A Question for my Twitter Sangha: is Non-Dualism the same as the doctrine of Emptiness? My experience with Dzogchen and Tibetan Buddhism confused the two (either they confused them or I did), but now I'm starting to see them as very different doctrines. What's your take on it?
So my question to you is what is the importance of this potential difference to you personally? I mean, besides the pure intellectual joy, what is it about this difference that is fascinating to you?
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What's important to me is to preserve the world-view of object-processes that exhibit emergent properties of difference, variety, specificity, diversity, rather than saying 'it's ultimately all one' or 'it's ultimately all empty.'
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Furthermore, to preserve the materialist world-view as one of consequential importance, as 'real' at the level of planetary existence and survival, rather than say it's only an 'appearance' (Dzogchen), or it's only a sensory experience (yogacara & others).
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How we relate to the material world, whether as dharma practitioners or otherwise, has profound consequences for how we and all other species survive on this planet. It's not just 'appearances' or 'emptiness', its life or death, survival or extinction.
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And even before we get to catastrophic conditions, how we relate to the material world has serious consequences for how we deal with poverty, disease, ecological subsistence, the destruction of material cultures. It's not 'nothing', it's the survival of human civilizations.
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Yes. Thanks for writing this all out, Shaun. It's good to hear your viewpoint, and I couldn't agree more.
End of conversation
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