>> Welcome back to Intro to Philosophy 1010.
This is our book Introduction
to World Philosophy.
And in this video we are going
over the Lankavatara Sutra.
So this is the Mahayana Buddhist text.
And the exam questions for exam four
that we're going over are two questions
in part B. The first is exam
question number three
for part B. Do you think the Mahayana Buddhist
idea of being a Bodhisattva as described
in chapter 1.5 undermines or strengthens
the Buddhist philosophy of no self,
anata described in chapters
seven and eight, explain.
And then part B question four, how is
a Bodhisattva similar to the prisoner
in Plato's cave allegory who has seen the sun?
And for that part four question I'm
going to read part of the cave allegory
in Plato's Republic that goes just
past what's included in our book.
So if you choose that question you'll need
to refer to this video for more information.
Although most of it is in - is
included in the section in our book.
Okay so does the Mahayana Buddhist
ideal of a Bodhisattva undermine
or strengthen the idea of
no self that we went over?
So, to make matters easier, no let me go back
to this camera, which likes to blink off on me.
I'm going to just focus on
the questions to King Milinda.
That was in chapter seven and its page 224.
The questions to King Milinda
and that's the chariot analogy.
So - and I put up a video about that when
we went over that in the first quarter
of our mini-semester here in the summer.
So just an overview from my head
to keep - to keep this video going.
So King Milinda, the Greek King in the town
of Baktria, which is in currently Afghanistan.
That's where the Greek Empire
met the - met India.
It was a Buddhist town and
the Monk Nagasena was there
and the King Milinda asked him "Who are you?"
The Monk said, "I am Nagasena."
But that's just a name, really there's no self.
And then the King said, "What
do you mean there's no self?
If there's no self, then who am I giving
money to, to help give medicines for the poor?
Who am I arresting for murder?
Who has been murdered?"
No one's been murdered, there's no
murderer; it doesn't make any sense.
Rather than answer those
questions Nagasena just says,
"Did you come on a chariot or did you walk?
Because I know you didn't
walk because your feet are -
are weak because you're raised
in the royal household."
So he insults him a little bit and then he
gets the king to admit, "Yes I took a chariot."
A chariot is it the wheels, is
it the axel, is the flagpole?
No, it's none of those.
Is it all those parts put together?
No. The chariot is just a
word referring to a bunch
of different parts that are
temporarily assembled.
There is no chariot.
There's no single enduring
thing called a chariot
and similarly there's no single
enduring thing called a self.
So that's the Buddhist philosophy of no self.
The idea of a Bodhisattva is someone who is
right on the cusp of achieving Buddha-hood
but rather than merge back into Nirvana,
this impersonal bliss, that - that person -
that there's no person see, so this
is why I put the question this way,
has compassion for all other selves or suffering
temporary illusory selves and refuses to go
into Nirvana until everyone is freed.
So the question is does compassion for
others, a selfless compassion for others,
it seems to be oh there's no self, I have
total selfless compassion for others,
but that implies that you have
compassion for other selves.
Is there a self is there no self?
The Mahayana philosophy seems to
push that question to the forefront.
So I'll read a little bit
here on page 25 of our book.
The southern branch of Buddhism sometimes known
by the name Theravada Philosophy
rests its conception
of virtue and that of a southern canon.
Its idea was to become an arhat, a saint.
Also called a pratyekabuddha, one who loses all
individuality and universal impersonal bliss.
Nirvana, the northern branch of Buddhism,
Mahayana Buddhism recognizes the
distinct and later literature is sacred.
It's idea is the Bodhisattva, one
whose essence is enlightenment,
who unlike the arhat turns back
from the final bliss to help others.
To achieve Nirvana is no longer the idea,
but rather to be enlightened
and attain a perfect form.
All right, so the idea of no self - there's
no chariot, there's no self, there's no form,
there's no enduring any single thing endured
- nothing endures from one moment to the next.
There's just a constant flux of sins,
perceptions, emotions and thoughts and desires.
They come and they go.
There's no unity underlying them all.
So the idea of trying to achieve a perfect
form, that's a lot more like Plato's philosophy
and the Hindu philosophy where
the individual soul is striving
to perceive the absolute forms of knowledge.
And with the Hindu's is to achieve
to return to the spiritual planets
where you're a spiritual body,
your eternal form is waiting.
And that these material bodies
are just like dream reflections
of your eternal true spiritual form.
And the Mahayana Buddhism talks a lot
about these super terrestrial
forms or bodies you can acquire.
Now I'm no expert in Buddhism.
I'm no expert in you know, you could
argue I'm not an expert in anything
if I don't know the original languages
that these philosophers write in.
But I've read a lot more Hinduism
and Plato and Nietzsche for example
than I have of the Buddhist texts.
But still reading enough of
it to get a sense of Buddhism.
The Mahayana Buddhism seems to
come a lot closer to Hinduism.
And that's the question - by answering that
question it just makes you think of both
of these alternative forms of Buddhism.
