Mayflow
Advanced Member
Joined: 28 Jul 2007
Posts: 3877
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 Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 2:00 pm Post subject: Creationism... Buddhist style ... |
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From my current perspective, there are two interlapping consubstantially
everlasting* realities in the world. In the following quote by the Dalai Lama
they will be referred to as "space particles" and "subtle consiousness"
| The Dalai Lama wrote: |
The "creator of the world," basically, is the mind. In the Sutras, the mind
is described as an agent. It is said that consciousness has no beginning,
but we must distinguish here between gross consciousness and subtle
consciousness. Many gross consciousnesses appear as dependents of the
physical aggregates, of the body. This is evident when you consider the
different neurons and the functioning of the brain, but just because
physical conditions are met does not mean that this is enough to produce
a perception. In order for a perception which will have the faculty to
reflect and know an object to arise, it must have a consubstantial cause.
The fundamental consubstantial cause, of the same substance as its
result, will in this case be the subtle consciousness. It is this same
consciousness or subtle mind which penetrates the parental cells at the
moment of conception. The subtle mind can have no beginning. If it had
one, the mind would have to be born of something that is not the mind.
According to the Kalacakra Tantra, one would have to return to the
particles of space to find the fundamental consubstantial causes of the
external physical world as well as of the bodies of sentient beings.
Buddhist cosmology establishes the cycle of a universe in the following
way: first there is a period of formation, then a period where the universe
endures, then another during which it is destroyed, followed by a period
of void before the formation of a new universe. During this void, the
particles of space subsist, and from these particles the new universe will
be formed. It is in these particles of space that we find the fundamental
consubstantial cause of the entire physical world. If we wish to describe
the formation of the universe and the physical bodies of beings, all we
need do is analyse and comprehend the way in which the natural potential
of different chemical and other elements constituting that universe was
able to take shape from these space particles. It is on the basis of the
specific potential of those particles that the structure of this universe and
of the bodies of the beings present therein have come about. |
* everlasting meaning they are beginningless and endless.
_________________
If a human dreams it is an Angel; How sure is it, that it isn't an Angel dreaming that it's human? - Blue Angel http://exploringyourmind.forumotion.com/index.htm |
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