for a single simple object such as a table, we could go into a long list of factors that contribute to 'tableness', but if we tried to find a single 'essence' of tableness, we would fail. therefore, what we have arbitrarily designated as a table is not really a table - it is a collection of causes and conditions that we have. for the sake of convenience, labeled a table and to which we have then uncounsciously assigned a permanent reality-value. however, it is not by anything else but a table, and because it fits the conditions by which we conventionally define 'tableness' we can, and should, call it a table. (basically) this kind of logic, which says "x is not x; therefore it is called x" is the teaching pattern of one of the most weidely studied mahayana scriptures, the diamond sutra
there is no spoon....
No comments:
Post a Comment