And so I will now continue to read a little
bit of I think this is a nice image on page 26.
The story to demonstrate the difference
between Mahayana Buddhism, Theravada Buddhism.
So there's four travelers in the
desert about to collapse of thirst.
They find what appears to be an oasis,
but there's a high wall above it.
So the first one goes over.
They say "Oh I'll look and if I see
something I'll call back and tell you."
The first one goes over, doesn't
call back, never comes back.
Second one does the same thing.
But the third one looks over the edge of
the wall, says oh yeah, there's water here.
There is an oasis here; so come on.
So the fourth guy goes up, climbs
the wall and says come on let's go.
But the third guy says "No, I'm going back
in the desert and I'll try to find others
who are lost and I'll point
them towards the oasis."
So that is the Bodhisattva.
Rather than just merge in the impersonal
bliss of Nirvana and lose all suffering,
the Bodhisattva agrees to stay in the
realm of material bodies and karma
and reincarnation to help everybody else out.
And that's looking for the good of others.
But again, is that really staying true to the no
self-philosophy I'll - over n page 27 in the -
the bottom of page 27 so the Theravada
Buddhist Tower has a response to this ideal.
Actually I'll read the paragraph
just above that.
The Mahayana wisdom literature thus
puts forward a conception of virtue,
that while distinctly Buddhist
resembles Christian virtues in many ways,
the Bodhisattva sacrifices the quest for
his own good to seek the good of others.
The Theravada Buddhist however
has a response to this ideal.
One could argue that the ethical ideal
of the Bodhisattva undermines itself.
If the Bodhisattva helps
others toward Nirvana he
or she in effect, helps them to become arhats.
Not Bodhisattvas, so the good bodhisattva
will teach Theravada, not Mahayana Buddhism.
And then from a Mahayana perspective
this response falls into a trap
to achieve enlightenment
one must eliminate cravings,
selfish desires including
the desire for Nirvana.
The best way to lead people
to enlightenment therefore is
to teach them the Bodhisattva ideal.
Teaching them to be arhats encourages them to
subjugate most desires to a desire for Nirvana.
Not to eliminate desire itself.
Okay, but then I think Theravada Buddhists could
respond well all right, we're desiring Nirvana,
but you're desiring the welfare of
others, so that's a double mistake.
Because you have desire and you
have a conception of other selves,
which seems to violate the no self-philosophy.
Now I know when we read through this, they
repeat there is no self, there is no ego.
But then that seems to be contradicted
by the entire focus of helping others,
so that's the question you'll need to
address in this quest - for part B,
what is it, question three and four.
So question three, do you think the Mahayana
Buddhists idea of being a Bodhisattva undermines
or strengthens the Buddhist philosophy of no
self-described in chapter seven and eight?
So it's just Indian Buddhism, Chinese
Buddhism, the basic philosophy is the same.
There is no enduring unit of being anywhere.
Be it material or spiritual.
There's no self.
So does the idea of compassion for
others violate that philosophy?
All right, so I will now read just some - a
few selections from the Lankavatara Sutra.
So Mahamati is a Bodhisattva
and he's talking to Buddha.
So I'll just begin here on page 27.
Then said Mahamati to the
blessed one, will you tell us now
about the disciples who are Bodhisattva?
The blessed one replied, the Bodhisattva are
those earnest disciples who are enlightened
by reason of their efforts to attain
self-realization of noble wisdom
who have taken upon themselves
the task to enlighten others.
They have gained a clear understanding
of the truth that all things are empty,
unborn and of a mile like illusory nature.
They have ceased from viewing
things discriminatively
and from considering them in their relations.
They thoroughly understand the
truth of two-fold agelessness
and have adjusted themselves
to it with patient acceptance.
They have attained a definite
realization of agelessness
and they're abiding the perfect
knowledge that they have gained
by self-realization of noble wisdom.
So every time I see the word self-realization
to me that seems to violate the idea of no self.
Unless you're considering self-realization
to be the realization that there is no self.
And yet each of these Bodhisattva's
achieves a form.
So Bodhisattva's go through
10 levels of enlightenment.
And I think that's similar to the eight
stages of enlightenment that Buddha went
through while sitting under
the tree of enlightenment.
So I will read a little bit here
just to put some context in this.
So here's the book for the College of
Southern Maryland for the Intro to Religion
or World Religions, Anthology
of World Religions.
So I teach this class also.
And I will -
On page 171 of this book, the Enlightenment.
So the - this comes from the Buddha
Charita and Buddha is sitting under a tree.
This is where he has his Buddha enlightenment.
And it says here, in the first watch
of the night he recollected the
success of series of his former births.
There was I, so and so, that was my
name deceased from there I came here.
And in this way he remembered thousands of
births as though living them over again.
When he had recalled his own births and
deaths and all these various lives of his -
of his the sage, full of pity, turned his
compassionate mind toward other living beings
and he thought to himself, again and again they
must leave the people they regard as their own.
