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*brain goes 'splody*
Sep. 22nd, 2006 10:42 amI'm in my Religions of Asia class. We're discussing Buddhism.
One of the central tennants of Mahayana Buddhism is that there is no soul, and thus ultimate goal is to achieve the Supreme Enlightenment and thus nirvana, escape samsara (the cycle of life, death, and rebirth), and basically cease to exist. Well, we just had a huge discussion about rebirth without a soul (the 5 Skandhas are gathered and basically tossed into the next body--so basically, it looks like a soul, acts like a soul, but is not a soul).
Another central tennant is that nothing is permanent. Nothing at all.
...well, someone in class just brought up the point that if nothing is permanent, then theoretically one can't be completely freed from samsara and achieve nirvana/non-existence because of that lack of permanency. His point is that even if you achieve enlightenment, sooner or later you'd have to be reborn because you couldn't cease to exist permanently.
There was debate, and a lot of talk concerning the question of existence in the first place. And lo, my head went KABOOM...and then we somehow wound up talking about The Matrix and the various Buddhist references in there and how it suddenly turns Christian at the end...
And she just said that samsara IS nirvana.
...
...
...my head hurts.
One of the central tennants of Mahayana Buddhism is that there is no soul, and thus ultimate goal is to achieve the Supreme Enlightenment and thus nirvana, escape samsara (the cycle of life, death, and rebirth), and basically cease to exist. Well, we just had a huge discussion about rebirth without a soul (the 5 Skandhas are gathered and basically tossed into the next body--so basically, it looks like a soul, acts like a soul, but is not a soul).
Another central tennant is that nothing is permanent. Nothing at all.
...well, someone in class just brought up the point that if nothing is permanent, then theoretically one can't be completely freed from samsara and achieve nirvana/non-existence because of that lack of permanency. His point is that even if you achieve enlightenment, sooner or later you'd have to be reborn because you couldn't cease to exist permanently.
There was debate, and a lot of talk concerning the question of existence in the first place. And lo, my head went KABOOM...and then we somehow wound up talking about The Matrix and the various Buddhist references in there and how it suddenly turns Christian at the end...
And she just said that samsara IS nirvana.
...
...
...my head hurts.
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articulation