist Indian traditions and
originally trained as an ekadanda. His system also contains
reintegrated or reinterpreted traces of Saivism (trika and
Pratyabhijna).

As for a direct connection with China, there is a recurrent theme in
hagiographical sources of students (in)directly related to Maitripa,
Dam pa sangs rgyas, Vairocanaraksita, wanting to travel or traveling
to China (Mount Wutai, Manjushri) often towards the end of their
career. It's open to speculation why exactly.

Joy

> Are these interconnected concepts of particular interest to any others here?
> Mitchell
> ==========
> Homepage (updated April 4, 2010): http://jinavamsa.com
> See also http://jinavamsa.com/mentalhealth.html
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> buddha-l mailing list
> buddha-l at mailman.swcp.com
> http://mailman.swcp.com/mailman/listinfo/buddha-l
>