So he's - he realized all of
this own former reincarnations.
And that made him have overwhelming
pity for everyone else suffering
through the same horrible
cycle of reincarnation.
The second watch of the night he
acquired the supreme heavenly eye.
Thereupon he looked down upon the entire world,
which appeared to him as though reflected
in the spotless mirror and he realized
security can be found nowhere in this flood
of some start existence so some stars the
cycle or reincarnation and the third watch.
Then I drew the supreme master of
trans turned his meditation to the real
and essential nature of the world.
Alas living beings wear themselves out in
vain over and over again they are born.
So then I'm going to skip down a little bit here
and it says he passed through the eight stages
of transact insight and quickly
reached their highest point.
From the summit of the world, downwards
he could detect no self anywhere.
Like the fire when it's fuel
burns up, he became tranquil.
He had reached perfection and he thought to
himself this is the authentic way in which
in the past so many great
seers who also knew all higher
and lower things have traveled
on to ultimate and real truth.
And now I have obtained it.
So he achieved all knowledge in this
eighth level of transact insight.
And it's just very similar to the Hindu concept
of the ether or the akasha, the outermost sphere
of the universe, which Plato talks about
in the Phaedra or the absolute idea,
which is very similar to people's near death
experiences of rising above their body,
out towards the outermost horizon of the cosmos.
Where they experience the past, the
present and the future simultaneously.
So that I think it helps to
keep that philosophy in mind
when we're going back to the Bodhisattva idea.
Because the Bodhisattva get out there to the
outermost level of being and but they refrain
from exiting the universe, merging back
into Nirvana, the Ocean of Brahman,
the Hindus called it in which
the universe are floating.
And they set themselves on helping all
other beings achieve enlighten before they,
themselves merge.
So again, I'm not an - I'm nowhere
near an expert in any form of Buddhism.
I've read a lot of Buddhist texts so I'm
just trying to get us to compare their idea.
The Mahayana Buddhist does it reinforce
or does it weaken the idea of no self?
And so going back to the Mahayana Buddhist text
I'm reading now in page 28, the first stage,
on the left hand column, the first
stage is called the stage of joy.
Entering the stage is like passing out of the
glare and shadows into a realm of no shadows.
So again keep in mind we'll be comparing the
Bodhisattva idea to Plato's cave allegory,
where the prisoner is released from
the cave of shadows, sees the sun.
Realizes that the shadows are just
shadows of objects in the outer world.
But then he's told to go back down
into the cave and help release others.
So that's like a Bodhisattva.
And comparing those two it's important
to keep in mind the first stage
of the Bodhisattva enlightenment is entering
the stage is like passing out of the glare
and shadows into a realm of no shadows.
And then you take this - these 10 original
vows to honor and serve all Buddhists.
To spread the knowledge and practice of the
Dharma, to welcome all coming Buddhists.
To practice the six power mita's, perfections.
To persuade all beings to embrace the Dharma.
To attain a perfect understanding
of the universe,
to attain a perfect understanding
of the mutuality of all beings.
To attain perfect self-realization of the
oneness of all the Buddha's and tagmata's
which means ones that have become
that or self-realized people.
And to become acquainted with all skillful
means for the carrying out of these vows
for the emancipation of all beings,
to realize supreme enlightenment
through the perfect self-realization
of noble wisdom.
Ascending the stages and entering
Tatagata-hood complete self-realization.
So that's the 10 vows that a
Bodhisattva takes at the first stage,
which is passing out of the shadows.
And then it skips the next vows.
It goes to the sixth, in
the spirit of these vows,
the Bodhisattva gradually
ascends the stages to the sixth.
All earnest disciples, masters
and arhats have ascended thus far.
But being enchanted by the bliss of the
Somati's, which are levels of initiation
that you can achieve, that gives
you different flavors of bliss.
And not being supported by the powers of
the Buddha's they pass to their Nirvana.
So in the past others have
- we saw Buddha himself.
When he achieve Buddha-hood he realized others
have come this way, now I have achieved it.
So there's other Buddha's waiting to
greet you when you become a Buddha.
And if you just pass into Nirvana
without deciding to go back
and help others achieve enlightenment
then you don't get the support
of those previous Buddha's.
So the same fate would befall the Bodhisattva
except for the sustaining power of the Buddha's.
By that they are unable to
refuse to enter Nirvana
until all beings can enter Nirvana with them.
So they are being encouraged by
other self-realized beings who refuse
to emerge into the impersonal Nirvana.
And that enables them to resist the
temptation of annihilating the self.
I'll just read a little bit more
here on the right hand column.
The tatagata's point out to
them the virtues of Buddha-hood
which are beyond the conception
of the intellectual mind.
And they encourage and strengthen the
Bodhisattva's not to give into the enchantment
of the bliss of the Somati's, but to press
on to further advancement along the stages.
So I'll just skip a little bit here.
