Contents: INSIGHT INTO EMPTINESS BY Khensur Jampa Tegchok |
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Introduction |
1 |
An Overview |
2 |
The Origins of this Book |
5 |
A Note on Terminology |
6 |
Appreciation |
6 |
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1 THE BENEFITS OF LEARNING ABOUT AND MEDITATING ON EMPTINESS
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7 |
Motivation
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7 |
The Sources of This Teaching |
8 |
The Benefits in General |
9 |
Admiration for the Profound |
9 |
The Three Doors of Liberation |
11 |
Benefits According to the Sutras |
12 |
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2 WHY REALIZING EMPTINESS IS IMPORTANT |
17 |
Background |
17 |
Taking Refuge |
18 |
Cyclic Existence: The Five Aggregates and Six Realms |
21 |
Ignorance, Afflictions, Karma, and Liberation |
23 |
Renouncing Duhkha and Its Causes |
25 |
The Root of Cyclic Existence |
28 |
The Four Noble Truths |
29 |
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3 ENTHUSIASM FOR EMPTINESS |
33 |
Understanding Emptiness Is Crucial |
33 |
The Danger of Misunderstanding Emptiness |
36 |
Doubt Inclined Toward Emptiness |
38 |
The Power of Realizing Emptiness |
39 |
More than One Way to Practice |
41 |
Confidence |
42 |
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4 LOOKING AT THE LANDSCAPE |
45 |
The Four Seals |
45 |
Aryadeva's Advice |
47 |
An Overview of the Levels of Selflessness |
49 |
The Buddha as a Skillful Teacher |
51 |
The Value of Reasoning |
53 |
Emptiness Is an Obscure Phenomenon |
54 |
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5 WHAT IS A PERSON? |
57 |
The Person |
57 |
Persons and Phenomena |
58 |
The Five Aggregates |
59 |
The Continuity of Consciousness |
62 |
Who Is Joe? |
63 |
No Permanent, Unitary, and Independent Self |
63 |
Impermanence: Coarse and Subtle |
65 |
The Meaning of "Unitary" and "Independent" |
68 |
The Lack of a Self-Sufficient, Substantially Existent Person |
70 |
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6 SEARCHING FOR THE PERSON |
73 |
The Basis of Designation and the Designated Object |
73 |
An Inherently Existent Person Can't Be Found |
74 |
The Illustration of the Person |
76 |
The Illustration of the Person, the Mere I, and the Continuity of Mental Consciousness |
80 |
The General I and the Specific I |
82 |
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7 INVESTIGATING THE I |
85 |
Ignorance and Wisdom |
85 |
The Valid I-Apprehending Mind and the Erroneous I-Grasping Mind |
86 |
Valid and Mistaken, but Not Erroneous |
89 |
The Self that Exists and the Self that Doesn't |
91 |
Independence and Imputation |
93 |
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8 EXPLORING SELFLESSNESS |
97 |
Selflessness in the Four Schools |
97 |
The Two Midle Way Schools |
99 |
Mere Imputation Without the Slightest Existence from Its Own Side |
103 |
Mere Name |
108 |
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9 IMPUTED AND EMPTY |
111 |
What Is This Fluid? |
111 |
Not Findable, but Existent |
113 |
Searching for the Cart |
115 |
Appearing When Not Analyzed, Unfindable When Analyzed |
117 |
How to Learn about Emptiness |
118 |
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10 ENLIGHTENMENT IS POSSIBLE |
121 |
All Sentient Beings Can Attain Enlightenment |
121 |
Adventitious Stains Can Be Eliminated |
122 |
Inconceivable and Inexpressible |
124 |
Combining Bodhichitta and Wisdom |
125 |
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11 EASING INTO EMPTINESS |
127 |
A Review: How Ignorance Arises and Produces Afflictions |
127 |
The Sequence for Meditating on Selflessness |
130 |
Three Modes of Apprehending Phenomena |
132 |
Dependent Arising Contradicts Inherent Existence |
