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In the previous chapter we looked at the fact
that we all desire happiness and wish to overcome suffering, and how, despite this natural
aspiration, we tend to create the conditions
for more suffering because we do not know
the way to create the causes for happiness.
We found that at the root of this situation lies
a fundamental confusion or, in Buddhist
terminology, a fundamental ignorance. This
confusion applies not only to the way things
are but also to the way causes and effects
relate to each other. Therefore, in Buddhism
we talk about two types of ignorance, or
avidya: ignorance of the laws of causality,
specifically of the laws of karma, and ignorance of the ultimate nature of reality. These
relate respectively to the two levels of understanding of dependent origination that we
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KARMA
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realm. 2
As we have already seen, Buddhism explains
how both the environment and the sentient
beings living in that environment are produced as a result of fundamental ignorance,
particularly the karma which arises from
ignorance. However, we should not think
that karma produces these things from out of
nowhere. This is not the case. Karma is not
like an eternal cause. We should realize that
in order for karma to operate, and in order for
it to have the potential to create its consequences, it must have a basis on which to do
so. It follows that there exists a continuum of
both the physical and the mental worlds . We
can trace the continuum of the physical
world to the beginning of a particular universe, and then we can even trace that 'beginning' to empty space. Buddhism accepts the
existence of what are known as 'space particles' (namkhai dul), and asserts there is a
stage of empty space in which the source of
the material universe is in some sense
contained. In the case of the mental world,
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QUESTIONS
FOUR
THE TRUTH OF
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CESSATION
The third Noble Truth is the Truth of
Cessation. The key questions we must ask
ourselves on this are the following: What is
nirvana? What is moksha or liberation? What
do we mean by nirodha or cessation? And is it
really possible to attain cessation or not?
If we were to reply that we must accept
that liberation is possible on the grounds that
Buddha spoke of it in the scriptures, I don't
think that is a satisfactory answer. It may be
useful to reflect on a point that Aryadeva
makes in his Four Hundred Verses on the
Middle Way. He argues that when we talk
about the ultimate nature of reality, or emptiness, we must realize that the understanding
of emptiness is not something which requires
reliance on scriptural authority. We can approach it through critical analysis and reasoning.
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