Strengthened by the new strength
that comes to them from the Buddha's
and with the more perfect insight that is theirs
by reason of their advance and self-realization
of noble wisdom, they re-examine
the nature of the mind system.
The egolessness of personality and the part that
grasping an attachment and habit energy play
in the unfolding drama of life, they re-examine
the illusions of four fold logical analysis
and the various elements that enter
into enlightenment and self-realization.
And in the thrill of their new power
of self-mastery the Bodhisattva enters
upon the seventh stage of far going.
Okay so it seems to me that this resembles
Buddha's eight levels of transic insight.
And the outermost one seems to be he says
from here, I look down upon the whole world,
so they're seeking perfect
understanding of the universe.
We saw that for the Hindus, the outermost
sphere of the universe itself is the mind
of the universe, the universal mind.
And that's exactly what we're going to see in
stage eight of the Bodhisattva enlightenment.
So the seven stage is called far going.
So supported by the sustaining power the
Buddha's, the Bodhisattva at this stage enter
into the bliss of the Somati
of perfect tranquilization,
owing to their original vows they are
transported by emotions of love and compassion
as they become aware of the part they are
to perform in carrying out of their vows
for the emancipation of all beings.
Thus they do not enter into Nirvana, but
in truth they too are already in Nirvana
because in their emotions of love and compassion
there is not rising of discrimination,
henceforth with them discrimination
no more takes place.
Because of transcendental intelligence,
only one conception is present.
The promotion of the realization
of noble wisdom,
their insight issues from
the womb of Tatagata-hood.
And they enter into their task
with spontaneity and radiancy,
because it is of the self-nature
of noble wisdom.
This is called the Bodhisattva Nirvana.
The losing oneself in the bliss
of perfect self, yielding.
This is the seventh stage,
the stage of far going.
Okay so they too are already in
Nirvana because they don't distinguish
between themselves and others anymore.
They have love and compassion for
others, but still that leaves me
to believe so what's the idea here?
There's no individual self,
but there's one supreme self.
And when you realize you're one
with that supreme self then you
love everyone else automatically
because it's simply self-love.
Or is there no self at all?
You keep talking about the
self-nature of noble wisdom
and then saying there's no
self, is there a self?
Is there not a self?
I know that in the Theravada
Buddhist literature they'd say stop -
the questions of [inaudible]
he asks questions like that.
And then the Buddha says, you ask me
questions like that is like someone shot
with a poisoned arrow rather than letting his
friends get a surgeon to remove the arrow.
He says no first, who shot me?
Which tribe are they from?
What kind of bird did the
feathers on the arrow come from?
What's the poison made out of?
All of these are irrelevant questions.
Meanwhile the poison is spreading and they die.
Similarly is there a self - is there no self?
Like I'm asking here.
I could see a Buddhist responding
with the questions of [inaudible]
but this is a very definite scripture about
these very definite levels of self-realization.
And the very concept of self-realization
applies to self.
At any rate, let's go on now from the seventh
stage of far going, which I'm equating
with far going in the universe, out to
the horizon of the cosmos or the ecasha.
Now the eighth stage on page
29 at the left hand column.
The eighth stage is the stage of no recession.
So you don't return.
Up to this stage, because of the defilements
upon the face of universal mind caused
by the accumulation of habit
energy, that's karma.
Since beginning-less time, the
mind system and all that pertains
to it has been evolved and sustained.
The mind system function rather discriminations
of an external and objective world
to which it became attached and
by which it was perpetuated.
But with the Bodhisattva attainment of
the eighth stage there comes the turning
about within his deepest consciousness from
self-centered egoism to universal compassion
for all beings, by which he attains
perfect self-realization of noble wisdom.
So the turning about.
That's very similar to Plato's cave allegory,
says you're not putting knowledge into people.
You need to just turn the eye of the soul
inward to see the ideas imprinted on their soul.
And the prisoners in the cave, they're
chained head to foot looking back at the cave.
They need to be turned around
and taken out of the cave.
So we'll get into that after we
go through this [inaudible] text.
So continuing here, the turning about -
all right, so there is an instant secession
of the delusive activities of the whole mind.
System, the dancing of the waves
of habit, energy on the face
of universal mind are forever stilled.
Revealing its own inherent
quietness and solitude.
The inconceivable oneness of
the womb of Tatagata-hood.
Henceforth there is no more looking outward
upon an external world by senses and sense mind.
So if everything is interwoven at
the outermost sphere of the universe.
And if you become one with that, in
this eighth stage of enlightenment,
then you don't discriminate between yourself
and an exterior objective world anymore
because you're immersed with everything.
Everything is now one.
So thus, establishing himself at the eighth
stage of no recession, the Bodhisattva enters
into the bliss of the 10 Somati's.
He passes through the bliss of the Somati's to
assume the transformation body of a Tatagata.
That through him all beings may be emancipated.
Mahamati, so Buddha's talking, if
there had been no Tatagata women,
no divine mind then there would have been no
rising and disappearance of the aggregates
that make up personality and its external world.
We can skip a little bit to philosophers of
the conception of Tatagata womb seems devoid
of purity and soiled by these
external manifestations.
But it is not so understood by the Tatagata's.
To them it is not a proposition of philosophy,
but is an intuitive experience and real
as though it was an [inaudible]
fruit held in the palm of the hand.
So the idea that all the externals
are emerged and interwoven
in this outermost divine mind
seems to some philosophers
to cast impurities on the divine mind.
But not so says Buddha to Mahamati.
All of - in the external three
dimensional space unfolding
through time, that's the impurity of a dream.
But when you see all of those
moments occurring simultaneously,
in their source of the divine
mind, then that's purity.
It seems to me what he's
saying, when I'm comparing it
to all these other philosophers
who say very similar things.
Continuing here, thus when the
Bodhisattva arrives the eighth stage,
he's able to see all things
truthfully, and more than that,
he's able to thoroughly understand the
significance of all the dreamlike things
of his life as to how they came to
pass and as to how they pass away.
We saw Buddha have that same realization
at the first stage of transic insight,
when he saw all of his past lives.
And that gave him tremendous compassion.
I think it should also be noted, I'm
going to go back here or a second.
And so back to this anthology world religions.
At the end - after Buddha achieved
enlightenment the [inaudible] approached him
and they said oh please and gender, pity
in your heart for beings in this world.
So varied is their endowment.
And while some have much passion,
others have only very little.
Now that you oh sage, have yourself crossed
the ocean of the world and becoming,
please rescue also the other living beings
who have sunk so deep into suffering.
As a generous Lord shares his wealth, so may
also you bestow your own virtues on others.
So then in consequence he was confirmed
in his decision to set the world free.
So the Demi Gods Brama who
creates the material universe.
There's a Brama in each material
bubble universe.
And Indra the king of the other Demi
Gods under Brama they approached him
and then Buddha became a Bodhisattva.
He came back and spent years
wandering India and preaching.
So at this - we're on the eight stage
of the Mahayana, Bodhisattva realization
and he realizes all this world is a dream.
And over on page 30 now in the eight stage
even the notions have past away and all effort
and striving is seen to be unnecessary.
The Bodhisattva Nirvana is perfect
tranquilization does not extinction
nor inertness.
So the Theravada Buddhists would
seem extinction of all sense
of individuality is the goal, that's Nirvana.
The Bodhisattva says no, that's selfish.
Why don't you stick around for a while
and try to help everybody else out.
Okay, help - help who?
Who is there to help?
There are no selves, that whole endeavor seems
to just reinforce the primal
delusion of individual self-hood.
I could see a Theravada Buddhist responding.
I think the Zen Buddhists that we studied
who scream at each other and beat each other
up when they ask each other questions.
And seems to be more logically in tune
with the Buddhist message of no self.
Even grammar itself deludes you into the idea
that there are enduring individual things.
I walked over to pick up a book.
There's the illusion of eye,
there's the illusion of a brood.
There are no enduring things, so trying to
explain that inherently reinforces the illusion.
So rather than explain it, scream
at somebody, hit them with a stick
that was with the Zen Buddhists did.
The Mahayana Buddhists it
said in the introductory notes
that they seem a lot more like Christian virtue.
But Christian virtue of selfless love
is based on the idea of an eternal self,
God in the individual eternal
self-that's helping other eternal selves.
So that is where this idea of the Bodhisattva
and the entire Mahayana interpretation
of Buddhism really does put
in is there a self or no self?
It repeats throughout this text there is no
self, and yet the entire advice seems to pivot
on the idea that there is a self.
At least temporary selves who need help.
And yet you achieve these Buddha forms, these
different forms and I'm going to continue here
and you'll see what I'm talking about.
So entering upon the eighth stage.
This is page 30, with the turning out
at the deepest seed of consciousness,
the Bodhisattva will become conscious that he's
received the second kind of transcendental body.
Mono Mayekaya, so Mono Mayekaya.
The transition from mortal body to
transcendental body has nothing to do
with mortal death for the old
body continues to function.
The old mind serves the needs of the old body.
But now it is free from the
control of mortal mind.
There has been inconceivable
transformation death.
By which the false imagination
of his particularized individual personality has
been transcended by a realization of his oneness
with the universalized mind of Tatagata-hood.
From which realization there
will be no recession.
So you're no longer identifying with
your body and that individual self.
But it does seem like now you are identifying
with the universal mind of Tatagata-hood.
Which still implies an individual
just a much grander individual.
With that realization he finds himself amply
endowed with all the Tatagata powers, psychic,
faculties and self-mastery and just as the good
earth is the support of all beings in the world
of desire, so the Tatagata's
become the support of all beings
in the transcendental world of no form.
So again, they talk about
there's these new bodies and forms
and they call it a world of no form.
