[Buddha-l] MMK 25.09 (was: as Swami goes...)

[Richard Hayes]

On Apr 29, 2010, at 5:45 AM, Dan Lusthaus wrote:

> If, for instance, read in the way Richard H. proposes, i.e., as suggesting 
> two different ways of viewing the same bhāva (whether process or thing), 
> then there might be some coherence, assuming one can see something as both 
> involved in conditional relations and as not so involved, and that that 
> double vision is somehow coherent.

To say that something can be viewed in two ways does not necessarily mean that it can be viewed in both ways at the same time. As I read the verse, I assume it is saying that if something is viewed from one perspective and one set of assumptions it looks like saṃsāra; looked at without those assumptions, it looks like nirvāṇa. 

And now let my proclivity to pragmatism jump in. Let's ask "Of the two ways of looking at the process, which one is the correct one?" And my pragmatic answer would be: "That depends entirely on which way you look at it."  

--
Richard Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico