[Buddha-l] Emptiness and not being able to imagine dying [confused]

[Barnaby Thieme]

Hello, 

FWIW I think both of the answers that the good Doctor Hayes has thus far offered are exactly right. 

But if you're interested in further philosophical peregrinations (and who among us isn't?) you might have a look at Ng Yu-Kwan's useful /T'ien-t'ai Buddhism and Early Madhyamika/. It appears to be out of print but readily available used through Amazon. 

xo~
Barnaby



_________________________________



More than any time in history mankind faces a crossroads. One path
leads to despair and utter hopelessness, the other to total extinction.
Let us pray that we have the wisdom to choose correctly. -- Woody Allen



> Date: Mon, 24 May 2010 14:11:22 -0700
> From: lemmett at talk21.com
> To: buddha-l at mailman.swcp.com
> Subject: [Buddha-l] Emptiness and not being able to imagine dying [confused]
> 
> Hello.
> Can anyone recommend a book on emptiness or the two truths in east asian Buddhism?Also I am a little confused about Chih-I's classifications of the two truths from Swanson's book. In what sense can the emptiness of illusory existence be a conventional truth?
> My other concern and reason for writing to the list is about annihilation. If there's no awareness at all at the moment of death but there is the moment before, how can I conceptualize the latter becoming the former: I have to have the idea of permanently losing awareness and I can't see how that's to happen without someone being aware of that - in which case it is persists in some form.
> Thinking of it as a stream of elements that are replaced by new ones: if the last dharma is replaced then that's no annihilation, if not where does it go? It don't think can be quite like a fire burning out because a fire doesn't have self cognition. 
> Is this just entirely non Buddhist?
> Or can what I've said be related to e.g. 'annihilation' in Buddhism or the Tathagata's silence on what happens to him at death? Do all Buddhists think that the aggregates *completely* burn away at death and that there can be no experience if that's the case? If so in what way might the Tathagata not not exist at death?
> Hope that makes sense and thanks for any help!
> 
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