So is this talk of new bodies
and levels just metaphor?
The only way you can talk to people
who haven't achieved enlightenment.
You can say that, they really are
saying it's a void with no self.
But they're using language that
we can actually understand.
Because language is inherently all about forms.
That's what Plato would teach.
So again this is an intro class to philosophy.
So as long as you get the basic idea of on
the one hand Buddhism says there is not self.
On the other hand the Mahayana Buddhism says
that you should dedicate
yourself to helping others.
And in doing so you achieve
these levels of enlightenment
where you achieve these transcendental
kind of forms.
So is there self or is there not?
That's the question you need to wrestle with.
Because the Mahayana Buddhist philosophy support
or weaken the Theravada Buddhist
philosophy of no self.
So continuing here, the first seven of the
Bodhisattva stages were in the realm of mind.
And the eighth while transcending mind was
still in touch with it, but in the ninth stage
of transcendental intelligence by reason
of this perfect intelligence and insight
into the imagelessness of divine mind
which he has attained by self-realization
and noble wisdom he is in
the realm of tatagata-hood.
Gradually the Bodhisattva will
realize his Tatagata nature
and the possession holds
powers and psychic faculties.
So transformation bodies and personalities
that the Bodhisattva will assume
for the sake of benefitting others.
That's it, personalities informs.
Again it's this back and forth.
There is no form - there is no self.
We're concerned for helping others.
The Bodhisattva passes over to all the
assemblages of the Buddhism and listens to them
as they discourse on the
dreamlike nature of all things.
So all the previous Buddha's are having a
conversation and when you reach the ninth level
of Bodhisattva-hood you can
listen in on these conversations.
And so they talk about the truths that
transcend all motions of being and non-being
that have no relation to birth and
death nor eternality, nor extinction.
So there's some level beyond the idea of
self and no self that they're interested in,
that would be impossible for people
not at that level to even comprehend.
So thus facing the Tatagata's as
they discourse the noble wisdom
that is far beyond the mental
capacity of disciples
and masters, he will obtain 100,000 Somati's.
Indeed 100,000 mutas of [inaudible] of somati's
which I'm sure means trillions and trillions.
And in the spirit of these Somati's he
will instantly pass from one Buddha land
to another paying homage to
all the Buddha's being born
into all the celestial mansions manifesting
Buddha bodies and himself discoursing
on the triple treasure to lesser Bodhisattva.
That they too may partake of the fruits
of self-realization of noble wisdom.
So now there's Buddha lands.
So in Hinduism in the Vishnu worshiping
branch of Hinduism the [inaudible] form,
they talk about the spiritual world
as consists of spiritual planets.
Each one presided over by a form of Vishnu
and Lochsmie, the female side of Vishnu.
Here it seems there is something similar.
Buddha lands that are presided over by
different Buddha's, so that's the 10th stage.
I'll read this, the passing
beyond the last stage
of Bodhisattva hood have thus passing
beyond the last stage of Bodhisattva
that he becomes a Tatagata himself endowed
with all the freedom of the Dharma kaya.
The tenth stage belongs to the Tatagata.
Here the Bodhisattva will find himself
seated upon a lotus like throne
in a splendid jeweled adorned palace and
surrounded by Bodhisattva of equal rank.
Buddhists from all the Buddha lands will
gather about him and with their pure
and fragrant hands resting on their
forehead will give them ordination
and recognition as one of themselves.
They will assign them a Buddha land that
he may possess and perfect as his own.
The tenth stage is called the great truth cloud.
Inconceivable, in scrutable.
Only the Tatagata's can realize it's perfect
agelessness and oneness and solitude.
It is Mahesfora, the radiant land, the pure
land, the land of far distances, surrounding
and surpassing the lesser
worlds of form and desire
in which the Bodhisattva will
find himself at one moment.
So then at the tenth stage it
merges with all the other stages.
All right, it surpasses all the Buddha lands
and pervades the Aki mishta,
the highest plane of existence.
So maybe this tenth stage is
where the no self-philosophy kicks
in because it transcends all the Buddha land.
As long as theirs land that's individual forms.
Not this impersonal notion of precognitive
bliss, which the Hindus would call Brahman.
The Buddhists it seems to me
believe in Brahman to merge
with Brahman is Nirvana, impersonal ocean.
But Akman they reject.
Atkman is the flip side of Brahman.
Compare that to the particle wave
nature of quantum mechanics before.
You observe the ways of probability,
they become little particles.
You're not observing them, they merge into
these waves of statistical probability
for where an individual particle
might appear were to be observed.
All right, so I've compared, I went through
the entire 10 stages or at least the first
and then six, seventh, eighth, ninth and
tenth stages of Bodhisattva hood and just keep
in mind the questions of King Milinda
to the Mong Nagasina there is no self.
It's just a bunch of - it's a
flux of ever changing sensations.
Does the idea of selfless love or
others help them escape suffering
and reinforce or weaken the idea of no self.