134 |
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12 DEPENDENT ARISING |
139 |
Nagarjuna's View |
139 |
The King of Reasonings |
140 |
Dependence on Causes and Conditions |
141 |
Dependence on Parts |
143 |
No Partless Particles |
143 |
Dependent Designation |
144 |
Mutual or Relational Dependence |
145 |
Dependence on Imputation by Name and Concept |
147 |
All Phenomena Depend on Mere Imputation |
148 |
Emptiness and Dependent Arising |
150 |
The Compatibility of Being Dependent and Empty |
152 |
Is There a Choice? |
153 |
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13 THE FOUR ESSENTIAL POINTS |
155 |
Meditation on the Four Essential Points |
155 |
The First Essential Point: Identifying the Object of Negation |
156 |
The Second Essential Point: The Pervasion |
159 |
One and Different |
160 |
The Third Essential Point: Are I and the Aggregates Inseparably One and the Same? |
163 |
The Fourth Essential Point: Are the I and the Aggregates Totally Unrelated? |
169 |
Expanding the Analysis |
170 |
The Correct Conclusion |
171 |
When to Reflect on Dependent Arising |
172 |
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14 HOW THINGS ARISE: REFUTING THE FOUR EXTREMES |
175 |
Not Arising from Self |
175 |
Not Arising from Other |
177 |
Not Arising from Both |
181 |
Not Arising Causelessly |
181 |
Summary of the Four Extremes |
183 |
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15 EVER-DEEPENING UNDERSTANDINGS OF SELFLESSNESS |
185 |
The Three Turnings of the Dharma Wheel |
185 |
The Chittamatra Perspective |
186 |
Subtler Meanings Revealed in the Three Turnings |
189 |
The Four Reliances |
190 |
Ever-Deepening Levels of Selflessness |
191 |
Deepening Understanding of Dependent Arising |
195 |
Phenomena Are Self-Liberated |
197 |
Self-Emptiness and Other-Emptiness |
198 |
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16 APPEARANCES |
203 |
Things Do Not Exist as They Appear |
203 |
True and False |
204 |
Minds and Their Objects |
206 |
Analogies |
211 |
Realizing It Does Not Exist as It Appears |
212 |
Real and Unreal |
213 |
Inferential and Direct Realization of Emptiness |
215 |
Two Levels of Mistaken Appearance |
216 |
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17 REFINING OUR UNDERSTANDING OF EMPTINESS |
219 |
Similes Showing the Five Aggregates Are Empty |
219 |
The Refutation of One and Many |
222 |
Perception is Not Truly Existent |
223 |
Nothing to Remove, Nothing to Add |
224 |
Avoiding the Views of Nihilism and Absolutism |
225 |
Abandon Meditating on the Nonexistence of Anything At All |
227 |
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18 THE TWO TRUTHS |
231 |
Basis, Path, and Result |
231 |
The Two Truths |
232 |
Conventional Truths |
234 |
Ultimate Truths |
235 |
Same Nature, Nominaly Different |
236 |
Truth and Truly Existent |
240 |
Conventional and Ultimate |
241 |
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19 SIMILES FROM THE DIAMOND CUTTER SUTRA - PART I |
243 |
The Simile of Star |
244 |
The Simile of a Visual Aberration |
246 |
The Simile of the Flame of a Lamp |
249 |
The Simile of an Illusion |
250 |
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20 SIMILES FROM THE DIAMOND CUTTER SUTRA - PART II |
255 |
The Simile of a Dewdrop |
255 |
The Simile of a Water Bubble |
256 |
The Simile of a Dream |
257 |
The Simile of a Flash of Lightening |
258 |
The Simile of a Cloud |
259 |
Conclusion: See Conditioned Phenomena as Such |
261 |
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21 HOW FORTUNATE! |
263 |
Meditating on Emptiness Is Crucial for Liberation |
264 |
Powerful Purification |
268 |
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Notes |
271 |
More Reading |
275 |
Index |
277 |
Bibliographies |
281 |