questions about Buddhist sunyata -

Radhe!

yep, me again.
i would like, in a friendly manner, ask the following questions about Buddhist sunyata:

1) who am I essentially?
2) where do I come from?
3) where do I finally go?
4) what is the meaning of my life, meaning what are my duties?
5) what is the aim or the perfection of sunyata?
6) who performs karma and who reincarnates?
7) where does the material world come from?

honestly, i would be pleased to hear some answers ( me with an open-mind )

thank you
Tarunji

1) who am I essentially?

In essence you are not a substance or a particular thing. Like the flame of a candle you are - neither the wick, nor the wax nor the struck match. The flame exists due to a coincidence of several factors. When those factors cease, so will the flame. When their synergy arise again the flame will appear again. The flame is always a potential but not eternally manifest.

2) where do I come from?

This is answered in the first answer.

3) where do I finally go?

This is answered in the first answer.

4) what is the meaning of my life, meaning what are my duties?

Burn while you can.

5) what is the aim or the perfection of sunyata?

This is a concept that sums up the essential non materiality of being. Its crudest expression is, "You are not this body". Its higher expression is "Identity is born of relationship". Its medial expression is, "The essence of all form is emptyness".

6) who performs karma and who reincarnates?

As the flame burns, so the candle diminishes. You can call this karma, cause and effect. If the flame is blown out and tomorrow the candle is lit again the flame will continue from where it left off. This is reincarnation.

7) where does the material world come from?

Material phenomena are expressions of cosmic energy. There are different process states that give a sense of coming and going but ultimately it is cyclic and perpetual.

thank you, Talasiga.

for me, questions 2 and 3 are not answered.



what does that mean?
how do i then differ from you? different coincidences of different factors?



what does that mean? live while i can?



if the essence of all form is emptiness, how can identity be born of relationships?

well, this is very confusing...

i am too stupid to understand your words.
cant get a clue...

if you are stupid and you cannot understand me, I must be more stupid than you!

OK, let me see now. All right, let me put it to you another way.
When you sing kirtan - have you ever been really sad and felt a desperate emptiness? And then as you kept singing you were filled? And tomorrow you try to recapture that fullness and you can't?

the good buddhists are "obsessed" with that emptiness. They spend a lifetime contemplating it. The good Buddhists aren't suppose to music. A pity! But they do "manasik" singing just like the silent japa of some saints.

Tarun, if you read of the understandings of Siddhartha Gautama who became the Buddha, you would see that many of your questions would be seen as inappropriate. The concern of the Buddha was enlightenment and this verbal understanding of it all as "the all" is very much beyond our words and understanding and so it is considered inapropriate or a misdirection on the path to Nirvana (not the same Nirvana of the Seattle grunge music scene of the 1990's) to ask these questions. Anyways, we can take it as Gaudiyas that Buddha was definately on to something as even Brahma who founded the Gaudiya's Brahma Sampradaya bowed down to him and pleaded with him to spread his understanding.

From where does that concept originate, may I ask?

This idea goes way back and can be found in the Pali canon. See, for example, the Samyutta Nikaya (here).