All right, so with that now we're going
to move on to compare the Bodhisattva
to the prisoner and play this cave allegory.
So let me now turn to that and
that's on page 433 of our book.
And so I went over this for exam three.
The cave allegory is Plato's dialog the republic
he's depicting Socrates talking to [inaudible]
who are Plato's half-brothers
about an ideal state.
They're creating an ideal society.
They're looking for justice in the
individual soul to help themselves,
they expand the individual soul to
a society if they can find justice
in the bigger pattern then they can
extrapolate back to the smaller pattern
of the individual soul, and to help them
do this Socrates invents this allegory,
the cave allegory.
He says imagine prisoners chained
up head to foot at the moment
of birth, taking down into a cave.
They're chained up; they're forced
to look at the back of the cave.
Behind them above the entrance
to the cave is a blazing fire.
In between them in the fire is a raised
platform with a wall in front of it.
Behind that wall soldiers or guards walk
back and forth carrying puppets up on sticks.
So the fire casts the shadow of the puppets
on the back wall, but you can't see the guards
because the intermediate wall hiding them.
The prisoners naturally think
the shadows are reality.
The echoes they hear bouncing off
the wall they think that's reality.
They see their own shadows and they
see the shadows of their neighbors,
but they don't see their own three
dimensional form or any other.
Then someone comes down, cuts
the chains, turns them around.
The fire hurts their eyes,
they can't see anything.
They think the shadows are still real.
They're forced out of the cave.
They can see things at night, puddles at
night and then even in day, in the reflections
on water, they can see trees
and reflection of the sun.
Finally they can look at the sun itself.
And then they realize oh this
is the source of everything.
So I'll read a little bit on page 435
the left hand column near the bottom.
Last of all he'll be able to see the sun.
And not mere reflections of it in the water.
But he'll see it in its own
proper place and not in another.
And he'll contemplate it as it is.
Certainly he'll then proceed to argue that
this is what gives the seasons and the years
and is the guardian of all that's in the visible
world and certain way, the cause of all things.
He and his fellows have been
accustomed to behold.
Clearly okay, and when he remembered his
old habitation and the wisdom of the den,
that's the cave and his fellow prisoners,
don't you suppose he'd congratulation
himself on the change and pity them?
Certainly and he wouldn't be concerned with
their honoring each other for who can predict
which shadow will follow which,
that's what they pride themselves on,
but the prisoner now released will think
that it's better to be the poor servant
of a poor master than to be
the King of Hades was the rest
of the quote that he doesn't talk about.
Better to be out of the cave
in the worst situation
than the most revered prisoner
in the cave of shadows.
Okay, yes I think you'd rather suffer
anything than entertain these false notions
than live in this miserable manner.
Imagine once more I said, [inaudible] coming
suddenly out of the sun to be replaced
in his old situation, wouldn't he be
certain to have his eyes full of darkness.
While the sight was still weak and before
his eyes it becomes steady and the time
which would be needed to acquire this new habit
of sight might be very considerable,
wouldn't he be ridiculous?
Men would say of him that up he went
and down he came without his eyes,
and that it was better to
not even think of ascending.
If anyone tried to [inaudible] and lead him
up to the light let them catch the offender.
And they would put him to death.
No question he said.
So this allegory he says then
Socrates reveals the allegory.
The prison [inaudible] the world
of site, the light of the fires,
the sun and you won't misapprehend me if you
interpret the journey upwards to be the ascent
of the soul into the intellectual
world according to my core belief,
which at your desire I have expressed whether
rightly or wrongly God knows, but whether true
or false my opinion is that in the world of
knowledge the idea of good appears last of all
and is seen only with an effort when seen.
It's also inferred to be the universal author of
all things beautiful and right, parent of light
and into the lord of light in his visible world
and the immediate source of reason and truth
and the intellectual, this is the power
upon which he who would act rationally,
either in public or private
life must have his eye fixed.
That's where our book ends.
In the textbook I taught last summer
and for the five years prior to that,
the four fundamental questions, which is seen
- seen its duty in the trenches of the College
of Southern Maryland, we had the cave allegory
and it went on and continued for another page.
And that's really where you can really see
the parallels with the Bodhisattva idea.
Even in our textbook Socrates
says now imagine the prisoner,
he's seen his son and he goes back in the cave.
He'd be blinded by the darkness and he
wouldn't be able to see the shadows anymore.
And the people would want to kill him if
he said you should ascend that of the cave
because they don't want to become
blind and insane like this guy.
So that's kind of like, that's -
that is the idea of a Bodhisattva,
someone who out of the cave of shadows sees
the source of everything, but then returns.
Now the parallels with the Bodhisattva are a lot
more pronounced, when you just continue right
after where our segment leaves off.
So this is back and forth fundamental
questions, its page 154 of that book.
So okay, so but whether true or false, my
opinion is that in the world of knowledge,
the idea of good appears last of all.
All right, that was what we just read.
The next paragraph says moreover I said
you must not wonder that those who attain
to this [inaudible] vision are
unwilling to descend to human affairs
where their souls are ever hastening into
the upper world where they desire to dwell,
which desire of theirs is very natural
if our allegory may be trusted.
So, they don't want to return.
That's the [inaudible] vision.
We saw in the [inaudible] that the soul
goes to the outermost horizon of the cosmos
where it perceives all of the absolute ideas.
It's beautiful realm that it
strives so hard to achieve.
It's natural once you get there
that you don't want to come back.
Yes, very natural says [inaudible].
And is there anything surprising in one
who passes from divine contemplation
to the evil state of man misbehaving
himself in a ridiculous manner?
If while his eyes are blinking
and before he's become accustomed
to the surrounding darkness he is compelled
to fight in courts of law or in other places
about the images or the shadows
of images of justice?
And is endeavoring to meet the conceptions of
those who have never yet seen absolute justice?
So once you've seen the absolute ideas then
you have to readjust to the relative mentality
of the people who haven't
had this [inaudible] vision.
And that will be dangerous because you won't be
able to defend yourself very well in the courts
because you're thinking in terms of the
absolute ideals and they're thinking in terms
of the relative application of opinion
not rooted in absolute knowledge.
All right, so he'll be laughed at.
He goes on to say.
Then at the bottom of page 154 whereas our
argument shows that the power and capacity
of learning exists in the soul ready in that
just as the eye was unable to turn from darkness
to light without the whole body, the instrument
of knowledge, that's the eye of the soul -
the movement of the whole soul be turned from
the world of becoming into that of being.
And learn by degrees to endure the
sight of being in the brightest and best
of being, in other words of the good.
And he goes, yes and I pointed out while
we were reading the Bodhisattva section
about the idea of turning around.
And that was one of the levels of Bodhisattva
realization and it's similar to this idea
of turning the eye of the soul around.
All right, so and I'll just now
skip down to the bottom of page 155.
This isn't our book for this semester,
this is Four fundamental questions.
Then I said the business of us, who
are the founders of the state will be
to compel the best minds
to attain that knowledge,
which we have already shown
to be the greatest of all.
They must continue to ascend
until they arrive at the good.
But when they have ascended and seen enough,
we must not allow them to do as they do now.
What do you mean?
I mean that they remain in the upper
world, but this must not be allowed.
They must be made to descend again in the
prisoners in the den and partake of their labors
and honors whether they are worth having or not.
But is not this unjust?
Ought we to give them a worse life
when they might have a better?
You have forgotten again my friend I said the
intention of the legislator who did not aim
at making any one class in the
state happy above the rest,
the happiness was to be in the whole state.
And he held the citizens together by
persuasion and necessity making them benefactors
of the state and therefore
benefactors of one another.
To this end he created them
not to please themselves
but to be his instruments
in binding up the state.
He goes oh yeah, I forgot.
If they hadn't been educated by the
state they wouldn't owe anybody anything
and no one could blame them for remaining
in the world of blissful realization.
But since they have been methodically trained
by the state now they owe it
to return and free others.
And when they do finally adjust
their eyes to the dark cave.
When you've acquired the habit you will see
10,000 better than the inhabitants of the den
and you will know what the images
are and what they represent
because you have seen the beautiful
and just and good in their truth.
And he goes on to say, whereas the truth is that
the state in which the rulers are most reluctant
to govern is always the best
and most quietly governed.
And the state in which they
are most eager the worst.
So the Bodhisattva is supposed to come
down and become the philosopher king.
That is the - the famous
character from Plato's republic.
So the philosopher king is
a lot like the Bodhisattva.
Philosopher king gets out of the cave
of the three dimensional universe.
Sees the absolute ideas of the outermost horizon
of the universe culminating with the idea
of the good, opens the eye of the soul to the
idea of the good, turns the eye of the soul away
from the external things to the universal
mind that's imprinted on each individual soul,
which is merged with the universal soul.
But then comes back down to engage in
political affairs in this cave of shadows.
At first being bewildered by the darkness,
but then accustoming him or herself
to the shadows again can see 10,000 better.
It reminds me of the movie the Matrix.
They get out of the computer
simulated program, the Matrix.
The see oh this is reality, but
then they go back into the matrix.
This time they get higher programming and
they can do things 10,000 times better
than everybody else who is still in
the Matrix but hasn't been released.
All right, so the questions were
part B of exam four, question three.
Do you think the Mahayana Buddhist
idea of being Bodhisattva as described
in chapter 1.5 undermines or strengthens
the Buddhist philosophy of no self-described
in chapter seven and eight, explain?
And number four how is a
Bodhisattva similar to the prisoner
in Plato's cave allegory who has seen the sun.
All right, we've covered that
I think thoroughly enough.
And the next video I'll be going
over Plato's republic again.
Actually in the next video I'll be going over
the [inaudible], so we'll leave it at that.
